essayin'...

...  a summary of my life in four sentences. I called back in the fall to see what would be involved in becoming something similar to a 'guardian ad litem', and talked to someone who works locally with the child advocacy program. To get info. about volunteering. I think/hope what this application is for would be a court appointed advocate for children in foster care. Upon receiving paperwork last year, it got lost on the pile of papers on the kitchen counter. One of my self-appointed jobs for this new year is to not allow stuff to pile up. So I am doing the paperwork, including work history, volunteer history, personal history, references, legal infractions, driving history, etc.

When I started on the section about why you want to do this, I had to stop and ponder. Thinking of how to condense years of learning many things the hard way: as in doing it all wrong, to discover that's not the best way. Or not having all the tools you need to start any project: a recipe, a household job, a major change in your life. Often thinking when I find myself at a impasse: it's been a real education, though the only thing I learned is to not do that again. Knowing even the mistakes are opportunities to grow from lessons learned.

The three questions were: why are you interested, how should society intervene at the intersection of family hardships and legal obligations, and write a brief history of yourself. With instructions that two to four sentences would be sufficient. I can get pretty wordy. Pulling rarely used words out of the atmosphere to insert as needed. So the first two answers are heavily weighted with verbosity. But  how to summarize my life in four sentences? 

The bottom third of one page is devoted to an autobiographical statement. So, here's mine:
     "A native Georgian, I spent my growing up years in a small south GA community. Nurtured by an extended family of grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors and family friends who took an interest in my life, education and behavior. I graduated from high school with the same people who were in my kindergarten class. I have been a resident of Muscogee County for over thirty years. Raising a family here, with constant, ongoing community involvement. As a result of my childhood of being 'parented' by an entire community of locals who felt they had a vested interest in my character and success, it is understandable that I am of the 'it takes a village' persuasion."

 Wordy? I can write circles around anyone who thinks they can 'out-wordy' me! Maybe not in four sentences or less, but no lack of vocabulary here...