by Jenn Deits

“Life is an Adventure or it is nothing at all.”  Helen Keller

I am approaching the last third of my life and I wanted a creative outlet.  I spent close to twenty years of my life teaching middle school.  I felt I could be creative when teaching.  I miss teaching but it was time for me to move on.  

My kids are in their mid-twenties and are happy responsible human beings and basically good people.  Can one hope for much more than that?  They will laugh that I said, “basically.”  They are great people and I am very proud of them.  No one is on drugs or in trouble with the law so I feel pretty blessed.  They would say that is a pretty low standard.

I am not a gifted writer.  I am a pretty good storyteller and I have a wicked sense of humor so let’s see how it goes.

I feel my mamaw would say something like, “who do you think you are writing a blog.”  “Don’t be getting above your raisen.”  Every time I try to write Southern my spell check wants to correct me.  That is annoying.  

I am not sure that I have anything to say that someone would want to read.  I have no plans to publish anything, (I guess a blog is publishing), but I am not writing for profit.  I do think it is a good thing to have a record of your life and to share mistakes and things you have learned along the way.  Maybe a future generation or relatives will at some point find it interesting to read.  Did you see what Grandma or Great Aunt Jen wrote 30 years ago? LOL….

I had to interview someone over 80 for a class I took in Graduate School called, “Civil War and Reconstruction.”  I learned so much about my grandmother and enjoyed the process.  I will not elaborate on the interview because I will spend another entry entirely on my grandmother at some point.

Why did I title it, “Tales of a Wayward Southerner?”  Well, there is a book called, “Confessions of a failed Southern Lady.”  That would have been perfect but it was taken.  I was hiking through a section of the Appalachian Trail in Maine called, “The 100 Mile Wilderness” and the name popped into my head.  I looked up wayward and the dictionary said, “Difficult to control or predict because of unusual behavior.”  That seemed to fit, thus the name.

I am a Southerner being born in Athens, Tennessee.  Most of my extended family including my folks were buried in Riceville, Tn, which only has a blinking yellow light and is just down the road from Athens. I also spent a great deal of my childhood in Atlanta.  So I am maybe 1/2 Tennessean and 1/2 Georgian.

I do not read blogs but I may start to get an idea and insight into what this is all about.  I am a reader.  Lately, I have read a large number of memoirs and biographies.  I think everyone should write something about their life.  My grandmother always kept a journal and I have kept one for many years.  When I was in Washington, D.C. with the eighth grade I loved listening to the recordings of the holocaust survivors at the museum.  

I have had so many opportunities to listen to others’ life stories.  Probably because I tend to ask people I meet about themselves.  My husband says, “There are people who announce who they are and people who ask who you are.”  I try to be the latter.  When I get to know someone a bit, I ask them to tell me about themselves.  I am fascinated by the lives people lived and the events that made them who they are today.

So, I will write.  I have no idea where this will lead but if you happen to come across this blog feel free to leave feedback.  I am a tad sensitive so be gentle.  I was subbing at Franklin High School and a sign says, “Is it Kind?  Does it need to be said?” and “Does it need to be said by me?”  Wow, I could have used that advice about 45 years ago but better late than never.  Most things I have said in believed really needed to be said but possibly not by me.

So I am embarking on another adventure.  We will see how it goes.