52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 4

 Week 4

The theme for Week 4 is "Education." There are lots of ways you could approach this theme: teachers, yearbook photos, tales of being a good (or bad) student. You could also highlight an ancestor who got their education at the "School of Hard Knocks." As always, there is no wrong way to interpret the theme!

I always enjoyed school. There were some classes that were better than others, such as History and Language Arts classes were much better than math and science.  

I continued my education after high school by attending a traditional 4-year university for a 2 year certificate to be a legal secretary. This was the first step to becoming a paralegal which was my dream.  Then life happened.

After my first year of college I left school and moved to Colorado (from Missouri) where I started working, eventually meeting and marrying my husband and raising our family.  In the meantime, I attended and graduated from a Technical school with my Certificate in Secretarial Studies. For the next five years I was a stay at home mom.  Returning to the workforce when our youngest started school, I found myself working in a position that while I was good at it was not what I wanted to do. When our oldest son graduated from high school, I decided to return to my dream of becoming a Paralegal.  Three years of night classes later, I achieved that dream and received my Associates degree in management with a Paralegal Certificate.

It took a lot longer than I imagined when I was 18, but not only have I been working in the legal field since 2006, in 2017 when my husband and I came to Missouri to help my dad I was able to find a position and work as a Paralegal.

Now, I am continuing to expand my knowledge and skills to be able to help others find their ancestors and family roots.