Return to "Where Are They Now?"
|
Name |
Cheryl Barkhurst Romo |
|
Address |
1831 Freeport Terrace |
|
Bio |
Most of us have reached the “yikes” age, that time in life when we evaluate the roads we’ve taken. Could we have done things differently? Sure. Better? Well, yeah. Do we accept ourselves for who we are? Don’t ask. Is there enough time to make corrections? Hope so. Half a century ago, I said goodbye to AHS determined to grow and carve out a life that was different than the lives I’d observed growing up. I wanted to break rules and raise hell. Over the years, I reinvented myself and tried on different costumes: wife, mother, hippie, poet, activist, student, journalist, magazine editor, essayist and novelist-in-training. My children were subjected to these many costume changes – and managed to love me anyway. (I’ve no idea how they became such nice adults.) To the husband who has stood by me for 32 years now, I hope I wasn’t too much trouble. You are my rock star. In retrospect, this has been a journey filled with incredible rewards, gold stars I didn’t expect and probably didn’t deserve. There were also hard lessons to be learned from great loss, but we won’t dwell on them here. I’d rather focus on the way light filters through stained glass in French cathedrals; how English grass is a different color of green; how frozen waterfalls in Norway have rainbows in them. I’d like to remember all the wonderful friends and teachers I’ve met along the way. I’d especially like to thank the six grandchildren who bounced into my introspective years full of curiosity and wonder. They don’t seem to care if my house is a bit messy or that I walk a little slower these days. As long as I can dance and read fun stories, the grandchildren tell me they don’t see the “yikes” stuff as a big deal. |