Tag: Writing

Monthly Memoir: The Distinguished Dropout

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Off to my Memoir Writing Meeting

I walked to the New Ulm public library on Monday morning to attend my first Memoir Writing meeting.

I saw my old friend, retired school teacher, Nancy Busse with her friend Jan.

Nancy and Jan

I listened to other people read or talk about their memoirs.

Tom and Benny

Tom is 95. He was born in 1927! Benny is a trumpet player who traveled with many popular dance bands!

Our Librarian/Technician spoke of the Memory Lab where you can preserve all your old photos, Lps, 18mm film and other memories on digital media for free!.

Librarian and Memory Lab Expert LeRoy Harris

If you want you can read my memoir I read to the group, here it is!

“The Distinguished Dropout,” by Amy Zents


When I was 15 years old I was fed up with school. I had desperately tried to be a good student, but to no avail. I was either tardy or absent. I even tried changing schools, going from an eilite collegiate high school to a few other not-so-elite ones. 

Living in downtown Toronto I could not focus.Little did I know I had ADHD, and the stimulation of city-life overwhelmed my brain.At the time I could not understand why I couldn’t focus, and why I felt like such a failure.

After changing high schools to try and find the right fit, I quit school altogether and went to work.I kept changing jobs over and over again. I worked as a chambermaid, or housekeeper in downtown hotels Once while cleaning in the Sheraton, a guy claiming to be a Maple Leafs Hockey coach tried to pick me up stating his credentials.  I just ignored his advances.

In my later teens, I worked in a fancy travel agency. Although I had no experience I was put in the Accounts Payable department located in the prestigious Toronto Star Building. The job was not for someone like me. The pay was excellent, but I made too many errors because math was not my strong suit.

For awhile I ventured into working in retail. I learned how to use a cash register, albeit poorly, and I had a locker. The job was so slow and so boring, I could not bear it, so I quit. 

Later on, I worked at Sears in the mail room, where I delivered mail to the different departments. I felt invisible and degraded there for some reason.One day I saw an old lady lying flat on her back near the shoe department, and I alerted staff.. All they did was call the EMT’s while she lay there unconscious. She died at Sears.That incident upset me a lot, so I quit.

The last job, and the one I held the longest, was in catering and cafeteria food service at the Canada Life Insurance company. We served lawyers at their breakfasts, and banquets and each noon in their private dining room we filled their lunch orders that they checked off with a pencil from a daily menu.

At some point in my job search, I went to Canadian Man Power and took an employment aptitude test. The results showed my ideal job was a cook.Shortly before I got married, Man Power invited to pay for me to take a commercial cooking course. I declined.I was also contacted by the new IKEA store asking me come work for them. 

There seemed to be a lot of employment opportunities for me in spite of my work record. But I chose to leave that all behind.

At the tender age of 19 I got married and left the big city for a small town in Northern Minnesota. After eight long miserable years living in Sauk Center, earning two dollars an hour babysitting, I finally realized that in order to get ahead, I needed to get my GED! 

I learned to drive in a manual transmission car and it took me 3 tries to get my driver’s license at age 25, now I was ready to try to get a high school equivalency diploma.

I took classes at Melrose high school to review old subjects to prepare for my GED.I had to take the GED test in Alexandria, MN. I was so nervous, epecially since I remembered it took me three times to pass my driver’s road test. I hoped I would only need to take the GED test once and for all.

After the test, I waited to receive my notice in the mail, I was proud to find out I had passed! 

Along with the verification that I had succeeded in getting my GED, was a special note. 

It was a gold-embossed card that stated, “Congratulations to Amalia for Excellence in Adult Education.” I learned I had nearly perfect scores in all the areas of the test! I felt so amazed. I was a distinguished dropout!

Memoir resources were handed out
Personal experience is the ingredients of a good menoir

Memoir Writing Group

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I can’t believe I survived college!

I am writing a little memoir of my college years.

Here is the Oxford dictionary definition of the word, “memoir.”

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/memoir

Or Monday I am going to the public library to attend a public memoir writing group.

I enjoy writing.

I really enjoyed college.

Too much!

I worked at the campus radio station for 15 years as a broadcaster as well.

And yes, like Albert Einstein I am a polymath too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath

Unlike Einstein I did not discover the Theory of Relativity.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity

My only phenomena was surviving two car accidents in two months that totaled both cars!

When I graduated I had over 500 credits from my University spanning 14 years.

I took a double major in Music and in English, along with a number of other credits in subjects ranging from anatomy, science fiction, film studies, to sailing, theater arts, chemistry, horsemanship and many, many more classes.

I took morning, noon and night classes.

I attended classes Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer.

My thirst for knowledge was driven by the fact I dropped out of high school at age 15.

I was a non-traditional student who began college at age 29. When I graduated I was in my forties!

I felt I needed to catch up intellectually.

I liked being a perpetual student.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_student

I will let you know how the memoir writing group goes next week. ✍

Let the Reader Beware!

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Everything we read online is posted by someone we may or may not know.
We hope that everything we read is true, but underneath we know not everything will be.

We were just watching Irma La Douce and in the movie she lies her pants off.

I imagine most of us do not lie when we post our stories or opinions online. I know I don’t fabricate huge lies about what I do, what I own and where I go. I don’t know if it takes a big imagination to tell tales, or if it just takes an ulterior motive.

The National Enquirer has a reputation of telling tales. One would think in this sue-happy climate, yellow journalism would be a thing of the past. But even other papers besides The Enquirer have been guilty of twisting the truth, writing lies, and padding their stories with lack of proof, fabrications and outright plagiarism.

Yellow journalism is the only kind of journalism nowadays, or so it seems.

We can agree to be honest with each other on our blogs, and hold each other to a higher standard of truth and honesty, and perhaps personal blogs are the only source of true journalism. Who knows? If there is no mercenary aspect behind writing a blog, one can always write the truth and shame the devil!

The reason yellow journalism is so rampant is because it sells. Sensationalism is always in season with the masses. Yellow journalism is often one-sided, dumbed-down, slanted, opinionated, and often untrue.

There’s a lot of bad things happening in the world, and any time newspapers or news outlets exploit a story with loud, salacious headlines, one has to wonder how much of it is true. Let the reader beware!

Musically yours,

Amy Zents