Always Something New to Learn

When I was a little girl, I thought that I had a pretty clear idea of who I was, and I thought I knew everything. I was Augusta Ann “Gigi” Goodloe, the daughter of Johnny and Dora and the sister of Bumpy, Bootsie, Sunny Girl, Dodo, Ricky, Rudy, Kim, Wally Gator, Arkie, and Mimi Nett. And that was it. That was who I was, and I thought that that was all I had to be.

As I grew into adulthood, I, of course, learned that I could and had to be so much more than just a daughter and a sister. Being a daughter and a sister, of course, prepared me for life. When I became a mother, I learned so much more about myself, especially about my capacity to love and my ability to function on very little sleep.

In learning about myself, I’ve learned that the beautiful thing about life is that it is always challenging you to become more than who you think you are. Life, very rarely, will allow you to observe from the sidelines. In order to get the most out of life, you’ve got to get in the game and be a participant. You can’t always sit the song out; sometimes you’ve got to get up and dance.

At this stage in my life, I am still learning new things about myself, and I am happy to learn new things and new ways of doing things. Each morning, I wake up eager and curious to see what the day will bring.  
For example, on Saturday, we had a harvest festival at the Carver School. The day started out a little shaky because we had trouble lighting the stove, so it threw us a little (or a lot) behind schedule. Normally, I would have panicked and cancelled the whole event, and I thought very hard about doing that, but this time, I knew that we had planned and worked so hard to get to that day that there was nothing that could stop us from seeing it through. So I put on my thinking cap and figured out how to get the job done, and because I had a great group of supportive people around me, we did not let one little setback ruin the whole shebang. I am happy to report that we ended up having a successful barbeque.

Later that night, at the dance deejayed by Joseph Trevino (DJ Musicman), I sat back and watched as people danced. I had told myself that I probably wasn’t going to dance because I was tired, but when I heard the music start up, I reminded myself that life is dance, so there I was on the dance floor, shaking my tail feather. Sometimes you just have to dance! And I had two great little dancing partners for a couple songs, and watching these two little boys laugh and dance and play really made the whole day seem worth it.
​
As the long day slowly came to a close, I couldn’t help but think about how it had started and how I had started. When I was a little girl, I thought I knew everything. Luckily, life has taught me that that is not true. And earlier in the day, I thought that one setback was going to indicate how the rest of the day’s events would go, but I am happy that I was wrong, and I am happy that there is always something new to learn.

Note: This blog appeared as an article in the 11/03/16 edition of the Kinney County Post.