Dear Family and Friends,
The time has come in my life to begin folding away the memories of my childhood and boxing the keepsakes I have amassed over the years in preparation for a new beginning. A beginning I have placed my value upon and christened my awakening. And now that I am conscious of myself, what will I set myself upon? Saving the world is definitely up there on my list of priorities, but as for now I want to save people. To meet them, to understand them, to connect with them and learn what they have to offer to the world and to me. How I can grow from new experiences while carrying the old ones, in their compactness, somewhere in the depths of my mind and giving them just enough of a voice to keep me from going in circles.
As I have muddled through and conquered those loaded years dubbed the age of the teenager, I have learned many lessons. Some I have had to learn over and over again. One has been the value of hard work. I have worked as a server at Delsas Ice Cream Parlor and Restaurant for the past two years and I cant think of any other experience that has changed me so much and so positively. It really brought me out of the comfortable shell I had constructed for myself and taught me the value other people can bring into my life. Even strangers whos impact on me goes no further that a scoop of maple nut on a waffle cone and a passing comment on how the apple trees near their house are in full bloom right now. And Im no longer too shy to ask when the apples will be ripe and ready to eat. I also learned how a smile and a positive attitude can lend themselves to people becoming so much more open to me. It could be my boss or a co-worker or a customer but I have discovered how important it can be to simply be amiable.
It seems my parents investment of ten years of piano lessons and three years of vocal coaching will be returned handsomely to me over the years stretched out before me. Even though there were some weeks (well, years) when I had to be coursed with no TV or friends until I practiced, these skills have developed into a very sweet part of my life. Nothing can add depth and meaning to a bland day like an hour of Chopins nocturnes played while in my pjs sitting in the sun, listening to my little brothers chasing the chickens around the backyard through an open window. The greatest gift I have discovered that comes with a talent of any kind is sharing it with others. I can feel this sentiment most potently as I share my voice at St. Marks every Sunday. Rising to that challenge every week, exposing myself in such vulnerable way to be judged and accepted or rejected based on whether that note was supposed to be a B flat or an E flat or whether the lyric was love or loved is the most difficult thing I have ever done. But having touched someones life so much that they cried during my rendition of Mary Did You Know is so powerful for me to know that that is within my capabilities.
And so I now look to the future, to the sunrise, to the University of Dallas in the fall. To the new knowledge I have lying before my eyes that I can only hope to allow to soak through me enough so that eventually it could become wisdom. And I can return to the gift my experience home schooling has given me; a thirst for knowledge, for learning, for becoming a better scholar as a beginning to becoming a better person. In my quest for intelligence I have a list of one hundred books I hope can teach me their secrets over this coming summer. I have already explored Huxleys Brave New World and Steinbecks East Of Eden and reveled in how words can unleash the mind and I look forward to Thoreaus Walden and Falkners As I Lay Dying I can only imagine the new adventures I will have and be able to share with others.
This summer will be one of the strangest of my life yet. The discord I feel at being firmly told (instead of gently prodded) that my time in the nest is drawing to a close. The dissonance of a thousand goodbyes is almost more than my ears and heart can bear. However I feel like I can take comfort in that those who have left their impressions of themselves on my soul know it. Maybe not the enormity of that impact or the depth, but they are at least conscious of changing my world is some way. And I look forward to my new horizons while carrying those that I love with me, to feel them lifting me up, to spurning me forward, to know that my wings are now my own. My end is that someday I will be able to do the same for others in my life that you all have done for me. That is my hope and my joy. Thank you all.
Katie Davies
June 2006
