Concord College of Business
How better to come to know my mother, before she was my mother, than through the papers she left behind. In them, I begin to see who she was becoming—the thoughts she carried, the paths she chose, and the quiet decisions that would one day shape my own life.
When I look at this certificate dated June 25, 1937, I don’t see just a course completed, I see my mother at the beginning of her life as an adult.
My mother graduated high school at sixteen and she didn’t pause. The next step was the Concord College of Business, a place not for theory or exploration, but for purpose. At seventeen, she was already preparing for the world.
The certificate reads that she completed the theory and practice for the Library Bureau course in Indexing and Filing and that she passed the test for speed and accuracy. Precision and discipline were the foundation of my mother’s life.
I imagine her in a classroom, with other young women, learning the systems that would allow her to step into the office life where she would eventually spend over fifty years of her life.
This was 1937, the country was feeling the weight of the Great Depression. Opportunities were not taken for granted by my mother. She prepared and she learned something that would matter for her employment.
Knowing the life my mother led, there is something so special about holding this certificate she earned at just seventeen. So young, and yet already stepping into her future.
Organized. Capable. Reliable.
Read More From Nancy
My Mother: Salutatory Speech
My mother graduated high school second in her class, earning the honor of delivering the salutatory address. She was just sixteen years old. As I explored the papers she left behind, I came across the beginning of that speech, written carefully in her own cursive, each word formed with intention, preserved across time on a page she once […]
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