Woody’s highly anticipated new book “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” is NOW available! Order your signed copy HERE! 

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An Unstoppable Educational Journey

For a family celebration a decade past, we went to a restaurant at the Ventura Harbor and in addition to chips, salsa and albondigas soup followed by tacos, enchiladas and fajitas, our waitress served us something that wasn’t on the menu: a role model.

Francelia Teran on her proud graduation day

We didn’t realize this at that moment, but over time as we got to know this waitress more personally it became clear that Francelia Teran is as inspiring as any superstar you will find on a bedroom poster.

“She-roe” is the term coined by Maya Angelou to describe women like Fran.

Earning a college degree is a lofty achievement under any circumstances, but Fran’s journey to the stage at CSU Channel Islands last Saturday to receive her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology was lengthier than most. Her pomp-and-circumstance walk required overcoming arduous circumstances.

For one thing, her father died when Fran was 14. The second shoe dropped a year later when her mother walked away from the family.

“I became a hard worker at a young age,” Fran recalls of her childhood in Mexico City. “When I came to America, I learned the language and my educational journey began.”

Faced with detours, she refused to be deterred.

“I am a strong, sensitive, and productive woman,” Fran says, and proudly. “I have encountered in my life many issues, but that hasn’t stopped me with my education.”

Indeed, working the long, late hours of a waitress and then coming home to read an assignment for class, or study for a test, or write a research paper into the wee morning hours before going to bed, and then rising early to go to classes requires determination, dedication, and sleep deprivation.

On top of work and school, Fran’s full plate has also included being a wife and mother. And despite the burden of college tuition, she has continued to send financial assistance to her extended family in Mexico City.

“I believe there is only one way to accomplished a dream,” Fran explains, flashing her familiar radiant smile. “By taking the action of doing it.”

She took action and earned an Associate Science degree from Ventura College in 2009 and then a second degree at VC in Psychology in 2013 before transferring to CSUCI.

In addition to the time demands of family, work and classes, Fran faced a language challenge. While she proudly considers becoming bilingual one of her greatest accomplishments, the truth is that reading textbooks and literature assignments, and writing papers and answering exam questions, in English is a barrier for ESL (English as a Second Language) students. Time, and nuance, gets lost in translation. In this light, her success in the classroom merits bonus acclaim.

But Fran would sooner serve the wrong order than serve up an excuse.

“I don’t let life issues stop me with my education,” she says. “The journey has been long. My son now is 17 and I have the great love of my husband. We encountered many struggles economically, socially, racially, and culturally. However, we are hard-working people.

“My main goal is to serve as a role model for my son and also for many Hispanic women like me. If I can do this, anyone can do it regardless of their migratory status, economic issues, and the language barrier.”

Last Saturday evening, Fran’s family, friends and co-workers – actually, “family” seems to describe them all – filled the second-floor patio of Margarita Villa to celebrate her accomplishment. The cold sea breeze blowing in was no match for the warmth of the occasion.

“Today, I am not only celebrating my graduation from Channel Islands University,” Fran told her well-wishers. “Today, I am making a difference in my community, in my life, and in my son’s life. I am an example of breaking the barriers. I want to be a good example for my son, for my nieces and nephews, and for many women who work hard.

“I believe in dreams, but I also believe in working to obtain something,” she continued. “You can absolutely not accept ‘no’ as an answer when you have a dream.”

Inspiring advice from a Fran-tastic role model.

*  *  *

Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Check out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”

• Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com
• Unsigned paperbacks or Kindle ebook can be purchased here at Amazon

Woody’s highly anticipated new book “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” is NOW available! Order your signed copy HERE! 

*   *   *

“Get To” Better Perspective Than “Have To”

Abraham Lincoln put things into perspective as wonderfully as anyone, as he so often did, when he observed: “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”

A recent lunch companion, also making the point that proper perspective is everything, put it this way: “I felt sorry for myself because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.”

His words were more than repeating a familiar maxim because he has helped people in danger of losing their feet. Specifically, he has treated Ethiopian villagers suffering from mossy foot, a disease that causes massive swelling of the feet. It is not only physically debilitating, it can cause the afflicted person to become a social outcast.

Cleft palate is another physical ailment that can turn a life upside down – and something that another of my recent luncheon companions has helped treat in Kenya.

In fact, most of the ROMEOs – Retired Old Medics Eating Out – who invited me to eat out with them at their monthly get-together have in the past made humanitarian medical trips to Africa.

Now in their 70s, 80s and 90s, these retired local physicians seem to rejoice that thorn bushes have roses.

“I am at the point in my life where I really do see each day as a masterpiece,” one told me, echoing a John Wooden maxim.

Another shared this: “I have my aches, but at least I’m still alive to ache.”

A couple hours later, the blessing of feeling aches hit home when I saw a friend who had just finished a swim workout. I asked him how the pool temperature was and he replied matter-of-factly: “I don’t know – because of my paralysis I can’t feel the water.”

Perspective refocused.

It was also refocused during my daily run recently when a nagging injury flared up. As my pace slowed and my muttering sped up, I crossed paths with a friend and stopped to say hi.

After our brief visit, I had a new perspective on my tight hamstring because my friend is battling a real foe, cancer – again – yet his smile and upbeat nature would never reveal as much.

As my Grandpa Ansel liked to say, “Most of us don’t have to look very long before we see someone who has bigger challenges than we do.”

Same run, now with a renewed bounce in my stride, I came upon a retired couple I often see walking their dog. Lucy, a border collie, has been very frail in recent months and now she was not with them.

Again I paused for a quick visit and while my worst suspicions proved true – Lucy died a couple weeks ago at age 15 – the couple was very happy to introduce me to their new adorable border collie puppy, Finley.

Once more I restarted my run with a refocused perspective.

Here is how a dear friend shifts her perspective when she feels like complaining about having to exercise, or having to cook dinner, or having to go to a work meeting she wishes she could skip.

“I change the ‘have to’ to ‘get to,’ ” she explains. “I ‘get to’ go to the gym. I ‘get to’ cook a meal I like. I ‘get to’ go to work. A lot of people have an ailment that prevents them from exercising. A lot of people are homeless and don’t have a kitchen. A lot of people want a job.”

Another friend was dreading a visit to the doctor to have blood drawn the other day. Her high anxiety was because she has tiny veins that nurses never seem to hit cleanly until the third or fourth try.

But a friend of hers provided a new perspective, an I ‘get-to’ perspective, by pointing out what a privilege it is to have access to healthcare. Think of the refugees in the Middle East, the friend said.

Or African villagers with mossy foot.

At the ROMEO lunch, I ordered a turkey sandwich with no mayonnaise. Instead, it came with extra mayo. It was delicious.

*  *  *

Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Check out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”

• Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com
• Unsigned paperbacks or Kindle ebook can be purchased here at Amazon

Woody’s highly anticipated new book “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” is NOW available! Order your signed copy HERE! 

*   *   *

Flipping roles: readers do the writing

“Why struggle writing a column,” Chuck Thomas, my esteemed mentor and longtime steward of this space, liked to say, “when you can have others do it for you?”

Following his sage advice, I am taking the day off. Pinch-hitting are some readers who responded to recent columns.

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“Thank you for the beautiful piece you wrote on the value of libraries!” emailed Marianne Coffey. “So many depend on our libraries each day and it is so difficult here in Ventura to garner City Council support for our libraries or a book budget.

“I volunteer at E.P. Foster Library and it is so heartwarming to see firsthand the early literacy activities enjoyed by the little ones, the Lego play times, the dance parties, Summer Reading Program, the Chess Club and Teen Activity Groups, as well as adult activities underwritten by all the Ventura Friends of the Library.

“We are blessed with a dedicated library staff and our libraries are a real lifeline for so many, helping many community members cross the digital divide.

“Our libraries offer homework centers, and there is a retired gentlemen at E.P. Foster that I watch in the afternoons tutoring Math. We have a great many unsung heroes in our community!”

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Joanne Fields, herself an unsung library hero, offered this:

“You concisely cleared up the confusion many have about libraries being ‘outdated’ in this age of technology. In addition, you expressed the wonder that can be found in libraries.

“In my case, whenever I took a new job, the first place I located near my new employer was the library. My first job was as a page in the library and I am now recording secretary for the Ventura Friends of the Library. So my love affair with libraries and the knowledge they represent is unabated.”

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By no means is my in-box always filled with unabated support, as this viewpoint from P.W. attests:

“Why throw into a column on impersonal musings, your personal dislike for Trump? Trump’s angry rhetoric is no worse than equally hateful/dishonest/unprincipled commentary from ALL the candidates.

“The election issue is not Trump, but a complete slate of people who are far from being the best and brightest our country has to offer.”

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A handful of readers replied in regards to my personal “Theory of Pizza Imprinting,” but my favorite is from John Acevedo:

“Boy, did I get a lot out of your pizza column. My favorite pizza is from a place in Lincoln, Nebraska, named Valentino’s. We used to buy two and put one in the fridge for breakfast on Sunday. What crazy boys, we were!”

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Howard Reich made me crazy happy with his note, and deed, that reversed the title of my book “Strawberries in Wintertime” into Woody’s Holiday Ball Drive in Springtime:

“Woody, I used a Sports Chalet gift card to purchase and distribute one football, one basketball, and two playground balls.”

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Bob Pratt wrote in with a suggestion regarding something I mentioned:

“Maybe you could tell the story behind why -30- is used by writers at the end of a column in newspapers.”

Great question, indeed, for while I have typed -30- since first working on UC Santa Barbara’s The Daily Nexus in 1979, I never knew the origins of this journalism tradition. Prompted by Bob, I now do.

Its use apparently began during the Civil War era when telegraph operators employed a long list of terms – called the 92 Code of telegraphic shorthand – that each had a number associated with it.

For example, 1 meant “Wait a minute”;  27 was “Priority, very important”; 73 was “Best regards”; and 88 was “Love and kisses.”

And, of course, 30 meant “No more – the end.”

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Lastly, one more library email, this one from Doris Cowart sharing a comment about her 5-year-old great grandson:

“When Dean got his library card, he called it his ‘Library License’ and he carries it in his wallet. Love that boy!”

Doris didn’t ask me, but she should send Dean this text: “27-88-30.”

*  *  *

Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Check out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”

• Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com
• Unsigned paperbacks or Kindle ebook can be purchased here at Amazon