If you asked me years ago to describe Sharon, I would have told you she is my sister's friend. My older sister and Sharon were classmates in band together. But thanks to social networking, I can now honestly say she is MY friend, too.
My memories of Sharon are mostly from when she would come over to the house. I don't know why in my memories she is always in a band uniform. I don't claim to have a photographic memory, it does strange things all on its own. I CAN say that my memory is accurate in remembering Sharon ALWAYS smiling. In fact, when I saw her most recently and she was overwhelmed at seeing my sister again after 20 years, it seemed strange to see her crying. Not that she shouldn't have been, or that she's not capable of emotion, but that her laughter has always been a stand-out characteristic for me.
My favorite memory is one my sister Angela shared with me after a high school band field trip. Angela is a unique person. She has a sense of humor, but she is more often the one laughing until she snorts instead of the one telling the jokes. Angela HATES to be the center of attention. She is usually pretty reserved. Yet Angela regaled me with the story of Sharon sitting in the back of the bus smacking the ends of cardboard applicators turning innocent tampons into missiles. It still makes me smile just knowing that Sharon could help my sister see the humor in life, and not be embarrassed to do crazy things. I guess I never thanked her for that, but now she knows.
With this great sense of humor, nothing has made her laugh harder than "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut." When sad, the memory of her now-deceased dog Jack can always make her smile. Jack LOVED the song “The Last Shanty.” It’s a sea shanty by the Celtic group Great Big Sea, and whenever it played, he’d run into the room and just wiggle.
Sharon became a mother recently. She described getting pregnant and being pregnant as one of her biggest challenges in life. There were so many things that could go wrong and did go wrong, but with a little faith, a lot of research and a grain of salt, she ended up with a marvelous little boy. I can tell you her son is adorable, but if you gave me 1000 words to do it in, it would still not do this baby justice. He is C-U-T-E! You don't have to spend a lot of time around her, or read too far into her blogs or her profile to see just how enamored with this child she truly is. To read her words and look at her pictures is to watch a woman fall in love with motherhood; every wonderful, scary, beautiful moment of it.
In her own words, Sharon is lots of things. She’s a washed-up, gimpy has-been of an athlete. She’s a mom fumbling through her son’s childhood. She’s a teacher and a leader who knows there’s an example to be set, and who works hard to see that it’s set. She’s a decent singer, but a terrible dancer. She’s had a lot of accomplishments, but also has a lot of regrets. She’s up to her eyeballs in debt, but she’s happy.
Sharon's always inspired by people who accomplish goals by working hard, and stay classy while doing so. They can be celebrities, professional athletes, or just regular people. A couple of people who come to mind are Jerry Rice, who was always a class act, and her friend Christy Harvey, who just lost a ton of weight and ran the River Run. Sharon's biggest inspiration is her mother, whom she describes as "just plain amazing." She knows her son will turn out okay, if she can even be half the parent her mom was for her.
Sharon is a physical fitness instructor at a local private school. She definitely has a passion for what she does! I watched a video she posted on Facebook of her 8th grade class performing the dance to "Thriller" for the school. My instant reaction was "why couldn't we do that when I was in 8th grade??" She seems to have found many innovative ways to make phys ed interesting and fun. When I asked her whose life she's made the biggest impact on, her answer was "I wish I knew. There are so many children on whom I wish I’d made a greater impact, and sometimes, I just can’t tell." This made me realize that even though teachers spend so much time with our children, and many of them have enormous impact on our lives and our children's lives, sometimes being a teacher must seem to be a thankless job. We should all strive to say thank you more to everyone in our lives that makes a difference.
If money weren't an object, Sharon would be happy running a full-time taekwondo school. Either that, or she’d be a writer. The incentive of being able to write on her own time makes it a definite draw.
She admits to being afraid of the dark, and the spooky creatures that her imagination tells her lurk there. At the age of 7, she saw a clip from “Halloween” on Siskell & Ebert, and it terrified her. This caused her to peek around corners everywhere she went. At night she would sneak into her parents’ room and sleep on the floor next to their bed. "I’m pretty sure that fear is the reason I’m an only child," Sharon told me.
I am so grateful that she was willing to share a little of herself with me for this blog. She is to-the-point and humble, and I am certain my description of her may make her a bit uncomfortable, if only because she doesn't want to be in the spotlight. She's much more comfortable sitting in the background letting her son shine. She is a reminder to me that I should fall in love with my children every time I see their faces.
I asked Sharon to predict her future. In a combination that shows both her humility and her humor, she replied, "Reply hazy, try again later." I predict that no matter what, Sharon will be on the move. Her son will be making her proud through his ventures in sports and academics. She will still be sharing her enthusiasm for athleticism and her laughter with as many people as she can reach. And I would be willing to bet that sometime soon, she will be made aware of more than one young person's life on which she has had a definite impact.
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