Saying goodbye.

I've never been good at it.

Most of my life has been spent moving from one place to another. As a military brat, my family moved so frequently, I attended 15 schools before graduating high school. That was a lot of goodbyes.

I went to one undergraduate college for four years - Longwood - only because my father wouldn't let me leave after two years. I went there to become a teacher. I was good at it. I learned by student teaching at Midlothian High School under Katherine Baugher, and I landed a decent job at Lancaster High School, which enabled me to prove myself as a four-year "veteran" teacher - long enough to become "tenured." Then I left to get a master's degree in Journalism.

Loved being a student at VCU, living in Richmond, subbing in Chesterfield. A one year blur, but what a great way to get a master's degree. And another good job. J. R. Tucker High School - 13 years.  One engagement that didn't work out; bought a house by myself.  Another engagement and a failed - battered wife story - marriage. Two homes later ... and a business start-up that found me quite by accident. My neighborhood needed a directory and I knew how to make it happen.

My strongest adult years were the ones in the middle. When all of my friends were raising children and paying lots of bills, I got to be footloose and fancy free. I went full time with Designs by Trish - which became DBTPI, Inc. I made more money in the summers selling ads and publishing neighborhood telephone directories. Everybody loved that I was a journalism teacher turned self-publisher. I lived in the communities I served, and they liked the product and message.



Those five years of my life empowered me and made me an enigma to everyone who knew me. I had my own self-doubts, but everyone else saw a confident, powerful woman and they all seemed to want a piece of me. I think if I had held out another year or two, I might still be that person. But I didn't.