My Own "Little Women"

“I want to be a veterinarian or a weather ‘woman,’” my youngest granddaughter told me, gesturing quotes with her fingers in the air. “Or maybe I’ll be a car designer. I have lots of options.”

My six-year-old granddaughter’s dreams are certainly different from my own at her age. I wanted to be a teacher, writer, and cowgirl. Okay, I completed the first two and for a while I rode my pony, Flicka, around our Ohio farm hunting buffalo with my trusty cap pistol…even if the beasts did look quite a bit like Holstein cows. 

Still, being a teacher was reinforced as a respectable job for any woman. Nursing fell into that category. But being a veterinarian or a weather forecaster or a car designer? My parents would have encouraged any route I took, but there simply were no role models out there. I had no Doc McStuffins to watch. The only weather reports on my three channels of television came from men. Design cars? Never even occurred to me anyone did that. Design Barbie clothes? That was possible but not of interest to me.

My mom was a bookkeeper. She enrolled in a business school in Nashville after being the first in her family to graduate from high school. Mom has a head for numbers. I have a heart for words.

My dad was a smart cookie and successful at everything he put his hand to. He knew and understood farming, but was also a successful entrepreneur. He and my mom made quite a team. And they both wanted the best for me. I say this because I don’t want anyone to think my parents raised me to think there were certain roles for women and certain roles for men. They didn’t put limitations on what I could or could not study. Pursue. Become.

Television, books, and culture in general fed that line to me, save one. Little Women. The novel by Louisa May Alcott was one of my favorites. I was sure Jo March, the main character, was modeled after me. 

My Own "Little Women"
(Minus my 2 Kenoshanites)

In the book, she’s a tomboy and fiercely independent. She crafts plays for her sisters to perform.  (My cousins were the cast and crew for my skits and plays.) And Jo loves to write. She creates worlds beyond her own. 

Moreover, even though the story was set in the mid 1800’s, the four girls in the story have different talents. Each is encouraged to develop her skills and abilities. Now that I look back, I realize the talents the girls cultivated were those expected of “well-bred young ladies” of the time. It didn’t matter to me. They were free to explore art and music and writing.

Recently, my mother, two of my daughters, two granddaughters and I went to see the movie Little Women. It spoke to all four generations, maybe in different ways, but all with the same emotion of care and accepting the challenges life hands out. My oldest granddaughter captured it perfectly. She said, “I liked the way they cared for each other and other people, too. Even though they were poor.”

I know that by the standards of the day they were not wealthy, but there is a richness to any life where there is love and encouragement to reach your full potential.

After the initial conversation with my youngest granddaughter, I asked my oldest granddaughter what avenue of study she might pursue one day. She’s in third grade. She didn’t hesitate. “Well, I sometimes think about being a rocket designer, or a coder, or maybe the mayor. But another part of me would like to be a librarian or a local journalist. And I wouldn’t mind being a movie director or a professional piano player.”

To quote her sister: “She has lots of options.”

But don’t we all? We put more limits on ourselves than others do. We need to ask God how He wants to use us. He has no limits. We need to pursue our dreams and get rid of the negative self-talk that holds us back. And that goes for both women and men. 

Okay, getting off my soapbox. Back to writing. It is the dream God has written on my heart. So maybe I'll have to write a story about a cowgirl. I bet she'll look a lot like me...and Jo March.