From the Beginning

Hey y’all!  It’s been a minute.  I have been doing a little bit of regrouping in life, and have been crazy busy.  School is back in full swing, and I’ve decided to take on more classes to get my second master’s degree in PK-12 Administration.  I know, what am I thinking?!?  I am actually quite excited to be on this new journey, and whether or not I ever have a school leadership position, I can say that I did it.  There has been many changes going on in my life lately.  Yes, all mostly for the good.  There are always hiccups.  Doesn’t everyone have hiccups in life? 

I have really been mulling over the direction that I want to take this blog.  When I created this blog, my purpose was to use it to inspire others in life.  I do not really see myself as an inspirational person; however, knowing other people’s challenges in life can help to inspire others or get them through their own hiccups.  With my most recent hiccups in life, I have finally realized how I can fulfill my vision for this blog.  I hope it becomes what my vision is, so bear with me on this journey.  I am going to start blogging about my life.  Now, I have already been doing that, but I am going to start blogging about my journey of life from the beginning.  It is not always easy to understand someone until you know his or her entire journey, so I am going to begin from the beginning of my life.  Well, from the beginning of what I can remember.  Friends, buckle up because this blog is going to get raw and very real.  I hope that you will enjoy it!

Let’s start in the beginning.  Hey there, I am Jessica.  Born on February 23, 1984 to Jerry Lee Blasingame and Sherry Lou (Roberts) Blasingame in Fort Smith, Arkansas.  I am the youngest of my siblings.  I was blessed with three siblings: Daniel Lee Blasingame, Candace Marie Blasingame (deceased) and Richard Alan Blasingame.  My parents brought me home to the family home that my grandpa Norman Roberts built in Rudy, Arkansas.  As you may have guessed, I do not remember the day I was brought home.  My dad did manual labor and my mother was a licensed insurance representative for Allstate Insurance.  Honestly, I don’t even know what year my mom started working for Allstate, but I do know that I remember her working there from a very early age in my life.  My grandpa Norman had passed away on February 5, 1984.  He missed meeting me by a mere 18 days.  My parents, siblings, and I lived in the family home with my grandma Ivy.  Grandma Ivy, what a wonderful woman she was. 

The house we lived in sat on an acre of land in small town Rudy.  It sits approximately 20 minutes from Fort Smith, Arkansas.  You know the city famous for Hanging Judge Parker.  According to the Census Bureau, the population in 2010 was 61.  Rudy sits in the Boston Mountains.  The landscape is absolutely, stunning!  It was and still is a town where everyone knows everyone.  My little hometown has a gas station with one gas pump.  When you walk inside, the door squeaks.  It has had that same old squeak since I can remember.  The Hightower’s have ran it as far back as I can remember, although, they did sell it in recent years.  You can expect to be greeted with a “Howdy” when you walk in.  A lot is learned about the town in that little gas station.  Who’s doing what, who’s getting married, who just had a baby….you know the typical small town talk.  I loved that little gas station, and when I go home for a visit, I always have to stop in. 

Aside from the gas station, there is a post office, volunteer fire department, a softball/baseball field, community center, and two churches.  When I was growing up there was also a mechanics shop, but that has since been closed.  A small creek, Frog Bayou, runs along the western side of the town.  Adjacent to the creek is a set of train tracks.  Those tracks sure stay busy.  There are two swimming holes in the Frog Bayou, or at least when I was growing up there was.  However, when I was a teenager someone came in with a big backhoe and started digging out the creek.  It messed the flow of the creek up, and made fishing a little bit more challenging in those parts.  My hometown is the perfect place to grow up. 

Now, back to the beginning. As I said, my Grandma Ivy lived with my family in the home that my grandpa had built. I remember getting to sleep with my grandma sometimes. She would tickle my feet and make me giggle almost every night. She had a cackle for a laugh. That laugh is one that I will never forget. When I went to bed with my grandma, she would tell me stories about her childhood. These stories will be held near my heart forever. These stories were mostly about her sister Dolly. Aunt Dolly had epilepsy, which caused her to have Grand Mal Seizures. I don’t know what age my Great Aunt Dolly passed, but it was fairly young. Grandma Ivy’s stories usually were repeated a few times before she was done that night. She would tell me stories until I fell asleep lying next to her. I remember grandma loving to be in the kitchen. She cooked pinto beans, fried tators, and cornbread almost nightly for dinner. Her specialty was homemade biscuits. Yum! Golly, she was an amazing woman!

There was a time when I was about three years old. My brother Richard thought it would be a good idea to take the scissors and cut my long brown locks. My momma was not a happy camper. I always ran around in nothing but my panties, and I hated to wear shoes! My cousin Amanda and her brother Jonathan lived directly behind our family home. They were my best friends growing up. Amanda was just like me. We played together all the time. Another time I remember riding my bike down our rocky, hill of a driveway. Next thing I know I hit a big rock, and I flipped right over my handlebars and busted my head open. A few stitches later and I healed right up. The scar is still there on my head as proof. I remember my Uncle Cleo living in the house just below the hill. Uncle Cleo was a preacher. He taught me so much about Christ. You will learn more about Uncle Cleo later on. To the left of our family home lived my Great Uncle Clifford. Uncle Clifford was a fun guy! He had chickens, pigs, and even raccoons! As you can see, I was surrounded by family growing up!

There were so many fond memories in that place, until one day, those memories would be burnt to the ground and all that would be left is what I held in my heart.  I was in first grade.  I remember being taken out of school early.  My momma and daddy had told my brothers and I that our home had burnt to the ground.  I didn’t see it right away, but the day that I saw it, I remember crying.  There was nothing left of the home but some bent up sheets of tin that was once the roof.  The smell of smoke filled my nose.  I remember feeling an extreme amount of sadness.  Where would we live?  The night my house burnt, I remember that I stayed all night at my Aunt Mary’s house.  I got to sleep in my cousin Melissa’s room.  Melissa was another one of my best friends growing up.  She was a few years older than I was, and I really looked up to her.  There was so much uncertainty in my heart that night when I went to bed; however, my family did a great job of making me feel loved and taken care of.  Where would my life go next?     

Honestly, I can say that I do not remember much about where we went after our house burnt.  I want to say that my family got an apartment in Van Buren.  In fact, it was the apartment that was just below my Aunt Mary’s.  We weren’t there for long.  I do not remember much about that time.  What I do remember next in my life is interesting.  It is the point in my life that I feel things really started to get complicated.

I am going to leave you there for now. As Christine E. Szymanski says, “High and lows are part of the journey to your true self. Just remember, to recognize the good, you will have to experience some of the bad along the way. Just keep going anyway.” I am so excited to take you on my journey of life so far. You may learn more about me than you ever thought you could. Hold on tight. My journey has just begun.

Much love,

Jessica