Chapter 3: Hey y'all!

Now as a three year old, I didn’t talk very much.  My mom was a little puzzled back in Germany of why I wasn’t talking like I should.  I seemed to understand everything, both English and German, but I didn’t say much.  She laughs about it now.  Apparently when we arrived from Germany to the New York airport, I was holding her hand as we got off the plane and started walking through the crowded halls.  I stopped dead in my tracks, gripped her hand and declared “Momma, they speak English!”  My mom says she hasn’t been able to get me to stop talking ever since;)  Years later when I lived once again in a non-English speaking country, I realized that not talking and just observing people is the way I learn another language.  More on that later.  We arrived in the small city of Valdosta, GA and shortly thereafter found our new house.  It backs up to the forest and behind that the swamp, so we had an enormous playground and backyard to explore.  There were tons of neighborhood kids our age, and I have countless memories of playing hide and seek, riding big wheels, and running after the ice cream truck with a whole group of little friends.  My mom started realizing that I was beginning to pick up the local accent when I came home from pre-school one day and showed her my drawing of what I called my “hayouse”.  She said, “You mean your house.”  I innocently responded, “No m’aam, my teacher said it’s my hayouse!”  It was just downhill from there.  It’s in my blood now.  Honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever completely lose it even though it’s been years since I’ve lived down there.  It really comes out when I'm tired, had a glass of wine, or after watching Steel Magnolias;) Anyways, it was around this time that my parents enrolled me in ballet lessons.  Apparently I was beginning to walk pigeon-toed, so they wanted to nip that in the bud.  This started my passion and career in the ballet world.  This also marked a significant time where my mom met a group of women that would help change our lives forever…