About Bonnie…

I didn’t start life with much confidence. In elementary school, I felt I didn’t “measure up.” Other children made fun of my teeth and braces, and I carried that feeling with me for years.

High school was better — I became a majorette (thanks, perhaps, to my popular older brother!) and discovered I liked home economics and, surprisingly, math. But I was also known as a “discipline problem” because I liked to joke around in class. Looking back, I realize I was simply a late bloomer, but my teachers didn’t see it that way.

I was sent to college to “find a husband,” and after two years, I did just that. I left school and married, but soon realized I wasn’t very happy. Four years later, I became a mother, and that role was incredible. Everything I learned in my Child Development courses became even more meaningful.

Around that time, I began reading books that expanded my horizons. One of the most life-changing was Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. From it, I gained a guiding question that would shape my entire life:
“Assuming you are 80 years old, what do you want to look back on?”

One answer was clear — I wanted to live by my values. I became a Girl Scout leader for ten years so my girls could experience the values scouting offers. I also returned to college, completing my Home Economics degree and, later, coursework in Math and Computer Science.

It was during this period I made a difficult decision: my husband and I wanted different things from life. We divorced, and three years later I met and married a man who valued giving one another the freedom to live as we envisioned. That was another good decision.

My dream since high school had been to teach math. At first, it seemed impossible, but as I grew personally, it became attainable. I began teaching math in an underserved community, where I learned my most important teaching lesson: if I wanted students to learn math, I needed to show them I respected them first. It worked — my students were wonderful.

At age 60, I became an adjunct math teacher at a community college, where I taught and tutored Algebra through Trigonometry for 20 years — retiring at 80! It was a privilege to work with so many students, many from inner-city schools.

I also taught Sunday School to spend time with my granddaughters, tutored one of them in math, and enjoyed afternoons with them until their mother arrived home from her job. Opportunities to find meaning aligned with my values seemed to present themselves at every stage of life.

I share my story to say this: I began as an insecure young girl unsure of my abilities, but I accomplished far more than I ever imagined. I learned from books, but mostly from people. I took educated risks and, most of the time, succeeded. These efforts helped me gain confidence.

But mostly, what gave me confidence is revealed through the process of planning a future based on values and being guided by them — not in a rigid way, but with a calm and relaxed attitude.