Autobiography

I had to write a half page autobiography for my first online class. Here it is: I have lived in Lake County, Illinois most of my life. The two exceptions are when I lived in Germany as part of the United States Army and five years in Vermont after leaving the Army. I grew up in the sixties and seventies, graduating from high school in 1980. I worked for minimum wage ($3.25/hr) at various retail and food service establishments. I went away to college for a year, but couldn’t afford it after that. I worked at more retail and food service establishments, as an assistant manager at a pizza place and a manager of a mall food court “restaurant”. I finally got a “real” job as a receptionist/telex operator at an import/export company in downtown Chicago. After a year, I was promoted to executive secretary. One more year and I decided to join to Army. I was able to go to Germany for my permanent posting with the Army. It was wonderful. I got to go to Oktoberfest in Munich, see the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, see the Illumination of Heidelberg Castle, Le Mannequin Pis in Brussels and many, many trips to nearby Rothenberg, a medieval walled city. On one trip I took, I was in five countries in one day. Started in the Netherlands, went through Belgium, Luxembourg, France and back into Germany. I was in Germany when the Berlin Wall fell. After Germany, I went with my first husband to Vermont, where he is from. My daughter and my oldest son were born there. We moved back to Illinois to be near my family and try for a better job. Then I got divorced. I remarried in 1988 to a man I had met in Germany at the same time as I met my husband. We have a son together and he has a daughter from his previous marriage. He has completed his Bachelor’s and is currently working on his Masters. I had been taking courses at the local community college, but decided that I need to get a Bachelor’s degree in order to get a job that pays what I’m worth. I feel as if I am not even considered because of the lack of the degree.