Dear Editor,
I want to take the time to congratulate Mrs.
Penny Berry on her well-deserved retirement.
Reading the announcement in the paper over the past couple of weeks brings up so many positive feelings about a woman who helped navigate my personal and professional goals.
I recall meeting her during one of the most traumatic times of my young life, the loss of my mother to Stage 4 breast cancer. Here I was a fifteen-year-old dealing with such a profound loss and having been uprooted from my home to finish out my high school education in Cordell. The circumstances forced my grandparents out of a needed retirement to continue in raising me. So, as many people can attest to, I was a moody, defensive, angry, grieving kid. But anyone who has ever met Mrs. Berry knows, she is a positive force for change. As reluctant as I was to her trying to assist me in my grief, she continued to be there. Where others saw me as a problem, she saw potential.
Fast forward to my Senior year, and Mrs.
Berry helped me apply for the Roy D. Anderson scholarship which I was awarded, funding a majority of my undergraduate program at SWOSU. When I graduated college, Mrs.
Berry was there in the stands supporting not only me, but others from Cordell who were completing their programs. To me this speaks highly of her character. She could have been anywhere else that day but chose to be there supporting former students.
Because Mrs. Berry took the time to get to know me and see past the challenges I initially presented, I am wholly a better person. I will be celebrating one of my own retirements here shortly. In a couple of months, I will retire honorably after serving in the United States Air Force for over twenty years. I will return to one of my major passions in life helping people who have experienced trauma and connecting them to community resources to get them back on their feet. I cannot help but think Mrs. Berry’s initial grace and continued presence in my academic and personal life as a kid had a lot of weight in the decision.
Thank you, Mrs. Berry. Thank you for being there for me. It is so hard to adequately express in words what your guidance meant to me. I wish you all the best as you go into this next chapter of your life.
Ms. Amanda Rivers (Class of 98)
Goldsboro, North Carolina