Carolina QuotesMy dad was probably my greatest motivation force as a child because he really - he and my mom both really convinced us that what they believed was good for us was the right thing for us. And so when he said he thought we needed to be educated, I just started heading in that direction.
Clara Leach Adams-Ender
Carolinian
Source
Interview with Cheryl Corley, News & Notes, NPR, 27 March 2007
- form
- interview
- work
- News & Notes, NPR
- year
- 2007
Cite this record
“My dad was probably my greatest motivation force as a child …” Clara Leach Adams-Ender. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-A1469EAB1F. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/a1469eab1f
More from Clara Leach Adams-Ender
And so I remember my mother talking to me at that time and told me that I was her child and as far as she was concerned, I was beautiful. And beauty was only skin deep, and that was not the only thing that you needed to concentrate on. And then I learned other ways of dealing with that kind of situation, in that I said, well, you know, I can develop some talents of my own, too - one of them being a smart person. And so that's what I did. I became an individual who was well-read, learned, and all of a sudden that whole business of what I looked like didn't matter anymore. It was what I had to offer.
There were about 500 folks in the reviewing stands during my retirement parade at Ft. Belvoir. I thought I would experience a rush of powerful emotions and feelings during my last day in the Army, but that wasn't the case. The day was pretty much a blur, to be truthful. One minute I was in the Army, the next minute I wasn't. When my last day finally wound down, following a reception after my retirement parade, I went home and stood in front of a mirror as I took my uniform off one last time. A weary-looking, fifty-four-year-old black woman stared back. "You are retired," I told her. Instead of reacting visibly, she seemed almost indifferent. Hmmpphh! I took my uniform off and hung it up, as I had done thousands of times. Then I went to bed and immediately fell asleep.
I'd operated at full-throttle for thirty-four years to push the goals and objectives of the U.S. Army forward. So to wake up one morning and find my appointment calendar totally empty- no brushfires to extinguish or strategic plans to implement- was a truly jarring, discombobulating experience. Not to mention depressing.