Brave Soul Rising: Tales From The Trenches of An Uncharmed Life
Overivew
When does a woman discover what values and characteristics define her? For instance, in the midst of a serious, domestic crisis will you get in the ring ready to stand your ground or cower in a corner and deny the obvious? Should you find yourself needing a job and subsequently working in a sexist, chauvinistic environment, will you keep your head down and suffer through insulting behavior or will you find the inner courage to say, “Enough”?
And when everyone bets against you and your abilities, do you lack confidence and allow intimidation to overwhelm you or do you throw down the gauntlet and charge forward ready to prove your critics wrong?
These are the questions and discoveries Grace Sutherlin will encounter as she finds herself married to an abusive con artist and opts to leave an unhealthy marriage. In order to support herself, she takes a leave of absence from graduate school and accepts a low wage job as a receptionist hoping to regain some semblance of independence. Subsequently, she finds herself working in an abrasive, substandard working environment full of vastly inflated egos and chauvinistic behavior. And finally, just when she’s at her lowest depths, she defies all the naysayers and accepts a teaching position where she must dig deep in order to relinquish the timid, southern small-town girl of her youth and become a battle-hardened, no-nonsense woman with the firm belief that education empowers and no matter the depths of misery in which you may find yourself, you do have a choice in defining who you are and the reality of your future. With each calamity Grace witnesses or chaos she must tame, she develops the one characteristic that proves vital to her success: resilience. Grace will eventually come to realize that all the turmoil in her life has led her to develop a spirit of tenacity. And she is going to lean on this resilient, tenacious nature when she must find a way to reach urban students who are struggling to grasp a new culture and language, dodging gang violence, living in unstable homes, and trying to gain an education in an often volatile inner city school. This is when Grace discovers that she is no pushover; she is definitely a feminist; she harbors a mile-wide conscientious streak; and her own humble background enables her to become a force to be reckoned with when it comes to self-discipline, honesty, integrity and encouraging her students to draw strength and motivation by learning from mistakes, struggle, and even impoverishment. This is the story of a brave soul rising above the fray, and a woman who has discovered the merits of having lived an unpretentious life. Welcome to my manuscript entitled Brave Soul Rising: Tales From The Trenches of An Uncharmed Life with a page count of 186 and word count of 72,828.