Reminisce – The Letter
10/21/2026
11:39 pm
I just hit my 11-year anniversary on this blog and hit another milestone towards which I was working. Last year’s goal was to get to 10,000 views and I hit that within a few days before my 10th anniversary. This year it was hitting 10,000 visitors to the blog and I hit that a couple of weeks ago. Today the total is sitting at 10,400 visitors, I exceeded my expectations. I’m pretty happy with that.
I have been working on a content strategy for my YouTube channel, a new focus I started back in February and restarted again in June of this year. I want to share the creative side of myself and the projects that I am working on now that I am fully retired from the daily 9 to 5 workplace.
It is a slow progression due to my current arm and hand limitations. It occasionally flares up with tremors, numbness, or tingling because of overuse and not enough rest. I finally received my next prescription refill of 800 mg ibuprofen to mitigate and lessen the pain but the achiness is still there. I manage the best that I can.
I digressed slightly; my health is not the focus of this writing, goals and milestones are the main topics.
As I was sitting here this evening, writing out a weekly content posting plan, a thought came to mind that slightly side tracked my process. I began to reminisce and do some research.
Do you remember this advertisement?
I remember seeing this in the 9th grade as a freshman in high school in 1985. It was in a magazine that my mom had. I was really into my art classes and it was the one thing I enjoyed doing the most. That creative spirit and reading books are what kept me focused, motivated, and able to cope with my home life circumstances. It was something that was just for me and something that I could not be forced to share with my half-sisters.
My art teachers from the 6th through 10th grade encouraged me to keep doing my art and told me to go to college for it. At that time, knowing how I was living at home, it was never going to be possible. My parents would never encourage me and used it against me for a long time. Telling me I was wasting my time and that my teachers said that to everybody.
I saw this advertisement one day, tore out the page, filled it out, drew Tippy the Turtle with some added details plus a background, and secretly sent it off just to see what would happen.
A couple of months later, I actually forgot about it until the day the letter showed up in the mail. My mother was the one that got to it first. I remember I was sitting at the dining room table, doing homework, when she said, “What is this”? It was addressed to me and it was a large envelope. She would not let me open and read it first. I remember the feeling of panic and anxiety because her look told me I was in trouble and she was displeased with me.
She read it, then laughed about it, threw it on the table, telling me it was “junk and not real”.
The letter said they had awarded me a full scholarship for their course. The letter and information packet listed out all the details of their course and the materials that would be sent. All I had to do was fill out the forms for enrollment and an address were it was to be sent to.
I was afraid of what she was going to say to her husband, my abuser. She handed it to him later when he got home and he laughed too. His response, “Why would anyone want to see your ugly drawings?” They threw in the trash which I later dug through and kept it hidden away in my stuff. I knew it would never happen but it made me feel better about myself in a small way, like I mattered.
Years later, when I was packing up my stuff before leaving for basic military training, my mother found it hidden in a sketchbook. She tore it up and threw it in the trash. I just stood there and realized she still did not like that part of me. The part she could not take away or beat out of me.
It was like that for years afterwards well into adulthood except they, my mother and her husband, began using my creativity for their own gains. I was always trying to make my family like me. I would make things for them using that creative part of me only to find out later, they were selling off what I made. That is the kind of people they were, users.
Then there was the realization, after years of therapy, that it was jealousy, pettiness, and about trying to control me. That is why I was put down, my looks were made fun of, and I was told that I was “dumb or not that smart”. They did not want me to grow beyond them because when you grow while others languish or devolve into self-pity, you are a threat.
I look back at it now from the prospective as a mother to my own four children and see that I kept the promises that I made to myself, to never put down my own children, and to encourage them to be who they are. I love my kids and I am so proud of the things they have accomplished. I broke that cycle of abuse a long time ago.
Throughout my life, thoughts about that letter would come up, and I had convinced myself that it didn’t happen. That maybe it had been just junk mail.
Then today, I did some research on it. I found out that they did actually offer full scholarships for their correspondence art school. Only five were awarded during their sales periods and this type of advertisement/recruitment was to generate sales for their course. “The scholarships could only be awarded to participants aged 14 and older. One cash prize of $25 was awarded to 12 to 13 old participants” this was per the advertisements I found.
During further research, I also found out they were an accredited correspondence school and that you could turn some of their courses into actual college credits through the American Council on Education (ACE) if a college would accept them.
Their most famous students/instructors were Charles M. Schulz the creator of “Peanuts”, Mort Walker cartoonist for “Beetle Bailey”, and John Berkey the “Famed sci-fi and commercial illustrator who painted posters for Star Wars”, he had won their annual student art competition.
I didn’t imagine it.
Why is this important now after 41 years?
It represents to me personally, a right to an accomplishment that I never got have, that I was never “dumb”, and I did matter. That at one point in time, someone outside of my small, toxic circle of influence, saw a part of the real me. A scared 14 year-old who was just trying to survive and liked to draw. That realization helped close up one of those old wounds.
Now, here I am, a 55-year old retired military veteran, who is still creative, loves art, and learning new things. I started this blog 11 years ago, found my voice, and am still trying to be consistent at it. During this same period I started social media accounts to highlight my projects and interests. I have also started taking baby steps into a YouTube channel and finding other creative outlets.
I am no longer being silenced by others who did not want to hear me.
My creative voice is still speaking out into the universe and I continue to grow every day.
Thank you so much for all your support for this blog all these years and taking time to stop by.
Have a fabulous week!
Peace, love, happiness, and good vibes, always!
Suzanne
