Once upon a time, there was a little bitty girl who lived in a big old house who dreamt about getting married some day, having six children, and living in a big NEW house. She wasn't the first born, or the second, she came in third and turned out to be a huge disappointment to her parents because she wasn't a boy. Although two more girls were to follow, she never heard the end of it, about how the doctor promised her mom and dad that he was never wrong, and this child was definitely a boy.
Her father taught her how to play baseball, fish and pound nails, but this little, bitty girl liked dolls and doll houses. She loved dolls so much, she made her own dolls, using the old socks with holes in them, clothes pin dolls, whittled with a jack knife, or she found pieces of broken arms and legs from her older sisters dolls and made new ones out of the pieces, plus she made houses out of everything she could get her hands on, a deck of cards, cardboard boxes, things around the house, and she even folded up pieces of paper, making boxes out of the folded pieces of paper, blowing them up and stacking them up on top of each other.
The little bitty girl had straight hair, but her mother wanted her in curls, so she spent countless hours wrapping strips of cloth that she ripped apart from old bedsheets to make curls for her third born child with the long straight hair. The little bitty girl's mother was the child of the Great Depression and with her, nothing was impossible, so the little girl went to bed with tightly curled locks that dangled from her head like Polish Sausages that dangled on a meat line.
Education was very important to this little bitty girl, with the curls that framed her face, because after all, when things aren't natural, they typically fall apart, and she learned, at an early age, that with good education, anything is possible. The little, itty, bitty girl learned this about her houses too, so she developed skills making brick houses, from plastic bricks. She tried the Lincoln logs, but the dog kept stealing her pieces, so she preferred the little white plastic bricks that snapped in place. As she grew, so did her ivory towers, and she spent many hours, when she wasn't building houses, reading fairy tales, and dreamed about getting married, having at least six children, and living in her OWN big house, far, far away, from her mom and dad and four sisters who made fun out of her and called her Patrick, the girl who was a failure to her parents.
The little, bitty girl, always remained small and never grew taller than her sisters. Her sisters all got married and lived her dreams, about getting married, having at least six kids or more, and they all had houses. But this little, bitty, girl, surrounded by many nieces and nephews kept her sights on education, Unlike her sisters, she eventually graduated college and universities in Illinois, Kansas and Dallas, Texas.
The little, bitty girl, married a few days after her birthday, a teenage bride, to a guy, pen pal from the Army (today's version of Internet dating). The man asked her dad if he could marry her, and her father said, take her, so she did get married and had two children before he died of cancer. Before then, they worked very hard to buy a house, it wasn't a big house, but it was a real house, and the little, bitty girl, spent hours, cleaning it, preparing meals, and loving every nook and crannie because they both worked so hard to get it.
He was a Vet and it wasn't easy to get a loan back then, or even a job for him. Army Vet or not, there were no special privileges and because the little bitty girl, with two itty bitty babies, was a stay-at-home mom (Heaven forbid, her husband wouldn't let her work), it took a lot of savings and planning to make their dream come true. Before they got loan approval, they had to live in many different places, homes they rented, for example, the first place was a three room apartment, carved out of an attic. When the baby was born, they didn't have a place for the crib, so they moved into the second floor of a great big house, where the landlord lived on the first floor, and the basement was so big, it had a five foot deep swimming pool, and around the house was a brick wall with a five car garage. That was fun, until the landlord sold the house and they had to move out while the little bitty girl had a great big belly with baby number 2, on the way.
Stress can do strange things, so the little, bitty woman, with the great big belly, went into labor and they had no where to go, until a friend offered them a summer cottage, out in the country that needed some renovation, but at least they had a place to go. With two kids in tote, the family moved to the country and lived 50 feet away from the channel, where she taught her own children about fishing, dragon flies, plants, and animals. As time went on the little bitty woman and her husband saved enough money to buy their very first home. The little lady picked it out, on her own, because the cottage was a work in progress and she was sick and tired of replacing the roof, installing insullation, replacing the well, installing a toilet, tub and kitchen sink.... it seemed as if the little cottage had never ending projects and she was ready to go out and built a house herself, if that's what it took.
Bound and determined to get a loan, they finally got loan approval for a VA loan, but it wasn't easy. Yet they never missed a payment, and even after he died, she never did either. She worked hard putting herself through college (she didn't start college until she had to go to work), and she put her kids through school too. There was never any family support, handouts, free money, or free education. The three of them, two kids and mom worked very hard to maintain the house, go to school, and they all had to work. Her little boy was only nine and did a paper route, her daughter babysat, and she worked and went to school, teaching them the value of education. Knowing, how hard it was to get that house in the first place, she did everything in her power, to pay the bills, especially the mortgage.
As summer vacations came, she took a job in Maine and lived in a little, bitty cabin on the shores of Moose Pond, and worked as a bookkeeper for a summer camp and her children lived in tents and cabins with other kids as campers. While the little lady lived and worked in Maine, she still maintained her home in Illinois and paid the bills too. Never once did she go in default. She lived without electricity in the cabin in the woods, off the shores of Moose Pond and learned to live with the land and dream about education for herself and her children, she dreamt about her children's dreams, their health and education too. They loved nature, mountain climbing, swimming, kayakking, canoeing, sailing, and building camp fires. They loved New England and loved the Appalachian mountains, the loons on Moose Pond, Pleasant Mountain, and picking strawberries and rasberries too.
Going back home in the fall, after Labor Day, after spending the summers in Maine always gave her hope, passion and determination to live her dreams. She worked for a company for 10 years and was promoted several times, before being relocated to Texas. By then, her kids were so independent, and skilled, they were able to live their own lives, in other countries too. The little lady bought her own home in Flower Mound, where interest rates in 1998 were 7.25%, a good deal back then, for some one with excellent credit.
She thought some day, her kids would join her in Texas, but that never happened. After 10 years with the company that relocated her to Texas, the department shut down and she was without a job. What's the worst thing that can happen to me, she thought? The worst thing, would be, she wouldn't be able to pay her own mortgage. With an MBA (December 2002), and a 30 year mortgage, she thought to herself, she'd follow her passion, she'd sell houses and become a Realtor. After all, how hard could that be? Well, as she discovered, getting a Real Estate license is not as easy as you think and it's non-stop continuing education, including license renewal. She followed her passion, because she was so disappointed in how her own Real Estate transaction occurred prior to becoming a Realtor. She remembered all the mistakes that were made and made a promise to herself, that nobody, was ever going to be taken advantage of again, and as God as her witness, if she would help other people get a house who had the same passion and determination she had, she was going to do it, but first, they had to be qualified to own a home.
The years have gone by, and she's still a Realtor and this is her only income. She loves what she does and she strives to be the best she can, in everything she can. She loves her children, but they are no longer children, they belong to society, and the world across the globe. She helps people buy and sell houses and she listens to their stories and reasons why they need to move. Some have good stories, some are painful, but everyone has a story and a reason to move. She doesn't judge people, she understands their needs, and she lives with fire in her belly to maintain and pay her own mortgage while helping others to succeed with their dreams too.
Special thanks to Deb Brook, who is promoting this "Why I Chose Real Estate," contest. I'm proud to be an associate member of ActiveRain and thankful for the people like Deb who gives me an opportunity to express myself and learn about other people's stories.
All content written and true by author, Patricia Feager, Keller Williams Realty, 2011. Not to be copied or reproduced unless with permission from ActiveRain only.
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