Name | Tammy Faulk Parchman |
Best high school memory: | The football games. I loved hanging with my band friends and the games were always great! LOVED the pep rallys! |
Favorite high school teacher (and why): | Despite his personal struggles, (and that dreaded little white spitball on his bottom lip when he was yelling at us), it would have to be Mr. Taylor. My love for music would have to win over anything else. I took voice lessons from him and he always told me that I was blessed with a beautiful voice and to never take it for granted. I never have. |
About the present: | Very blessed. Time changes everything, and to everything, there is a season. My life is beginning to turn full circle as I see my parents age and become dependent on me. Not easy, but I know I'm not alone. I have many peers who face the same as I do. I have to remind myself that I can only control what I am in control of, and the rest, I have to depend on God to control. |
How I spend my time: | With my family. Have to stay close to home because of parents and in laws. I love to sing, read, and especially love road trips with my best friend of 45 years. I also belong to a wonderful sisterhood we call "Sister Chicks" and have great fellowship with them when we can squeeze it in. |
How I met my spouse or significant other: | Quite by accident. Went off to UCA with a broken heart and a lot to heal from. I remember praying to God when I moved in my dorm and saying, " God, if there is someone out there that is right for me, You will have to show him to me". Carl was a roommate of John Ziegler from our class. I saw him maybe 3-4 times across campus and never looked his way. Remember, I wasn't looking for anyone. Well, I went to John's apartment with a mutual friend of his and Carl's to talk about rent/expenses off campus. John wasn't there, Carl was, and so I was going to wait for John. And I waited, and waited,. so I went for a drink in their horribly nasty kitchen, decided to clean it, and while putting up the last glass, Carl reached around my waist, looked down at me and kissed me. To thank me, he said. And, well, the rest is history! Sure am glad John never showed. God had a plan. :) |
Worst or most embarrassing high school memory: | WORST? That would have to be the head-on collision in my Jr year with a drunk driver. We hit at 110 mph. Fractured both my jaws and messed up my knees for life! The most frightening thing ever. MOST EMBARRASSING? That would have to be getting "Mono" on a church summer trip. I was lucky enough drink after someone who was apparently a "carrier" and BAM! I got it good. Missed a lot of school over that. That's my story and I'm sticking to it..... |
Favorite sports/extracurricular memory from high school: | I wasn't athletic, so I guess I considered my school job my favorite memory from HS. I went to school half a day and work half a day. Worked in Lil' Peoples School in NLR my JR-SR year. Loved my little kiddos! |
Biggest high school regret: | I didn't study hard enough. I passed and I graduated, but I didn't apply myself like I should have. Who knows where my career would have taken me.
Also, better personal decisions/choices. I made some mistakes that could have turned my life in another direction. Thankfully, God gives us grace to make choices that bring us to where we are, not where we might have been. No looking back. |
Looking back on our high school experience, I think... | I'm a lot smarter than I was back then. Call it age or time, but I see now what I didn't see then. We were all looking for acceptance and to "fit" in. For some of us, it was a shoe in, and we hit the road running and it all just "clicked". For others, we struggled to find ourselves on a daily basis. Stigmas like "The Proud Crowd" or "Pot Heads", or the "Smoke Hole" all gave us personas that may or may not have been true, but at any rate, kept others from knowing who we really were, or where we came from to get there. I'm glad that over the years, I fit in better than I did back then. |
A high school moment that's frozen in my memory: | The day my dad passed away, Jan 17, 1979. I remember sitting in Biology in the middle of a semester exam and just going blank and having a weird moment. Brushed it off and finished the test. Found out later at home that my dad was in a single car accident and died on the scene right about the same time I had that weird feeling. Never forget how disrespectful I was to him that morning, and how it was always going to be too late to say "I'm sorry Daddy". |
High points of the last 30 years: | 27 years of marriage; 2 beautiful children; Relatively good health; good jobs; Through financial struggles, health issues, spiritual ups and downs, I'm still standing on HIS promises. |
What I'm proudest of today: | I am a Christian and I have never lost my values. What you see is what you get with me. I'm a people person and love that I have a giving spirit like my mom, and I have passed that on to my children. |
Where I've been (e.g., lived and/or traveled): | Never lived further than 7 miles from my childhood home. I haven't had many vacations, but I've been as far as California, Florida, Texas, and Wyoming so have gone in all directions. I don't fly or float a boat, and heights make me a little crazy so road trips are my friend. |
What I've learned over the past 30 years: | A lot can change and has changed. |
My current philosophy/perspective on life: | Life every day to it's fullest. Embrace each moment as a gift from God, because it is. Every decision, good or bad, has a consequence; a good one or a bad one. To live in a peaceful world, we must be peaceful people, and that begins at home. Do for others in EVERY way, what you would want done for you. Can't go wrong with that! |