About Me — Rhetta
3/4 of the way through it, still learning, still changing
Life happens fast. I didn’t think that when I was in my twenties. But I turned 60 recently and my perspective has shifted over time. So, given that life goes fast, I’ll try not to use up too much of your time here, talking about me.
I was born in the South. Well, actually in Florida, which “real” Southerners will tell you is not the South. Florida is its own animal — it’s own, wild, wacky, weirdly wonderful animal. It’s a hodge-podge of people from all over, domestic and international. When you look for websites with weird news stories (like Oddity Central), often there is a whole category just for Florida. A stand-up comedian once explained Florida’s weirdness by saying, “crazy flows downhill.” ‘Nuff said.
While I was born in the South, I didn’t stay there. I have lived in a lot of different places — a friend told me once that she keeps my address in pencil in her address book. I’m married to a Southern man who left too — separately and together, we’ve progressively moved north over time.
I love cold weather. Hate the heat. The perfect climate to me is one that never gets above 75 degrees F. I adore snow; now that may be because I didn’t see it until I was in my twenties. But to me, having to turn on the air conditioner on Christmas Day like we often did down home is just depressing.
We have one son who’s in college now and towers over both of us at 6'3" tall. He’s a wonderful mix of both of us. He has his father’s empathetic nature; he has my dark sense of humor. He is so smart, it amazes me. He’s in college and I worry about what his future will be like in this country, where AI seems to be eliminating jobs right and left, and the only politics he has ever known has been derisive and, let’s face, just hateful and dumb.
I love animals, especially dogs and cats. We have a very sweet, but slightly neurotic dog named Piper. She loves all of us, but thinks the sun rises and sets on my husband. If he leaves the house, even just to take out the trash, this dog sings a Song of Woe. (There is hound in this dog for sure.) When he comes back into the house, even if it’s only been 60 seconds since he left, it’s a reason to celebrate for Piper. Anyone know a good pet therapist?
We also have a Maine Coon mixed breed cat named Bobcat. We’ve only had Bobcat for about 6 months. All of our animals are shelter adoptions. Our older cat, Dapple, passed unexpectedly, and we ended up getting Bobcat because I just couldn’t stand not having a cat to snuggle with. I can say without hesitation that Bobcat is the funniest, most snuggly cat I have ever had. He’s also the youngest cat we’ve ever had and when he goes into the “zoomies” once or twice every day, it’s a thing of wonder. He goes into “stealth” mode, then blasts off, running across the room, up the stairs, up and down furniture, in and out of boxes. And boxes are, hands-down, his favorite toy. All types, all sizes. He will hide in them, roll around in them, jump in and out of them, pounce on them to flatten them out, you name it.
Bobcat and Piper get along famously. I’m pretty sure Bobcat thinks of Piper as his Big Sister. He follows her around, walks underneath her, rubs against her head fondly, and will hide and then jump out at her to play — all great things in his mind. Piper tolerates him like an older sibling, sometimes acting for all the world like she would prefer some time without Bobcat. But then, they’ll be lying in the “sunny spot” together, and she’ll lean over and give him a kiss, so . . .
I realize I haven’t really talked a lot about my past. That’s deliberate on my part. Not really interested in going into a long story about my life as it was. Short version — I’ve had good things and bad things happen. My academic career all but ended not long ago after more than 25 years as a business professor of organizational behavior/leadership. Some of it was health-related, some of it was due to events beyond my control. I was bitter for quite a while, I won’t lie. But life goes on, and now I have Substack and Medium where I write about what I call my identity journey — the process I’m going through as I rework how I see myself and what I want to be in this phase of my life (See Women Write). I also write about topics that are still of interest to me in organizational behavior and leadership (leadership, virtual teams, culture, psychological safety, EQ) (see EduCreate). And I write about fun things like my animals, Southern cuisine (see Food Memories), and various other things.
I appreciate the opportunity to introduce myself to all y’all. I hope you will follow me and read what I write. I’d love to know what you think about my articles. For now, take it easy, enjoy writing and reading, and remember that life goes fast, so be sure you’re doing something that matters to you.
