Greetings from Cheryl's World.

As a new blogger, I'm a novice on the protocols. My compelling reason to blog (Insert huge guffaw at my intended humor...) was finally realized not out of a desire to be profound, which won't happen, but due to seeing Julie and Julia this past week. This is the charming story of Julie, a young woman, who on the cusp of turning thirty, decides that in one year's time she will cook through Julia Child's famous Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She tackles cooking 524 recipes in 365 days, blogging throughout her experience. Life changes in unanticipated, and unimagined ways due to her determination to complete something; to show that she can persevere. Saving what she fears will be her Waterloo, "the boning of a duck" until last, she finds on day 365 that it was not as bad as she feared, and she realizes success. As she cooks, and blogs about her experiences, the film shows parallels to the life of Julia Child. In a way it is old fashioned Hollywood at it's best: character has a dream, challenges arise, a crushing emotional crisis ensues, temptation to give up becomes pervasive, but in the end the character succeeds beyond their wildest dreams. You know the formula. It precedes Days of Thunder, and every other Tom Cruise movie, all the way back to Andy Hardy's now famous, "let's put on a show!". Pure vintage Hollywood!

Julie and Julia isn't just the story of Julie Powell and Julia Child. It's a story of casting big dreams, influence, daunting challenges of life, and the rewards of perseverance. So how does this relate to me, and possibly to some of you?

Well, the URL for this site is http://askthequeen.blogspot.com for a personal, and amusing reason. Many years ago, when I was teaching 3rd grade, a student came into the classroom after recess and in response to my request that he get ready for Math, fell to the floor in a continuous bowing motion, saying, "As you wish my Queen. We're not worthy!" (May have been an old Saturday Night Live bit, in which case I don't want to know how a third grader knew it.) It caught on, and I became known as "The Queen" and my classroom was called "Wituckeland", where it was laughingly said we were in a monarchy, and that refusal to comply could lead to beheading. Don't think I'm morbid or a power freak; third graders loved it. (It also was, and is, the antithesis of how I view classroom management and all interactions.)

Over the years I became known as The Queen, in sometimes loving and sometimes mocking ways. Relevance? In our own world's we all have dreams and challenges. We all know the personal disappointment that comes from giving up, and we know the exhilaration coming from reaching goals and achieving success. Over the next months I hope to write about dreams, realized and lost, and challenges, personal and professional. I'd like to discuss benefits gained from perseverance, and perils of giving up. Things we all face in life.

I have always felt that it would be pretentious for me to use a blog as a forum to express my own views. I have no PhD or training as a philosopher or theologian. So why begin this written journey in which I hope to look at the experiences of life and relate them to my worldview? I suppose I've finally come into the 21st century, realizing that we have a multitude of ways to communicate, and yet people seem lonelier than ever. As life becomes increasingly complex and problem-filled, we are all looking for answers that meet those complex issues. Beyond that, we all editorialize every time we offer an opinion or share our particular perspective on how life would work best. So I'll ask my voice to the mix in this way. The bottom line is I love to interact with people and hope that this may become a forum to achieve that purpose, hopefully shedding more light than heat. If you are so inclined, come on in to Cheryl's World and sit down for an occasional chat.

Let the journey begin!