Mary Ricketson's March 'Woman to Woman' Column

Cherokee County NCWN/NetWest Representative Mary Ricketson writes a monthly column for the local newspaper, the Cherokee Scout. She has graciously shared her March column with us:

"March is women’s history month.  We are amazing people.  I am inspired by literally every woman I meet.  Every one of us has something to offer the world in some dimension.  All of us are unique, no one like us in the whole universe.  But unless we are famous, our stories get lost in the shuffle. 

One way to inspire girls and women is to tell stories of accomplished women.  Famous women like the pilot Amelia Earhart and astronaut Sally Ride inspire all of us.  We should keep telling the stories of famous women and their accomplishments.  But we should tell our local stories too.  Women in our families and those next door, and in the next county leave footprints every day for the rest of us to follow.  Each of us leaves footprints.  We are known for our courage, self-sacrifice, accomplishments and sometimes for our cooking.  We are known for our brains, our smile, our guts, and our stubbornness.

I remember a story of my mother.  I was a little girl, and my sister was a toddler.  We were walking in the park on a sunny afternoon, and there was a duck pond.  This duck pond was very special and inviting, and the sun shined on the deepest spot.  Somehow my mother got distracted, looked away, and did not see my sister walk into the pond.  She wanted to pet the ducks.  Now, my sister didn’t know how to swim but my mother did not either.  Quickly my mother turned around to see her youngest daughter sinking in the water.  Mother, armed only with adrenaline, rushed right in that pond, grabbed her precious child, and got back to shore before either of them drowned.  My sister does not walk into duck ponds anymore, but she does walk daily into difficult projects with single minded determination.  And she learned how to swim.

This story gets told over and over, for the memory, for the laughs, for the courage, and for any other reason that comes to mind.  Most of our stories are not pilots, astronauts, politicians, or anyone famous.  Our stories are about women in our lives, salt of the earth women, women who keep life going anyway we can.

Let’s tell the history of women, our women, and keep ourselves inspired.  Let’s tell our stories to girls and also to boys.  Let’s tell stories of women with a spirit of respect and admiration.  We are not courageous all the time, and we are not perfect.  We are ordinary women, and special and wonderful and unique, every one of us.  Keep our stories alive."

Thank you, Mary. We also hope that women everywhere will be inspired.