ProgenitorPortal

I've always enjoyed intellectual challenges.   As a student at Southeast High School in Bradenton, Florida, I became tasked frequently with assignments that stimulated my mind and provoked thought.   I had two educators, Ms. Jean Painchaud and Ms. Edwards, who profoundly affected me during those formative years.    The two introduced me to some of the world's greatest literary writers, giving me an appreciation for the harmonic tempos that creative writers can frame when they stream words together seamlessly and beautifully.  I was awestruck by William Shakespeare's writings, "Romeo and Juliet" and "Julius Caesar," since they were literary works that were as intricate as a Chinese puzzle box.  Singularly, every word is just a word.   When intrinsically woven together, though, they create something pulchritudinous.  They created magic, just like a Chinese puzzle box!  With their encouragement and guidance, I would become absorbe...

A father-daughter relationship can sometimes be complicated.  My dad, Kenneth Wayne Moats I, was and remains a wonderful father, and I am very blessed to have had him as a role model growing up.  However, I never truly bonded with him until later in life, when I was nearly in my thirties.  I can recall the profound moment I stopped considering my dad as some authoritarian figure in my life and instead started thinking of him as a friend.   It occurred in 1998 when my parents visited me in Gardendale, Alabama, where I escaped after my divorce.  One night, as I often did alone, my parents and I walked to a restaurant only two miles from my apartment for dinner.  Afterward, we grabbed a six-pack of wine coolers to drink while sauntering home underneath the stars on a crisp, perfect night.   As we leisurely strolled, the three of us easily engaged in conversation that altered back and forth from humorous to significant, inconsequential to relativ...