His Perfect Will
Stewart, Doris (2010-03-21)
PART 1
>>INTERVIEWER: Hi Sister Doris!
>>DORIS STEWART: Hello!
>>INTERVIEWER: I want to thank you for doing this for me.
>>DORIS STEWART: You're welcome. 
>>INTERVIEWER: Can you please state your name?
>>DORIS STEWART: My name is Doris Stewart.
>>INTERVIEWER: How old are you?
>>DORIS STEWART: I am 44.
>>INTERVIEWER: What do you do for a living?
>>DORIS STEWART: I am an IT specialist and I work for the Federal government, have been there for 25 years this month, March.
>>INTERVIEWER:  And where did you receive your education from?
>>DORIS STEWART: Well, through the Columbus public school system some college and also a lot of intensive training at my job to be a programmer.
>>INTERVIEWER: Okay, that is what you went to school for, basically?  Computer programming?
>>DORIS STEWART: Mmhmm. For software engineering. 
>>INTERVIEWER: Another question I have is what elementary school did you go to?
>>DORIS STEWART: I went to a school, and it's called Moler elementary school and it still open today.  Even my niece and nephew went there, so that was interesting.  A whole generation later went there as well.
>>INTERVIEWER: During your time at Moler what did you learn, as far as academics?
>>DORIS STEWART: Well, I think I learned all of normal things.  The one thing that was significant was in the first grade I had a teacher who said that she thought that, although I got my work done and it was done right hi, done on time and turned in, she thought I also had a lot of good social skills and could talk to the kids and laugh and all that kind of stuff.  She thought that I was immature.  So she talked to my mother and that basically convinced my mother that I was immature and I should be held back a grade.  So in the first grade I was held back and didn't advance to the following year, so that put me behind the kids I started with.  So that was kind of different.
>>INTERVIEWER: Did it hinder you in any way, as far as your academic progress?
>>DORIS STEWART: No, actually I think it helped me in school and in life because what I quickly came up with was, and it is still that way today, when someone tells me that I can't do something or when somebody tells I deemed a falsehood, it made me prove them wrong.  So I think what happened was it made me actually do way better because I was always proving her wrong that time, and it just kept going.  So I was always trying to be better than where I was.  I never wanted-in the second grade I didn't want to be a second grader I wanted to be a third or fourth grader.  I was always thinking ahead.
>>INTERVIEWER: What was your favorite subject in school?
>>DORIS STEWART: In school my favorite… probably I would say history and mathematics.
>>INTERVIEWER: Okay, history and mathematics.  Did you read a lot of historical books?
>>DORIS STEWART: I read a lot of history.  My parents, or my father especially, is a World War II veteran so he was always talking about history. He was always pointing out military stuff and helping us stay educated and always seeking to look at things outside of school.  My mother has been always that person that would make us read the newspaper, make us read articles, make us watch the news some of the time.  Of course, back then it wasn't like it is now where it's so sensationalized.  When the news used to come on there would be like two minutes of bad stuff and now it can be the first 15 to 20 minutes of the newscast.
>>INTERVIEWER: Right. 
>>DORIS STEWART: It was a little different then but nice stories and good stories. 
>>INTERVIEWER: Okay, we will take it back a little bit.  At what age did you learn how to read and write?
>>DORIS STEWART: Again, because my parents were always teaching, my mother was always having with us read, so I would say probably by the time I was four to five I was starting to read in the little books, See Jane Run and See Spot Go and all that.  We were always reading; my parents were always putting little books in front of us in making us read.  And I had a lot of siblings and I had siblings that were older than me so there were always books and things that they had that were advanced for me because it was their books and we were reading them.
>>INTERVIEWER: Well what methods did they use, in school or your mother, to teach you how to write?
>>DORIS STEWART: For me, it was just always we had to learn.  There is a lot of pride in our names and you had to not only be able to say your name, you had to be able to write your name.  You had to be able to write.  My father was always, he had this thing, where he was always trying to get me to do secretarial stuff to help him in his office in our basement.  So I was always working and learning how to read and learning how to file and all the kind of stuff, but of course I did not end up as a secretary, praise god!  It is a job but, you know- because they also taught me how to be the best.
PART 2
>>INTERVIEWER: Well, do you have any authors that you're a fan of?  Any book that is your favorite?
>>DORIS STEWART: Well, I just finished the book called The Shack and I thought that was a good book; there was a lot of hoopla about that book even at our church.  But I think when I was a child my favorite book was this book called Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret that my mother had me read because it was talking about puberty, and it was talking about all these things that my body was going to experience and I was going to experience.  She wanted me to be able to know some of those things before that happened and it's hard to form a question to ask her when you don't really know. She wanted me to come in with some insight on what was going to happen to me and then we had those conversations.  So that was pretty good.  But right now, constantly I read the bible, and I'm always reading at work different things that I have to read.  James Patterson, he writes a lot of detective, scary type stuff and he is one of my favorite authors; I have a lot of them.
>>INTERVIEWER: Okay, well do you have a problem with reading out loud?  Have you ever had a problem with reading out loud?
>>DORIS STEWART: No, not so much reading out loud but I can be ill affected by doing anything if I'm around strangers, people I don't know.  I don't like to be surrounded by people I don't know.  But definitely because I can read and because I have a lot of self confidence and self esteem, but I much prefer to be around people I know.  If that makes any sense.
>>INTERVIEWER: Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.  So, I know you were part of a community service organization where you held the secretary chair.  How did that work for you?  Basically, you have to listen to people talk and report what they were saying, so how did that feel?
>>DORIS STEWART: It wasn't anything bad, actually it was sort of . . .  it's funny because now I'm laughing because that's what my father used to have me do, all of the secretary stuff., I just told you I wasn't going to be a secretary, and I'm not.  But guess what I am. So I did do that job, I did it well; I had no problem picking up all the information.  In fact I was often a recording secretary, so if you said I had to record it and if I recorded it I had to read it.  A lot of times I was asked to take different things out of the minutes and I would clearly always state if you said it because I'm the recording secretary; I have to leave it.  But it's funny because now we have a new ministry of church and is starting in . . .  again somebody came up and approached me and asked me to be the ministry secretary; so I am right back into doing on other secretarial function.  So, go figure.
>>INTERVIEWER: Right, well congratulations on that.  I know you said you worked with computers and things like that.  How do you feel about the new technology and the effect that it has on our children today?
>>DORIS STEWART: Well, the thing with the children today I find so interesting, and almost I am a little jealous, because they pick up this stuff so quick.  Technology is changing things so fast, much faster than when I first started working with computers and technology, but kids- I just got a new cell phone, the thing called the Droid and it took me weeks to figure out all the apps and how to use everything.  But at the same time I got my niece the same phone and she just grabbed it and she is off and running.  So technology, although I'm in it, sometimes it is sort of challenging, but the technology that I deal with I excel at it.  This modern technology, the way it changes and how fast, I'm not always happy with it but I can get it.
>>INTERVIEWER: Well good.  If you had anything, any advice to give to the younger generation or to students today, whenever it is, what would it be?  
>>DORIS STEWART: To develop good study habits, to always be organized and to always strive to be better than where you might place or were you might think you're supposed to be.  Always strive to do better and to work harder.  Set goals and work to accomplish those but always go back and look at them and  try to reinvestigate those goals to see if they are still in line with where you want to be or where you need to be.  Don't always follow the dollar signs and the job or future but if you can get an education and get a job where you love that job, I think that is more rewarding than just having a job that is high paying just because.  That would be my advice.  First, go to school, stay in school, work hard, get the study habits, like I said stay organized and just do well.
>>INTERVIEWER: Okay, that is it.  I thank you again for doing this and I will be talking to you soon.
>>DORIS STEWART: All right, thank you.