Life & Work with Sandra Rhoads

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sandra Rhoads.

Hi Sandra, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
In 2014, I retired from the Shawnee Mission School District after working 20 years as an educator. That same year, I went to work in Human Resources for Ferrellgas, and later moved to Liberty, MO with my husband.

I have always wanted to write a book. I even started a novel 15 years ago and never finished it. Life got busy, and I put it in a draw. While friends and co-workers my age have retired or are retiring, I had gone back to work full-time.

I still believed it is never too late, if you are living, to follow your dreams. I wanted to get back to writing. My English teacher in college had even encouraged me to be a writer. But how could I find time for writing with family, work, church, volunteering, friends, chores, activities, and events?

One Sunday morning during the pandemic last year, I was listening to a minister on the television. The minister was speaking on using the talents and gifts God has given us. He encouraged me to step out on faith and trust God to be my guide and do it today. He kept saying it is not too late to use those talents and gifts. So, I prayed and asked God to guide me, That night, when I went to bed, an idea came into my mind, and I could not sleep until I got up and wrote a book. The ideas kept coming, until seven hours later I wrote: “A Bug Flew into My Ear.”

“A Bug Flew into My Ear” was published in May 2021. This book is relatable to children. Sometimes when things happen to children, fear and their imaginations run away with them. When fear moves in, panic takes over. Their minds take them to unexpected places when faced with such situations. My book is lighthearted and offbeat. It narrates the story of a young boy who had a bug fly into his ear.

When fear and panic take over, his mind creates a postulated sequence of events. Children will follow him as he runs in fear and panic around the living room, to the outdoors, to the kitchen where his mother and baby brother are, to the doctor’s office, and finally back home. The rhymes, metaphors, similes, and colorful illustrations bring the boy’s imagination to life which young readers will enjoy.

This book is different from other books because it is fictitious, but it could actually happen in real life to anyone. I am sure many people have had a bug fly into their mouths, noses, eyes, or even their ears. It happens so quickly and catches us off guard. We will be faced with many situations in life, how we respond to them says a lot about our maturity, character, and faith.

Readers will empathize with the little boy and be enthralled by the imaginary trip of the bug. I want readers to know that every problem or situation has a solution. I also hope the readers of my book will have a feeling of satisfaction for time well spent reading a fun and entertaining book.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Our country was founded because of the desire to exercise diversity. However, history shows that our society has not always welcomed or embraced diversity easily. Although civil rights activists and sympathizers worked arduously to promote equality and diversity, seeds of discrimination continue to be sown in the hearts of people by those who will not accept diversity nor allow individuality.

Growing up in the ’50s and ’60s in rural Virginia, life was encumbered with daunting and demoralizing experiences. The state of Virginia and a great portion of our country were plagued with fear, anxiety, uncertainty, terrorism, and racial unrest. I can remember having to sit in the last five rows in the back of the public and city buses, not being able to sit and eat in restaurants, not being allowed to use public restrooms and drinking fountains because they were for whites only, being restricted to sitting in the balcony only in movie theatres, and having to wait in line in the stores while all the white customers were served first. I recall going to doctors’ offices and sitting for hours in the “colored section” waiting room which was the size of a walk-in closet with six straight-back chairs, while the “white section” was large and nicely furnished with upholstered chairs and sofas.

I think back to attending a “colored elementary school” which was a two-classroom wooden schoolhouse heated by two pot-belly wood-burning stoves and divided by an accordion partition that accommodated first through fourth grades on one side and fifth through seventh grades on the other side. It had no plumbing and no indoor restrooms. The school did not have all the modern conveniences that the white schools had, but we had black teachers with college degrees – some had masters degrees and PhDs – who treated us like we were their own children, disciplined us as such, and demanded excellence from us.

While waiting for the school bus for “coloreds only”, I remember the students on the school bus for “whites only” throwing raw eggs at me and my siblings and shouting degrading words as they passed. I also recollect a cross being burned in our friend’s front yard and a dead black cat with a noose around its neck in our mailbox because my oldest sister and a friend were helping the NAACP with the voter registration drive. We feared she and the others might be killed or the Ku Klux Klan might burn our house down with us in it.

But, I also admired my sister’s tenacity, courage, and bravery to continue to participate in non-violent sit-ins, protests, and marches for freedom and equality with Rev. Abernathy and other civil rights activists and white sympathizers from the North, while others around us, paralyzed by fear, succumbed to adversity and gave passive obedience to the dictations of a racist society. They did not wait for the government leaders to gain a conscious. They did not conform to the status quo nor did they give thought to how speaking out against the established order of the day would jeopardize their lives.

Although the Supreme Court ruled in favor of desegregation in the Brown versus the Board of Education suit in 1954, most of the schools in rural areas and small cities in Virginia were still segregated when I attended high school in 1965. Any blacks attempting to enroll their children in previously all-white schools were warned of the grave consequences by the Ku Klux Klan.

At the end of the school year in 1967, as an easement into integration, a classmate and I were asked by our principal to attend summer school at the white high school and to enroll in 10th grade English and geometry classes. Needless to say, it was a harrowing social experience. Students treated us like we had leprosy. However, we did prove to the white teachers and school board administrators that we did not fit into their preconceived image of unteachable mentally deficient Negro students. On tests, I scored higher than all the students in the classes, and my black classmate scored higher than three-fourths of the students in each class. I decided to accept the challenge of attending summer school at the high school for white students because I felt this was my way of contributing to the civil rights movement and my way of being a positive influence. I believe love, kindness and respect are choices, and I chose to put them into action each day. I learned that sometimes people base their opinions of a whole race of people because they look different, or because they are unfamiliar with the race or culture, or on the horrendous acts of some, or they go along with what their peers or relatives think for fear of being ostracized or suffering repercussion. I believed that the way I performed in class, carried myself, and reacted to situations was a testimony to my character, faith, and training, and might have changed someone’s opinion of a whole race of people.

Each one of us is distinct and is an integral part of society. Diversity should reflect individuality. So, what is individuality? Is it defined by the way one looks on the outside, or is it one’s character, beliefs, and values showing through from the inside? To me, it is a combination of both. I believe one should not dissimulate or lose one’s identity, or individuality, in order to succeed; nor should one sacrifice or compromise one’s values or faith to fit in.

Diversity contributes greatly to our learning and life experiences, as well as to the progress and enrichment of our society. I believe education is the key to enlightenment and plays a major role in helping to promote and integrate diversity into our society.

Education is extremely important to the prosperity of any nation. Education enables us to have a sense of self-worth, helps us to understand the world around us, and equips us to be capable of making valuable contributions to society. Education can also determine the degree of success one can obtain in a career.

I believe higher education is a privilege that carries with it a responsibility. That responsibility is an obligation to serve others and improve the quality of life around us. By uniting and working together, we can make America a better place.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Some people go through life leaving it as they found it. Some people go through life letting others define what they are or dictate what they should be. Some people go through life doing what is expected of them. I go through life with vision, purpose, hope, determination, and perseverance, putting my marks on history and fulfilling my goals and dreams.

Having worked as a educator for 20 years, I am passionate about teaching and encouraging children to develop a love for reading and learning. My motto is “Strive not to equal but to excel.” I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Management and Marketing from Avila University in Kansas City, Missouri.

At the present time, I have been working in the Human Resources Department for Ferrellgas for a little over seven years. I am a published children’s book author and an accomplished actress and playwright in my church and community. Currently, I am in the process of publishing another children’s book entitled “My Red Velvet Purse.” This book is a true story about my serendipitous experience in 1961 while living with my grandparents and attending elementary school in rural Virginia. It will be available in a few months. I have also written two plays and three more children’s books which I plan to publish in the near future.

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
On my desk at work is a plaque that reads ”If God brought you to it, He will lead you through it.”

Pricing:

• Hardcover – $22.95
• Softcover – $10.95
• eBook – $3.99

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]