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Today's Featured Biography

 
Marsha Fickel Taylor

My life has been a journey of many jobs(or not) in many places meeting many people and learning many things. Here is a brief summary.
I graduated from Casper College with Math AA, then Univ. of Wyoming with Math BA. I taught Jr/Sr HS math 4 years in 5 schools in Colorado & Wisconsin. Although I was good at math, I decided that I wanted to work with the whole person. Then graduated from Univ. of Missouri Kansas City with Counseling MA. I was a HS counselor 1 year in Kansas.
Another girl and I went to Europe for the summer, leasing a car and camping. When we arrived in England, I knew I wanted to stay. I got a job as a college/commissioning counselor with the American Air Force and so began a 23-year love/hate relationship (loved England & my clients, hated the bureaucratic system - later began to realize I was a closet hippie!!) After 4 years I quit and returned home to Casper.
Knowing I could not tolerate HS counseling again, I took the same AF job at a base in San Antonio, Texas - it was better, but after 8 years, I quit again, promising myself never to return.
During this time I decided to change my last name to Taylor (I had met a pilot who I am convinced was my soulmate, but there were significant obstacles and then he was killed. Emotionally, I had to select his name - I have never regreted it.)
I decided that I needed to take time to focus on myself, so essentially "dropped out" - for 8 years!! I went to Esalen Institute in Big Sur for 8 months for personal growth courses, moved to Flagstaff, AZ for 6 years where I became quite involved in New Age thinking. I also worked with a psychologist who was helpful. Then I knew it was time to return to my career.
I returned again to Casper to job hunt and got a job in Gillette as a mental health therapist. After a year, I was laid off and got a job in Worland doing the same. Again, after 3 years, another layoff, but this time jobs were scarce and I got desparate!
So I swallowed my pride, applied to work for the AF again, was hired, and so began 13 more years of "divine challenges", at bases in Denver, Los Angeles, San Angelo,TX and Rapid City,SD.
I retired two years ago and am still in Rapid City. Never married or had children. However, I live with 6 cats and a dog.
When I was at NCHS, I was rather shy, so many of you may not remember me. I dated John Francis for a year, then Joe Guerrero.

P.S. After having written the above bio, I realized that I had left out most of the not-so-great experiences - more specifically, I am a 4-time cancer survivor and have dodged several other cancer bullets with surgery. The worst was two years ago, with a second recurrence of breast cancer, requiring surgery, chemo & radiation. Loosing my hair was very emotionally stressful, so I compensated by having my head tattooed with flowers and butterflies and I wore lots of hats!!
As I am spiritually committed to New Age thinking, I am always looking for the reason behind any event. If it had not been for this "significant inconvenience", I would have packed up and moved to the Salt Lake City area. For some reason that continues to puzzle me, I seem to need to remain in the Rapid City area. A positive outcome has been meeting many other cancer survivors with whom I share a most wonderful bond and comeraderie!! My health is good now and my hair has regrown. YES!!!
I'm looking forward to visiting with everyone - see you soon.

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