There It Was in the Newspaper for Everyone to Read
by Daryl Hoole
Much
to my chagrin, there it was in the newspaper for everyone to read:
“The eldest daughter, Daryl, is a conscientious student at
Irving Junior High School.” It
was bad enough to be conscientious, why did the fact
have to be published?
The
year was 1947, I was thirteen years old, and for some reason our
family had been interviewed by a newspaper reporter and that line
left me feeling crushed. When you’re an insecure, awkward
junior high student, such a label seemed to be the kiss of death.
Why
couldn’t the article have said I
was “cute,” or “popular,” or “talented”?
I’m sure it’s because I wasn’t. But couldn’t
they have come up with something
besides that dismal designation!
Such
an identity troubled me for months, but time and maturity can do
wonders to heal bruised feelings and put things in perspective.
Eventually
I had the courage to look the word up in the dictionary to see
exactly what was so upsetting to me, and there I read that to be
conscientious means “to be careful to do what one knows is
right; to be controlled by conscience; to do things with care and
make them right; to be upright, honorable, righteous, honest, and
exact; to live in accordance to one’s sense of duty.”
That
isn’t so bad. I’ve come to respect and appreciate the
attribute of being conscientious in others. And I’ve accepted
it for myself — just as long as it’s not the only trait
for which I’m known.
This
brings to mind a wall hanging at a cousin’s house that reads:
“I know I’m efficient — tell me I’m
beautiful.”
A native of Salt Lake City, Daryl Hoole has written and lectured extensively on home
management and family living. She has served on the ward, stake, regional, and general levels of
the Church. It has also been her privilege to fulfill three missions -- once to the Netherlands
when she was young and single; another time as companion to her husband as he presided over
the Netherlands Amsterdam Mission; and the third time with two other senior couples as Asia
Area Welfare/Humanitarian Administrators, headquartered in Hong Kong.
She and her husband Hank and are the parents of eight living children, the grandparents of thirty-six, and the great-grandparents of a rapidly increasing number.
