Sara Quarnberg’s childhood wasn’t as easy going as some people’s, and in high school, she was a very angry teenager. She didn’t care too much for high school academics and just wanted to dance. Because of this, she worked full time since she was 14 to help support the activities she loved. There was a lot of disharmony at home that she had dealt with, and her escape from it all was work, dance, and friends.
During sophomore year of high school, one of her teachers wrote in her yearbook, “You have a lot of hate in you, and you have a lot of love. One of them is going to win. You have to choose.” At the time, that made Quarnberg angry and confused. Why had her teacher written that? She already knew she was angry with her home life, so why would a teacher go and point that out?
As Quarnberg got older, she realized how important and deep that message was to her true feelings. It helped her realize how she wanted to live her life, and between love and anger, love was how she decided to live it.
Quarnberg moved out of her parents’ home at the start of senior year when she was 17 and moved in with her boyfriend’s parents. Her boyfriend was off at college during this time, and because of moving in with his parents, there s strained relationship between Quarnberg and her mother from which they, unfortunately, were not able to recover.
After Quarnberg graduated high school, she married her boyfriend, and later they had 4 children together. Because of her uneasy childhood, she wanted to be there for her kids and she wanted to be able to support them, which was something that her mother had struggled to do. She ended up going to college and worked every single day to be there for them, and later became a math teacher, a career she loves very much.
Though her childhood did have rough patches, Quarnberg learned a lot from it. She learned who she wanted to be as a person, as a mom, and as a teacher. Love has guided her through her life and without it, she wouldn’t be the amazing, kind, and generous person she is today. Times can be hard for everyone, but there is always a reason for why things happen. Whether they are good or bad, they are always blessings to learn from.
