Conference in 2013. I was in my mid-fifties. For some reason, that year they decided to do the student readings at Mory’s. So I was finally able to enter the place that I was not allowed to set foot in when I was a student. Of course you can’t overcome all the no’s the world throws at you. I never bought those desert boots. I couldn’t play singles at Yale because the girls I had to compete with had all trained at Chrissie Evert’s father’s academy in Florida. And even though Gail and I were together for thirty years, we were never able to marry. The Supreme Court approved same sex marriage six months after she died. The other thing I learned in those ten thousand hours was that the no’s that the world throws at you are not as hard to overcome as the no’s you throw at yourself. “No, you can’t do public speaking. No, you can’t write a novel. No, you’re not good enough to (fill-in-the-blank.)” In another twist of fate, Gail and I moved to Newport, Rhode Island which happens to be the home of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Every July, all the tennis elite come to Newport to induct the newest member. One day, as I was walking out of the grocery store across the street from the Hall of Fame, who is standing there but Rosie Casals and Billie Jean King? Before the 45-year old in me could say No, the 15-year old in me screamed: “Billie Jean! You’re my HERO!” She turned to look at me, to see if I was a lunatic, I think. When she saw me, a huge smile lit up her face. She reached out to shake my hand, and said, “Thank you.” I floated away. My mother, when she passed away last year, had lived in a gorgeous home for over twenty years on the right side of the tracks. Billie Jean is still fighting for equal pay for women in tennis, but the tennis complex in New York where the U.S. Open is played was recently renamed the Billie Jean King Tennis Centre. Because of women like my mother, and Billie Jean, and a million other women along the way, every time I see a “No”, I add a “W” for Woman, and it becomes “Now”. Now, Now’s the Time for all of us to be Billie Jeans.
Sylvia Madrigal was born and raised in San Benito, Texas, a Mexican border town. She received a B.A. in English in 1979 from Yale University. For over thirty years, Sylvia was an author and editor of educational Spanish language texts. She is currently a candidate for an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.
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