Luke Hall

“I got really good at being a butterfly,” Linda Williams says. Then she flutters around her classroom at Berea Community High School explaining complex algebraic equations and responding to students’ brow-rubbing frustration.
“I really care about my kids,” Linda says as her glasses rest on her full-smile cheeks.
With a school day starting at 8:20 a.m., she flits from the role of teacher to after-school tutor to academic team coach. Outside the school walls, she is children’s ministry leader, involved church member, choir-singer, wife and mother.
Like a butterfly, Linda touches her different passions – at work, church and home – pollinating all with her enthusiasm, love and care. While she moves quickly and often, she glides; it’s her nature.
But it wasn’t always this way.
“When I got out of college I was mad at God because I thought he would strike me with lightning and give me direction,” Linda says. “I started teaching because I didn’t know what else to do.” After having children, she quit teaching to stay home.
Then she went through a metamorphosis.
“While nursing my youngest, Zack, at 4 a.m. I had a lot of time to reflect . . . I felt God’s presence when nursing and communing with my child.” She realized that being a teacher complemented being a mother. After her children grew, she returned to a career in education.
“This was the first time I made the choice to be a teacher.”
Just because Linda has chosen her roles – her spirit, talents and actions now aligned – doesn’t mean she’s finished evolving and growing. From caring for her husband, who recovered from a major stroke, to helping her students face their own struggles, Linda realizes life-changes and opportunities for growth cycle back around.
“You may think that you’re in control,” she says, “but you’re not.”

Becoming a Butterfly