Education

Well, I didn’t really choose, [laughs] I was forced to choose. If I had stayed on my original path, then I would be professor of law by now, teaching. But you learn to adjust, I guess. That’s a plus. You learn how to adjust to different circumstances.  Suddenly you are dropped in the middle of something—somewhere you’ve never been. And I think you just learn to adjust. And I think compromise, adjustment—that’s what it taught me.  Cons, of course, I wish [laughs] I could have stayed in Poland. But there was huge political unrest in Poland.  That was one of major reasons why I left.  I didn’t want my children to go through this. So, I don’t know how it would have been in 1980. That was solidarity movement in Poland and the whole of Europe was a lot of different movements—political movements. So, that was reason why I left and who knows what I’d be doing there if I stayed. But here, definitely that was challenge. But I think it made me stronger. I couldn’t rely on my mom anymore, which I did a lot, and my grandmother. So, now I was on my own. I had to survive and I had two small children. You learn quickly what to do, that you can survive new circumstances you don’t know much about.

Going to art school was incredible.  I think sometimes people think of art as being fun and easy, but it has its own challenges and so I think going to college, it made me really challenge myself, think really deeply, work really hard.  Art is problem solving, so learning how to work through problems, find solutions, not give up, persevere, but I think overall, it’s made me the person I am today. It’s made me a creative person and a creative thinker and that can be used in all different situations of life, not just college.

Instead of the kids being ready for school, it’s the school should be ready for kids.

I have followed two principal ancestral traditions. I have done a pilgrimage in the Huichol tradition. Huichol Indians live in Mexico and I did a proper pilgrimage where you fast and you go someplace and then you walk a long way without food or water and you make prayers to a sacred site. So, I did a pilgrimage but it took me 12 years to do a 6-year pilgrimage in Mexico and that has informed me in one way. And then before that and then after that, I have found teachers in the Lakota tradition and so I study and work with them. So sweat lodges in Temescal and prayer, that sort of connecting to the Earth, looking for how all of us beings on this planet are connected.  I'm no greater than the tree, no more important than that rock, and we all need each other to survive and how do we do this together. But this kind of ties in with me being a librarian because I know that what our species needs to do is to learn how to be together and to share and to be respectful of things even that are other from us. What librarians do is they teach people how to share things like books and lights and chairs and computers and rooms and that sort of thing. And we have stories of the ancestors from many different cultures so we've become more aware of different ways of seeing the world. That’s what our species needs or we won't make it. So that’s my spiritual tradition and it's my work here. 

I think success is doing your personal best and just really trying.  When I did that gerontology program, I thought that was a success here, and I passed it on to a really good person when I left.  Starting the service program, that took me ten years here, and turning that over to a good person.  Now the WISE program for senior learners, when I started it was 300 now it’s almost 500.  There’s a lot of older people in Worcester and it’s a great program.  Maybe getting something and making it a little bit better.  But I’m proud, I’ve done my best, I’m proud of my academic achievement.  I’m most proud of my daughters.  But I’m not proud of them, I’m pleased I had them.  They’re not a success, they’re just the greatest source of meaning.  All my research when I finally got started in academia was on making meaning of late life for older people.  And I do think that making meaning is something we should all be thinking about.