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In the last issue, we introduced VCWisdom to allow alums to share memories of their time at the College and to offer up a bit of the wisdom they’ve gained over the years. The first question was:
What is something you’ve learned as you’ve aged that a younger version of yourself would never have anticipated?
We received some intriguing responses. A couple are included here:
Beatriz M. Bustillo ’75Turning 70 this year offered me the opportunity to look back over my life and realize that everything I have gone through has served a purpose. Uprooted from my homeland of Cuba at the age of seven to escape Castro’s Communist regime, my life took a very drastic turn. In spite of being raised in New York City, my upbringing was very sheltered. It wasn’t until I went away to Vassar in 1971 that I learned the meaning of diversity. I met people from different social and ethnic backgrounds, and different genders and sexual orientations. The enduring friendships I maintain from those years are proof that I embraced the definition. I also value with increased gratitude the democratic way of life of this great nation, given existing turmoil in so many parts of the world. I would say to a younger version of myself to fearlessly open my heart to everyone and to hold no regrets for mistakes made along this journey we call life.
Sara Moody Allen ’64That growing and changing is the most important aspect of human life. If I am inhibited in my ability to grow into who I am in assigned roles as lover, wife, mother, teacher, friend, and caretaker of children, a husband, and the aging (parents, partner, friends)—roles I would have assumed were mine to take on and learn to do well because I am a woman—then I am unable to explore my own potential fully. That questioning these and other roles assigned women because they are women are not preordained but cultural norms that I can learn to question and even cast aside. That questioning these norms allows me the freedom to choose what I take on and learn to do well. That living alone could be a kind of freedom I could handle with strength and joy. That becoming a photographer of the self, of the body of the self, of the aging self, could offer me intellectual and creative challenges I could take on, leading to new insights, pleasures, and surprises, and growth as an 80-year-old woman. That aging itself could be a time of vigorous growth and fruitfulness.