Profiles: Catherine
Interests Snapshot
Belly Dancing or Ballet Dancing?
I have tried out a number of things in life, not so much because I am a great adventurer, but more because I like learning new things and expanding my horizons. So, even though I have tried out belly dancing, I come back to investing in something that I really love; classical ballet as recreation and exercise.
I have a fantasy vacation that consists of escaping from civilization and its accoutrements (e-mail, computer, phone, snail mail), and landing on a desert island with nothing but a few good books in hand. On a good day, I might consider letting my husband come along.
Issues Snapshot
Freedom from my incurable disease
If I were to write a book someday it would be called “The Art of Self-Defensive Cooking” – My experiences as a gluten-free, lactose-free, sugar-free, perfume-free, pet-free, pesticide-free individual. In this book I would explore how living with restrictions does not mean that you cannot find freedom. Freedom is an inner state of mind, not a function of circumstance.
As a young adult, I found out that I had celiac disease. I had been having constant muscle cramps and headaches for years. The constant pain circumscribed my daily activities and colored my perspective on life. People told me “not to stress” so much and it would go away. It didn’t. It wasn’t so much that I was stressed: it was my digestive tract that was under constant stress from foods that were irritating.
Finally, after being out of the country and taking a course of antibiotics for a presumed food poisoning, my digestion totally fell apart. I eventually found out that my fibromyalgia-like symptoms miraculously “disappeared” on a gluten-free diet of my own devising.
The daily discipline of a special diet has shaped my life since then. My own experience with “incurable” disease and suffering has driven me to explore alternative modalities of health and healing. I find that I now have something to offer to people afflicted with illness. My perspective on suffering has changed. My character has forever been imprinted for the better by the experience of suffering.
University snapshot
Debt-Free Priorities
I didn’t have much choice about the school I went to. In order to get through school, I lived at home, worked a bit, and got a few scholarships.
In retrospect, it was a good plan. I was able to graduate without a huge debt load. This freed me up to pursue other interests after graduation. Instead of bemoaning my lack of freedom at the point of entering university, I made a key life choice to make the best of the opportunity that I had been given.
I did have choices about the courses that I took and the major I pursued. Basically, I followed my heart and chose to invest my study time in those things that interested me. In high school, I found that with a lot of hard work I could do well in a wide range of academic subjects. At university, I needed to narrow my focus and pursue those things that I was truly good at doing. This change in focus kept me intrinsically motivated. For me, that added up to pursuing language arts in earnest with a bit of dabbling in other liberal arts studies.
I still had to work hard. But, when the inevitable crunch times arrived, I was able to reflect back and say, “This is tough going right now, but it won’t be forever and you know, I really love studying this stuff.” Being well centered in my academic career allowed me to succeed in the long-term.
Besides being well centered in academics through pursuing a “good fit” in my choice of major, I found that it was important for me to be well anchored in relationships. During my first year of university, I sought out and became increasingly involved with a group of fellow students who shared my values and passions. Most of my friendships during this period of my life came out of involvement with this group of students.
Sure I studied hard, but I also gained great satisfaction through investing in worthwhile causes and in relationships that had nothing to do with “getting ahead at school.” This helped me to avoid becoming overly self-absorbed and “me-focused” during a period of life where one really needs to focus intensely on developing one’s intellectual side.
I consciously chose to invest my time and myself in others through mentoring relationships during my senior years at university. Having been mentored during my first year at university changed the course of my adult life. I wanted to pass on that gift to others.
A side benefit of taking the time to build deep, meaningful and value-centered relationships at university is that you always have someone to have fun with without getting sucked into self-destructive and distracting “partying” modes.