Full Circle
FULL CIRCLE
In the mid ‘80s, I began working at the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center. For all the years that I was the director of educational outreach at the Center, I was immersed in helping survivors pass along their legacies of remembrance to students of all ages–from elementary school through college. The work was especially meaningful because it was an important reminder to everyone about the danger of prejudice and how, in fact, it can lead to genocide.
The Center was located on Florida International University’s Biscayne Bay Campus for many years. During that time, I would go down by the bay on my lunch hour and would write in my journal. On October 8, 1988, I wrote the following: One of my goals is to become a published author. I hope that at some point it will come true.
Yesterday, as I drove down the long entry way to FIU to participate in the Southeast Florida Librarians Information Network Conference (SEFLIN), I had a flashback of those many years ago when I was working on that campus and was filling my journals with my thoughts, feelings, and dreams. Besides wanting to be an author, I also hoped that one day in the future I would have the opportunity to speak on college campuses.
When I walked into the Cal Kovens Conference Center yesterday, all kinds of memories immediately came flooding back to me. I remembered the numerous prejudice reduction programs entitled Student Awareness Days that we held there where Holocaust survivors sat at tables with ten university students and had the opportunity to share with them their painful experiences during the Holocaust. I thought about the Task Force meeting with the then Commissioner of Education, Frank Brogan, when we presented him with the State of Florida Resource Manual on Holocaust Education. That thrilling moment in the Center’s history had taken place in the very same room where, in just a few hours, I would be speaking. I recalled the meeting we held for Holocaust survivors with the Florida Commissioner of Insurance to discuss the possibility of them obtaining home health care through reparation monies.
All that happened many years ago and while those vivid memories remain, my life has moved forward to the next chapter. At the 1:15 breakout session of the conference, I gave a presentation on Authoring, Self-Publishing, and What Comes After to a room filled with librarians. As the person who introduced me began to bring in more chairs for the overflowing crowd, I couldn’t help but smile. My dream was coming true right in that moment! My life had come full circle and in all this time, I never had lost sight of my vision. I am now the published author I had one day hoped I would be speaking on the same college campus where those dreams first came down on the pages of my journal.
In the mid ‘80s, I began working at the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center. For all the years that I was the director of educational outreach at the Center, I was immersed in helping survivors pass along their legacies of remembrance to students of all ages–from elementary school through college. The work was especially meaningful because it was an important reminder to everyone about the danger of prejudice and how, in fact, it can lead to genocide.
The Center was located on Florida International University’s Biscayne Bay Campus for many years. During that time, I would go down by the bay on my lunch hour and would write in my journal. On October 8, 1988, I wrote the following: One of my goals is to become a published author. I hope that at some point it will come true.
Yesterday, as I drove down the long entry way to FIU to participate in the Southeast Florida Librarians Information Network Conference (SEFLIN), I had a flashback of those many years ago when I was working on that campus and was filling my journals with my thoughts, feelings, and dreams. Besides wanting to be an author, I also hoped that one day in the future I would have the opportunity to speak on college campuses.
When I walked into the Cal Kovens Conference Center yesterday, all kinds of memories immediately came flooding back to me. I remembered the numerous prejudice reduction programs entitled Student Awareness Days that we held there where Holocaust survivors sat at tables with ten university students and had the opportunity to share with them their painful experiences during the Holocaust. I thought about the Task Force meeting with the then Commissioner of Education, Frank Brogan, when we presented him with the State of Florida Resource Manual on Holocaust Education. That thrilling moment in the Center’s history had taken place in the very same room where, in just a few hours, I would be speaking. I recalled the meeting we held for Holocaust survivors with the Florida Commissioner of Insurance to discuss the possibility of them obtaining home health care through reparation monies.
All that happened many years ago and while those vivid memories remain, my life has moved forward to the next chapter. At the 1:15 breakout session of the conference, I gave a presentation on Authoring, Self-Publishing, and What Comes After to a room filled with librarians. As the person who introduced me began to bring in more chairs for the overflowing crowd, I couldn’t help but smile. My dream was coming true right in that moment! My life had come full circle and in all this time, I never had lost sight of my vision. I am now the published author I had one day hoped I would be speaking on the same college campus where those dreams first came down on the pages of my journal.
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