Reflections from a 6TO reunion

One of the good things about living in residence: You are made aware of the university events by the many flyers lining the boards.

There was a reunion cum panel discussion cum forum with the graduating class of 1960 from my college (the university has many colleges). The theatre was mostly filled with people in their 70s and the panel was headed by the first Asian Governor General of Canada who was Head of my college in her time. Besides her, there was John Connolly who helped develop the Internet (The Internet!), Keith Hoilett, Mary Marsh, Barbara Reed, and John Swinden. It was very entertaining and awesomely inspiring! I loved their sense of humour, stories of their college lives, how their lives have progressed and the interactive discussion of life with the audience.

Anyway, the point of this post is to share with anyone and remind myself of what struck me, listening to these people, who could be my grandparents:

-Be Involved (Sw 2010)
If you want to have an interesting life, be involved in the associations and with people around you.

-Respect the Other, it's their right (Sw 2010)
We aren't doing people a favour by respecting them. We would just be fulfilling their rights! Respect for others will result in others' respect for ourselves.

-Break the glass (member from the audience)
There are some boundaries in terms of women's career advancement, invisible as they may seem, and we can break them.

-Do what you can excel in / easy (Cl 2010)
When choosing a career, it can help to give priority to something you can do better than someone else. Also, don't kick down doors of opportunity. That easy way could possibly be it.

-Things are done through people (Sw 2010)
In an age where people spend increasingly great amounts of time socializing in front of computer screens, it is important to remember that nothing beats direct interaction with humans. We need to accomplish things and most of them are done through and with people around us.

-The birth control pill changed the world (the whole room)
Wow, I never knew the extent of the pill's influence. It changed the course of direction for many people, nearly brought a whole church down by decreasing it's population and I wouldn't be surprised if there were more.

Okay, this is tiring. I need to get away from this screen. Whooo nature!!