Last night, Kristen and I went to the Rebecca Skloot lecture. I had really enjoyed reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and I was excited to hear the author speak about her book. However, instead of talking about the particular events or scientific studies in the book, she focused the discussion on herself; how she became interested in Henrietta; and what gave her the determination to write the book. This put all the pieces together for me, and I felt that I understood the bigger picture. She told us, for example, that although she learned about Henrietta when she was 16, for a long time she never considered writing about Henrietta's story or even becoming a writer. Just like Henrietta's family who had to wait years to find meaning in their difficult experiences, Rebecca Skloot had to wait until that one day when she found inspiration and a purpose, what she described as a "what?" moment. What also left an impression on me was her acknowledgment of the older generation who contributed to her investigation, through interviews and letters, and who had died during the process of writing the book. This made me think about my grandfather who passed away when I was younger. After he died, I wanted to learn everything about his life. I wish that I would have talked to him more about his experiences, particularly because I feel that it is very important to learn from those who have come before us and are part of a time we can only know through literature and media. The only way we move forward is by knowing our past and recognizing it is always a part of us. That is why the story of Henrietta Lacks and the stories of everyone involved in her story and the development of HeLa cells, in general, are so meaningful.
-Tirosh Matzuba-Ehrlich
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During last night's discussion, Skloot touched base on her motives for completing her renowned work, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." Skloot explained that she had first entered college with the mindset that she would probably be a veterinarian (or at least work in the medical field), but that she ultimately found her passion elsewhere-in writing. Skloot, in last night's discussion, succeeded in achieving an equilibrium between her own past and the future of the students present at the discussion; she was inspirational in a genuine, gentle manner. Her general ability to combine multiple walks of life into one realm was displayed very well in last night's discussion, as it was portrayed in "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" via her clever meshing of scientific v. personal explications. In short, last night's discussion helped me to better understand the emotions that Skloot felt while constructing her work. Most often, she had the extrinsic and the intrinsic motivation to carry on, even when she "felt like [she] would not finish 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' until [she] was ninety years old."
ReplyDeleteI also attended the Rebecca Skloot lecture, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked how she was able to talk about her past and how she didn't get the best grades or have the best behavior, but she was still able to make something great out of her life. She talked about how you can switch what you're doing, and follow a passion, and it can work out. Of course, you should always exercise caution, but it is okay not to be perfect all the time. I think that college students need that reminder sometime. There's all this pressure to get the grade, and to be in all these clubs, and it can be a lot to handle. It was nice having a successful woman telling us to relax. That, yes, we should try our hardest, but it isn't the end of the world if something goes wrong. I think she was smart in taking the approach of talking about her life, rather than just the book. At first I thought it might be a little boring, with her just teaching the book to us, but she did so much more than that. She explained how her life was different, and many other lives were different. And she helped us to remember that different can be okay. I'm really glad that I went. Plus, I got my book signed, so that was cool.
ReplyDeleteI also went to the lecture and found it quite interesting. You would think that someone as successful and 'put together' as she appears would have worked really hard in school and gotten the best grades and always had a plan laid out for what she was going to do with her life. It's refreshing to hear that from someone so successful as a college freshman because most of us come in to college with a plan and expect everything to turn out a certain way but our paths can change and that's okay. I think it was refreshing to talk about her life and what brought her to write the book rather than the book itself because it was engaging and relatable that way. Everyone can relate to a college student taking numerous classes to achieve a certain goal and then finding another passion and their entire lives taking a turn. Her story was inspiring because it made it seem like it was okay to make mistakes, to let life take its course and not try to push it. Opportunities will come up in life and sometimes we have to abandon our plan and let life take us where we are meant to be.
ReplyDeleteI also went to the lecture. I found t interesting about how she re-explained how she had found out about Henrieta's story at a younger age but it was years until she decided to do something about it. I also found it interesting about how even though she didn't know she wanted to be a writer, after she did find out she gave up what she though she would do for something she loved to do. I thought it was admirable because after people build up an expectation of something, it's hard to just let it go.
ReplyDeleteI went too and was lucky enough to go right up front. Annoyingly enough this guy kept trying to rope me into a pyramid scheme. overall good time though!
ReplyDeleteI found Rebecca Skloot's lecture inspiring in areas I had not intended. Ms. Skloot was remarkably candid about her educational experiences as a whole, but what struck me most were her anecdotes about college. Her message to go through college with an open mind and to avoid experiencing "Major Tunnel Vision" definitely grabbed my attention. Although the author was dead set on working with animals, a last-minute class choice enlightened her to a love of writing and a way to tell the world the story of Henrietta Lacks. This lesson is something I'll carry with me as I work towards declaring a major and working my way through my undergraduate work!
ReplyDeleteI found the talk with Rebecca Skloot very informative because she gave us the background information about how she had started the search for all of this information and the hunt to find out what really happened to Henrietta and her cells. Also her view on keeping an open mind in college for what you wanted to do because she ended up changing her mind about what she was doing even though she had set out on a totally different path in the beginning.
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