My Story
“An unexamined life is not worth living,” - Socrates.
Looking back on my lifetime of eighty years is a daunting task. My childhood included a passive indoctrination by parents and society that instilled in me that I was one of the privileged ones - I was white, the granddaughter of an English colonizer, and with Empire Loyalist roots. I was elitist, racist and ignorant about anything that was not steeped in English culture. When I did hear about Indigenous people, I was taught that the English had conquered Canada and subsequently gave a lot of money to the ungrateful Indigenous. The 1960s and 1970s protests changed everything for me.
I listened to the protests, I saw the body bags come off the planes from Vietnam, I heard Jane Fonda, and I cheered for Gloria Steinem. It was getting uncomfortable, so I eloped at age eighteen, and my husband and I have been partners in life, business, and parenthood for sixty-one years.
Alberta was the place for young people in 1968, so we moved there and started our first business, a small manufacturing company. After being victimized by our bookkeeper's fraud, I decided to become an accountant. My profession served us well as we moved to Vancouver and subsequently expanded into Edmonton and Saskatoon. Raising two kids and studying for exams was difficult, but I muddled through. My courses were interesting: Economics, Law, Tax, Accounting and others, but something was missing. When I look at those courses and those years, I realize that there was no room for critical thinking or reflection. Thompson Rivers University was a wonderful fit, and I revelled in the variety of courses I could take, which culminated in an undergraduate degree in 2023.
Canadian history courses were transformational. I learned, for the first time in fifty years, the reality of residential schools and with shame, my ignorance of the marginalization of many other Canadians. In one of my courses, I had the privilege of attending an Indigenous court and observing a different approach to justice in Canada. My last course, Critical Race Theory, put many of the pieces together for me: namely, that attitudes and ignorance are structured, and this knowledge allows me to look at and reject much of my indoctrination.
Along the way, at age sixty, I decided to start running. Subsequently, I ran seven Boston Marathons and ten other full marathons, including New York, London, Chicago, Dublin, Berlin, and a few others. When not training for full marathons, I ran thirty-five half marathons. Training and finishing taught me valuable life lessons about perseverance and just getting things done. Now, I do take part in 8k and 10K races, but as a walker.
I am retired and grateful for the extra time to savour and enjoy all my courses. My focus now is on exploring “ageism” and the plight of many older people in our society. I enjoy interacting with my younger classmates (everyone is younger than me!) and hearing about their hopes and ambitions. I am impressed by all the younger generations who, through introspection and critical thinking, are making a difference. Socrates was right – the journey of self-examination, along with the letting go, the embracing of innovative ideas, and the honouring of all people, is the most important part of a life.