NANCY

My gift is to feel the pain of young people, pain that others don’t readily see.  It’s my sixth sense with students.

Most of my life I was an administrator in private schools. It was tough as some men are not ‘good’ with women having authority. Look at the definition of “Popular” in the musical ‘Wicked’ – it’s the perfect description of what some women do to fit in.   

At fifty, I asked, “What do I want to do with the rest of my life?”  I went back to teaching.  At 60, I decided I needed to try something new.

I wrote a marketing plan, incorporating the scores of students rating their teachers, to teach a semester in Europe.   I did it for my husband and me. 

A Danish university wanted to hire my husband. As part of the deal, they accepted me.  I swallowed my pride in being the trailing spouse, not the leading spouse.

At the end, I was asked to teach permanently! I countered with six months a year and they accepted.

Hopefully, ‘Life’ is long. I learned to pack my career suitcase for different circumstances. My suitcase had changes that allowed me to take diverse routes. 

This is an excerpt from a comprehensive interview.