A Midlife Educator’s Story Of Change: How Learning To Live For Compassion, Meaning And Leadership Transformed Me

What are a person’s core beliefs? What do they hold dear and to be true? How does one go about examining their ideals and challenging them risking discovering there is a different way of living, thinking, or showing up? These questions and more are what drove me to enroll in the University of Vermont Graduate College and the Interdisciplinary Studies (IDS) program. I probably could have attended a few self-help seminars, paid a life coach or seen some type of counselor to help me explore these issues. Doing the exploring via higher education and the IDS program seemed much more meaningful, especially as the program progressed. Through Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) I have been able to closely examine myself, my life stories, with a different lens, even different then using the advantage of hindsight, in hopes of finding a path toward different self-realization. Important to note I said different, not better, as each person’s experience is valid, something you will see as you read the thesis. In so doing, you will be exposed to three basic explorations, my personal stories, my professional stories, and my political stories. All intertwine and relate to each other, but each have their own narrative to contribute to this journey. By the end, you, as the reader and consumer of these stories, may find similar paths to search for yourself in whatever place you currently find your life