Learning from my Elders

In the past few days I have realized how much you can learn from listening to the older generation.  Not that I didn't think you could before, I did, but it has been made even more apparent to me as of late.  On Wednesday in my class on the Holocaust, we had the opportunity to hear from three women who survived the Holocaust, one who was even in the Warsaw Ghetto.  Hearing their stories was sad, but enlightening and it was crazy to think that in the next 10 to 20 years there might not be anyone left who lived through the event.  How important it is to take advantage of opportunities to talk to these people while they are still here!  The women told us about what it was like being young children in Germany and living through atrocities, loss of family, and attempting to live on diets of less than 200 calories a day.  It's such an amazing thought that they managed to survive and now live safely and happily in the US.

Today, I had another opportunity to hear from someone quite distinguished at the Executive of the Year Luncheon that Eller holds every year to honor an important executive (which I was invited to because of being a McCord Scholar).  Last year, the speaker was the CEO and Starbucks, and this year it was the Former Secretary of Defense (who was also Director of the CIA, President of William and Mary College and many other things), Robert Gates.  I can't even imagine how much intelligence he has about the United States and the government during his time working with 8 different presidents.  Before the lunch, I got the opportunity to sit in a room with 60 -80 other students in an informal question and answer type session with Mr. Gates and his comments about his life, politics, and different foreign policy were really thoughtful and insightful.  Afterward, at a larger lunch with tables paid for by different businesses and members of the national board, we heard him give a speech on leadership as well as answer a few more questions.  He was a really eloquent and even humorous speaker, and one of the questions at the end went something like "why don't more people like you run for President?"  He had a really good answer for that one too.  In addition to seeing Mr. Gates speak we also got to talk with the business people at our tables, mine being sponsored by health and wellness spa and medical facility.  I also managed to glimpse Karl and Stevie Eller across the room , however unfortunately didn't get to actually meet them.  I love that college has given me the opportunity to meet so many experience and influential people and learn from their wisdom.