Me with Mayim Bialik
(Please ignore the fact that I look like a maniacal fool in this picture.
Apparently that is how I smile whenever I'm in pictures with famous people).
If you watched TV in the 80's, you may know Mayim Bialik as Blossom, and if you watch TV these days, you might know her as Amy Farrah Fowler from Big Bang Theory. What you may not know is that between these two gigs she got herself a PhD in Neuroscience. So when I found out she was doing a lecture, I figured it was worth a listen.
She didn't talk much about the advertised topic which was nerd and pop culture. Instead she spoke a lot about her choices and how they shaped her life. The message seemed to be that if you make your life choices based upon your personal values, your life will take some unexpected twists and turns, but you'll be at peace. And even if you end up back where you started, you'll find ways to use and apply everything you learned along the way.....at least that's what I took from the lecture. Oh and you should never read the book "Eating Animals" unless you want to become a vegan.
It was also interesting to me that her life choices never seemed to be based on fear or anxiety. She did what she did because it was important to her.
- She went into acting because she enjoyed it, even though her parents were anything but excited about that choice.
- Although she had a promising career in acting, she left it to get a degree because that was important to her.
- She received a PhD in neuroscience because she found it fascinating, even though the sciences didn't come easily to her.
- She and her husband chose to start a family while in grad school, because they didn't want to postpone real life.
- She is an actively observant conservative Jew because she believes in it, even though that lifestyle can be difficult in today's world.
- When a career in academia didn't mesh with the parenting style she felt was best for her and her family, she walked away from that career path.
- She is a vegan because of her how she feels about animals, even with the difficulties that lifestyle presents.
I'm sure her choices must have caused her some anxiety and discomfort from time to time, particularly when they were in direct opposition to what was expected of her by her family, peers, professors, and society. But it's like she didn't give "fear" voting rights in her life. She embodied the saying, "Feel the fear and do it anyway."
So Mayim, I'd just like to say thank you for living your life the way you have. You've given me a lot to think about.
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