Forums | Keynote 2 Tuesday evening 8KEc

04 April 2018, 11:04

What were your parent' and/or grandparents' attitudes to work? What were their ambitions and aspirations?? Were they typical of their generation? 

Were your parents'/grandparents' ambitions and aspirations in life very different from yours? If so, how? 

Post your comments by Friday, April 8th and aim to reply to two others over the weekend. 

04 April 2018, 22:40

So I’ll get the discussion going this time. I’d like to tell you about my Grandfather. He was born as a 1st generation American Armenian. He was raised on a farm by his parents who had fled Turkey during the genocide (1914). I think he wanted something more than just living on the farm and so while attending UNH (University of New Hampshire) he decided to study medicine. The entire family worked to put him through medical school. He eventually became an eye surgeon and ran his own practice until his last breath. I think he was somehow typical of his generation because many immigrant families were looking for a better life than the one they left behind. Many identified with America as the land of opportunity where hard work eventually pays off. 

If I had to compare his ambitions to my own I’d say they’re similar in that we’re both driven to do our best and not to settle for less. However, where we differ is the path we took to get there. While he wouldn’t ever have dreamed of taking a gap year to travel the world between studies, I embraced the idea wholeheartedly. Perhaps this illustrates that there is not just one defIned path to success or achieving goals/reaching aspirations. We shouldn’t let others tell us how  we have to get there - but rather find our own way.

05 April 2018, 10:11

I'd really like to tell you about my Grandfather and his amazing Story. My Grandfather was born in Preussen (East Germany) around the time 1935. So, you already know, that in this time, the second World War is about to begin! My Grandfather's Family was rich, so did I heard from my Grandmother, they had a big house in the country side with many employees and a lot of farmland. 

But as I mention the second World War had broken out and my Grandfather had to flee from the "cruel red army". His mother grabbed all her children and flee to Switzerland. They left everything behind and had to steal food everywhere to just survive. When they arrived, they had to build a new life here, but many opportunities where already gone. He was a German Citizen, not very popular in Switzerland in this time, and had to work very early on in his life. He didn't have the opportunity to complete an apprenticeship and so he was his whole life "just an untrained laborer". Later in the life of my Grandfather he had just one ambition and aspiration for his Family, that his Children and Grandchildren have a better start in their life and complete an apprenticeship.

When I compare his ambitions and aspirations to mine, I'd say they're more honourable thin mine! Not that my ambitions and aspirations are bad, but he wanted to give a better life to his Children and Grandchildren and that is very noble! Me, on the other side, just want to enjoy the life (life is to short - you know) and reach my self-given goals.  

I think the differences between our ambitions and aspirations have more to do with the time we were born and the given situation. He was born into the second World War and had to give up everything. Me on the other hand was born at a peaceful time, when the only horrible thing that existed, was the bloody 90's techno/house music and the questionable fashion.