The best part about research is following whatever shiny fact catches my attention.
There is no right or wrong on this journey, only information.
I am thirsty for more and more, and I will keep going until I get the signal to stop.
In between all of this, life goes on.
I am on the phone with my Mom telling her this and that and the other thing, then saying how I just have to know more about our DNA.
If you didn't know, in case I don't discuss this, I was obsessed with DNA as a pre-teenager, reading everything I could find about it at the (tiny) Pompano Beach library.
I remember taking a Health class in summer school which was being taught by a coach who mostly read out of a textbook.
One day he read to us that an amniocentesis (pronounced by him "Ammocensus") "was a disease pregnant ladies got."
I threw my 14 year old hand up into the air and explained how it was a procedure to collect amniotic fluid to be used for.... before I could finish my articulate explanation of my life passion the teacher interrupted me to ask, "Oh well, would you like to teach today?" and I think I might have said YES but I equally might have known to look down with shame and just sit in the chair and make the time pass quickly earn the credit to graduate.
Maybe some of you guys had awesome science teachers as teenagers, but I remember being the girl in the back of the room reading the textbook while the biology teacher talked football with people walking in and out of his classroom.
One day the teacher stopped his football talk and asked "Soldani! What are you reading back there??" and I held up the book and said "Chapter 8, there are cells dividing and I love it!" and he said, "Don't let me interrupt you!" and talked more quietly about football.
So then last night I am pretty sure I found -- was given??? --- the biggest, shiniest treasure in my family history.
I might have found the thing that is making me see myself and my ancestors' place in all of this differently.
I am following every lead on this, and I will bring it back to you when I'm sure (meanwhile I'm like YES YES THIS HAS TO BE TRUE LET THIS BE TRUE).
It wasn't what I was looking for and it wasn't even where I was looking and as a history professor I laugh at myself for not seeing this sooner.
I have been lecturing on this topic for years (omg decades, what?) but I never once considered it was my story, too.
Our story.
There is no right or wrong on this journey, only information.
I am thirsty for more and more, and I will keep going until I get the signal to stop.
In between all of this, life goes on.
I am on the phone with my Mom telling her this and that and the other thing, then saying how I just have to know more about our DNA.
If you didn't know, in case I don't discuss this, I was obsessed with DNA as a pre-teenager, reading everything I could find about it at the (tiny) Pompano Beach library.
I remember taking a Health class in summer school which was being taught by a coach who mostly read out of a textbook.
One day he read to us that an amniocentesis (pronounced by him "Ammocensus") "was a disease pregnant ladies got."
I threw my 14 year old hand up into the air and explained how it was a procedure to collect amniotic fluid to be used for.... before I could finish my articulate explanation of my life passion the teacher interrupted me to ask, "Oh well, would you like to teach today?" and I think I might have said YES but I equally might have known to look down with shame and just sit in the chair and make the time pass quickly earn the credit to graduate.
Maybe some of you guys had awesome science teachers as teenagers, but I remember being the girl in the back of the room reading the textbook while the biology teacher talked football with people walking in and out of his classroom.
One day the teacher stopped his football talk and asked "Soldani! What are you reading back there??" and I held up the book and said "Chapter 8, there are cells dividing and I love it!" and he said, "Don't let me interrupt you!" and talked more quietly about football.
So then last night I am pretty sure I found -- was given??? --- the biggest, shiniest treasure in my family history.
I might have found the thing that is making me see myself and my ancestors' place in all of this differently.
I am following every lead on this, and I will bring it back to you when I'm sure (meanwhile I'm like YES YES THIS HAS TO BE TRUE LET THIS BE TRUE).
It wasn't what I was looking for and it wasn't even where I was looking and as a history professor I laugh at myself for not seeing this sooner.
I have been lecturing on this topic for years (omg decades, what?) but I never once considered it was my story, too.
Our story.
