Empire State Residencies Offer a Lot to Think About

I had a lot on my mind while going to the residency, Constellation of Diversity. This residency was supporting classwork for Families Crossing Borders, a class taught by Dr. Mary Skinner, of the Elmira unit at SUNY Empire State College. I had to go to Rochester, after doing most of my coursework in Utica. I just finished up reading The Kite Runner and The Kid: An Adoption Story. I considered bringing in certain questions that were pertinent to the "Children of Incarcerated Parents" presentation at the Residency, since my own cousin was in prison; I had my own set of beliefs of why there are so many people in prison in the United States of America, and how that must impact the statistics of parenting behind bars. I was also ready to hear what "China" must be all about; it seemed to be a smorgasbord of culture that I was ready to embrace, even though I didn't know what it exactly was through its description. Of course, I thought I would like to meet the wonderful panelists, my instructor, and my classmates in my class. In essence, I was excited to go on this adventurous learning opportunity, which is what I like to call my residencies.

The anticipation of bad weather and how that would affect my promptness and just the excitement of as I described in the above paragraph, I arrived forty-five minutes before registration. This wasn't some horrifically boring poor decision, because I got the opportunity to network and learn things I haven't even thought of before from people. For example, I met someone who had been hired by a company with a peculiar special niche, whose business was about consulting with companies who are downsizing by giving people their pink slips. As society is changing where people who follow their parents into the same companies with promising pensions if you showed up and worked hard, attachments to companies must be broken and families must start anew with different incomes, homes, and means of living. We spoke of the security risks that are involved because people take it very hard. My father had worked menial jobs where he was laid off many times, and collected an unemployment check. Consequently, he suffered physical symptoms that he couldn't alleviate, and limited mobility of promotion because of the lay-offs ; he couldn't work on his career with it being so unstable and the instability it brought home went with him to work. He had started to collect disability. This had impacted not only the stress levels at work among co-workers, but put families at risk at home. We had to deal with alcoholism. I am hoping that society might rethink of the purely capitalistic approach of cost-benefits analysis that only considers monetary assets when making decision. Time and time I hear "this is how businesses are run." I would like to see corporations honoring their workers, and sticking it through with their employees.

Also, I saw limited public transportation to Utica and Rochester. The development that only includes those who drive their own private automobiles from their suburbs set away from the cities, this is impacting people with low socioeconomic status and people from cultures who value the land whether it is occupational (farmers) or cultural (Buddhists, Native Americans, etc). To further explain why this impacts people with low socioeconomic statuses, city planners build arterials that uproot and divide people in class in order to meet the needs of people who do have automobiles. I am all for connection in communities, because it decreases incidences of domestic violence and isolation. It fosters more actions of sustainable environment, where people honor and respect the families that are currently present in the community, as well as families that would be there in the future. The same man, who discussed the consequences that companies had considered to downsize, proposed 1% of their paychecks to go towards public transportation. This creates better choices where people's income would increase in value, because of their healthier environment, consistent positions in the neighborhood, more sufficient ways to use their time as opposed to living in traffic jams, and shared community which would give more power to their voice. This is a democracy, after all.

I met a classmate, Mary, who stayed at the hotel. We discussed why we were going to school at SUNY Empire State. She said that she went back to school because she needed to start her life all over again. I stated that I was doing the same. She looked me up and down and said "you are way too young to start your life all over again" and than proceeded to go to the bathtub. It was pretty bold statement for not knowing much about my life. I can take what she said, which would count my blessings because of my own youth. I only lived a quarter of a century, and more people are becoming beyond octogenarians. What may have been seen something huge now, maybe small stuff when I am a fit and full of life as an eighty year old woman. It would be not a far off statement to say I had to mature quickly and learn difficult lessons of what it means to be a family. I had come from a family who primarily didn't trust outsiders, and quite frankly that wasn't working. I had deeply worked out what are my values, and decided what was essential in finding worthy people to celebrate my life with and love them. This could be a relationship of mentor or student, lover, or close friend; my family tree isn't necessarily filled with close blood relatives.

There were many other formal and informal contributions that made the residency great. However, the networking in the lobby had made me think in respect to my own family, and how I had to cross borders to make my family as beautiful and diverse as it seen now.

Check out www.esc.edu for more residency opportunity details.