Skip to main content

Marie Curie—Obstacles No Excuse for Failure

Marie Curie at 16
When Husband and I were first married, I would be confronted with certain challenges, tasks to complete or problems to solve, and my first response would be something like, "I can't do that. I didn't go to school for that." And Husband would repeatedly reject my fear of the unfamiliar. But it wasn't so much the unfamiliar that made me balk. It was my feelings of inferiority for not having finished college. I didn't have (and still don't have) a degree or even a certificate of completion, and that lack of experience and paper suitable for framing had me feeling I had no choice but to sit on my hands and watch someone else achieve the things I dreamed of. Despite my achievements to date, I still have that sense. It just lays low most of the time.

But then I come across a story like that of Marie Curie's. I don't mean the one about her isolating radium and dying from the process. I mean the one about how she refused to sit on her hands and insisted on an education. I wrote about her in this week's column for Small Town Newspaper. When I began working on my column, I thought I would be writing about chemistry and the Nobel Prize and Yay! Strong Women, but I was more inspired by her part in the Floating University than in her success as a chemist.

In the 1800s, Russia was in control of Warsaw, Poland and subjugated the natives by censoring their education and replacing Polish culture with Russian culture. Women weren't admitted to universities no matter where they were born, and this big group of disenfranchised people reacted by forming a secret, underground university. They taught each other, and they found ways to learn despite laws and threats to their very lives. They learned because it was essential whether there was a college for them or not.

I mean, just look at the expression of determination on the girl's face in this photo. She was just 16 here, and you can see the wheels turning in that amazing brain. "You think you're going to hold me back, do you? You're not going to hold me back. I will take what I need, and I will stomp on your nasty head with my angry heal."

My obstacles don't compare even remotely to Curie's, and I don't pretend to relate to her struggles. But I do find her example of getting what she needed, by force if necessary, inspiring. That's not to say I need to run out and get a degree, but there are clearly other ways to educate one's self. And the only thing that's stopping me is my own hand sitting. What's stopping you from getting what you need?
Labels:

Comments

dive said…
You know how to take the right lessons from all your pieces, Robyn. Another wonderful read and more inspiration.
And boy, does she look scary at sixteen. Ain't NOBODY going to win an argument with that girl!
2:16 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

No More Mr. Nice Guy

It's good to be a nice person--to say nice things, to do nice things, to write nice things--but I declare an end to the use of the word nice. Nice is what you say when you can't think of any other adjective. Someone shows you a picture of their back yard--that's nice. Someone tells you about their afternoon adventure--that's nice. Or someone describes their childhood in great detail and sometimes with painstaking effort--that's nice. It's a lazy word, and it's non-descriptive. Nice is like mashed potatoes with noodles and chicken gravy all in a big pile on one plate with some canned corn for garnish. Everything is the same color and texture and base substance--starch (this is a favorite Amish dish). Nice is like a partly cloudy day in April when outside feels like inside, and you can't tell a difference between the lighting and the temperature of your living room and the lighting and temperature of your front yard. Nice is a glass of lukewarm water. ...
20 comments
Read more

Long Live Anita Bowser

You know I occasionally check my hometown newspaper's website to scan the obituaries (morbid, I know, but I'm at that age). Over this past weekend, I read the obituary of Indiana State Senator Anita Bowser . She was a noted Democrat who championed causes protecting the neediest in the state's population. She was respected on both sides of the aisle for her intelligence and plain and outspoken approach to law making. The picture on her senate page is lovely. I remember none of those things about Anita Bowser . My first year or so in college was spent at a branch of Purdue University, and in the early 80s, Anita was a political science professor. She taught my American Government class my freshman year, and she was a mess. Somewhere in my old text book, I have a sketch of her drawn on a particularly dull day in class--her hose sagged at her ankles, her slip showed at least half an inch all the way around, her hair had been slept on but not brushed, and her bright red lip stic...
18 comments
Read more

Ish People

Tell an Ish person to show up around 9 a.m., and you'll see them somewhere around 9 a.m. Tell them to show up at 9ish, and you'll see them anywhere from 9:05 to 9:20. You have given them license to dilly dally, and who wouldn't take advantage of that? The other night at the big shindig dinner party, one of the drummers said the rehearsal the next morning would begin at 9ish. "I am an ish person," he says. Immediately the clanker goes off in my head--oh, good, I thought. I can deliver my daughter a little late. No Ish person is early, so if you say 9ish, that does not mean give or take 5, 10, 15 minutes. It's exclusively a taking phrase. Take an extra 10 minutes to drink your cup of coffee. We won't mind. We're Ish people. Sunday's rehearsal started at 2:00. Because it was conducted by the same people who conducted the Saturday rehearsal, my understanding was 2-ISH. My daughter is worse than I am about taking liberties with Ish time frames, so she d...
14 comments
Read more