If I were to try to put Ann Thein into categories from our first interview, she would be a first generation immigrant, an extremely active 75 year old retiree, and a person whose family is never far from her mind. However, just assigning labels doesn’t do her justice. She and her family came to the United States in 1948 when she was only seven years old, but it’s clear that “immigrant” is not a term she would use immediately to describe herself because she has very much accepted the values one associates with the “American dream,” including hard work and individual growth. She assigns a lot of meaning to being active to stay mentally acute and in shape, not just for herself but also for her family. On top of these three themes of family, activity,
…show more content…
This is most obvious in her response to what way she is still similar to her childhood self as she answered that she had always been independent and self-reliant even as a child. I would go so far as to add the term disciplined because she described herself as never having been one “to get into things.” Coming from a family of farmers and carpenters, she was the first of them to graduate high school—a fact that she revealed proudly as her most memorable life accomplishment. It was clear that education and hard work were linked in her mind through her father who gave her this ultimatum when she was sixteen: you can either quit school and date or not date and graduate. She obviously chose the latter, and though she wished she could have dated then, she appreciates the ultimatum now. This theme of hard work is not purely linked to education because it influences some of her other ideals and is probably influenced by her Christian faith in that she believes it takes effort to be a good person, a good friend and parent, and when asked how to change someone’s life for the better she answered with the old “to teach a man to fish” adage in her own words. This focus on the self as the main influencer on how your life turns out was also evident in the political views that she tried not to express overtly, but which nonetheless came through in this life theme in comments about how people shouldn’t expect to get things free without putting in the
This is most obvious in her response to what way she is still similar to her childhood self as she answered that she had always been independent and self-reliant even as a child. I would go so far as to add the term disciplined because she described herself as never having been one “to get into things.” Coming from a family of farmers and carpenters, she was the first of them to graduate high school—a fact that she revealed proudly as her most memorable life accomplishment. It was clear that education and hard work were linked in her mind through her father who gave her this ultimatum when she was sixteen: you can either quit school and date or not date and graduate. She obviously chose the latter, and though she wished she could have dated then, she appreciates the ultimatum now. This theme of hard work is not purely linked to education because it influences some of her other ideals and is probably influenced by her Christian faith in that she believes it takes effort to be a good person, a good friend and parent, and when asked how to change someone’s life for the better she answered with the old “to teach a man to fish” adage in her own words. This focus on the self as the main influencer on how your life turns out was also evident in the political views that she tried not to express overtly, but which nonetheless came through in this life theme in comments about how people shouldn’t expect to get things free without putting in the