The following stories were previously displayed on our "Stories" page. We will continue to add to this page as new stories are posted.

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Helen Greer Burton

What I've Learned
OWL (Older Women's Legacy) Project, Fall 2001

At 20, I knew I could do everything for everybody in my family and my community and make everyone happy doing it.

At 30, I began to doubt that I could do everything for everybody and make everyone happy, but I was sure I could at least do it for my family.

At 40, I realized that I could not do everything for my family, and I wasn't sure I could make anybody happy.

At 50, I realized I could not possibly do everything for everybody, nor could I make everyone happy.

At 60, I knew I didn't even want to do everything for everybody or try to make everyone happy.

At 70, I didn't care if I did anything for anybody and I knew that people had to choose their own happiness.

At 75, I know it doesn't matter if I can't do everything for everybody, and that I'd better attend to my own happiness.

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Ella Edwards
I have learned that in order to be a great leader, I have to have a strong, clear vision of where I am going. This can only be done when a person is really readyto sit and dig up the mold and dirt of their life and examine the content. I will be the first to say that it is not always easy to sit and examine the content, but I will say that it is well worth the journey. When I look at my life and where I have come and where I am going my eyes become full of tears. Not the kind of tears that come from the center of the eye, but the kind which fill the entire eye lids. I am convinced that it is because for the first time ever I can say that I have a sense of who I am and where I am going. I like the person I am becoming and I have to thank Interconnections and the Leadership process.

I plan to be a Psychologist one day soon, however, I have much work to do. In fact that is how my journey began with leadership. When I started with Interconnections, I wanted to learn as, an Intern, the truth about change in women from a psychological perspective. I was curious about women and the reasons they stop developing and are often depressed. What I ended up with was an education about myself and about making me a better person. I have had a chance to encounter many different women in different stages of their lives and each stage of their development has been similar to mine, no matter what race they are. I have used each of the learning tools and applied them to my self. In doing so, I believe that there are many areas in my life that have been enhanced. However, what has helped me the most is reflecting on my life and healing the content that had been rotten out by pain and unhealthy habits.

Reflecting has been so helpful to me. In fact, I have a lot of areas in my life that needed healing. Reflecting has helped me deal with some of the surprised content that I hide to protect me or my ego if you call it. For example, for years I have tried to loose weight, but I was looking at my weight as the problem. When I was able to reflect on my habits it became clear to me that I was overweight because I needed extra protection from the world. As I have faced this issue and allowed myself to be comfortable in the world in which I live, it has been easy for me to stop over eating. I have started keeping a journal on this because of the fact that there are not a lot of books on this issue in respect to African-American Women. Perhaps, I can write a book later.

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