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< Back Caleigh's Story Caleigh reflects on the importance of becoming a role model for her five-year-old niece, Natalie. Being there for her as she grows up is something extremely important to Caleigh. 00:00 / 02:37 Caleigh: I just love stories in general anyways because it makes people who maybe would have never interacted realize their shared humanities. I just want say a story that I heard in class—It was a story in class about a young man who welcomed a little brother into his world, and he realized that this world was no longer about him and he wasn’t just a big brother, he was a role a model. Everything he accomplished and everything he strived for wasn’t only for himself but to set a good example for his brother. When I read that story in class it made me think of my five-year-old niece, Natalie, and we are very close. She’s my whole world, I love her so much. After reading that story, I took a step back and I was like, “who am I as an auntie and how does she see me?” She looks up to me, she mimics me, she wants to be just like me, she always wants to spend time with me, and it made me think about what kind of person do I want her looking up to? I am no longer just an auntie, but I am setting a good example for her. I want to show her that she is capable of anything she sets her mind to. I am the first one in my family to go to college and I would love to be a role model for her to see, you know, auntie goes to college, and I can do it and I want to be just like her. And through just reading that story of the man—the boy—who welcomed his brother in the world, it just connected me and him and we’ve never met. I hope that everything that I’ve learned in my 20 and a half years—today is my half birthday—I want to share those experiences with her so that she doesn’t make some of the mistakes that I’ve made, but also that she can follow in my footsteps because I feel like I am a great role model for her. That’s—you know—I have two older brothers. I never really had a female role model, other than my mom, someone that was closer to my age, so in a way we are so close, and I’ve been with her since she was in the womb. Previous Next

< Back Molly's Story 00:00 / 04:29 Previous Next

< Back Bob's Story, 2025 Bob discovered a love for education and the performing arts in high school, but took a long detour in life, even considering a career in construction at age 45. A chance encounter with a friend introduced him to the idea of creating an arts school, which aligned perfectly with his lifelong passion. Over 15 years, he built and led the school, which continues to thrive and produce successful graduates. His story emphasizes the importance of staying open to unexpected opportunities and following your true passions. 00:00 / 03:37 My passion, I discovered in high school that I loved, two things I loved the most was education and the Arts. Especially much more the performance arts, you know, once I had this transitional moment in high school where I came out of my very shy shell, I was involved in all the plays and all that kind of performance and things that were available in high school, I continued that on later. But interestingly in my life, even though those were clearly my passions, I took a very, very long detour. I found myself hating the work that I was doing, so I found myself at 45 years old, without a job, and I said it's time for me to do something really different, and my passion didn’t come to mind. I don’t know why. But I had decided that I was gonna train myself for three months doing rooms and then get a job in construction, as far away as what I had been doing with my life and as far away from my passion as it could possibly be. And that summer, my youngest child, my son, was in a nature summer camp, and we had the family cookout the last night, and we were sitting around the fire, and this person I knew from my mental health life that I knew from the Department of Mental Health, came over and was talking to me. And he said, ‘I heard you don’t have a job, you’re not working,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, that’s right, I’m thinking about doing something really different.’ And he said, ‘You know, you should call this person. Someone I had worked with previously said she has all these creative ideas, you gotta get together with her.’ So she called me the next morning, and I said, ‘Sure, I would love to get together and listen to your ideas, that would be really fun, I’d love to support them.’ Thank goodness the universe had something different for me in mind, and in the end of all this, the lesson that I learned is that sometimes you have to listen when the universe tells you something, you have to be open. I was really positive and supportive of many ideas she had told me, but said I wasn’t really interested. And then, we were getting up about to pay the bill, and she said, ‘You know what, I have one more idea,’ and I said, ‘What’s that?’ and she said, ‘Well!’ She said, ‘You may not even know this about me, but I went to a performing arts school. I was a visual artist, but I went to that school, and I always wanted to create a school for the arts.’ And it was just this amazing moment for me that something I have always dreamed about, running an arts school, and she said to me, ‘But no, that’s what I have always dreamed about!’ And it turned out we had the exact same dream. It was meant to be, and I fell into this passion that I had my whole life, and for the next 15 years, I built that school and led that school, and God, I enjoyed it; it was just the most fun to have my actual passion be part of my everyday life. I got to be on stage, I got to watch performance artists and visual artists doing work all the time. I got to feel like we had created an educational institution that would last. It’s now 27 years old, the school. It still graduates a class of 60 or 70 kids a year, a lot of them who are very successful in the arts. So I was very lucky, the way I got there was the universe kicked me in the butt and said, ‘You’re gonna do this whether you want to or not,’ and again, with the help of this friend to create this school, I learned the lesson about listening. Previous Next

< Back Anne's Story Anne describes how she developed an interest in club fútbol after years of only casually following the sport, sparked by watching a Champions League game in an energetic, communal setting. Interacting with passionate fans and trusting her own instincts in that moment helped her feel more connected and confident in her choices. She reflects on how fútbol fosters self-trust, imagination, and a broader worldview by engaging both emotion and thought. Ultimately, she sees the sport as a meaningful escape from daily life that brings people together and highlights shared human experiences. 00:00 / 02:49 Previous Next

Kelly's Story Kelly talks with Jesse about her evolving family dynamics during the COVID-19 pandemic. Scroll to Listen Kelly's Story 00:00 / 04:10 When COVID first started, it was my sophomore year of college. I was living on campus at UMass. I remember specifically when I found out that it was going to be like a real issue. It was when Tom Hanks got COVID. It was a joke in my family that that was the first time I actually got a little nervous. I was supposed to go on the UMass Habitat for Humanity trip to Georgia, but they obviously ended up having to cancel it. I have two older brothers Kevin and Timmy. My brother Kevin right now is 27. And my brother Timmy, or Tim, is 25. And I'm 21. My brother wasn't living with us initially, he was living on his own, but obviously COVID isolated a lot of people. He didn't want to be alone like that, especially since we didn't know how long it was going to be. So, he actually moved back home with us. It was the first time in quite a few years that I had a full house. It was weird at first, I think, obviously, I had to do online school. And my mom was working from home. My dad's an electrician, so he wasn't even working. My dad's a funny guy. He loves attention. And he hates being bored. So he was bothering my brothers who were working remotely too. So it was just a cluster of us on our laptops for a little bit. But I think it was really great overall, looking back at it, especially at that time, it was nice to kind of get my family all back together for a few months. I feel like not a lot of people have that opportunity. So it was kind of nice. I learned a lot about my own study habits, work ethic, and stuff like that. In terms of online classes, I feel like it was a hit or miss. Some professors were really good at keeping us engaged. We had more than a year online, because we left the second semester two years ago. So it's like I forgot what it's like to actually be in school. Learning in general, it just isn't what it used to be. It's less collaborative. I feel like the pandemic helped me in some sort of way, it had as many benefits as it did the opposite. And I don't think I would change it. I think I was glad to have the opportunity to live with my family like that for a while. I remember having Thanksgiving with my family, which is usually a very big holiday. Like we have people flying into town. It's like a very big thing. And for the first year ever, we had a just Thanksgiving with my family. Just my immediate family, which we have never done before. The turkey. I don't know if it caught on fire for a second. It was a Thanksgiving disaster. I think we ended up microwaving some pizza. It was fun. We had a lot of fun, especially since everyone's getting older. It was really nice to live in my family like that for a little bit, especially now that my brother moved back out. And it's nice. I feel like I wouldn't have had the opportunity to get as close to them as I did. There was one day when it was very early in the pandemic. I live kind of close to Boston. I'm up in Wakefield. They put in the stay at home order. And my dad wasn't working and he and I ended up driving around the coast, around Gloucester, just for the day just to kill time and stuff like that. And when we were driving, he was like “I really want a haircut. I haven't had the opportunity to get my haircut in so long.” So I told him, I was like, “I'll cut your hair that would be great.” And we got back and I asked him, because my dad's getting older and he is losing some hair, I was like “I'm wondering what you would look like if you were bald.” We weren't seeing anyone, so he shaved his head fully. I started shaving, at first we did a buzzer, and then I got shaving cream and we made him completely bald. That was probably one of the highlights of COVID. He looked scary. And he looked like Mr. Clean. It was good though. I thought it was funny. I think that was a good bonding experience between my family.

< Back Francesca's Story Follow Francesca as she shares her spiritual journey as a follower of Saint Francis of Assisi, inspiring her devotion to uplifting others around her while spreading love. 00:00 / 03:47 Julia: “What person or entity in your life has been the most influential for you?” Francesca: “For me, I grew up in a difficult family, but a friend invited me to go to church with her and they taught us how to become followers of Saint Francis of Assisi, and he became the most important and most influential person to me. It was fortunate that I had that happen to me, just by chance it seemed like.” Julia: “Do you want to talk a little bit more about the process of finding him as that influential person or kind of what he meant to you?” Francesca: “Well I had already had my first communion. I had gone through all the training and the catechism and everything, but none of it meant anything in my heart. And after my first communion I was attending a church that was a national monument, that was gorgeous. You walk in and there’s paintings all over the ceiling, and everybody went because it was such a beautiful church and everybody went to show off their clothes. And I didn’t know what I was doing there, you know? And then my girlfriend said, you know, come to my church you’re gonna like my church, it’s fun, we have the beat music, guitars and everything. So I decided start going over to her church. And when I went, at first I said why are there no paintings, there was nothing, you know, there was nothing. And they said ‘It’s a Franciscan church and Saint Francis wanted the churches to be simple.’ And then they said ‘You can come on Friday afternoon, we teach all about Saint Francis.’ So I went on Friday afternoon, and they would teach us all about Saint Francis, and then they would teach us about the problems we were facing today - how would he tackle that? And we would have to go home and do homework and bring it back the next Friday. And then after we worked all together as a group, after we worked, then we would have time in the courtyard and it was a beautiful, beautiful courtyard. And we would have time to play. And they were teaching me, then I understood finally. So Saint Francis became my ladder to God, because before I hadn’t gotten any of it, you know? It was all up here, but it wasn’t in my heart. I couldn’t find a consistent church near me, so I go to a Congregational church. It's important to me to be able to serve and to be able to belong. So I started going, and I started serving, and it's important to me, and it's also important that Saint Francis always had to uplift the least of the least, you know, always make sure that you can help them. Like if they’re homeless, whatever. Help them. Help them. Help them, you know? Don’t leave people stranded behind, you know? So that was really important to him, and it was important that we stop reading the Bible, stop reading all the books, and do it. Get out there and do it. So that was really big for him. So I try to be as active as I can. Whether its part of my church or not, I try to. If I see someone who is homeless, I stop and talk about whatever they want to talk about. Saint Francis became really meaningful to me, he made sense to me, for love to exist. For love to be the most important part of living your life." Previous Next

Jake reflects on two similar scenarios he has encountered with bees and how that has made him realize the power of one’s own mindset when it comes to handling situations differently. He talks about how he keeps a positive mindset which has translated into looking at things in a more gratifying way and spreading positivity in other aspects of his life. Jake's Story Jake reflects on two similar scenarios he has encountered with bees and how that has made him realize the power of one’s own mindset when it comes to handling situations differently. He talks about how he keeps a positive mindset which has translated into looking at things in a more gratifying way and spreading positivity in other aspects of his life. Jake's Story 00:00 / 04:45 I guess my story starts when I was going into High School, the summer going into High School, basically both these instances are times that I got stung by the entire nest of wasps. So the first incident was with my friends. Then we did sort of a hide and seek tag game. I decided it would be good to hide in the woods next to his house instead of like in the yard you know extra secretive. I go like slightly off the path because obviously if I'm on the path I can be seen and then as I'm waiting I feel sort of like things in my legs and I have no idea what it is so I'm like oh oh and then I start running away and it's actually horrible cuz as I'm running like that's like the worst thing you can do obviously. So it gets more traumatic so I'm running down the street and the type, I’ve never been stung by a wasp nest, and basically the pain waves are like sort of comes in like waves and I realize after it's on purpose cuz I was obviously stuck multiple times but the waves make it feel like you're being stung like a million times. So I'm running down the street and then I'm like no it's stuck in my shirt so I take off my shirt. Like I said, eventually now I'm completely panicked. I sit down like my friend's mom is out and she's also panicked. I’m exhausted. According to the fire department, I passed out for five seconds or whatever, so overall horrible and I didn't think it would happen again. Then in my summer camp job, it was all outdoors because of Covid so they weren't inside and I had to walk the kids to basically the other side of the school where there is a bathroom Just as I am walking completely innocently I see one little like wasp thing near like a hole and the kids are all lined up behind me and I walk just completely on the sidewalk, not on the grass, and they all attack me. So here I was and not a single one attacked the kids, just me. They're like in shock but it was a completely different situation and I feel like basically the essence of the story is that like the power of your mind and like sort of your mindset. So in that case, I was literally just standing there and I just took it and I was like oh my like I was just completely calm and it was crazy that happened twice in the reactions were so different and it wasn't it wasn't because you know I know I was stung by bees before so I learned from it. It was more just that you know here I was a camp counselor so I was like oh I have to act calm you know so like if a bee stings you you’re not going to panic. If ten sting you you’re going to try and not panic either and that reaction really stayed with me. I was all red and they and I then I continued walking them to the bathroom. I went to the bathroom. I took them to the bathroom. You know I was fine. Completely different reaction and just reflecting on that was like sort of the importance of your mind and like how your body reacts cuz it really does have a connection I feel like. One of my favorite character traits of me is my positive attitude on things. One of the ways I sort of like I think naturally I am positive but one of the ways I got to be so positive was I started doing gratitude journaling. Before bed I would just close my eyes and instead of thinking about random things during the day I would just think about things I was positive about and then I would just fall asleep and that would be the ending of my day. It was actually super cool cuz like first of all you don't realize how many good things happen every day but then also I started being like during my day I was looking for things that I could write or tell myself at the end to like add to my list. And then eventually after a while after a few weeks of doing that then just subconsciously I was like absorbing positive things and it was like it was super cool and I actually started texting sometimes I text my friends instead of doing it before bed I'll just text my friends randomly like things I’m grateful for like that day and then a lot of times they text back things they're grateful for so I hope that sort of spreads the positive mindset stuff or whatever. The bee situation, looking back I think it encapsulated how Previous Next

Sam's Story In this story, Sam discusses her passion for women's health through her own life experiences. Sam's college experience has allowed her to surround herself with groups of people who lift up and support one another. Scroll to Listen Sam's Story 00:00 / 02:57 Sam: I would consider myself the typical College student. I am currently pursuing a degree in public health with a focus on women's health. Based on my personal and family experiences, I have become a really strong advocate for women's health, and my mom was a big influence in that she raised me to always kind of put yourself forward and never take no for an answer. And my friends have also instilled that, and they've been an inspiration in my life. My mom was a big factor in influencing my decision to go into public health and women's health specifically. Sam: She has a reproductive condition called endometriosis, which I inherited from her. And she kind of always made sure that health comes first as physical and mental health before you do anything else, because if you can't be your best self, then you're not going to be of service or helping others. Joining a sorority in College, I found a really solid group of friends where women support one another. That's kind of like the core of our friendship is we're going to push each other to do our best and be our best selves. I specifically have probably four or five made friends where we all just like, go big or go home in our friendship. Sam: And that's been really inspiring and public health because I want to do good for them and support them as women as well, because I had only been in a class of maybe 15 my whole life. So my freshman year classes were 300 lectures, and I was very nervous that I would kind of get lost and fall behind in my academics, which are very important to me. But my mom reminded me to be an advocate for myself and use the voice that I have. I was able to push through and make it a home, really. In high school, I did a club called ModelUN, where it was like a mock trial debate team. Sam: And one of the projects that we did was really influential in my decision to go to public health. Also, we were talking about sanitation and refugees in developing countries. So when I got to College and I realized that I could do that for a major, I was like, oh, let's do this. This is so interesting and tied into women's health. I mean, I have a voice. I wanted to be able to use it for those who are afraid to or are able to. And that's really where I am now. That's what got me here.

Liam talks about a scene in the movie Tampopo and discusses the differences in how people consume media and how media can be interpreted differently depending on the viewer. Liam's Story Liam talks about a scene in the movie Tampopo and discusses the differences in how people consume media and how media can be interpreted differently depending on the viewer. Scroll to listen Liam's Story 00:00 / 03:22 0:00 I am going to talk about a specific scene in a specific movie that is now over 30 years old. But that means a lot to me. The movie is called Tampopo. The director is juzo Itami. The scene I want to talk about is about a family. We are introduced to the first member of the story, as we see a man running past the end of one of the stories that we've just seen. And we see him run down the street, we see him run along the train track, he runs up his stairs, and he gets to what we assume to be the door of his house bulldozes in and we see in his house, there are three children, a man, we suppose is a doctor and a woman who we suppose is a nurse. Lastly, there is also a woman lying on a makeshift bed or roll on the ground, he runs in and by his tone, we can tell that the woman is sick, and that she perhaps has been for a long time he runs over to her and he says, stay with me, you can't die. And he says do something, sing do anything. And he hits the floor and he says don't make dinner. And the woman slowly rises and gets up and walks over to the kitchen. Kind of absent mindedly grabbing a knife and some spring onions. And she cuts them up, puts them in a pan puts other things and we see the family viewing this and we see the children because they know what to do have already gotten their bowls and have moved to the table we see the older sister setting things out for her youngest sibling, the mother or then comes back with this steaming bowl of food places on a table. And we see all of the hands come in and start serving themselves. However we see the mother first serve the youngest child. After that, they all start eating and the husband looks up and says it's really good. It's delicious. And we see her smile. She slowly falls over. And the doctor pronounces her dead. The oldest daughter screams and comforts her youngest sibling, the father yells essentially Eat it while it's hot. This is the last meal that your mother made for you. 2:22 And we see the middle child, the boy kind of watching his father and doing the same thing. And then the scene cuts out. And it's over. And it's three minutes. I think a lot of the scenes kind of just pass by and spectacle. And so because of that the more intimate and caring scenes really stick out because you're kind of forced to sit with it and sit with what you've just watched. It's It's interesting how we consume media, and how we all come at it from our own different little lens. But for me, I think the scene that I described sticks out a lot because, you know, I think we're all able to see different parts of us in film. And it's interesting, because I think I relate pretty heavily to the characters in this scene specifically, my mom is still alive. You know, she's had different illnesses and different things that have kind of made this film stick out. This is one of the only scenes in a film that's ever I think really made me emotional.

< Back Aili's Story Aili’s hope for stability in her near future and life is very strong, emotionally, physically, and financially. These are some things she fears she didn’t get a chance to have as she was growing up, in terms of financial hardship, eviction, and a family shaped around addiction. She’s very open about the jealousy she feels towards others who had more of a traditional and stable childhood. One of her biggest goals is to reach a place in her life where she doesn’t feel the longevity within having to be defined by what she doesn’t have, but rather be proud of the life she’s built. She’s excited to finish her accelerated master's program degree, and she dreams of writing to educate people about substance abuse career-wise, and who knows, maybe even writing a book. She hopes to hold the people she loves most closest to her, especially her grandparents, mother, and close friends, and to simply feel supported, at peace, and loved, and to be at peace with where she is. 00:00 / 04:32 Previous Next

< Back Owen's Story, 2025 Owen describes how becoming a single parent forced him to confront complex feelings of frustration towards his son, and how overcoming these feelings led to their strong friendship today. 00:00 / 04:15 One of the things I did that I never figured I would do was I became a single parent. I have one son in his early 40s. When he was in kindergarten, his mother got sick and basically was incapable of taking care of him. So I had to do that and I had to get him up, get him to school, then I go to work and I bring him home from school. I make him dinner, his mother dinner, rinse and repeat. And as he got older, I did it more. Finally, his mother and I divorced. I basically got custody of him and it was very difficult, because he was very difficult. He was very upset and angry at his situation. He did understand his mother's illness was a problem, but at the same time, he had a propensity to get himself into trouble. He would sometimes claim that he was getting himself into trouble so that I and his mother would be back together again. That wasn't gonna be the case. I had to be a combination of mother and father. I still had a full time, very demanding job. I had a huge amount of frustration and anger that I think was pointed towards him, because he didn't let me live the life that I wanted to live. Usually, when you get married and have kids, you figure everybody, you know, takes their turn at doing stuff. And when one person has to do all the stuff, you gotta blame it on somebody. I was angry at him. I was angry at him for quite a while. And one day, an episode happened, I yelled at him, which I did on a regular basis when I got frustrated. I realized at that point that it wasn't him I was angry at. I was angry at the situation. And it wasn't the right thing for me to take it out on him. And that was one of those aha moments, one of those things where I grew up, um, sort of proud of the fact, if you will, that I grew up at that moment. I stopped yelling at him. He was surprised. You know, you could see in his, you know, when I catch him with something or doing something, you could see that look in his eye. Okay, here it comes. Dad's gonna yell at me. And I didn't yell. It was like, he was very confused. And after a while, I just told him, I'm not gonna yell at you anymore. I said, I'm just gonna talk to you. Like I said, it took him a while to accept that as a reality. Being a single dad takes a lot of emotional energy and that doesn't leave you much time to have emotional energy to go out and find somebody else to share it with. There was another bit of anger and frustration, if you will. By my understanding that this is what was happening and, you know, I was very unhappy about it. But again, I was able to realize that it wasn't his fault. It was the situation we were in. Over the course of a number of years, we became good friends, which is interesting cause sometimes people look at their parents as their parents and other people can look at their parents as their parents and their friend. You know, as he got older and he started to try to be out on his own, it didn't always work. Sometimes he came back, you know, we talked a lot. I gave him advice. One of the things he taught me was that even if he doesn't do what I suggest that he does, he listens to me. Again, to me, that was a success because I was able to build a relationship with him that allowed him to communicate with me. So we communicate with each other and he would take that in as a piece of data when he made the decision about what he should do and what he shouldn’t do. Now, you know, he's 47 years old, he's married, he's got kids, he's got a dog, he's got a house, he's got a job. You know, we're still friends, we still talk. He will sometimes call me and say, hey, dad, I have this situation. What do you think? And it could be something to do with work, it could be something to do with a personal relationship, something to do with finances. Like I said, he doesn't always do what I suggest, but he listens. And that makes me feel real good that I was able to have that relationship, build that relationship and keep the relationship. In part because I've met so many people when I ask them about where they came from and their parents, and they say, oh, my parents were total basket cases. And, you know, this one was an alcoholic and this one was this, this one was never around, this one was terrible. I'm thinking, how lucky my son is that he has a good dad. And I'm very proud of that. Previous Next

< Back Mary Ann's Story, Spring 2025 00:00 / 04:11 Previous Next