Interview With Dr. Kennedy of the English department

From Dr. Sheila Kennedy, Associate Professor of English

 

1.Who were your heroes while you were growing up?  Why? 

My Parents, some of my teachers, my brother.  My parents: because they suffered very challenging childhoods—my mom during WWII, and my dad because his parents died when he was a child, and they endured and showed us love and tenderness and the importance of responsibility and generosity and meaningful work.

 

My teachers: It seemed like they knew everything—and I wanted to know everything too.  They encouraged my curiosity, created a safe place for learning, and shined a light on my strengths, for which I am very grateful.

 

2.What kind of person did you see yourself becoming? Did you become that person?

Hmm…I am still very much a work in progress.  I saw myself becoming someone who would advocate for others, work with young people, and do something with words, for something meaningful and useful.

 
3.What events in your life altered you from your path?

I haven’t been altered too much, really.  The only thing perhaps is that as a mother and a full-time professor, I don’t always get to work on my own interesting projects.  Projects that I’d like to work more on require a lot of time and focus and that’s not always easy to create.   

4.Do you ever wish you could've done something else instead of what you're doing?  Yes—I wish I could have worked for The Chicago Tribune when print newspapers were the primary source of news.  In our house, we had three newspapers delivered each day and two news magazines each week and various other magazines as well.  I grew up valuing the news and I worked on my school newspapers.  So I wish I could have had a desk at the Tribune Tower, investigating stories and writing important pieces of journalism, advocating for people or ideas. 

5. What are you looking to do in the future?

I’d like to use writing and teaching writing to help others discover and develop themselves more wholly, and to write about their life experiences. This is a different form of teaching writing, with more focus on a exploring a person’s deep calling, spiritual development, and self-understanding.

 

 

6.What did you want in life then compared to what you want now?

I used to want 12 children!  We have two—my husband and I realized we didn’t want to be outnumbered!  I grew up in a large family, and as challenging as it was sometimes—one bathroom for nine people!—I loved growing up with this variety of people around me.  So I thought I wanted that, but then I realized just how challenging it is to do a good job raising children, so our two are splendid.

 

My wants between then and now are actually pretty similar, and pretty simple: be with family and friends, be outside, read books, write, enjoy the arts, go for walks, hold hands, have good conversations, create things, get to know myself and others better….

7.Do you think God guided you in any certain way?

God…I sometimes have a hard time with that “name”; it conjures up the old man with the white beard in the sky.  However, when I equate God with love and spirit and soul then I can easily say that God or love or spirit or soul guides me, everyday.  Even during difficult times…as if to say: no matter how this is right now, you are right where you need to be, to learn what you need to learn, so pay attention.  And the more time I take to pause and listen for that presence, the more I learn and do better next time, and the more in tune I am with the universe.

8.Were there any people who helped you in life to make these decisions?

My brother John.  He suggested I join my high school newspaper, and from there I realized that I loved writing.  I’m very grateful for him.

 

9.What does the word vocation mean to you?

For me, the word vocation means to feel a sense of connection to what you long to do, and what you’re good at, and serving something beyond yourself—an integration between the best that you have to offer and something in the world that truly benefits from that—and finding deep meaning and purpose in that.  It’s inspired by a famous passage by Theologian Frederick Buechner: ‘Vocation is where our greatest passion meets the world’s greatest need’.  And our job on this earth is to find that out, and then be it, do it.