Ms. O is loved by a lot of people, so she was a natural choice for an interview. We asked her some questions, and paraphrased what she said:
What is your philosophy in life?
Essentially, what Ms. O believes in is to focus on kind acts and learn new things. As a teacher and the host of the GSA, she strives to pull the two together as much as possible in her daily life. She considers herself a life-long learner; for example, she continues learning about history, honing her craft and expertise to this day.
What is your latest rendition of the injured leg story?
Her legs have been unstable in recent memory; she has a genetic abnormality that impacts her joints. On this particular day, they loosened (to the point she declared them as “loosey-goosey”) and, well, I’ll spare you the details, but she fell. She said a word she wishes she never said, but managed to get the class out. Shawda was a big help in getting the paramedics to her room, getting the students out of the class, and even in bringing their bags into the room where the students were staying. Ms. O also stressed that she didn’t cry, and that she didn’t trip. The medics helped her to the ambulance (they didn’t have any stretchers, so she had to walk) and eventually made a full recovery, though not from the $150 ambulance fee.
We joked that the whole situation could’ve been on Adult Swim.
What was it like working at the Mark Twain House?
She mostly talked about how she missed the experience. She spent about three years there, diving deep into her favorite interests. She also learned how to do public speaking and storytelling. She mostly talked about how she missed the experience. She spent about three years there, diving deep into her favorite interests. She also learned how to do public speaking and storytelling. Ms. O typically gave general tours, which were tours of each floor that created the narrative of Mark Twain’s life out of the rooms and furnishings. Becoming a tour guide was a big challenge for her, as there’s no script or prescribed way for the guides to tell the story. She learned all about Mark Twain and how the different items in the house were connected to his life, so the story she was telling tied into the environment. As we all know, Ms. O loves history, and she loves asking, “Why should we learn this?” She said that Mark Twain’s impact on the world is important to study because it shows us how authorship and influence played such a big part in his ability to make change. Ms. O always knew she wanted to teach, so through her experiences in the Mark Twain house and the Wethersfield Historical Society, she found her way to us here at GHAA.