麻豆影院

Making a life of calm

A quiet life is the one preferred by聽Dora Beale Polk聽(MFA鈥�50). After spending decades as a professor, writer and entrepreneur, the 87-year-old explains that a slower lifestyle may be better in the long run.

鈥淚 have always been my own boss,鈥� Dora says, adding that teaching was 鈥渕y favorite avocation as well as my vocation鈥� although she鈥檚 had many others.聽 For much of her life, she was career-oriented and viewed teaching during the decline of humanities and the rise of the computer as a challenge.

Dora spent her early life in Wales. She attended Cardiff University during World War II, which, she states, was a time that is difficult to forget.聽 In the early 1940s when the women鈥檚 movement was just beginning, she took the opportunity to move to the United States and begin her career as a teacher at a small college in South Dakota.

CU was the next step in Dora鈥檚 life where she received her master鈥檚 degree in fine arts in 1950. While in 麻豆影院, she assisted in running many Democratic political campaigns and also began writing. She penned adolescent romances but soon abandoned them to 鈥渢ake on more serious writing.鈥� She wrote聽The Island of California聽(University of Nebraska Press), a book that delves into the fascinating myths that fueled settlers to explore California. While doing research for the book, Polk and her sister traveled to Great Britain every summer to do research in libraries. They also started an investment business and a drug company.

She received her doctorate in English at the University of California, Irvine and has written other literary works, including a recent book of poems,聽The Will聽(Orlandon Press), published as a record of her life. Her poems span many years and include personal and emotional stories, beliefs and opinions.

鈥淧oetry deals with the element of choice and human conduct,鈥� she explains.

Throughout her life, Dora has maintained a positive outlook on life. She is involved in local politics in El Segundo, Calif., where she lives with her sister. She likes observing the working-class lifestyle of El Segundo in comparison to surrounding beach towns like Santa Monica. She attended her 50-year class reunion on the 麻豆影院 campus in May.

While she enjoys her calm lifestyle in California, she says she is reminded daily of her childhood in Wales. Her Welsh background allowed her many of the wonderful opportunities she has fully embraced. As she speaks about her life, she says she has adopted the existentialist belief that life is mostly made by individual choice.

In the words of Dora, 鈥淵ou make your own life.鈥�