Eva Kor is the epitome of resilience. She lost everyone in her family besides her twin sister during The Holocaust, and then ultimately lost her sister due to their time within the concentration camp. She suffered from hardships throughout her stay within the camp, ranging from starvation to a fear of rats. Her strong will to survive is what I believe really drove her to walk out of the camp alive. Mrs. Kor was able to forgive all the Nazis involved, which set her free from all the hardships she had to face. Other Holocaust survivors did not take this forgiveness lightly, but this forgiveness is what has made her so resilient today, plus her sense of humor.
Mrs. Kor had three life lessons: never ever give up on yourself or your dreams, prejudice, forgiveness. The one life lesson that stood out to me the most was to never ever give up on yourself or your dreams. This lesson really stood out to me because of where I am currently in my life. The last few weeks have been really difficult for me. I applied for a job at Angie’s List as a back up plan for when/if I do not get into graduate school. I thought I was a strong contender for the position; however, I did not sell myself within my first interview and my resume did not touch on all my leadership experience. I got the email that they was not be inviting me back for a second interview the same day that I had an epiphany that I had a graduate school application due in less than a month. I was stressed, worried, anxious, and depressed. On top of all that terrible news, I had three exams that week and I did not do as well as I would have liked on those exams. I felt like I was failing at everything I did but I could not be sorrowful because I had to redo my resume and start a personal statement for the graduate school application. Essentially, I had two options: watch Netflix and cry away my problems or use this negative time in my life as a motivation. E.g. give up on my dreams and myself or be resilient. I changed my attitude of self-pity to self motivate. I bet myself up because I was did not sell myself during my Angie’s List process, but it was time to learn from that mistake. I thought myself, “I have done so much on Franklin College’s campus, and this is a time in my life where all that experience can be for something or it can be nothing.” I have not worked this hard to fall flat on my face. I may not know where my place in the world is but Mrs. Kor reassured me that there is a place and I will find it. She said, “there is always hope after despair and always tomorrow after disaster.”
Mrs. Kor either gave me amazing advice or wonderful false hope; either way, her life experiences exemplify how resilience can free an individual. I found it interesting that she founded C.A.N.D.L.E.S., which is an organization for Holocaust Survivors, but today it appears that most survivors are not happy with her ideas of forgiveness. She is trying to lead a group of individuals who are not opened to the idea of forgiveness even though it could give them so much freedom. Mrs. Kor did not altruistically give forgiveness, because she got as much out of it as the people she was forgiving. She did not touch on this too much within her lecture, but it was addressed within her movie.
She did talk of prejudice within her lecture. I thought it was unique that she suffered hardships because of prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination, but yet she still has prejudice towards individuals. This shows that prejudice is almost an innate cognitive process. Because people are cognitive misers, meaning they do not want to think more than they have to, and because humans like to put things into categories they have this innate cognitive process. The important part is to not act on these prejudices. Mrs. Kor shows strength by being able to admit that she does have these prejudices.
Mrs. Kor had three life lessons: never ever give up on yourself or your dreams, prejudice, forgiveness. The one life lesson that stood out to me the most was to never ever give up on yourself or your dreams. This lesson really stood out to me because of where I am currently in my life. The last few weeks have been really difficult for me. I applied for a job at Angie’s List as a back up plan for when/if I do not get into graduate school. I thought I was a strong contender for the position; however, I did not sell myself within my first interview and my resume did not touch on all my leadership experience. I got the email that they was not be inviting me back for a second interview the same day that I had an epiphany that I had a graduate school application due in less than a month. I was stressed, worried, anxious, and depressed. On top of all that terrible news, I had three exams that week and I did not do as well as I would have liked on those exams. I felt like I was failing at everything I did but I could not be sorrowful because I had to redo my resume and start a personal statement for the graduate school application. Essentially, I had two options: watch Netflix and cry away my problems or use this negative time in my life as a motivation. E.g. give up on my dreams and myself or be resilient. I changed my attitude of self-pity to self motivate. I bet myself up because I was did not sell myself during my Angie’s List process, but it was time to learn from that mistake. I thought myself, “I have done so much on Franklin College’s campus, and this is a time in my life where all that experience can be for something or it can be nothing.” I have not worked this hard to fall flat on my face. I may not know where my place in the world is but Mrs. Kor reassured me that there is a place and I will find it. She said, “there is always hope after despair and always tomorrow after disaster.”
Mrs. Kor either gave me amazing advice or wonderful false hope; either way, her life experiences exemplify how resilience can free an individual. I found it interesting that she founded C.A.N.D.L.E.S., which is an organization for Holocaust Survivors, but today it appears that most survivors are not happy with her ideas of forgiveness. She is trying to lead a group of individuals who are not opened to the idea of forgiveness even though it could give them so much freedom. Mrs. Kor did not altruistically give forgiveness, because she got as much out of it as the people she was forgiving. She did not touch on this too much within her lecture, but it was addressed within her movie.
She did talk of prejudice within her lecture. I thought it was unique that she suffered hardships because of prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination, but yet she still has prejudice towards individuals. This shows that prejudice is almost an innate cognitive process. Because people are cognitive misers, meaning they do not want to think more than they have to, and because humans like to put things into categories they have this innate cognitive process. The important part is to not act on these prejudices. Mrs. Kor shows strength by being able to admit that she does have these prejudices.