A Turning Point

October 22, 2003

“ A Turning Point ”

Everybody has in their life one or more situation when they must make some decision, which changes their life. In the same situation, people make different decisions. Some people give up when they face a front of hard problem, while others one fight and solve their problem and become stronger. Exactly in these situations life test us what kind of people are we? Depending on the result of this “life exam” we can say we are a real man or wear “artificial” person.

In the chapter, “A Turning Point ” of the book “Marie Curie ” by Ann E. Stelnke the author described one situation from Marie’s life, which redirected her life. This is a meeting with a young Polish aristocrat, Casimir Zorawski, who was her first and strongest love. Maybe for some body this is not an event which can change our life, but we shouldn’t forget she was twenty-two years old, young, ambitious, an educated lady. Her life was only beginning and she did not want to give up. She made decision to become a famous scientist and prove to Casimir, to everybody, but first, she made this challenge to herself – she is a person, her personal property is more expensive than money. She decide to live at the Sorbon, as soon as possible and in a short time graduated with a master degree in two majors. Another decision, which she made, was promise herself never to be in love and never stay in marriage. This indicated how strong her love was, and how big a stress she had after Casimir’s preference for money than her. Why did she prefer to do this? Why didn’t she cry at the time or kill herself? What made her strong? When we learn about her past life, we will find answers to all these questions.

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Her suffering started with the death of her mother and oldest sister Sofia. During this time, with was hard for her and her family, the little girl found in her heart a lot of courage and suppressed all tears and complains. Only books were a consolation world for her in this time. When we read about her school time, we didn’t read about her friendships. Moreover, this was a boarding school, where many girls studied and lived together. Marie was a bright, gifted person. She had a strong, independent character. All people try to be self-affirming but in children’s team competition in this field can be especially severe. And she lived and studied in this environment away from home, but she saved her independent stile. This means her character was greatly improved. This source of her endurance, which she displayed in Zorovski’s family, after her first parts with Casimir. She also displayed this quality in time of poverty in her family, when her husband died, and during her entire life.

In my life, fate gave me a last “life exam” when I won a “Green card”. On one plate of the scale was all my previous life, my career and the career of my wife, our relations. On the other plate was the future of my son, the possibility for his future career, so we chose to emigrate. At the present time I am trying to pass this exam, but I don’t understand, it my decision was right or wrong. I don’t know when fate will give me my score. Maybe my exam is continuing?

People say: “We learn from our mistakes; smart persons learn from other people’s mistakes, foolish person learn from their own mistakes”, but the person who said that never made in mistakes he field the main, the “life exam”— an exam for to be honest with oneself.

by:Mykhaylo Kazarenko