Martin Koby - April 20, 1999
Planning for Future
You'd be paralyzed, maybe, yeah. Were you thinking of the future at all? I mean, did you formulate a plan, say, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, I'm gonna...
No.
No.
You know, I, I became aware of that in high school. And even in high school it was not--one of my counselors said to me when I was in senior class already, time before graduation, "What are you going to do with yourself?"
Hm.
I mean, I, I, I was seeing what was happening. Most of my friends were ahead of me, like one year or two years in high school.
Oh.
So everybody was going to university. I never thought of going to university or attending a university. How can I? First of all, I'm greenhorn. Uh, what am I going to do there?
Hm.
What--you know, uh...
You weren't drawn to chemistry or anything like that early in...
No, no. Uh you know, I have to earn--get some money. You have to have money to go to university. They started going or every--most of them were going to U of M. Ooh boy you know, I saw--this is what, '50--'51?
Over there there's ???
Here, here.
Yeah, okay.
They're going to U of M. I said, why? That's, that's way beyond.
It's unusual.
Why?
Instead of Wayne, to think about going to, uh...
Yeah, it's very unusual.
Yeah.
Well, I finally got out of high school. "What are you going to do with yours...what do you want to do now." And finally I began to--yes, I would like to go to a university. Says, "You don't have..." my parents, my aunts, my cousins.
???
You don't have to go to the university. There's...
They're discouraging you...
There's plenty of work in America. You don't have to go there. No, I said, I think I'm going to go. One way or another, I'm going. All my friends are going.
Hm.
And uh, I'll figure something out what you do with.
So, so now you're twenty?
Yeah, I'm twenty.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn