Choosing My Adventure

 By Karen

My childhood would not have predicted that I would become a big firm lawyer, retire, and then co-found Lustre.

My mother grew up in a small town near Washington D.C. She attended a Catholic girls high school, then went to Katie Gibbs to learn to type. From there, she travelled to Iran, knowing not a soul, with the U.S. Foreign Service. Rather remarkable for a young woman in the late 1940s. She knew there was more to the world than her small town life, and she wanted to find it.

My father grew up in Brooklyn. He left high school to pump gas. He rose through the ranks of the oil company that made the gas, and eventually he too joined the Foreign Service, serving in Portugal, India, Cuba, and traveling absolutely everywhere along the way. Then he was posted to Teheran, by all accounts a very romantic place at the time. You can imagine the next part of the story.

My brother and I were born in Cyprus. Our family then lived in Athens, Addis Ababa and London, before returning to Washington. When he wasn’t working, my father read, and painted copies of grand master works. My mother was an accomplished equestrienne, skier and bridge player, and an early and devoted acolyte of Julia Child. And Puccini. We sang along with Madame Butterfly as we cleaned house, and wept each time she died. I do not think that we knew any lawyers.

Neither of my parents went to college, and even for me it was not a given. Some of my classmates married after they graduated from our Catholic high school. I had no interest in getting married, but thought about getting a job. My parents let me decide. I chose college. After a wonderful few years, I decided to go to law school. And, finally, I moved to New York City, the place I had chosen to live when I was two and first saw Manhattan from the deck of a homecoming ocean liner. 

Did my parents make me what I am today?  Yes and no. Sadly, I did not inherit any ability to paint, or ride, or ski. Or play cards. Or, heaven knows, to sing. I can read, and I love to travel. I am also good at making choices, and that comes directly from my upbringing. My parents' lives showed me that I could, and indeed had to, choose my own adventure. And what an adventure it has been--not even counting my amazing husband and children.

Here at Lustre the adventure continues. So far, another fine choice.