Fearless and Free

1

This Is Not Your Mother’s Networking

My mom was an Italian citizen who met my dad when he was serving in the U.S. Navy. I was born in Italy, and we moved to the U.S. when I was four years old. By then, my mom was 40 and did not speak or read English. Born in 1923, she’d been taken out of school at the age of eight to help my grandmother take care of her siblings. My mom never had an opportunity to go back to school. Although she was very bright, her circumstances prevented her from having certain educational opportunities. One of the important lessons I learned in my life is that education and intelligence are two different things.

My mom believed that I needed to speak English without an accent and that education was a key to a better life. ...