‘Their stories made me realise I’m not a victim’
View(s):Full-time author and sought after speaker, Sri Lankan Preethi Burkholder who realised early in life that the American dream wasn’t always rosy, in this e-mail interview with Smriti Daniel describes how writing ‘17 Women Who Shook the World’ changed her outlook on life
When Preethi Burkholder began selecting candidates for her book ‘17 Women Who Shook the World’ (Schiffer Publishing, November 2012) she found her work had an unexpected personal resonance. “They were all memorable because they all experienced unimaginable hardships,” Preethi says of her subjects. “They overcame all these hardships and went on to become champions of our time. This appealed to me because my journey in America has not been easy. Contrary to popular belief that anyone who comes to America has the easy path, I experienced a different journey,” she told the Sunday Times in an email.
Preethi Burkholder
Preethi, who graduated in 1992 from St. Bridget’s Convent in Colombo, did so with 4 As and the highest marks in her field. Combined with her skill as a classical pianist, her marks were enough to win her scholarships to attend Clark University, Massachusetts for both her Bachelors and Masters degrees. She has produced five books on topics as varied as launching your own spa and the ghost towns of the Rockies. (She first became interested in the latter while volunteering for the American Forest Service while still a student at Tufts University, Massachusetts.)
Today she describes being a mother as her primary job, but she is also a full time author not only of books but of articles and a busy speaker with as many four engagements a week. The latest will be a talk at the UN-NGO called The Federation of American Women’s Clubs Overseas (FAWCO) as part of their International Women’s Day celebrations on March 9 in Bern, Switzerland. (You can watch her live at www.fawco.org,)
The subject of her talk will be the women she found so inspiring. The likes of Shirley Chisholm, Esther Morris, Wilma Rudolph, Aung San Suu Kyi, Valentina Tereshkova, Harriet Tubman, Madam C.J. Walker, Meryl Streep, and Victoria Woodhull appear in the book. Using Wilma to illustrate her point, Preethi traces the athlete’s history. Having contracted polio when she was five, Wilma was told by her doctors that she would never walk again but her mother said she would – she believed her mother. By exercising diligently and displaying great determination she was able to walk by age twelve.
Wilma’s extraordinary commitment would take her as far as the summer Olympics of 1960 where she became the first American woman to win three Gold medals in a single Olympics. “From not being able to walk she became the fastest runner on earth,” says Preethi. “It all happened because she believed in herself. I feel that no matter who we are, what we do, or where we come from, we must believe in ourselves.”
Very neatly, Preethi chose 24 other traits that seemed to differentiate these successful women. They included having a dream (“without desires and dreams the flame in our furnace dies and life become mediocre, inspiration fades, depression sets in, and we stop creating and achieving.”); taking responsibility (“Successful people seldom avoid responsibility from their lives. Rather, they embrace it.”) and stopping feeling like a victim (“There are no successful victims. You can either be successful or you can be a victim but you cannot be both.”)
The things she learnt changed the way she thought and she says now that it’s a message she’d like to share: “Studying about these women transformed my life and my mindset – for the better. I stopped feeling like a victim, I stopped feeling sorry for myself, I became more aware of the different choices available to me. I am hopeful, happy, and more energised, after reading about them. What makes me even happier is when I share that message with other, especially women who are looking for direction, hopeful signs, and encouragement. We all need to be inspired.”
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