“What most inspired me in my personal/professional life?”
Without a doubt it would be my friend, my sister, “mi hermana”, Anne Onofre.
It was at Greenwood High School in central Wisconsin where making a new friend would steer the course of my life. Freshman English class in the fall of 1970, the girl that sat in front of me was the Foreign Exchange student attending our school that year from Lima, Peru. I don’t remember at all our first conversations, but I do remember I was so excited to meet and get to know someone from “somewhere else”. Greenwood is a very small rural town and with a population of about 900, at that time, it was so unusual to meet or see people that were different than me or the others in my school and community. Someone exotic, someone different—that’s what drew me first to Anne. And to practice my very limited Spanish! Anne and I became fast friends. Anne lived with a host family that school year but spent many days and sleep-overs at my house. She became the sister I never had and also became very close with my parents, brother and my grandparents. Before Anne was suppose to return to Peru she received permission from her sponsor to stay a few weeks longer and lived with my family for that short time.
38 years later Anne and I are still sisters. When we are together, it is as if we have never been apart--- even though we could count the number of times we have physically been together on our fingers. The 6 weeks I was in Peru with Anne and her family was one of the best parts of my life. Not the tourist stuff, but the day to day life of the people. Celebrating the holidays, attending a funeral, shopping for meals, hanging out with neighbors---life.
Her family is my family. I remember once hearing Anne’s brother, Edgar, tell my husband, Steve, “Anne and Martha are sisters, that makes you my brother in law”.
Since I meet Anne I have always been drawn to the people who were new or who are different than me. I have tried to learn as much as I can about the world and its people and cultures. I have tried to make my vacations to other places and countries a learning experience, not just a destination
Working for the last 6+ years in the International Student Services office at UW-Madison seems so perfect. I feel that the new friend I made in that freshman English class so long ago lead me right here and made me the person that I am today.
That excitement about meeting someone new, someone different, learning something about them, it still feels the same, and I love that feeling.
Martha Querin-Schultz (ISS Office UW-Madison)
