My name is Sibel. I was born in Turkey and have been living in New York since 1993. I came to USA when I was 13 years old. I have been living away from my parents for 20 years. It has been rough but they had always dreamed of a better life for me and by sending me to USA to stay with my aunt was what they thought was the first step for that.
I am a single mother of two. My son is 10 and my daughter is 5. After a 9 year break I decided to return to school and pursue a degree. My major is Human Service and this is my last semester. Yes, it has been hard on me and my kids for me to juggle around school, work, internship and home, but at the end of the day when I come home to see my kids happy and healthy, I realize that I am doing a good job and I can do much better.
I know that it doesn’t sound like I have a spare time for myself but, I love to spend time with my kids. Weekends are mommy and me days for my kids. All three of us love to build Lego cities. We have a closet full of Lego sets. I love cooking, mostly Turkish food. We are planning our first family trip to Turkey this summer. Everyone is pretty excited already. My mother-in-law is also living with us. We enjoy her company and we love her. She has been a great support.
The reason I took this course is because I needed an advanced English course to graduate. I also realized that, I read a lot of Turkish novels and my favorite authors are women for some reason, I thought it would be interesting to learn about women writers. Looks like an interesting class already.
Welcome, Sibel! I’m curious to hear more about the Turkish literature you read for pleasure–maybe you can recommend some novels that have been translated? The building and cooking seem like nice alternatives to reading–they stimulate your senses in different ways than the imagined worlds of literature can. This course will pick up some ideas that you likely studied in Human Services, too, related to marriage, motherhood, independence, etc, so please share your expertise! I’m glad we met last week, and I look forward to getting to know you better in your final semester of college!
Thank you for the feedback Professor Rosen.
I can recommend my favorite Turkish author Elif Shafak. She is a Turkish novelist, columnist and an academic who writes both in Turkish and English. I love the fact that she blends Western and Eastern traditions of storytelling, bringing out the stories of women, minorities, immigrants, subcultures, youth and global souls. I can recommend many of her books but “Honour” by Elif Shafak is my most favorite.
Thank you for your interest.
Thank you! I’ll add Elif Shafak’s Honour to my personal reading list. I hope we can as a class share recommendations for additional writing by women we want to encourage each other to read.