 |
Blacksburg, VA fmignone@usit.net |
| Shadowlake People |
|
Blacksburg, VA fmignone@usit.net |
Fred: I've lived in this area 10 years, and I'm a counselor with adolescents and their families. My energy is focused on my wife and our 4-year-old son, being of service to others, and creating community.
I've wanted to live in community since young adulthood. I've studied the cohousing model since 1989, and I think it's a very practical path. I'm having a lot of fun with this project. It's very stimulating, and I've already made some good friendships.
Nancy: I was raised on our family's farm in north central Iowa. Living just 2 miles from a town of 6,500 inhabitants, we had the best of country life andsmall town community. I was also fortunate to grow up in a "rural neighborhood." Many of our neighbors were my parents age, and they had children of similar ages to me and my siblings. While we children playedfootball and built treehouses together, our parents enjoyed semimonthly gatherings of potlucks and card playing. My father's parents lived acrossthe road, and my maternal grandparents were only 20 miles away. Growing up on a farm, I always thought I'd live on one. But I left rural life at age 18 to attend college, and I haven't been back since. The convenience and culture of community living outweighed the romance of rural life. Also, rural life didn't seem so safe to me if I didn't know my neighbors. Thus, my desire to live in cohousing! While I'd like to live in a rural setting, I wouldn't welcome the isolation.
A few other details about my past: I attended Iowa State University from 1976 to 1981 and graduated with a B.A. in German (Ja, ich kann noch einbisschen Deutsch sprechen) and International Studies (a mish-mash of international political science, economics, and law). Not knowing what to do after college, I joined the Church of the Brethren's volunteer service and landed in Belfast, Northern Ireland for a year. After returning to the states, I held jobs as a library assistant and a houseparent in a group home for juveniles before returning to college in wildlife management at Iowa State. While there, I held a job as a lab assistant to a botanist. This influenced my degree program at Virginia Tech -- I got a master's in the wildlife department, but basically I completed a plant survey of a wildlife management area. I love plants, though you'd never know it from the stateof my garden! I worked for the Virginia Museum of Natural History at Virginia Tech for 3 and 1/2 years after graduating with a master's degree in 1994. I retired from that job upon the birth of our child, but now work part-time as a certified massage therapist.
Blacksburg has been very, very good to me. I met my husband here, connected with a unique group of spiritual people, and enjoy one of the best climates on earth (remember, I come from Iowa!). As a full-time mom of an 4-year-old, cohousing has been a GREAT counter to the isolation of full-time parenting. There's always something to do and people to connect with. I'm already enjoying a rich social life and a productive creative process with this community. Creating a vision with a group of people is a rich and life-long process. I'm sure it will be frustrating at times. Was it Rob Sandelin who said, "cohousing is the longest personal growth workshop you will every take"? I guess that's what I'm up for and lots of surprises,too!