“I live by the philosophy of the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. My favorite quote of Sartre is : Man is condemned to be free because once thrown into the world. He is responsible for everything he does.”
“How does that apply on you?”
“I don’t believe in being a victim. You can’t control which difficulties cross your path but you are able to control your own reaction to those obstacles. The way we deal with tough situations is something we have control over and that reaction truly says something about our personalities. In my last year of high school I didn’t pass all my exams so I had to start all over again. Which meant an extra year of school and leaving my friends behind. In the beginning it was very depressing to be in a new class and having to make new friends. After one week I decided to make the most out of the situation. By the end of the year I had good grades and I was even tutoring my fellow classmates.”

“If you could give the younger generation a word of advice, what would it be?”
“Stand up for your rights! I might be an old hippie but in my young days we protested against the violation of what we thought was right”
“What exactly should they fight for these days?”
“Well for example, they should fight for their privacy rights. These days it’s almost impossible to pay with cash money cause they want to know what you spend. All our mobile devices are being tracked all our information is out there for grabs. And we…we just stand there and watch . But then again I might just be an old hippie.”

“I don’t believe in spoiling my grandkids. If they want to cuddle that’s fine but if they prefer to be by themselves that is ok with me. I treat them as adults and teach them how to respect each other. And you know what? It really pays off. The other day I was visiting my 34 year old grandson and all of a sudden he said: You know what grandma, I hope you never change. I love you just the way you are.”

“I have been studying history for the past 40 years.”
“What is the biggest misconception people have about history?”
“The fact that history repeats itself. Before the industrial revolution it probably did, but ever since then changes within society are taking place so fast. It became impossible to predict the future. Before a father could advice his son about the future because he knew what was coming for him. Nowadays a father will not know what kind of world his son will be living in.”
“Would you say we can learn from history”
“We could but the art is to recognize certain patterns in history. Many people think something like for example the holocaust will never happen again but I believe they are wrong. Such disasters could always happen again, just in a different form.”