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My Story - Barbara Burstein
Last Updated on 6/20/01
| Well,
there are the outward manifestations of lives - for me, those included
staying in Tucson for the vast majority of my life. I attended the U
of A after HS, worked for 7 years in a non-profit administrative agency
umbrella agency that funded the drug abuse treatment programs in Pima
County, and during that time, traveled some and was a member of a dance
company for a couple of years - a local creation called Isis Dance co. My father died in 1979, which had a large impact on my psyche, and for the first time, I really needed to get! out of Tucson. So I went off to Harvard Law School at 30 (the year after my father died), because I wanted to see New England in the fall. (A bus tour might have been a better choice - at least it would have cost a whole lot less, financially and emotionally.) Anyway, it was a pretty hard 3 years, as well as providing some incredible experiences. I then had a great year clerking for Justice Stanley Feldman on the Arizona Supreme Court before returning to Tucson in August of 1984 to start practicing law. I did a little workers compensation and social security disability law before running the Volunteer Lawyers Program at Southern Arizona Legal Aid for over 4 years. I did a lot of different things in litigation, and legal research and writing for several years after that before joining my current law firm doing personal injury and insurance bad faith litigation for the past 6 years. I have done and still do a lot of community volunteer work; e.g., serving on the board of Third Street Kids, an arts program for children with and without disabilities, and Children To Children, a support program for children who are grieving a loss. Friends and family, working out, tending to my house and garden (sometimes), meditation, mysteries, movies and the arts keep me occupied for the rest of my time. I have two wonderful nephews (ages 7 and 10) with whom I am very close, but who live in Minnesota, so that requires regular travel to St. Paul. I have a rich and full life (sometimes a little too full) including season tickets to the women cats basketball team. One of the great gifts of my life is having a lot of wonderful friends. Something about turning 50 has given me a Michael Cain moment ("What's it all about, Alfie?"), but that's just a recent phase, and one which I hope will pass soon. I don't really have a message to the class but I have a couple for myself. First, live life as if you don't know what is going to happen, because you don't. The second is that life is not a dress rehearsal. |
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Barbara Burstein |
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