CLOSE VIEW 3 - Sticking out Producer: Christine Demsteader Broadcast: : 24 November 2004

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1 CLOSE VIEW 3 - Sticking out Producer: Christine Demsteader Broadcast: : 24 November 2004 Being a little bit different isn t always about the way you look. Alternative beliefs, hidden talents and secrets lie beneath the surface of people who otherwise look normal! Welcome to Close View with me Christine Demsteader. Coming up - three young people with a story to tell. They are all a bit different, they stick out a bit perhaps and stray away from the norm for sure. But you wouldn t be able to tell just by looking at them. First up, a musical maestro - meet 16 year old Andre. I was almost born with it, with the violin it feels like it. My father s a violinist, my mother is a pianist and my sister plays the piano. I m the fourth generation of violinists so it was natural. He d rather listen to Bach than R n B, he prefers to practise than to party and hopes to be a classical soloist one day. Ever since he can remember, Andre has devoted much of his life to his trusted friend the violin. Well, I was little and I was listening to my father practising, to my grandfather, to recordings this was when I was 1, 2, 3 so it just came into my ears and into my mind and I started to love it when I was 2 and 3 and I wanted to play. What does your music mean to you? It s a hard question. It means everything. I mean, through my music I bring out myself in the simplest way. When I play that s my feelings; music tells things which you can t say in words and it tells feelings. Do you see yourself as different to the average 16 year old because of this talent that you have? 1

2 I don t know, not many people at this age have goals in their life; they don t know what they want to do. I know almost exactly what I m aiming for and what I want to do and what I will do. Presumably you dedicate a lot of time to your music. How does that affect your life as a young person? I really don t know. I mean, I m not going out every night or going out every weekend. I don t feel like I want to do anything else just because my friends go out every night and have fun because my fun is the music. I mean, that s my going out on weekends. But isn t that quite a solitary life for a 16 year old? Quite a lonely life? No I don t think it s lonely because first of all I have lots of wonderful friends who support me and they are also musicians so we re all in the same kind of world. But music never makes you lonely. It s a different world, really, music is wonderful. You re studying at Stockholm s Royal College of Music. You re rather young to be studying there aren t you? Yes I am. I jumped over the Swedish gymnasium, three years, and additionally I started school one year early when I was six so I think I m the youngest one to come into this place, which is kind of cool. But yeah, that s different. It felt a little bit weird in the beginning, I mean, I came into a class where people are married and people have children. But it doesn t matter because I have friends that age and I ve always had friends that age. Almost all my friends are older than me. Have you ever had any negative reaction to you talent? I had a lot of negative reaction when I skipped gymnasium. People were saying why are you doing this? or what if you break your arm and what if you do this and that? What will you do? Why am I doing this because this will maybe ruin my life? I should stay at gymnasium. I didn t believe that and my family didn t believe that and I think I made the right choice, well I know I made the right choice, because I have developed a lot the last year. 2

3 Do you think you ve missed out on anything in your life because of your music? No absolutely not. Because I always thought I would be a musician, always, since the day I started and I ve just learned more than normal 16 year olds do. Next, an evangelical youth meet 16 year old Linda. I started my confirmation and we had to discuss very important questions questions about life - and I started to think a lot about religion and thought it was very important to me to follow that. The word on the street is the word of God; Linda wants to spread love, goodness and happiness. The bible rules, Christianity is cool and she s a believer. But what does her faith really mean to her? It s a big part of my life and it is my life because I can see God in everything I do and in every day situations so it s very important. What do you believe? I believe that God is love. I think we have to live for something; I don t think we re just walking around here for no reason. And I think God will help us tofind meaning and behave the right way towards each other. In these two years since you ve become an active Christian, how have you changed? I think I m not that selfish anymore. I want to make other people happy and I want to spread the religion because it s something that has helped me a lot and problems have been solved. But of course I ve changed. Yes, I ve grown up. Do you think you re different to an average 16 year old because of your faith, because of what you believe? Does that make you different? Yes I think so. Sometimes it s hard to speak about things that I don t have the interest in and maybe other people don t like my point of view and, well, that s hard but it s a challenge. Also, I have 3

4 to pick my friends. Lots of my friends are Christian and they are in church so then I don t have to argue my point of view but when I m in school, that s where it s pretty hard sometimes. Has there ever been a time when you ve questioned your faith? No, never. But of course, when you have a hard time, of course you can doubt but I think God will be there and pick you up and help you. So I ve never doubted my beliefs, no. I want to become a priest and I want to help other people and spread the religion because it s so important and it gives you so much. What has it given you? Strength to hold on. And love and meaning. I just feel it in my heart, I don t know. Finally, he s not just forgetful - meet 18 year old Oliver. When I was between 7 and 10, I think, they diagnosed me with ADHD. At first my father didn t believe it then he did a little background analysis and decided he had it too. And that my Grandpa probably had it too. It was fun because we just never knew. ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder a condition that starts in childhood and continues into adult life. Oliver talks about the symptoms and behaviour patterns he has lived with since his diagnosis. Well it s the same symptoms I have now. I have an attention span of about three seconds. I have trouble learning something I m not interested in and I m very fast at learning something I am interested in. And I can get hyperactive sometimes you know the kicks you get when you go on the rollercoaster, an adrenaline ride I get those from movies and things. I actually think that it s a lot of fun. And, I m very messy. I can repress, for instance, cleaning my room, you know, I can repress the memory of that and my room can look like a bombshell. Oh yes the other thing, sorry, I m very bad at remembering to do something continuously. 4

5 For instance, I remember that Julius Caesar was born in 44 AD, I ve no idea why, but if you ask me to buy milk, the chances are I ll forget. So it s that type of thing. You make it sound quite fun, in a way. You seem to humour it. What s it really life to live with ADHD as a young person? Well, as a young person it s a bit of a pain in school sometimes. I m terrible at doing assignments but I ve become very good at writing book reports of books I haven t read, because I never remember to read the books. It s quite an irritation sometimes. So it requires an extra effort to remember. But how do you cope with that then? How do you make that extra effort? We have tried for a while with these little booklets where you write things down and I keep losing those, I ve been given piles of them. And, well, I don t know if I m really coping as such or have worked out a special strategy or anything. But I ask people to remind me, I point out that I m very forgetful type of thing and it s nothing that I mean I ve always had it so I can t really imagine how it would be without it. What are the positives that you can bring from it? What are the positives about life with ADHD? I m very creative. I can have a lot of fun. I m good at living for the moment. I don t worry too much about the future or about the past. Future homework or past assignments handed in, that s the problem. But it s also quite fun. Are you fairly open about it? You speak very openly here but are you open about it with friends and do you tell them about it? Do you tell them what it is? Sure, but normally only to my close friends because I have to describe exactly what it is. They have obviously noticed I have it; just not that it s got a name. So you have to explain the whole concept of ADHD and, I mean, no one s really ever heard of it. It s very common apparently but it s not known about. For 5

6 instance, sometimes they get worried and react as if I said I had cancer. But when they find out what it is or do some background studies, it doesn t really effect or change anything. But will ADHD hinder you in your future, because it s something that you ll have to live with all your life, isn t it? Well yes, it will affect my choice simply because it is part of who I am but I won t actually be barred from anything because of ADHD. It helps to think of it more as a personality trait; just consider it your average scatter-brained individual. But it helps to be able to tell someone, you know, and diagnosis helps because then people can look it up and actually understand what it is. You have been listening to Close View, with me Christine Demsteader. This programme was made with the help of Gunnar Csiffary. We hope you enjoyed it. Until next time, thanks for listening! Words: devoted - hängiven average - genomsnittlig dedicate - ägna; hänge (sig åt) solitary - ensam, enslig point of view - synpunkt forgetful - glömsk to have a short attention span att ha koncentrationssvårigheter messy - bökig, skräpig assignments läxor, uppgifter apparently - till synes, synbarligen, uppenbarligen trait - karaktärsdrag scatter-brain - virrpanna, tanklös person Questions: 1. Can you think of anything that makes you stick out? What makes you different to other people? Discuss whether it s better to be a bit a bit different or blend in with the crowd. 2. Are these three young people happy to stick out or do you think it makes them sad? Listen to their answers carefully before you decide. Pick out a few things they say so you can explain your decision. 6

Interviewee: Kathleen McCarthy Interviewer: Alison White Date: 20 April 2015 Place: Charlestown, MA (Remote Interview) Transcriber: Alison White

Interviewee: Kathleen McCarthy Interviewer: Alison White Date: 20 April 2015 Place: Charlestown, MA (Remote Interview) Transcriber: Alison White Abstract: With an amazingly up-beat attitude, Kathleen McCarthy