Rebel With a Cause

Alexandra Collier
9 October 2007
English 1001 – 111
Rebel With a Cause

Christina Stein, known to most as Chris, is the mother of my best friend. When I was younger, Chris was always the “cool” mom. She was the mom who got to travel the world as a flight attendant and bring us back gifts from exotic places; the mom who did art projects with us, allowed us to color on the walls, and let us play in the rain. As I grew older she became the mother who practiced Rakii (healing with one’s hands); the mother who gave me advice when I couldn’t turn to my own; the mother who went to night school at Tulane University in order to receive her PhD in psychology. Now, as I am continuing to learn, I have realized that Chris is much more than the “cool” mom. She is a woman raising three children by herself, an extremely spiritual woman who has more faith than anyone I have ever known, and a woman in her late thirties living out her dream to become a psychologist.
Chris and I decided that the best place to conduct my LSU English interview with her would to be at her modest Midcity apartment in New Orleans. “If I’m going to tell you about my life, it might as well be in the place where most of my memories are.” On the day of the interview, Chris was dressed in what she usually wore; faded jeans cut off just above the knee, a tank top that exposed her bellybutton which was adorned with a tiny silver stud, white Converse tennis shoes, about twelve bangle bracelets on each wrist, and an assortment of silver rings on about eight of her ten fingers. Her hair, midnight black with the occasional silver strand, was wavy and unbrushed, like always, making her look almost electric. Her smile revealed her braces, a “cosmetic” procedure she had decided to get in her early thirties. Because of the stereotypes that are made about what doctors should look and dress like, most people never believe Chris when she tells them she is one. “I like it better that way. Being a rebel is in my blood. I’m not a doctor because I want people to know I’m one. I love my jobs, and I love that they are all different. It keeps me young!”
Chris was born into a southern, devout Christian family. Her father was a minister and against his wishes she married a Jewish man from Conneticut at the young age of 21. Later, she would come to realize that the only reason she married him was because she knew her family would disapprove. “The only reason I would not trade my marriage to my ex-husband for anything in the world is the three amazing children he gave me.” Right after she got married she chose a career as a flight attendant for Delta Airlines. I asked her why she chose this to be her job, since it didn’t allow her to express her creativity in anyway. She replied, “I didn’t care. I wanted to see the world. And now I get to fly on the weekends and come home to my children during the week.” She went on to explain how being a flight attendant was something that she started because she thought it would be exciting and adventurous to travel to places around the world and learn about customs and the lives of people living in other countries. This was how she picked up the art of Rakii and decided to practice every different religion she learned about.
It was not until Chris’s early thirties, when she was finally free of a marriage that had been crumbling for years, that she decided she was going to pursue her dream of becoming a psychologist. Sitting with her, a cat and a cup of hot tea with herbs and spices that she had grown herself on the table in front of me, I asked her, “why psychology?” She explained to me how from a very young age, she had always found herself helping people with their problems and analyzing people’s behaviors. “I always found it interesting to observe people. As a child I was kind of a loner. I would sit and just watch, making notes in my head about them. Sooner or later I was ready to learn as much as I could about the human mind and to actually be able to talk to people, not just sit back and watch.” She started attending night classes at Tulane University in New Orleans, and took off four years of flying in order to receive her degree in psychology. While studying, Chris decided to specialize in people with serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia.
“So what is a normal day like for you, as a psychologist?” I asked her. She explained how she mostly visits with people who have mild cases of schizophrenia. “I just talk to them, like I would with any other person. I don’t put myself above them or try to create any sort of authority. I think that calms them down and doesn’t make them feel intimidated.” She went on to explain how she gives them tests, and then has therapy sessions with each of them. I asked her what the hardest part of her job is has she told me that working with patients with paranoid schizophrenia was the most difficult. “I try so hard to make them believe that I am not trying to hurt them in anyway, but sometimes they just won’t believe you. It gets frustrating, but I just have to deal with it. Also, seeing families in so much pain that have a loved one with disorder really ways down on my heart. Other than those things, the only aspect of my job that I don’t like is having to wear that long, blinding white jacket.”
My last question for Chris was, “is becoming a psychologist worth everything that you had to give up, like flying and time with your kids and the money?” She got up and left the room. She returned with a large shoebox and set it down on the table. Inside was an assortment of letters, cards, drawings, and other pieces of paper, most of which looked as if they were made by young children. She removed them and spread them out over the table. “What are these?” I asked her. “These are the reason why I look back on everything that I had to give up and don’t regret even one second of it. They are all thank you letters from my patients.” Many of them were illegible, or rambled on about nothing relevant (Chris noted that it is because the mind of a schizophrenic person bounces from one thought to another), yet it was completely apparent that each of them was written to thank her for helping them.