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134 AN T I OC H CO L L E G E C L A S S O F 19 6 5 5 0 t h A N N I V E R S A R Y B O O K R O G E R S ROGERS MICHELLE [BOBBIE JACOBS] ADDRESS 4 3725 Stratford Ct. Fort Collins, CO 80525 CONTACT 970 207-1723 pyygarcia@gmail.com I WA N T T O reintroduce myself.You may have known me when I was Bobbie Jacobs;my diploma hon- ors Roberta D. Jacobs. But now I am called Michelle Rogers. My mom re- ferred to me as Roberta-Michelle.My email address is pyygarcia@gmail. com, which is short for Pocahantes Yin Yang Garcia. Almost as many names as Sybil (by the way, I actually worked with Flora Rheta Schreiber at John Jay). Studying at Antioch allowed me to realize the enormity of the world inside me and outside me. It taught me courage and the determination to effect what was in my power to change, like my name. My child- hood was gray and depressed, spent isolated and an outsider—Roberta was a drag. My first day at Antioch, Barrie Dallas walked into my room in Pendleton Hall with a basket of apples and an enormous smile of welcome. The light lit inside me, perhaps for the first time, I became Bobbie. My years at Antioch were years of discovery and they created a foundation for me to live happily with the knowledge that there are other people in the world as weird and wonderful as I am.This knowl- edge has sustained me through many hardships and allowed me to be really happy. In all the places I’ve lived. I’ve been a dedicated vol- unteer to the causes of truth and beauty. Spreading happiness is truly infectious and better than measles. I am now confined to a wheel- chair with multiple sclerosis but I continue with the spirit I learned at Antioch, to change the world. I vol- unteer with the National MS Society on their political action committee and I also am a master naturalist with the city of Fort Collins. I read vora- ciously and am currently studying Shakespeare again. I did get to live in Scotland and study Shakespeare in my third year at Antioch with my good friend Jackie Day. How lucky! On the surface of things, my life has been filled with many challenges and disappointments. After finishing the research for my dissertation and nearly getting my Ph.D. in anthro- pology from NYU, I became ill and had to give up teaching at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. I quickly became unable to walk or write. This was the age before personal computers and the Internet, so I was not able to communicate outside my immediate world. If it weren’t for the training I had received at Antioch, I might have returned to being Roberta. For the last 36 years I have lived with Roger and he has given me many pet names, none of which I am going to share with you. For the past 12 years we have lived in Fort Collins, Colorado, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.We enjoy mu- sic and theater together and partici- pate in the cultural world here.We happily traded rats for rabbits, squir- rels and prairie dogs. I will miss seeing you all at the reunion and would love to hear from you. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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