Dr. Shellie

I am really enjoying the "Up Series," a British documentary series following the lives of kids from different social classes in British society. The first film ("Seven Up!") was made in 1964, when the kids were 7. Every seven years, the filmmaker returned to film the same kids, so you see them at age 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, and 49. When the series started, the premise of the first film was that by age 7, a child’s personality and destiny are already formed by their upbringing and social class. As the series goes on, you see that while social class is very important in shaping opportunities, people’s lives can change, sometimes in dramatic ways. (I don’t want to spoil the plot here, but if you want some examples, you can read the Wikipedia page). Not just that– people’s personalities can also change quite a bit. Though certain traits remain very much the same, other traits can change completely. People’s overall happiness can change a lot in 7 years as well. Me, I quit drinking coffee a few years ago in favor of tea, so I figure that already qualifies for a major life change. Now I’m trying to become a person who leaps out of bed in the morning to go running. The other changes are harder to see from the inside. It might be fun to dig out the video camera each year and record something.

Interestingly, one of the participants in the series, Nick, is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Wisconsin. At age 7, you see him running around the pastures on his farm, the only kid his age in his entire (tiny) village. At 14, he’s akward and shy, uncomfortable in front of the camera. At 21, he’s studying physics at Oxford, wondering whether he will be good enough and smart enough to do what he wants to do– have a research career in nuclear physics. At 28, he’s an assistant professor in Madison, hanging out on the Terrace and visiting the farmer’s market with his wife, Jackie. They’re talking about whether they’ll be able to balance two careers with having kids and the challenges of living so far away from their families in England. I’m halfway through the "28 Up!" film right now, and am looking forward to seeing what happens next. It’s amazing to me that the guy in the film is a "real person"– meaning someone I might actually meet someday, or who probably taught someone I know physics. It’s really cool that the people in the series volunteered for it. It can’t be completely comfortable to expose yourself to the world that way (and some of the participants did drop out part of the way through the series). But it’s amazingly interesting to see how people’s lives develop.