U.S. Representative from Georgia, 1987–2020; Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 1963–1966
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2004
When I was growing up I wanted to be a minister. I wanted to preach.
Life experience & transition
Building a life in a new country
What migration teaches about language, work, belonging, home, recognition, and helping the next arrival.
12 questions, 664 answers on the record, from 484 members. Every question is asked in FLAPSS wording — nobody answers as anybody else.
Worth reading
As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?
English artist
Recorded · The Guardian · 2017
First something medical, then, without any doubt, an artist.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2026
I had dreams of becoming the first scouse pope. Unfortunately, the girls got to me first.
Every question in this questionnaire
- What did you have to unlearn and relearn when building a life in a new country or culture? —
- As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself? 197
- What makes a place feel like home to you now? —
- What became easier or harder to express when you began living in another language or dialect? —
- Which ability travelled with you but was hardest for other people to recognise? —
- When did you last change your mind about something important? 28
- When did you first feel that you belonged, and what made that moment possible? —
- What line from a parent, teacher, or mentor do you still repeat to yourself? 23
- What lesson has mattered most in your life? 138
- Which quality in your friends matters most to you? 65
- What would you give somebody arriving now that nobody could give you when you arrived? —
- How would you want people to remember you? 213
Who has answered
Members with enough answers in this questionnaire to be worth arriving at — listed A–Z, not ranked by count.
-
AC
2 answers b. 1960
-
Adwoa AboahBritish fashion model
2 answers United Kingdom b. 1992
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AH
3 answers b. 1981
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AL
2 answers b. 1995
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AB
2 answers b. 1958
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AOAndrew O'Hagan
Scottish author
2 answers United Kingdom b. 1968
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AO
3 answers b. 1968
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AR
3 answers b. 1963
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ADAnn Dowd
American actress
2 answers United States b. 1956
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AP
2 answers b. 1943
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AMArmistead Maupin
American writer
2 answers United States b. 1944
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Barack Obama44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
2 answers United States b. 1961
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