Listen to the interview here!
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I have Stephanie Hafer Shaak with me. Hi, Stephanie.
Stephanie Hafer Shaak: Hi, Toni. How are you?
Toni: I am great. How are you?
Stephanie: Great, thank you.
Toni: Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Stephanie: I am Berks County born and bred. I was born here and lived here really most of my life. I have a very loving husband named Tyler. We got married about a year-and-a-half ago in December of 2012. I come from a great family. I have two sisters – an older sister and a younger sister – all of course born here in Berks as well. My husband and I live very close to Reading in a little community called Pennside, very historic. We have a little Jack Russell named Eddie. He’s about 12 years old, and we just love him to death. I professionally plan all the weddings and events at the Reading Public Museum. I’ve been there for about three-and-a-half years.
Toni: Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project.
Stephanie: Thanks. I’m very excited to be here.
Toni: Good. Let’s go into the first question. What does inspiration mean to you?
Stephanie: This is a really tricky question, and it’s a really broad question. How do you answer something like that? I have been giving it some thought. Inspiration to me is anybody or anything I think who makes you want to be a better version of yourself. Somebody or something that makes you better professionally, personally, emotionally, socially, physically.
I’m always learning from other people. I love to learn from people and meet them; sort of what makes them tick. Just as we were talking about their story, all sorts of people have inspired me to be a better wife, to be a better sister, daughter, employee. I think it can come from the smallest little thing. I’ve been inspired by something as minimal or as trivial as a reality show on TV, which is sometimes a guilty pleasure, or something as life changing as getting married or my sister just gave birth, so being an aunt for the first time. So many things can be inspiring and be an inspiration to you.
Toni: Can you recall the last time you were inspired?
Stephanie: I would have to say the birth of my niece, because she was just born about three days ago. Again, you’re inspired every day, but if I could think of one thing that comes to mind, that was just the coolest experience to be a first-time aunt and to see that happen to somebody so close to you; to see something so life changing happen in their life, and to know that that might one day happen for you, too, is very inspiring.
Toni: When you said inspiration means to you that it’s to be a better person or a better sister, how does that type of an event, if you could give us an example, change you? How does it inspire you? What does that feel like?
Stephanie: I think when you’re inspired it gives you a whole new outlook on life and how you want to live your life. What changes can you make within your life to be a better person, to be a better employee, to be a better person in a relationship, whatever that might be? I think by that happening, it sort of inspired me. How can I change my life, and what changes can I make to be the better aunt, I guess, in such a sense, but then also what will happen down the road for me that will inspire me to change? It’s a cycle. It’s always going on.
Toni: It sounds as though it’s very personal for you. Inspiration is personal growth.
Stephanie: Yes. Most definitely. I think that’s what it’s all about. Otherwise, what is inspiration? If you’re not growing and changing and learning from other people, then inspiration I don’t really think means all that much.
Toni: So how do you put that concept and that thought into practice here in Berks County?
Stephanie: Like I said, I’m always learning from people and again being inspired by them. I’ve been so blessed in my life and been able to travel all over the place and meet so many cool people. I’ve been to the most fabulous cities and met the best people, and you kind of pinch yourself that you’re in these different places, but I always try to bring something back home. This is my home and this is where I love. I love Reading. As cliché as that might sound, or to some people, how can I say that, but I really do. I love home. This is home to me. There’s no reason why home can't be as fabulous as these other places and why the people in Berks County can't be as amazing as these other people that you meet all over the world. I try to always think about that, that there is all this inspiration right here, and if you take what you’ve learned along the way and all the other places you’ve been and bring it back home, you can inspire others in the way that you’ve been inspired right here in Berks. I try to do that every day if I can.
Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you?
Stephanie: I think right off the bat, and it may sound like a cliché answer I guess, but personally I have to say my mother, because she has gone through so many hardships and challenges in her life. We lost my dad a few years ago to cancer. She’s had to go through that. She just wakes up and attacks every day with such dignity and such grace. She’s beautiful as well. She’s a beautiful person inside and out. She always looks her best and presents herself just amazingly well. So if someday I can be half the woman she is, I’ll be proud. I’ll be happy.
On a more professional level, I have to say Bob Fleck. Robert Fleck is a retired high school history teacher from Exeter. I went to Exeter. He’s the reason I studied history in college, and the reason I went to Gettysburg; that’s where I studied and did my undergrad. I think those experiences there led me to want to do museum work, which has of course now opened all sorts of doors for me, not only in what I do, but in the people that I’ve met and the places I’ve gotten to go because of my work at the Museum. He was the epicenter of that. It’s what led me on this path. He still lives locally. By retired, he’s retired, but he’s still very active and about in the community and is just a lifelong friend. I just love him to death. He has been a real inspiration to me.
Toni: What a wonderful thing to say about him, but also about your mother, and to have that be recorded for her to hear as well. I think that’s really amazing.
Stephanie: And it’s so emotional. I don’t know if my voice cracked a little bit, but it really is true. She’s just a wonderful, wonderful person.
Toni: You bring that full circle with what inspires you, and it’s all about personal growth. If she inspires you by the way she has lived her life, that’s a whole big testament to your personal growth, isn't it?
Stephanie: Very true. Yes.
Toni: What do you want your legacy to be?
Stephanie: I always think about this quote from Maya Angelou. I think about it all the time. I’m not going to quote her verbatim, but she said, “People will forget what you said. They’re going to forget what you did or what you do, but they’ll never forget the way that you made them feel.” I think I always try to think about that, whether it’s a meeting at the museum where I’m meeting a bride for the first time to plan her wedding, or I’m just at the grocery store in line. It’s just about … somebody’s never going to forget that sort of warm and fuzzy. We all say things we’re going to regret, and we all do things that we’re going to regret that we shouldn’t do. It’s just human nature. But I think that if you always project that good feeling and make people feel good, that goes a long way.
Toni: As I’ve said many, many times in these interviews, people think of the legacy question as what they will leave behind, as what people will remember about them, but it’s really about how you’re living today. I get to witness the passion and the emotion and people will get to hear how sweet this interview is. Thank you so much for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project.
Stephanie: Thanks, Toni. It was great to be here.
