Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today my guest is Francine Scoboria. Welcome, Francine.
Francine Scoboria: Thank you for having me.
Toni: Absolutely. Francine, take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Francine: I grew up in Berks County. I am a graduate of Penn State, where I studied journalism. I’ve been blessed to be a writer in this local area for about 25 years. I spent about seven years writing at the Reading Eagle as a reporter. That was very exciting. I had the opportunity to be the editor of Berks County Living magazine for about three-and-a-half years, and I loved that because it’s such a good news magazine. I got to meet a lot of people in Berks County and help tell their stories.
I am currently working at Safe Berks. I started about six months ago, and I’m their communications coordinator. I do writing for them, help with their website and different events that they do. Personally, I am happily married, and I have two wonderful sons. Danny is 16 and Sean is 12. That keeps me busy when I’m not working.
Toni: I can only imagine that it does. Alright, let’s go into the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Francine: It’s a really good question, and I did give it some thought. I guess I feel that inspiration is any emotion that would move me to action. I was thinking that inspiration can really come to me in either a positive way or a negative way, where a positive kind of inspiration would be I guess desire to make the world a better place, which I find that very motivating — just the desire for this world to be a better world and to be kinder and more peaceful. I think I share that feeling with a lot of people. That desire really helps me get out of bed in the morning. I’m not going to say it’s easy, but it helps me get out of bed in the morning. It helps me try to be the best person I can be, and when I mess up, it helps me try again.
Kind of on a maybe a little bit of a negative side — maybe negative isn’t the right word — but I think fear can actually be very inspiring. The fear of not being able to pay the bills, or the fear of possibly being a disappointment to the people that you love. I think for me, those kinds of fears can actually be very motivating, and can also keep me from quitting, and keep me getting up in the morning. I guess I’m inspired by trying to make the world a better place, and also just trying to make sure that I personally try to be responsible and fulfill the things that people expect of me.
Toni: So, inspiration equates to success and/or it’s the desire to succeed, even when you fail.
Francine: Right, and I guess the desire to change things. Yeah. I feel like inspiration is something that is a change agent.
Toni: Do you know when it happens? Do you know when you’re inspired? Can you feel it?
Francine: Yes; yes, and I’ll admit, it has sometimes woken me up in the middle of the night. It has sometimes woken me up in the middle of the night, and as a writer sometimes I grab a pen and a paper. Sometimes a poem comes out. Occasionally it’s almost written already, because it’s such an extreme feeling of an inspiration. Sometimes it’s just the desire to write down things and make plans. Sometimes it hits when someone else says something to me, or I do actually chase it by reading books of inspirational quotes or trying to find inspiration in writing if I’m lacking it. It does come in all different ways.
Also, I think from nature. I’m very inspired by the sky. If I’m having a rough day, that’s been my practice, that I try to break away and just look at the sky. Whatever the weather is, the sky is always interesting and inspiring. Flowers and butterflies.
Toni: So, you are a nature person as well.
Francine: Yes.
Toni: How do you take all of this inspiration that comes at you — the good stuff, or the bad stuff — and put it into practice here in Berks County?
Francine: Just six months ago, I started a new full-time job at Safe Berks. In case anyone who is listening doesn’t know, that’s the nonprofit that serves survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. It was formerly known as Berks Women in Crisis for 40 years, and now it’s Safe Berks. I started working there. I’m the communications coordinator. I think that’s how right now I am putting my inspiration into action.
I write all different things for the website. I write for the newsletter. I try to really help connect people who maybe have been lucky to never experience these things in their life. I try to connect them to this in a way that will inspire them to help others or even just be aware, even to just have a kindness toward people that have had really the bad luck of landing in these spots where someone has abused them, because no one deserves to be abused. By trying to spread that awareness throughout Berks County and also work with the staff and learn as much as I can about the topic, and just be a part of that positive motion forward of the goal of ending domestic violence and sexual assault.
Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you?
Francine: Well, I’m going to say two things. One, I’m very inspired by the staff at Safe Berks, and I’m actually right now working on an article for our spring newsletter, which is about the 11 members of the staff who have served a decade or more, some 20 years. I’ve gotten a chance to interview them, and they are hard to catch, because they’re very busy, but I have made a point to try to track them down and get them to express to me why they do what they do, and how they have managed to do it for a decade or more. They’re very passionate, and they’re very dedicated, and they just don’t quit. They just don’t quit. They inspire me.
I also want to say my parents, Kathleen and Preston Scoboria, inspire me so much. They live in Muhlenberg, same house where I grew up. They are today celebrating their 54-year wedding anniversary.
Toni: Oh, congratulations.
Francine: Thank you. They both were teachers throughout their career, wonderful parents, wonderful grandparents, and as teachers, they were wonderful teachers, but they put their whole heart and soul into it. They never did the minimum of anything. They always go overboard with just sharing as much kindness as they can, trying as hard as they can. They do that with their family. They also have a lot of fun. They’re really fun people. We go to the beach, and we celebrate. They’ve taught their children and grandchildren. I think they’ve been very inspiring to all their children and grandchildren about how to try to have that balance in life, where you work hard, but you also take time to enjoy your life. I feel very inspired by them.
Toni: What do you want your legacy to be?
Francine: That’s another great question. I think my most important legacy is my two sons, Danny and Sean. I am just amazed watching them become young men and just watching all the wonderful things they do and thinking of what they will do in the future. I try to be a good guide to them. I think being a mom, it’s such a hard role, and there’s so many expectations that can almost be impossible, but I guess in my mind, I try to be the best guide I can be and guide them through this world.
Then, my other part I would hope would be my legacy is that I have done a lot of writing. I think I’ve written over 1,000 articles that have been published, mostly locally. My goal — which I haven’t gotten there yet — but my goal is to write novels. As my children get older and I have more time, I’d like to write novels. I’d like my novels to be fun to read and challenging, but I’d like them also to be inspiring. Someone like Louisa May Alcott inspires me, because she wrote Little Women. She wrote a lot of other books, but they showed the reality of life, that there’s a lot of difficult things, but there’s also so many beautiful parts of life.
Toni: It’s really interesting that part of your legacy is going to be writing novels. Can you just give a little bit more detail as far as just quickly what kind of novels will they be?
Francine: I have started a few, but they are not quite ready yet. Some novels I have started are in the area of maybe fantasy, kind of inspired by the Harry Potter series, or A Wrinkle in Time. Some are more of a realistic kind of fiction. One idea I have is taking novels from the past and responding to them, such as novels written by Louisa May Alcott that she wrote for adults, to try to show the changes in the country over the past 150 years, and especially the changes in the role of women. I guess the novels that I’d like to write would probably have female heroines, because I would base them partly on the experiences that I’ve had, and maybe show the different challenges of trying to earn to living and be a mom and keep your passions alive all at the same time.
Toni: Okay, so that’s why I asked the question, because your legacy is also tied to how you define inspiration with the novels that you want to write as well. That was the connection that I heard, and I wanted to just get that out; that is also, you’re writing novels about moving forward, whether it was bringing the past to the present, or talking about a woman’s journey, or your current position of helping women’s journey right now. Your legacy, how you put that into practice, all ties with the way you define inspiration. Thank you for showing up for this Project today.
Francine: Thank you so much.
Toni: You’re welcome.
