Ruth Gruber "Ahead of Time"

Early this morning I was watching a funny movie on Showtime and the next movie that came on was Ahead of Time. I was captivated instantly.

The 2010 movie is a documentary about Ruth Gruber. Talk about ahead of her time. Ruth is my kind of woman, she chose the life she wanted with all the obstacles of the time and world in which she was raised. Ruth was the youngest person of her times to receive a PhD, the youngest person, not the youngest woman. Of Jewish heritage, she lived in Brooklyn and was expected to get married and have children. Although her father, also way ahead of his times, did tell his daughters that they needed to have some kind of skills to fall back on if God forbid their husbands died. He told Ruth she could be a secretary or a school teacher. Ruth didn't want that, she wanted to see the world, she wanted to be a writer. She became more than a writer.

She received her PhD in Germany prior to the war, actually witnessed Nazi rallies and brought this information back with her to America, warning people of the atrocities occurring in Germany. She escorted Holocaust refugees to America in 1944, she covered the Nuremberg trials in 1946. Read up on this extraordinary woman, writer, journalist, doer. Watch the movie Ahead of Time.

Ruth eventually did get married in 1951 and had two children but continued her travels and writing. An outstanding woman. Again she didn't just become a writer, she lived a big life and wrote about it. Why did I not hear of her until today? And why do I know who Lady Gaga is? Ruth Gruber made a difference in so many people's lives. A woman young girls should learn and know about. This older girl just learned so much herself. But seriously young girls should learn about Ruth Gruber in school, there should be more movies about her, this is the kind of woman that should be looked up to, admired, someone I would want my young child to aspire to be like. Ruth is 98 in the documentary Ahead of Time, sharp as ever and funny.

It's amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it. I've always felt good about taking one baby step toward a goal. Succeeding one step and then moving to the next. But after learning about Ruth Gruber I believe I should set my goals higher, take giant steps and leaps to what I want, who I want to be, even at my age.