Margaret Thatcher

I was lucky enough, at the insistence of my roommate, CB, to hear Margaret Thatcher speak at my alma mater, Elon College in the late 90s. Thank you to CB for pushing me to go.
For days before she arrived Elon students were fascinated by Scotland Yard lurking around our campus. They brought bloodhounds and one even played bagpipes. Americans love a foreigner, especially a Brit.
What I recall the most about PM Thatcher's speech at Elon was that she was educated as a chemist. It's as if CB had some inside information that this would be the main message I heard. I was working on my BS in chemistry at the time, and eventually graduated with the degree. I was not meant to be a chemist, doctor, or lifelong student of higher learning. Neither was Margaret. As Mrs. Thatcher had done for so many in the UK, and others around the world, she gave me hope. She gave me hope as a young woman that I didn't have to be a slave to my science education. I could pursue and do what I wanted to do, what I needed to do (none of it was going to be accomplished in a white lab coat).
Of course that chemistry background is where our similarities end, for now. Margaret Thatcher is a woman to admire and study, a woman with the utmost integrity, direction, patriotism, intelligence, and sense of humor. At the very least we can take one page from her extraordinary life and apply it to our own.

I love, I mean L.O.V.E., that Margaret Thatcher is wearing a caftan in this photo with the Queen.  Chic.

Two of my favorite historical figures of all time.