You want inspiration?

Here’s your inspiration:

For years, Gac Filipaj mopped floors, cleaned toilets and took out trash at Columbia University.

A refugee from war-torn Yugoslavia, he eked out a living working for the Ivy League school. But Sunday was payback time: The 52-year-old janitor donned a cap and gown to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in classics.

As a Columbia employee, he didn’t have to pay for the classes he took. His favorite subject was the Roman philosopher and statesman Seneca, the janitor said during a break from his work at Lerner Hall, the student union building he cleans.

“I love Seneca’s letters because they’re written in the spirit in which I was educated in my family — not to look for fame and fortune, but to have a simple, honest, honorable life,” he said.

His graduation with honors capped a dozen years of studies, including readings in ancient Latin and Greek.

“This is a man with great pride, whether he’s doing custodial work or academics,” said Peter Awn, dean of Columbia’s School of General Studies and professor of Islamic studies. “He is immensely humble and grateful, but he’s one individual who makes his own future.”

Filipaj was accepted at Columbia after first learning English; his mother tongue is Albanian.

For Filipaj, the degree comes after years of studying late into the night in his Bronx apartment, where he’d open his books after a 2:30–11 p.m. shift as a “heavy cleaner” — his job title. Before exam time or to finish a paper, he’d pull all-nighters, then go to class in the morning and then to work.

— —

His ambition is to get a master’s degree, maybe even a Ph.D., in Roman and Greek classics. Someday, he hopes to become a teacher, while translating his favorite classics into Albanian.

For now, he’s trying to get “a better job,” maybe as supervisor of custodians or something similar, at Columbia if possible.

He’s not interested in furthering his studies to make more money.

“The richness is in me, in my heart and in my head, not in my pockets,” said Filipaj, who is now an American citizen.

And here is a brief video about Filipaj:

Okay, let’s face it… writers complain. In fact, we’re damn good at it. We tend to feel feelings in a big way. We know lots of words. We sit and stew in our lonely vigil facing a computer screen that laughs at us and the pages we pound out. Nobody understands us. The competition is stupid fierce. And the simple act of writing a story can a brutal experience on our psyches. So we put our big feelings and fancy words together, and we complain.

Then there’s Gac Filipaj.

So the next time you feel like complaining about your lot in life as a writer, think about Gac.

And the next time you need inspiration to believe you can accomplish your creative aspirations, think about Gac.

The dude is my new patron saint, a dual-edged sword to cut through my whiny bull shit and push me to FADE OUT.

For more of the article, go here.
Comment Archive