92-year-old Student Finds Her Youth at Georgia State
Some people just can’t let go of the things they love.
Irena Cabat, 92, has never let go of learning. After beginning her education with a slate and chalk as a child in Austria and becoming a teacher in the United States, Cabat's lifelong lesson plan expanded again a few years ago to include Georgia State, where she has attended classes and swims regularly at the Recreation Center.
"I just love it. I would love to wander in the halls," Cabat says, recalling her days at New York University.
Her family moved to New York following World War I to escape the persecution of Jews that had begun in Europe. With money her mother saved from the grocery budget, Cabat earned a bachelor’s degree in education at NYU.
As she raised a family, her life continued to revolve around education. Cabat substitute-taught Italian and German language classes. During the summers she and her late husband, a pediatrician, would take their kids on educational trips to Europe. Even after moving to Atlanta 20 years ago to be closer to her two sons, both orthopedic surgeons, she taught Russians to speak English at a local church.
For the pure love of the subjects, Cabat attended classes in Russian history and Shakespeare at Georgia State with students at least six decades her junior.
"Kids are much more liberated," Cabat says of her modern classmates. To feed her campus craving, she takes a MARTA bus twice a week from her Buckhead apartment to Georgia State's Recreation Center, where she swims for an hour.
While waiting in the recreation center's lobby for her bus to arrive, students gather around the petite woman to ask her how she wound up at Georgia State. In turn, she learns about their lives, including what the dating scene is like in a new century.
"I am a sparrow among peacocks. They are my connection to my youth," she says.
After 70 years of learning and traveling the world, Cabat's still in good health and hopes to attend more classes at Georgia State. Keeping an active mind is the key to longevity, she says, and her advice to others who want to stay sharp.
"Be interested in something, even if it's playing cards," she says.