Trudy Jacobson Chats About Her Hobbies and Interests
In the first few episodes of the Trudy Chats Series, we sat down with her to get to know her more personally and professionally.
In the last episode, Trudy gave us some breakthrough revelations about her personal background, including her periodic struggles with depression.
She opened up to her audience and showed them the real Trudy Jacobson. After we learned about her past, we then learned why she is so philanthropic. Part of the goal is for her to retell the stories of other Great American Women who also overcame adversity and found great personal and professional success.
But now we want to dig deeper. We wanted to talk to and learn more about her.
In this episode, we sat down to learn all about her hobbies and interests, some surprising.
Interview
JTP: You previously mentioned you enjoy music. Listening to it or playing it?
Trudy: Both. I’ve always had a piano in our house and in our apartment in New York. I grew up singing in the choir and playing musical instruments like the piano, clarinet, and oboe. And I always had a passion for drums.
Now I’m redoing, relearning, and reviewing a lot of my piano music. It’s good for dexterity, it’s good for my brain motor skills.
JTP: Does anyone else in your family play music?
My four-year-old granddaughter comes over, and she likes to pound on the keys of the piano. So that’s motivated me to relearn it and play and even venture into writing songs.
I had a vast knowledge about music, but lacked the talent to play instruments “by ear”. But music has always been a part of my life.
JTP: And what about listening to music?
Trudy: I love all genres of music like adult contemporary, new mix… I like all the modern stuff. But I had gone away from country music. Everybody loves Heart Like a Truck and Lainey Wilson and Jelly Roll. So I’ve been really getting into that again; it takes me away from some of the challenges I’ve had for the last two years.
JTP: What other hobbies do you have?
Trudy: I’m into reading different books than I ever had. I’m fascinated by outer space and all the discoveries that are going on. I try to understand science a little better.
Books about the solar system, the discoveries from the Webb telescope, and everything that is coming back in fairly good detail – so I read those books.
I also read a lot about Jewish history and contemporary Judaism. But the most interest I have right now is in veterans’ books; veterans who have written extremely interesting autobiographies, or books about war and their experiences.
Philanthropic Hobbies
JTP: You do a lot of philanthropic work. Does that get mixed into your hobbies at all?
Trudy: I support various up-and-coming [music] artists financially. I have done that for quite a while. I have two or three who I helped get off the ground and they’re successful. They’re becoming more successful and it’s a pleasure to see that. So that’s what brought me back into the music world. With concerts, now in my adult life, I can afford to get good seats so you can find me at various concerts all over the place.
JTP: Traveling is a hobby for many people. What type of traveling do you do, if any?
Trudy: I’ve had the luxury and the great teaching experience of traveling around the world – I’m so grateful. It is true that you learn from different cultures.
I’ve spent a month in Tibet. And, of course, you can’t go to Tibet without going to China. We went to China, and that was quite an experience.
One of the most interesting places I’ve been to was Lhasa, Tibet, and it’s just unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.
On the other hand, we like to go to the Caribbean. We [my husband and I] are divers, and that’s where we got our divers’ license. We love to explore wherever we go.
We found that some of our drivers were addicted to pot long before it became legal. And the fact that they didn’t have a good attitude about life. But what do you do, it’s like “gee, the people I knew best were all my brothers and now you expect me to socialize with people who have no idea what I went through?”
I can understand it.
Fighting Depression
JTP: You also mentioned dealing with depression, how do you deal with it? How do you cope?
Trudy: You fight it. You put your mind somewhere else, you get up and move. I had times where I didn’t want to get out of bed and you think “wait a minute, what am I doing” and you get treatment. I think therapists are the wonderful people who serve the ones who served and who need a lot of help to go on in life.
I’ve known people whose children killed themselves because of depression. So you first have to learn that you’re going to deal with the problems that you have. You’ve got to dig it out, ask yourself “where did it come from, where did it start, was it my parents?” And understanding yourself why you are depressed, I think, are the key answers in how you rise above it.
End of Interview
Trudy’s revelations about her own struggles are part of the reasons why she wants to see other women out there “making it”. Her life story isn’t one long happy journey, but rather one filled with struggle and perseverance.
Her message to women everywhere is clear: no matter what you have gone through or what you are going through, you have the power inside you to break free from it all and overcome it to reach your full potential.
