Jeff Vasiloff ends every email with the same quote by Maya Angelou: “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” The Otterbein professor said he feels this is a great motto for life and tends to live by it.
“If you want a happy life, you have to take action – either to change something or change your attitude,” he said. “Angelou’s advice is such a true compass for life, at least to me.”
Vasiloff is from Wadsworth, Ohio, and graduated from the College of Wooster and Ohio State University medical school. Now a professor of anatomy and physiology in the Department of Biology and Earth Science, he is involved in several other projects outside his Otterbein work.
Though he has faced a number of challenges in recent years, he has found ways to turn these challenges into opportunities for creativity.
A few examples of this are the album that he made in dedication to the Special Olympics, and writing a medical mystery novel.
Vasiloff’s album has been on iTunes for a year and is called “Heroes,” a title inspired by his children and the challenges they have overcome. Vasiloff said that “Heroes” was an appropriate title for the album because he considers his children to be heroes.
“They make me courageous and resilient because they display courage and resilience by facing and overcoming challenges daily that are greater than mine.”
“My son, Jake, 13, is in the Special Olympics,” he said. “It’s a wonderful program. He has a disease called Prader-Willi, which is not inherited, but one in 10,000 people get it.”
Though the disease causes weakness in Jake’s muscles, he is strong enough to participate in the Special Olympics. Vasiloff said that his son is also an excellent musician and plays the drum set and hand drum on the album.
His 15-year-old daughter, Jenna, suffered a stroke early in her life. She sings a duet with her father on the album called “Scrubby Scrubby.” The song was inspired by the times she played with her rubber duck toy in the bathtub when she was a small child.
He said that Jake bravely endures the hardships brought on by a muscular disease, while Jenna has fought an uphill battle her whole life after having a stroke at a young age.
Vasiloff has written songs as a hobby since college, but he didn’t start to work on his album until more recent years.
“Back in college, (I) took a year of classical guitar, but I’ve never had any other training. … I like music.”
He started to work on his album after he needed a distraction from other areas of his life.
“A few years ago, my wife filed for divorce,” he said. “Not having the kids as much, I figured I’d make (a) CD to get my mind off the heartbreak.”
Vasiloff is currently working on a second album.
“(I am) making another album of folk and folk-rock songs, (a more) serious and sober CD than ‘Heroes.’ … (I will) probably perform folk songs a few times a year. … Our band ‘Red Wheel Barrow’ (titled after the poem by William Carlos Williams) will take a world tour of Hilliard and Westerville.”
Vasiloff said he also wrote a medical mystery novel, “Of Angels and Madness,” because he wanted to see if he could do it.
“(It’s a) good mystery, but (it has) lots of controversy: religion, HIV and more.”
He said he loves to write and has finished two novels so far. He said he didn’t expect to write a bestseller and encourages input from readers to point out the flaws.
Vasiloff has goals for Otterbein as well, hoping to start a public health program. He also wants to continue teaching.
“(I want to) become the best teacher I can … I want my students to have fun (and) learn a lot.”
