I am not good at knowing when to express gratitude and who to thank. I am blessed with awesome mentors and besties. They know who they are... but have I made sure they know how much I appreciate them?
What about complicated relationships? The most complicated relationships in my world are with my siblings. The one year I worked with Upward Bound was enlightening. Stick with me here. I'll connect the dots.
Upward Bound is an awesome program that used to be run out of Coe College. I volunteered for them when I was student and came to work for them in the summer of 1993. I was excited to be in Voorhees Hall which had just been renovated so we had air conditioning in the summer. Previously they stayed in Greene Hall - my hall. As an RA I was the last to move out and my bestie's fiancée came and had a conversation with me while I was showering. I later said to Rahul, "Well, you've never seen me naked but Audrey and I had a great conversation while I was washing up."
Connect the dots, Steve... connect the dots...
The students in Upward Bound come from crazy families. Hearing their stories made me realize that even though depression and substance abuse runs deep in my family - brother, aunt and uncle committed suicide - I actually had a pretty good childhood. None of us kids ever worried about a roof over our heads or food on the table. My cold distant German father made sure of that. Dad and I reconciled our differences before his death; for that I will always be grateful.
How is this connecting dots?
Although I was 39 before I truly understood Dad's philosophy when I did it hit me like a ton of bricks. He cried. I cried. Dad didn't cry. Again, his standard is cold German.
You do your best for the people you love.
Sounds simple, but we all know it's not. I've morphed his philosophy to "know who you will take a bullet for and walk it backwards."
When my mentor Bill Spellman died then Coe President Jim Phifer said he admired the fierce loyalty of Billy's gang. If you want more on that scroll back to an earlier episode of this vlog.
Land the plane, Steve, Land the plane.
I can't buy stock in Coke because I want to love the product and not be upset at the stock price.
The best addition to Facebook was the "it's complicated" feature to describe relationships. That's me with Coe College. As much as I love the place they've also screwed me over, more than once. They also screwed over a few other people I'd take a bullet for so... yeah... it's complicated.
What's different now? None of those people are in power. The guy in charge... the President of the college is my friend Dave Hayes. Dave is a good man. I could give you a thousand reasons why I know that it is true but I won't. Simply know I cried with joy when he was promoted. I felt the better about my alma mater than I have felt in decades.
As a fellow member of the Dismal Science (it's what we economists like to call ourselves we are part of a club. For those of us in the club... the ones taught by Spellman, Wu, and Vaidy there is a bond.
Seriously, Kranz, land the fracking plane.
Today is Coe's day of giving. It is with gratitude and love for my alma mater that I am happy to give back. It is an institution facing tremendous headwinds but it made me the man I am today so thank you Coe.
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