It really exceeded my expectations.

You know, I said at the introduction there have been moments over the past several years that have been very challenging at universities a campus crisis, a student death, you know, the pandemic.

And I remember that really vulnerable moment saying, who’s thinking about a different way to approach the harmony we need on our campuses and this notion came up, and I kind of offered it up as an idea, and then I get to come back and see what Grand Valley has done with it.

And it was, you know, as I expected, it was a very powerful experience to really Move yourself into the lived journey of another person in a way that came with all the emotion and all of the challenge and joy that they experienced along the way.

In leadership, we so often are teaching one how to communicate, how to command a room, how to convey an idea.

I cannot remember in my leadership classes thinking deeply about how to listen carefully And I think for me, and sort of the leaders that, whether you’re leading our country, our community, our university, our hospital, or our business, we have to do more.

listening.

And that’s the only way we’re going to get to true appreciation.

So I really hope that people come away with the power of listening and that it is a competency and a clarity that we need to build.

When you are present in the moments and you are just focused on the story of someone else and you’re just listening to understand, I think that just touchesches you at a really deep human core level And it was bringing out a lot of emotions for me.

I might start crying as I’m, answering this question for you just to hear the perseverance, the resilience of the human spirit and the stories that people share, the things that they face and they overcome the vulnerability that they offered in the moment and sharing this with a room full of strangers That is something that you don’t often get to experience, and I feel like that is a. I mean, there’s something kind of spiritual about that, and I think that was part of what really touched me in the ways that it did everyone’s story My hope for folks in Michigan listening to each other is really to learn that I think that there’s a thread that connects us all.

There is a universality in just being who we are in the state, and that it’s so much more that we do have in common than that divides us or that is different And I just wish folks could have the humility to understand that we don’t know it all, but collectively being together, that there is really nothing that we can’t do.

I love Michigan.. This is a great state, and I think there’s something about being in Michiganander that really could come through, you know, be elevated and amplified to just listening to other migandersers.

Our miganians, depending upon whichever word you to you choose, so It’s okay to hold the tension in moments of silence.

It’s okay to not know exactly what to say to someone and immediately in a way where we are not formulating an answer while the other person is still talking to just take that opportunity to make space for each other, where we can be together, even if we don’t have all the right answers and all the right things to say.

You know, everything’s so big, everything’s so noisy now.

And each one of these stories were very personal and drawing us back down to some basic fundamental needs that we have as humans And I found myself at the end of listening, wondering, how do we go forward and and create more more listeners, listening to learn rather than listening to respond And how do we all come together and actually learn from that to try to do better?

So how do we take it from here?

That’s my biggest question.

right now, is I want to share it with everyone.

I hope more people become more open minded because there’s a lot of close minded people or people that are scared to share their story in fear of being judged for speaking So with people like Jose and all the other speakers that spoke today, having the courage to get up there can give another group of people with a whole nother set of stories the courage to get up there and continue to share and maybe common ground can be found in every story So I resonate in a lot of ways and tugged at them heartstrings.

And then those things came down and but I didn’t clap, so.

I think being a student, a lot of kids in my generation, Gen Z, aren’t able to see, you know, a real direction for the future and much change for making our future brighter.

So I think getting to hear the stories of people from across our diverse state and hearing all these stories of people who come from all different backgrounds and all different families and cultures and traditions honestly taught me that we’re more than just our names and our traditions.

We have stories to back them up as well.

So getting to hear them as a firsthand experience is honestly something I would never be able to experience else elsewhere.

I would say my most immediate reaction was trying to control the urge to clap and just affirm some of the stories that I was hearing, because obviously, I couldn’t relate to every single one of those, but that was the point of the event in some.

way, to kind of show us that there are so many lives within Michigan that are so different from our own and those lives have to be respected as they are, and also, we have to be empathetic towards those stories because without them, we couldn’t be as diverse as we are today, as a state And I think, in the long term, it brought me hope personally, for a future in which these stories are shared, not just within rooms like these, but in regular everyday conversations where people are willing to have uncomfortable dialogue with one another I mean, unity doesn’t always have to mean the same thing happening over and over again.

You can also have unity and diversity, and tonight was just another representation of that.

I think technology and social media, especially in our generation, makes it so much easier to prevent having those dialogues and almost avoid having those dialogues all together.

But if we can find a way to make those conversations more human and more interwoven into today’s society, I feel like that can be the first step towards progress and a future where we actually listen to one another I was really deeply moved by the, you know, experiences that our fellow miganders had to share.

I wasn’t expecting what I heard tonight, like, the way that people really were vulnerable and shared, like, the things that made them tick, their backgrounds, the really like raw pieces of their histories that help us grow and help us learn and help us be better neighbors.

So I was really grateful for everyone’s ability to disclose all of that so that we can as a community be better to one another I mean, I felt the whole gamut of emotions.

I mean, at some points, you were laughing with with the speeches when they were talking about, like, you know, the funny, the highs of their life, and then at other points, you were really feeling the sorrow when people were talking about like parents, loss of parents or when they were when they were talking about illnesses or when they were talking about like not feeling belonging or when they were talking about abuse I mean, you feel the gamut of emotions.

And really, the stories were able to really transport us to those places.

And so, I mean, I’m a really empathetic person, so I mean, I really felt those in my soul while they were happening.

So it was really hard to not affirm, to clap I think the fact that we weren’t allowed to clap allowed for us to really embody the stories that were being told and allowed for us to really just sort of be meditative in the process.

So I appreciated that.

What I was experiencing and what I was feeling was, you know, it was distinct, but it was unfamiliar It serves as another reminder that, you know, we’re not alone.

We’re.

We’re able to make such a great impact that when we just slow down, listen, and really just take the time to show the humanity between each other I think specifically for my generation or young people, it serves as an opportunity to to see what it can be from listening.. You know, we live in a very spread and fast world where it becomes almost very rare to just slow down, listen and really just have a conversation And it’s related to, you know, Michigan lessons, it, you know, I feel emotions of, you know, sadness, of sorrow, and empathy, and it gives me a It gives me a hope.

It gives me a hope that we we’re not too quick to assume, we’re not too quick to presume, build these pre.judices, and really just listen to our stories.

I was doing my best to not react to the things that I heard that were so moving, inspiring, and those things that I could connect with personally.

There were a number of different number of different speakers that share parts of their stories that I saw myself being the part of that story And so as I sat there listening, I just thought, what a wonderful collection of diversity, diversity of thought, diversity of geographyography brought together in one place to share their own separate and individual story, but to also, like, share just a little bit of somewhat of a tapestry throughout I loved to settle into that silence, like, settle into that silent moment and just hear and feel and think and reflect and really be present with what was happening in the room, what was being said as an educator, practicing the pause, sitting with the silent, just I found that it gives folks just another beat to just think.

espond.

And it’s responding from a better place of understanding and hopefully appreciation.

I think we can listen with our hearts and our wholselves and we can speak from our hearts and our wholelves, and sometimes we speak speak by listening.

Like sometimes we speak in the silence I think that’s where we also see transformation in our relationships with one another.

I mean, I think I think Michigan has great people all over, all over the state, the lower and upper Peninsula.

And then to hear one person being from the West side of the state, one person being centrally located, heearing the story of someone being on the from one side and going upriver or down river, and being able to share in their own story that I didn’t know how I would be received, but learning that you can also move around and settle in to community.

I think I said earlier, we have much more in common than we do apart."

And so, Yeah, Michigan’s a great place.

Michigan is a great place to live, to learn, and to listen to one another.