This is important because...

At one point today I started to think about what motivates me to succeed in life. Recently, I'd had a conversation with my boss about my mom and her influence in my life. Then yesterday I had a conversation with a friend about my childhood. Needless to say both of these things made me think about my family and how they shaped me...

There is a really incredible speech in the play Frost/Nixon (the play was that good - I'm still talking about it in my blog) that Nixon has where he talks about never being able to escape your roots - even if you surpass every expectation and assumption associated with where you began - if your beginnings aren't stellar, you will never escape it. I realized that I understood this speech and in some ways I realized how AMAZING my family was at widening my view of the world. My mom will give me a bunch of credit for getting myself where I am, but they must have done something right.

Let me tell you about Center Line, Michigan. A small suburb poised on the edge of Detroit, it is a mile by a mile and three quarters square. Back when I was elementary and middle school, I knew Center Line families: families with lots of children or cousins - lots of people were related and it had a certain sense of community.

There were gangs in my middle school and at times the whole situation was pretty grim. I did a lot of things outside of school and while I was in school I was pretty bored and unhappy. Then I went to Roeper for high school and everything changed.

Many of the people I went to elementary and middle school with are married and have lots of kids. They still live right around the same area where we grew up and frankly I can't relate to their lives. Of course, these are the people that I never really felt like I could relate to anyways. And that isn't to say that one life choice is better than the other, they are just different.

However, being from Center Line and Warren (Warren is the suburb that completely encompasses the suburb of Center Line and is larger and more recognizable) has it's stigma. FYI, Marshall Mathers aka Eminem is also from Warren. The area of South Warren which encompasses 10 mile to the infamous 8 mile is often referred to as "Warren-tucky." It is not a pretty area to say the least. My father actually grew up in this part of town, but considering he was born in 1923 you can guess that things changed a great deal. This area of East Detroit Metro comes with assumptions. Once I was on a plane ride to New York when the man next to me asked what I did in New York. At this time I was writing grants and managing the fundraising for Queens Council on the Arts. I told him about my job and he asked me where I went to school. I told him that I went to Carnegie Mellon and he congratulated me. "Tough school" he said, "Good for you." Then he asked me where I went to high school. When I said Roeper he complimented the school. My high school came with a repuation of it's own...sometimes good, sometimes bad. Then he asked me where I lived. When I told him Center Line he scoffed and said "How'd you pull that one off?" This made me incredibly angry. Where I lived underminded the accomplishments he had just praised.

I understand that speech in Frost/Nixon and I understand why I can't just do well, I have to do amazing sometimes if I can. I have more to say about this subject, but I'm exhausted....