Indiana Retold

Student Stories

Katie Lichtle, a graduate student in the school of library science, discusses her path to her dream career and her self discovery within the LGBTQ+ community.

Description of the video:

00:01

[Music]

00:05 so when I was 18 I thought I had it all

00:08 figured out I knew what I was doing

00:09 professionally I knew myself super well

00:12 and then I was in a Delia's dressing

00:17 room bawling my eyes out with my mom on

00:22 the other side of the door going Katie

00:24 Katie are you okay I opened the door

00:28 tears staining my face and I show her my

00:32 phone with the email from Purdue saying

00:35 hey it's the new year freshman year you

00:37 have been kicked out

00:39 whoo my mom being the champion that she

00:44 is immediately took me in the car and we

00:47 drove over to the Ivy Tech where I

00:49 signed up for classes and rolled to a

00:51 story I got back into Purdue spring of

00:55 my sophomore year and all things to Ivy

00:59 Tech great school so few weeks after

01:06 actually a few months after I got back

01:09 to Purdue I ended up getting a job at

01:11 the West Lafayette Public Library and

01:14 that is where I created the best family

01:17 I have ever made they're a bunch of

01:19 queer women that took me under their

01:22 arms and so we're getting you through

01:24 school and along this route they also

01:27 sparked my love of libraries again

01:29 something I lost somewhere in my angsty

01:31 preteen years and never got back I took

01:35 this love of libraries with me to a

01:38 study abroad it was an LGBTQ health

01:40 inequality study abroad I'd always

01:42 considered myself an ally I mean I read

01:45 I was an English major so I read queer

01:47 literature I took intro to LGBTQ courses

01:49 and I'm like why not I want to be a

01:51 better Ally let's go on this trip so I

01:54 did while we were there we were in

01:56 Scotland Ireland we went to a bunch of

01:58 libraries and archives and this was my

02:01 bread and butter as I found out I kept

02:04 bird them with questions if you don't

02:07 know anything about archives it's okay

02:08 but I'd ask them how do you get these

02:11he's open to the public can I take

02:15 pictures so of course the study abroad

02:19 ended I came back five days later I was

02:22 to graduate from Purdue with my Bachelor

02:25 of Arts in English turns out I had no

02:29 idea what I was doing after I graduated

02:31 and well I graduated and a few weeks

02:35 later I was sitting in my parents house

02:37 and my lime green and pepto-bismol pink

02:41 room and going what am I doing with my

02:44 life um when I was on that study abroad

02:47 though my professors had planted this

02:49 seed for me like why don't you go to a

02:51master's program

02:53 like well first of all you know my GPA

02:55 is not that great I got kicked out

02:57 second of all like why would anybody

02:59 take a chance on me but staring at those

03:02 walls I decide you know what I'm gonna

03:04 take the GRE and I got two awesome

03:08 recommendation letters one for my

03:09 library and one for my other professors

03:10 and here I stand I am at Indiana

03:14 University for my masters of library

03:16 program and I decided that I wanted to

03:20 be a bigger part of this I you community

03:23 in the Bloomington community so I ended

03:24 up joining a professional organization

03:26 the Society of American archivists and I

03:29 also signed up for the Q newsletter

03:32 which I then saw that they had a

03:34 call-out for a thing called grad queers

03:36 which is just a social organization for

03:38 graduate students like yeah I'm a good

03:41 Ally I am going to go to this meeting

03:43 and I did I got off work at wells and I

03:47 was walking to the LGBTQ library Center

03:49 the meeting was in the library and it

03:53 was the longest 15-minute walk of my

03:55 life it's really not that far of a walk

03:57 partially because I got lost it was my

04:00 first few weeks okay when I got to the

04:03 center I just planted my feet and stared

04:06 at that door for what felt like probably

04:08 five minutes going why am I so scared to

04:12 go into this room eventually I did it I

04:16 walked up the stairs walked into the

04:17 library we were walking and we were just

04:19 saying a nice little circle and we

04:22 started introductions I was about midway

04:25 through I was sweating

04:27 as everybody started introducing

04:29 themselves and what came out my mouth

04:32 when they got to me surprised even me

04:35 what's something like this hi my name is

04:38 Katie little I use pronouns she/her/hers

04:40 and I'm by they all waved san moved on

04:47 meanwhile I'm having an existential

04:49 crisis in that chair

04:53 how what just came out of my mouth

04:56 and then I thought about it for you know

04:58 five minutes before we got to the end

05:00 and I realized for 24 years of my life I

05:03 had buried something very deep down and

05:06 I felt light as a feather when I got out

05:08 of that meeting and since I've told some

05:11very important people in my life I told

05:13 my mom who took it like a champ like

05:15 she's taken everything else my partner

05:18 he's been the most supportive I could

05:21have ever asked for

05:24 so indianature has truly blessed me I am

05:29 now a mentor to an amazing freshman

05:32 Ellie btq freshman and I'm about to

05:35 graduate in May with my master of

05:37 library science degree so I found my

05:44 profession at Purdue and I found myself

05:47 at IU

05:50

[Applause]

Anna Tragesser discusses belonging within her seven generation Indiana family.

Description of the video:

00:01

[Music]

00:05

I'm Anna I'm a Hoosier and I'm a tracker

00:09

sir and the story of being a tracker sir

00:12

in Indiana can be summed up in seven

00:14

words it starts in 1777 are you ready

00:18

Yohan Lorenz George is a door Louis

00:23

Scott Anna here's some other things you

00:29

should know about being a tracker sir

00:30

you work all over the state and you take

00:33

meetings with people in small towns and

00:35

they ask you if you know Roxy or Joe or

00:38

Chuck

00:38

Drago sir and you say you know but I am

00:40

probably related to them because my

00:43

grandfather Louis is the oldest of dev

00:46

hold on 19 children 17 that survived so

00:51

I don't know most of my family but

00:52

they're out there and they've been there

00:54

for seven generations that those 19

00:58

children were also all had the same

01:00

parents and so as you might assume the

01:03

tractors are also very Catholic

01:07

except for that was true for our entire

01:10

story until my dad and my mom and my dad

01:14

were not married in the Catholic

01:15

tradition and so according to my mother

01:17

my grandfather believes that my brother

01:19

and I were bastard children and we get a

01:21

kick out of that we wear that like a

01:23

badge of honor the other thing you

01:27

should know about being a tractors that

01:29

were farmers we work outside we know the

01:32

land we know equipment we know livestock

01:34

we know of us guys and we know how to

01:36

work hard and after 60 plus years of

01:39

working and some heavy-duty machinery my

01:41

grandfather could not hear anything

01:44

that's not true he could hear people who

01:47

he knew very well but I can never

01:49

remember him ever being able to hear me

01:52

and so for most of our lives together we

01:56

kind of orbited each other I never spoke

02:00

with him because he couldn't hear me and

02:01

he didn't really know how to handle kids

02:02

except there's one moment I can remember

02:05

sitting on a log next to him in

02:08

Yellowstone National Park and there are

02:11

1 trillion brilliant stars above

02:13

and we were both just staring up and

02:15

that didn't require any hearing my dad

02:18

and his five siblings lived on a 50 acre

02:20

farm into the southern part of Tipton

02:23

County for 50 years and this farm has

02:27

been in our family for now two

02:28

generations it is my favorite place on

02:32

earth it's the place we went for every

02:35

holiday every single gathering where

02:38

around that 10 foot long dining-room

02:40

table

02:40

we were playing frisbee golf outside we

02:42

were playing euchre at every free moment

02:44

floating right on from luncheon to

02:46

dinner and back again after we were done

02:48

playing in the hayloft with my with my

02:50

cousins and that was a place I felt like

02:53

I I'm I most belonged and yet never

02:56

quite belonged this is a feeling that I

02:59

created for myself in some way nobody

03:01

ever really told me this directly but I

03:04

was kind of like I was not quite in on

03:06

the joke maybe not all the way in the

03:08

loop and somebody allowed me to be there

03:11

while they were doing other things this

03:13

kind of you know wasn't something I was

03:15

ever told to me but years and years and

03:17

lifetime of feeling this way cemented

03:19

this periphery trogir identity I took on

03:21

never fully a in it but always kind of

03:24

near it so about this so yeah so this my

03:34

life took a pretty big change about a

03:37

year ago when my long-term relationship

03:40

five years my partner decided he didn't

03:43

want a life with me and that was pretty

03:44

disorienting that's not the story here

03:46

by the way but it did make me reevaluate

03:50

what I was doing in my life

03:51

and made me go back to the thing that I

03:53

thought was most true about me and that

03:54

was that I am a tractor and so I was

03:57

gonna dig into what that really meant

03:58

what no matter how much I actually felt

04:00

like I belonged and so I started running

04:02

with my aunt on the country roads asking

04:05

her as many questions as I could about

04:07

what it was like to live on the farm and

04:08

her siblings in her aunts and uncles I

04:10

started to garden the plot that had been

04:13

there for 50 years and grew the best

04:15

cherry tomatoes the best black

04:16

raspberries watermelon and asparagus

04:18

that still pops up every spring I also

04:22

started to just show up to things that I

04:25

wouldn't

04:26

I've done before to family parties or

04:29

one day my aunt told me that the tree

04:31

that we used to play euchre in the shade

04:33

of every summer afternoon when we were

04:35

in town had to be cut down and so I just

04:38

showed up to take pictures and to pick

04:39

up wood and to be there with her and

04:41

with the tree one day when I was I did

04:46

that I went up to the farm to garden a

04:48

couple times a week an hour drive up

04:50

from my downtown Indianapolis apartment

04:52

and I would walk around the property up

04:54

to the creek out to the road down to the

04:56

southern most part of our property where

04:59

there was a signpost that was put up by

05:01

the Tipton County Department of

05:02

Transportation that read southern

05:04

boundary of the Miami reservation how

05:08

did I not notice that before this was

05:10

art this is our land this is the place

05:12

that I felt like I belong because it

05:14

belongs to us right

05:15

that's it threw me for a loop for a long

05:18

time and I was not sure how to be

05:19

present here in that place anymore it

05:22

has always been there

05:23

as long as I can remember and this is a

05:25

problem that was probably bigger than me

05:27

this is not something that a periphery

05:29

trakzer can figure out what to do with

05:32

this knowledge and understanding sinking

05:34

in so I continued to garden and I

05:39

remember specifically one day just

05:41

standing up and exhaling as hard as I

05:43

could into the sky feeling this weight

05:45

and sending up that it was unanswered

05:49

questions cuz I didn't know what to do

05:51

with it and then for some reason I

05:53

started building kites that's a

05:55

different story but those were also

05:56

representing to me this unanswered

05:58

questions of what it meant to be a

05:59

tractor and singing up into the sky of

06:01

the place that I felt like I belonged

06:02

most around the same time I also was

06:05

taking a look at my life and realizing

06:07

that in the last five years of my

06:08

relationship my life had gotten pretty

06:10

boring and I was not boring and so I got

06:13

my motorcycle license my classmates in

06:17

the safety class could not believe that

06:19

I was taking it just to learn something

06:21

new and they were right nobody should

06:23

get licensed after just like five five

06:25

hours on a machine like that in fact I

06:28

was so confident I just I had nothing

06:31

else to lose really I wanted to just try

06:33

something new that kind of had been

06:34

boiling in me for a long time I put it

06:36

out there and when I walked across the

06:38

room to get my certificate from the

06:39

instructor on the

06:40

last day he said to me we didn't think

06:42

you were gonna make it when you walked

06:44

in here that first day and my mo is to

06:47

prove other people wrong and prove

06:49

myself wrong and so that doe Lake of

06:52

wanting to be a person who rode a

06:54

motorcycle was now this fiery unfounded

06:57

confidence that I need to get back on

06:58

that bike ASAP so I was cruising

07:01

Craigslist every day for the next couple

07:04

of months and then she found me

07:06

1973 Honda twin so I took Cody my

07:10

brother to go Steve Andrew the current

07:13

owner and he was so gracious to me and

07:16

answered my stupidest questions while I

07:17

sat on the bike and giggled and could

07:19

not think of anything else to do so I

07:21

asked him if I could sleep on it

07:23

I didn't sleep on it cuz I knew that I

07:25

needed to get on that bike and ride it

07:27

before I bought it

07:28

I couldn't sleep because that thing was

07:32

a rumbly beautiful 400 pound angel that

07:35

I should not be behind the bars of the

07:37

handlebars of but I went back and took

07:41

her out on the road this was the first

07:42

time I'd been on the road mind you and

07:45

released the crutch clutch really slowly

07:47

eventually kicked it up into first gear

07:49

into second gear from first gear and got

07:51

around the corner where my dude Andrew

07:53

couldn't see me anymore and approached a

07:55

stop sign and rolled right through it

07:58

sorry mr. Mars but at least I got back

08:03

down at first right so did that a couple

08:04

more lap a couple more times and my

08:06

nerves were tingling and I knew she was

08:08

coming home with me

08:10

so Andrew drove her back to my apartment

08:12

for me and I stashed her behind my

08:14

apartment building so nobody could see

08:16

her and steal her and for the second

08:18

night I didn't sleep at all because

08:19

every three seconds I was looking

08:20

outside the window checking make sure

08:22

she was still there so I feel like

08:24

that's probably as close to Parenthood

08:25

as I'm ever gonna get at feeling it's a

08:28

healthy fear I didn't tell my parents

08:32

about this motorcycle for a couple

08:33

months cuz I just didn't want them to

08:35

just start praying out loud instantly

08:36

for me to make good decisions I just

08:38

wanted to have this for myself for a

08:39

little bit and I also this thing is not

08:44

even powerful enough to go out on the

08:45

interstate it was perfect

08:47

however for backcountry Indiana roads

08:50

especially those between Indianapolis

08:52

and

08:53

in Indiana where our family farm was so

08:58

I continued along this trend of just

08:59

showing up to family things and so I

09:01

showed up to my cousin's graduation

09:02

party and she didn't even show up to it

09:04

by the way and we had somehow gotten

09:08

into this new tradition of gaining every

09:11

family photo we had out of our books

09:13

since my grandparents had passed

09:15

apparently there's only one person

09:16

family knows how to scan but I would

09:19

just took great joy in this newfound

09:21

presence in investigation into my family

09:23

history of looking through stacks of

09:25

photos and asking as many questions as I

09:27

could loved guessing which of my aunts

09:29

and uncles were the babies in these

09:30

pictures if those were great stories but

09:33

then I found the photo that made me

09:35

remember actually that created belonging

09:38

for me this was this photo became

09:41

fertile ground from which I actually

09:42

grew my own belonging in my family out

09:44

of so picture this it's a perfect

09:49

black-and-white photo crisp not blurry

09:52

at all looks like a fake photo because

09:54

of the theatrical lighting that's coming

09:55

in in this afternoon Indiana Sun it is

09:59

1917 and my great-grandfather Isadora is

10:02

17 years old there's a perfect 1913

10:07

single-cylinder Indian bike sitting on

10:09

its hind back stand back kickstand on a

10:12

brick street in Tipton Indiana Court

10:14

Street he is in a black pinstripe suit

10:18

he's wearing a white handkerchief and

10:20

leather gloves and a bow tie and he has

10:24

this coolest haircut it looks like peach

10:26

fuzz on the side because it's so short

10:28

buzz and it's amazing comb back like you

10:30

would see some rows probably something I

10:34

heard yeah he's looking ahead ready for

10:40

whatever is coming out down the road at

10:42

like hey I got you and I know that

10:44

feeling I know exactly what that feeling

10:46

is so I asked a story what is this

10:48

what's going on here and I get this

10:51

my grandfather was 17 and a few months

10:54

after this photo was taken he was riding

10:56

his motorcycle and was hit by a train

10:58

and he survives and so of course in tiny

11:02

Tipton he becomes the talk of the town

11:04

everybody's buzzing about Pat Isadora

11:07

Pat including Anna Hoffman

11:10

Anna Hoffman is enthralled with this

11:12

story and wants to meet this dude with

11:14

such passion and such daredevil

11:15

abilities that he survives this accident

11:18

and so she does and she marries him and

11:21

taking on his last name she becomes an

11:24

attractor and so this became my

11:29

permission to belong in my family after

11:31

seven generations of actually being here

11:34

in Indiana and of it and there are a lot

11:36

of things a lot more things about being

11:38

a tracker sir that I am NOT proud of at

11:40

all I take on and belong to my own

11:44

generational reactions of racism and

11:48

xenophobia and homophobia in colonialism

11:51

that feel really heavy on me and I am

11:54

now part of this family fully and don't

11:58

quite know what to do with all of those

11:59

things and so I keep making kites and I

12:03

keep gardening and soon I will move to

12:07

the farm and this spring we will plant a

12:10

tree it will be an American chestnut

12:13

because my dad always said that my

12:16

grandpa thought that would be neat thank

12:19

you

12:20

[Applause]

Dalton Gibson recounts his journey of how he became an IU student.

Description of the video:

00:01

[Music]

00:06

thank you my close enough perfect all

00:11

right so when I graduated from high

00:14

school my grandmother gave me a journal

00:16

and on the first cover page of the

00:19

journal she told me that life was my own

00:21

story to write and she was correct but

00:24

she was also wrong and I'm gonna tell

00:27

you why

00:27

so a few blocks from here a few years

00:30

ago I was actually born in Bloomington

00:33

Hospital my parents worked in

00:37

manufacturing and when the economy

00:39

tanked in 2008 our family was left broke

00:42

and with hard choices to make so we

00:45

moved to Indianapolis my mom was able to

00:48

get a job there and I started going to

00:51

an affluent suburban high school the

00:54

high school was great it was a critical

00:56

part of my development experience I was

01:00

able at that high school to kind of

01:02

start writing that story but also

01:04

understanding my place in it so the

01:07

first day when I walked in the door I

01:09

remember I used to wear very baggy

01:11

clothes and they were hand-me-downs from

01:14

my older brothers they didn't look very

01:16

good and it wasn't what everyone else

01:19

was wearing for the very first time I

01:21

started to acknowledge that I was

01:23

different than these people around me

01:25

later that year when I came out as gay I

01:28

realized I was much different than many

01:31

of the people around me but the support

01:34

that I received from my peers was a

01:37

first in a generation perhaps I never

01:40

experienced the issues of bullying and

01:42

harassment and discrimination that you

01:45

hear about and that meant more to me

01:48

than I think I could conceptualize in

01:50

words to you all right now these same

01:53

peer stayed with me through the years

01:55

they were great to me they elected me

01:57

their homecoming king

02:02

but then graduation day came around and

02:04

we were all supposed to go our separate

02:07

ways and it was on that day that I got

02:09

that journal and realized that it was my

02:11

turn to write the story it was the first

02:15

story that would get to begin at college

02:17

for anyone in my family

02:19

my mom and dad both dropped out their

02:21

sophomore years my grandparents never

02:24

finished middle school so I thought

02:28

about what I wanted to do next my

02:30

parents expected me to go work in a

02:32

factory that's what my siblings were

02:34

doing and it was what it appeared I was

02:37

going to do I didn't want to do that

02:40

though not because I didn't admire and

02:42

respect the hard work that they put in

02:44

day after day but because I wanted to

02:47

find a deeper sense of meaning and to

02:49

help more people who had been in a

02:51

situation like me and felt lost

02:53

so I remember around October I'm sitting

02:56

there big tub chocolate ice cream some

02:59

show on Netflix that I was binge

03:00

watching at the time and I'm scrolling

03:03

through Instagram right so it's dark

03:04

I've got my phone I'm looking on this

03:07

glass screen and I'm seeing all of my

03:09

friends all of those peers the people

03:10

who were so good to me away and at these

03:15

fancy colleges in these places that

03:17

seemed so far off in foreign and it

03:20

really struck home that all of the other

03:25

barriers I had overcome had led me to

03:28

this point and I wasn't going to let

03:30

that barrier stand in my way either my

03:33

parents god bless them worked two jobs

03:36

and so they weren't able to really help

03:39

me with that they didn't know what to do

03:40

or where to go so I marched myself up to

03:43

the Community College Ivy Tech in

03:45

Indianapolis I enrolled same day they

03:48

were able to get me health insurance for

03:49

the first time in my life I worked my

03:53

behind off and I came down to IU for a

03:59

tour day and I remember seeing all of

04:01

the senior kids with their families and

04:03

it was this dark day everything was kind

04:06

of dreary but the campus was beautiful

04:08

and I was so excited to be there until

04:10

it rained I had not brought an umbrella

04:15

and standing with the kids and their

04:17

parents holding their umbrellas while I

04:19

was being rained on it struck to me

04:22

again you don't belong here I refused to

04:27

listen to that voice and when I applied

04:29

to IU I was accepted I moved down here

04:32

with my pride and I stuck to it when

04:38

deciding what I was going to do for a

04:39

career I chose to become an educator

04:41

because I felt that my own education had

04:44

empowered me and I wanted to empower

04:46

others with knowledge and learning in

04:48

the same way that I had been empowered

04:50

and so dan and day-out

04:52

I continued to rewrite my own story and

04:55

that to me is what it means to retell

04:57

India

05:00

[Applause]

English (auto-generated)

 

 

 

 

Carrick Moon talks about coming out as trans and the importance of love and acceptance.

Description of the video:

00:01

[Music]

00:04

so between backyard dinner parties and

00:08

time with family I've spent the days

00:11

after my high school graduation sifting

00:14

through letters from family and friends

00:17

from those I looked up to and from those

00:20

who looked up to me and kind of like

00:23

height markings on a bedroom door they

00:26

were a reminder of just how far I'd come

00:30

but as I move through pages of the sky's

00:35

the limit I couldn't help but feel like

00:37

it was more like a confirmation that I

00:40

could do anything and be everything at

00:44

once and so this alongside about a dozen

00:49

bags of clothes and dorm decor is what I

00:51

took into my freshman year at IU this

00:54

unwavering belief that somehow I was

00:57

going to make everyone I knew proud but

01:01

in the way that life very rarely aligns

01:05

itself with our ambitions everything I

01:09

held is known was turned on its head

01:11

that October I was sitting in my first

01:15

class of the week watching a documentary

01:17

and what I was watching was transgender

01:19

youth recount their tales of their past

01:22

present and their future and meanwhile

01:24

in my present all I really wanted to do

01:26

was sink into the ground and I made it

01:30

back to my dorm room and I think I did

01:33

so in a kind of stupor that was a trend

01:35

for months afterward as I was riddled

01:38

with guilt asking myself how can I be

01:40

something that I don't even understand

01:43

and how am I ever going to tell anybody

01:47

knowing what they might think

01:50

and so winter turns to spring and I'm

01:53

digging myself these holes and all of my

01:56

relationships defensive and abrasive

01:58

pushing away the people that just want

02:01

to build me up feeling like how can I

02:04

talk to anybody knowing that nothing

02:06

that comes out of my mouth is going to

02:08

be true and eventually

02:13

at the bottom of that hole you get the

02:16

opportunity to meet yourself and ask

02:19

yourself the fundamental questions of

02:22

who you are who do you want to be what

02:26

do you want to be remembered as and so

02:29

when I headed into summer break luckily

02:32

with some warmer weather I knew that

02:34

something had to change and I challenged

02:37

myself to be vulnerable in ways that I

02:39

really never have before and I

02:42

challenged the people I interacted with

02:44

from family to friends to strangers to

02:47

be vulnerable in my wake and when I came

02:51

out in June I remember being so

02:55

overwhelmed by the light and the love

02:57

that I received that I honestly felt

02:59

like I was never gonna know darkness

03:01

again which is a crazy feeling when you

03:04

turn off the lights at night and it's

03:08

not that it's a complete process knowing

03:12

that love but I think that's the legacy

03:16

that we should want to leave behind to

03:20

invest in others to be kind even when

03:23

it's immeasurably difficult because love

03:27

is what builds community and community

03:31

is what builds everyone up and it can be

03:36

so difficult to keep ourselves grounded

03:39

in the need to accomplish everything to

03:43

prove our worth to everybody around us

03:45

but when we're guided with truth all of

03:48

that kind of fades away and IU is home

03:52

to me even though I'm from Kentucky

03:55

because it's the place where I learned

03:57

that being great is really only

04:00

predicated on belief and as I stand here

04:05

in front of you today I can say that I

04:07

believe in love thank you

04:10

[Applause]

English (auto-generated)

Gavin Mariano reflects on growing up in Northwest Indiana and his experience as an IU student leader.

Description of the video:

00:01

[Music]

00:05

[Applause]

00:05

[Music]

00:06

[Applause]

00:08

everyone how you doing

00:11

so I'm from Chicago I'm shy town in the

00:16

house well at least that's what I grew

00:19

up thinking see we were on Central

00:22

Standard Time we were White Sox fans

00:24

some Kautz fans Bears fans our highways

00:28

went to Chicago our radio TV was in

00:30

Chicago but here's the thing we lived in

00:33

Northwest Indiana

00:36

so Northwest Indiana has a river running

00:38

through it called the Calumet River so

00:40

it's a nickname they call it the Calumet

00:42

region or the region and those from the

00:45

region affectionately call ourselves

00:48

anyone no region rats yes it's a term of

00:53

endearment so all that time I thought

00:57

you know I'm from Chicago but Chicago

00:59

really didn't claim us they thought you

01:01

know they blamed us for the pollution in

01:03

Indiana blamed us well for everything

01:06

they said we weren't even on their time

01:07

zone so I didn't know anything about

01:09

being a Hoosier and there were some

01:11

amazing moments I had in Northwest

01:13

Indiana but also some bad moments you

01:16

know my dad left our family when I was

01:18

10 years old and my mom became a single

01:21

parent my older brother sort of became

01:24

the men of the house and they brought

01:27

along gang activity and crime and other

01:31

things and so I was convinced that

01:33

that's where I was gonna be forever and

01:37

then at the age of 17 I ran away from

01:39

home and I ended up in an emergency

01:42

shelter youth shelter and he got a went

01:45

to a foster home but because of that I

01:49

suddenly felt safe but I was already a

01:53

senior in high school so any idea of

01:56

doing anything other than surviving was

01:59

kind of beyond me right until my high

02:03

school guidance counselor her name is

02:05

Sylvia Morris row and she stalked me

02:10

but the good kind of stalking see she

02:14

called me down to the office for that

02:15

let's talk about college thing and I

02:18

thought well this is either a good way

02:19

to get out of class or this is just a

02:21

joke and I thought really it was a joke

02:23

when she said you should go to IU

02:24

Bloomington I got I don't know anything

02:27

about IU only thing I know about IU is

02:29

that I you try dent that looks like a

02:32

pitchfork which also looks like a gang

02:34

symbol so she persisted she was diligent

02:38

she did not quit and there we have it I

02:42

ended up at IU she successfully

02:43

recommended me to the group Scholars

02:45

Program and here I was a

02:47

first-generation Latino student in

02:49

Bloomington but I was kind of in over my

02:54

head like I just didn't know what was

02:56

happening I was culture shock was seem

03:00

like the least of my problems I was just

03:01

kind of a dazed over deer in the

03:04

headlights right until one day my RA in

03:08

my dorm announced that they're accepting

03:12

candidates for floor governor any former

03:15

floor governors in the house okay I

03:17

didn't think so but that's okay well hey

03:20

I was so excited I threw my I threw my

03:22

hat in the ring

03:23

and then a couple days later he came and

03:25

he knocked on my door and he's like

03:26

Gavin you won your floor governor and I

03:30

was like just I was so empowered I was

03:34

so thrilled I was so badass that it just

03:38

you know I decided to run for everything

03:40

and get involved with everything I did

03:42

Dance Marathon I became a student body

03:45

senator I even became president of

03:47

Latinos Unidos one of the student

03:49

organizations I mean it was just out of

03:51

control I even became a cold Stan Oh

03:57

or what most of my friends back in the

04:00

region called a traitor but or they

04:03

don't even acknowledge the coals but so

04:05

you know it's it's like when I think of

04:08

my high school counselor my guidance

04:11

counselor and when I think of my RA I

04:13

think man they created a monster they

04:18

also created a Hoosier

English (auto-generated)

Meloddy Gao reviews her time in Washington DC and discovers what it means to be a Hoosier.

Description of the video:

00:00

I was sitting in a congressional office

00:09

for an Indiana representative in

00:11

Washington DC and I had just gotten off

00:14

the phone with a very concerned man he

00:16

was talking to me about something about

00:19

the weather changing he said he was

00:21

concerned because of the trees now if I

00:25

had been any other intern on Capitol

00:27

Hill I probably would have thought to

00:29

myself okay another tree hugger and then

00:32

got him along with my day except I had

00:36

also noticed that the ginkgo trees this

00:38

year had shed their leaves without

00:39

turning golden yellow like they usually

00:41

do and had been following the indiana

00:43

weather and noticed that the unusual

00:46

weather that we got in in indiana was a

00:48

little bit more unusual than normal i

00:51

made a mental note in my head for yet

00:54

another person who cared about the

00:56

environment but also happened to be from

00:58

indiana in high school i became keenly

01:02

aware that everyone around me wanted to

01:04

leave my friends would say things like i

01:07

can't wait to get out of this day or

01:10

when I graduate I'm getting as far away

01:12

from here as possible

01:13

and they stuck to their word many of

01:17

them went out of state for college

01:19

others were so insistent on leaving that

01:21

they left the country and I had adopted

01:26

the same mentality as them only I

01:28

decided to extend my stay a little bit

01:30

longer and so I came here to Indiana

01:34

University and in my mind I knew all

01:38

this was temporary I was a Hoosier

01:41

because I grew up in Indiana and now I

01:45

was a Hoosier still because my school

01:49

had a very original mascot in the back

01:53

of my mind I knew that I was destined to

01:56

be somewhere else

01:57

no one could convince me otherwise going

02:02

to DC was kind of like mapping out my

02:04

escape plan I'd go there for a semester

02:08

fall in love with the city and then

02:10

return there after I graduated

02:13

I chose DC because I thought that's

02:16

where everybody who cared with anybody

02:20

with a fiery burning passion for some

02:22

sort of policy issue went to the city

02:24

where everything happened I thought that

02:27

if I wanted to make a difference if I

02:30

wanted to be somebody someday I had to

02:33

go to the nation's capital so I did

02:37

every single day on Capitol Hill brought

02:40

a new sense of excitement

02:41

I was always bumping into somebody who I

02:44

thought just might be famous

02:46

or stumbling into incredible events

02:49

during my quest for free food I was a

02:52

college student still after all and my

02:55

favorite part was meeting other Asian

02:57

Americans and looking at the astonished

02:59

look on their faces when I told them I

03:01

was from Indiana because they didn't

03:03

know that Asian Americans lived in

03:04

Indiana and since I was interning for an

03:08

Indiana representative I came in contact

03:11

with Hoosiers wherever I went I was

03:14

always engaging with them either over

03:16

email on the phones or in person and in

03:20

the back of my head I also couldn't

03:22

shake this thought of Indiana I'd go to

03:25

a hearing about vaping or education and

03:29

wanted to write a letter to my school

03:31

board back home or I go to an event

03:34

about environmental justice and think

03:36

about all my classmates at IU who would

03:38

have really enjoyed it as well one

03:41

afternoon I was sitting in a meeting

03:43

with a bunch of high school students

03:44

from Indianapolis when one of them asked

03:47

me what they could do to give back to

03:49

their community I thought for a little

03:51

bit and came up with something along the

03:54

lines of vote when you're old enough

03:56

talk to parent talk to people even if

03:59

you disagree with them sometimes they

04:01

might be your parents and also through

04:04

in a reassuring Oh high school doesn't

04:07

last forever they were so eager to make

04:12

a change and give back to the

04:14

communities that came from the very

04:17

communities that I wanted to leave

04:18

behind meeting with these students made

04:22

me realize that I had a lot to reflect

04:25

on

04:26

why I cared about the same issues that

04:28

they cared about about the environment

04:30

and education I realized I cared about

04:34

these issues because I love people who

04:36

were impacted by them my community

04:39

taught me how to be passionate and I was

04:42

so focused on leaving that I hadn't

04:44

thought about giving back

04:46

instead of having conversations with

04:48

people I had just assumed that they

04:50

didn't care and as somebody who thought

04:54

they knew everything about Indiana

04:56

I now realize there's a lot more for me

04:59

to learn there's so much more to

05:02

discover and I realized that telling

05:04

people that Indiana is nothing but

05:06

cornfields or just a state that people

05:09

drive through is really not give is

05:11

really discrediting all the history

05:13

that's come before me I thought that

05:16

going to DC would help me chase some

05:19

sort of sense of belonging find a new

05:21

home but I realized that the people

05:24

there although passionate didn't feel

05:27

like home I thought that leaving Indiana

05:31

would solidify my decision to return to

05:33

DC after I graduated but instead it made

05:37

me grow more fond of this place and

05:40

after leaving I finally realized that

05:44

the people who care the most aren't the

05:47

ones who decide to leave they're the

05:49

ones who choose to stay thank you

English (auto-generated)

 

 

 

 

Stories from Across the Hoosier State

Jonah Dahncke talks about the history and uniqueness of being a Hoosier.

Description of the video:

00:01

[Music]

00:05

all right so small tiny confession

00:08

starting out growing up I never really

00:11

saw it was anything special about being

00:13

a Hoosier it wasn't that I had anything

00:15

against it per se but just didn't seem

00:17

like there was a lot to recommend it

00:19

we'll do a quick case study

00:22

show of hands who here knows John

00:24

Mellencamp local celebrity you know

00:26

great guy let me tell you just a quick

00:28

thing about John Mellencamp when I was

00:31

growing up my dad had a small pizza shop

00:33

in the mall and every odd day John

00:35

Mellencamp would come in he'd pick up

00:37

two slices of sausage pizza large taiko

00:39

sit in the back corner of the restaurant

00:41

where no one could really see him and

00:43

spoke to cigarettes and he was done that

00:45

was it that was all that John Mellencamp

00:48

was to be the only yeah that's that's

00:52

what a celebrity wants to be in Indiana

00:54

the only celebrity thing I saw him do

00:57

was one time when this girl who was

00:59

working for my dad for the Christmas

01:00

season she came up to him she you know

01:02

really drawn in

01:04

mr. mail camp I'm such a huge fan my dad

01:07

is such a huge fan you are so important

01:09

to us and whom just mean the world you

01:11

could make his Christmas if I could just

01:13

get one autograph I'm so sorry but could

01:15

I just get one autograph from you

01:16

he looked her dead in the eyes told her

01:19

to piss off and to keep her tears to

01:21

herself that was what a huge celebrity

01:25

was to me that's what I knew the madness

01:28

I mean he was a jerk and every year

01:31

without fail if John Mellencamp was

01:33

putting on a concert in Bloomington my

01:35

dad would go see him cuz that's what a

01:37

Hoosier does I could not fathom why do

01:41

you go to see such a jerk and I continue

01:44

not to understand this until about a few

01:46

years ago which in it came about by when

01:50

I'm ashamed to say is a bit of a John

01:52

Mellencamp moment out in Brown County

01:55

there's this road called Bear Creek Road

01:58

and about a mile after it turns to

02:01

gravel there's a small church camp with

02:03

an even smaller library and I managed to

02:06

pick up a job that summer at that camp

02:07

and before I'd left my grandmother who

02:12

anything about being a Hoosier was

02:15

considered exemplary I mean if you just

02:18

born here you were special by design and

02:21

before I had left she had handed me a

02:23

book of James Whitcomb Riley poems and

02:25

said Indiana was once home to the second

02:28

highest amount of American authors and

02:30

this is a great Hoosier author now

02:35

there's some great Indiana writers in

02:37

this room tonight even and they do

02:40

fantastic work but I didn't think anyone

02:41

really deserved the full like chin up

02:43

patrician pronouncement that she was

02:46

giving so I thanked her for the book

02:48

promptly dismissed the rest and look

02:52

through that library for something to

02:53

read and I found this small little

02:54

pamphlet by Ernie Pyle there was a

02:57

collection of essays and news articles

02:59

he had written before the war he was

03:01

down in Brown County he was taking some

03:03

time and I thought well this will be

03:05

interesting

03:05

so I promptly stole the book threw it

03:08

into my pack and there it's at for most

03:11

of the summer then one night when the

03:15

kids were asleep and I needed something

03:16

to get my mind off things I found that

03:19

little pamphlet and I started flipping

03:20

through it and I couldn't quite figure

03:25

what I was reading because here he was

03:27

talking about Brown County he was

03:29

talking about something he really knew

03:30

but he he wasn't over cinema lysing it

03:34

but he still had since been in his words

03:35

there was just there was no over

03:37

amplification it was just pure simple

03:39

prose that just was honest I and it it

03:46

struck me it's like I couldn't quite

03:47

figure out what was going on here so I

03:49

need to figure out I need to figure out

03:50

how he wrote so simply and so honestly

03:53

so I wrote I you know ended up reading

03:55

what he wrote during the war same you

03:58

know kind of style vastly different

04:01

subject I still couldn't gather so I

04:05

went to Vonnegut same war vastly

04:08

different approach same honesty finally

04:11

I went back to the jerk Mellencamp

04:13

thinking okay there's there's got to be

04:15

some way to break the trend here but no

04:17

despite what I felt about him I could

04:20

not deny the man was looking at the

04:21

American dream with the same kind of

04:23

honesty that I found

04:24

and who's your writer after who's your

04:26

writer after who's your artist after

04:27

this long line of people I was seeing

04:30

and I just couldn't get it and I'm not

04:32

gonna tell you today that I do

04:34

understand anything special about being

04:36

a Hoosier or anything from my search but

04:38

I do have a theory and I'm testing it

04:42

every day anytime I meet someone

04:44

interesting anytime I meet someone who

04:45

has something to say and especially any

04:48

time it's someone from this state and

04:50

it's what I found was that Hoosiers are

04:53

observers and they see things with a

04:56

clarity and honesty that is hard to

04:58

encapsulate but when they do choose to

05:01

speak either through art music writing

05:05

or even up here in front of a you know

05:08

it's nicely collected group of people

05:10

and there's something special about that

05:14

and that is truly unique thank you

English (auto-generated)

Jean Merrill advocates for the LGBTQ+ community and through her work within the NCAA, she fights for inclusion in college athletics.

Description of the video:

00:01

[Music]

00:05

the weight of the world is on my

00:07

shoulders and I am so full of hope you

00:12

see I was a college student athlete I

00:15

was a college softball student athlete

00:18

about an hour and a half down the road

00:20

at Hanover College about 1100 students

00:24

and I loved loved loved playing softball

00:29

I loved that

00:31

ping of the bat when you hit that sweet

00:34

spot the feel of the leather after about

00:38

15 years of using the same glove I loved

00:41

spring and Indiana when you you're out

00:44

there and you feel that that gradual

00:48

transition from winter to spring and you

00:49

can smell it you can feel it I loved

00:53

seeing a perfectly manicured field

00:56

before the game I loved playing softball

01:01

so when I had the opportunity to work at

01:05

the NCAA about 12 years ago I thought

01:08

holy cow I'm living the dream

01:12

but I've got the weight of the world on

01:14

my shoulders because this is the first

01:16

time that I now have the opportunity to

01:21

work on behalf of over 500,000 student

01:24

athletes

01:25

across the country at schools as large

01:28

as IU including I you and for schools

01:31

smaller than Hanover I was getting to

01:34

impact those lives and I think if you

01:37

were to ask any of my colleagues at the

01:39

national office they'd probably have a

01:41

similar feeling of holy cow that's a

01:44

large responsibility but how exciting

01:48

and how optimistic is that but I come at

01:53

it from a little different angle where I

01:56

come from I was a I was a closeted

02:00

college student athlete okay so as much

02:04

as I loved playing ball and I mean I

02:07

desperately loved playing ball it was so

02:10

critical to my development as a Stu

02:12

and as a human being it was part of who

02:15

I was but I was closeted and so I went

02:20

through my entire college career as a

02:24

2-dimensional person I was so full of

02:29

fear of terror of depression I'd be in

02:35

the locker room with my teammates or in

02:37

the showers with my teammates after a

02:39

game and it was eyes above the chin so I

02:42

wouldn't even give a hint that I might

02:45

be gay

02:46

when we were on the road for games and

02:49

we stayed in a hotel everybody had to

02:51

share a bed with a teammate I had an

02:54

inch over to the edge of the bed why is

02:57

straight and flat as I could and make an

03:01

invisible line in the bed so as not to

03:03

even suggest that I might be doing

03:06

something inappropriate

03:08

that was my existence doing something I

03:11

loved so much and with people I loved so

03:14

much but they didn't know who I was

03:17

fortunately when I graduated from

03:20

college I don't know where it came from

03:21

but I found a thimble full of courage to

03:24

come out to my family just a few months

03:26

later and thank God I'm not religious

03:29

but thank God I did because my mother

03:31

passed away a year later from ovarian

03:33

cancer I traveled for a year backpacking

03:38

overseas I did a couple years in

03:40

AmeriCorps and then I found myself here

03:42

at IU in 2006 and it was like this

03:49

Rainbow Pandora's Box opened up here I

03:54

was on a campus where there was an LGBT

03:56

Center that came with dug powder if

03:59

anyone has met dug powder he was a

04:04

lifeline to me that Center was a

04:05

lifeline to me there was LGBT

04:08

programming going on across campus in

04:11

Residence Life there were gay bars there

04:14

were drag shows that was not my

04:16

experience at Hanover I was like that

04:18

was at Hanover from 1998 to 2002 there

04:21

was no frame of reference there was no

04:24

resource there is no safe space

04:25

there's no pride flag there was nothing

04:27

I was on an island so I you saved my

04:31

life

04:31

it truly sincerely saved my life with a

04:34

caveat I did a year and a half practicum

04:38

while I was at IU in the athletics

04:39

department and that was the one place on

04:42

campus that I went back to being my

04:44

two-dimensional self and in his place

04:48

that I loved I loved sport and I just

04:51

software I loved sport and so it killed

04:54

me to have to walk through the doors of

04:56

assembly hall every day knowing I've got

04:59

to pin that down I've got to trap that

05:02

in and I'm not gonna even give a hint

05:05

that I'm gay so I resolved to myself

05:09

when I got the opportunity to work at

05:11

the NCAA I'm done with that athletics at

05:16

that point in time was not a safe space

05:19

for queer people but I had an

05:22

opportunity I had a platform and I had I

05:25

had some direction and so when I started

05:28

at the NCAA or resolved that I would be

05:31

an advocate I'm not gonna go march in

05:34

the streets but I'm gonna get to people

05:36

one by one I'm gonna reach people that I

05:38

work with at the national office I'm

05:40

gonna reach people out in the membership

05:41

I'm gonna affect change

05:43

I met my beautiful wife Cindy who also

05:46

works at the NCAA I met other queer

05:48

colleagues at the NCAA I met a boatload

05:52

of allies at the NCAA I got to work with

05:56

people across the membership as they

05:59

were trying to create athletics

06:01

departments that were inclusive of queer

06:03

people and now for the last two years

06:06

I'm in a position where I get to fight

06:09

for LGBTQ LGBTQ inclusion every single

06:13

day every single day I'm having

06:15

conversations with presidents athletics

06:18

directors conference commissioners

06:20

student athletes coaches academic

06:23

advisors you name it I'm having those

06:24

conversations how do we get trans

06:27

athletes opportunities to participate

06:28

how do we make sure they have safe

06:31

spaces to participate how do we create

06:34

visibility for our queer student

06:36

athletes and our queer coaches how do we

06:38

make

06:39

or that our policies are reflective of

06:41

our gender inclusion and gender

06:43

neutrality those are the conversations

06:46

I'm having I'm even having conversations

06:49

with faith-based institutions presidents

06:52

all the way down on how can we find

06:54

common ground for our queer student

06:55

athletes who also just as strongly

06:57

identify as people of faith so they

07:00

don't have to check one identity at the

07:02

door

07:02

I am honored and humbled and that is the

07:06

weight of the world that is on my

07:08

shoulders right now but which fills me

07:10

with so much so much hope and it makes

07:14

me so happy to be in a state that allows

07:18

me to be with my wife

07:20

to be with my family to be Who I am and

07:22

to make the experience of queer student

07:24

athletes all across the country so much

07:26

better than mine ever was thank you

English (auto-generated)

Joon Park discusses identity as an Asian American and his work with the Student Coalition during his time on the Bloomington IU campus.

Description of the video:

00:01

[Music]

00:05

Korean folklore is a big part of Korean

00:11

culture weird stories agrarian stories

00:15

and the night before I was born before

00:21

my mother went to labour she had a dream

00:23

and she had this dream that she received

00:29

a beam and this being that she was

00:34

gifted grew into this ginormous beam and

00:38

this ginormous being grew so big that

00:43

all the people in the village would come

00:44

around to admire this beam and to look

00:48

up to this beam my mother said to me you

00:53

are that bee

00:55

I was four so I didn't really know what

01:00

to take from that but she would repeat

01:03

the story to me my entire life over and

01:08

over don't forget you are the being so I

01:13

was born in Seoul came to the United

01:16

States when I was four very much an

01:21

impoverished immigrant story we had

01:23

nothing I had three older sisters I

01:27

remember sleeping with my three other

01:31

sisters on a queen-size bed in a

01:34

one-bedroom apartment which meant you

01:39

know when I thought about that later on

01:41

where were my parents sleeping they're

01:44

probably on the floor in the living room

01:46

right so at that time the neighborhood

01:51

that I was living in was almost entirely

01:54

black and Latino and I didn't really

01:58

think about identity at that point so in

02:01

the fourth grade we move up to the

02:03

suburbs and I quickly become the only

02:06

person of color in my school certainly

02:11

one of the only one of the very few

02:12

Asians and in those sort of out lesson

02:18

time period is challenging enough as it

02:20

is when you're also trying to figure out

02:22

your identity and where you fit and I'm

02:24

a Korean born citizen but I really grew

02:26

up in the States

02:27

I grew up watching the Bulls and at the

02:32

same time I think the Asian American

02:34

experience is very much one which Ronald

02:37

Takaki calls feeling like you're a

02:39

stranger in your own backyard

02:40

and so I grow up through high school and

02:44

I try very very hard to assimilate I

02:48

think into what is commonly referred to

02:50

that sort of broom culture and I come to

02:55

I you and I naturally continue that

02:58

transition and I'm out rushing a

03:01

fraternity and I'm trying so desperately

03:03

to fit in and it's almost it's actually

03:08

kind of

03:09

it's exhausting right because I kind of

03:13

tell myself if I stand really still no

03:16

one will tell with it I'm Asian and

03:21

something just doesn't sit right with me

03:23

I'm at an age where I have this

03:27

opportunity to come to a big university

03:30

to sort of go down this path of self

03:34

identity and a journey towards I guess

03:37

sort of forging your consciousness I

03:39

guess so

03:42

I go to my first Asian American

03:44

Association meeting there's a student

03:46

organization on campus I say hi my name

03:50

is Jun Park I'm an Asian American

03:53

everyone says hi June

03:55

welcome and it begins this journey for

04:00

me where I begin to study Asian American

04:03

literature and history and as I'm

04:08

flipping through these pages I see

04:11

Asians who've been in the United States

04:13

since 1880

04:14

I see japanese-americans and internment

04:18

camps and I begin to become very very

04:23

empowered by what I'm reading and what

04:25

I'm seeing and the game changer for me

04:28

is this notion of being a foreigner in

04:34

your own backyard

04:36

is this false pretense that I've always

04:39

had an understanding that all of these

04:43

different cultures is part of a truly

04:45

American narrative just sort of blows my

04:48

mind and it kind of liberate Smee from

04:50

this framework of thinking about my

04:52

identity in that way and so I dedicate

04:56

pretty much my entire student career to

04:59

advocating for Asian Americans in the

05:03

asian-american community I stay at

05:08

Indiana Bloomington for the summer in

05:11

1996 and I write a proposal to establish

05:14

the Indiana University Asian Cultural

05:17

Center and it was a moonshot

05:20

so there was a strategic initiative

05:22

grant at the time which was primarily

05:25

meant for grants for students but there

05:27

was a loophole because they never said

05:28

students couldn't submit their proposals

05:32

so I wrote one and I spent my entire

05:37

summer putting that proposal together

05:40

and the following year I started meeting

05:44

with other student leaders and these

05:48

student leaders including the Plex

05:50

Students Union the LGBT community

05:54

Latinos Unidos they all have different

05:58

concerns that we want to start to voice

06:00

and we formed something called the

06:03

student coalition so in 1997 Martin

06:09

Luther King Day was not an official

06:12

holiday recognized by Indiana University

06:14

so on that day we decided that we were

06:18

going to march with demands and we had

06:21

this group called a student coalition

06:22

and it was 1960s nostalgia of civil

06:27

rights you know type of movement and we

06:31

all march on the chancellor's office we

06:33

were gonna chain ourselves to the

06:36

chancellor's office door and do

06:37

something very dramatic and I remember

06:40

it was my moment to speak to the crowd

06:43

and I stepped up to the mic and I saw

06:49

all these people and it occurred to me

06:53

that maybe this was my moment

06:56

I'm the bean now and I spoke and we were

07:04

expecting something really dramatic and

07:06

then the late Ken gross Louis the

07:10

Chancellor actually said you know what

07:12

this all makes sense all of the demands

07:14

will be met

07:16

so it was a little bit anticlimactic and

07:20

I remember walking away thinking wow the

07:24

moon shot worked so MLK Day is now

07:29

official officially celebrated holiday

07:32

at IU we have an IU Asian culture center

07:35

that's been around for 20 years and you

07:40

know the big moment for me afterwards I

07:41

remember coming back to my apartment

07:44

just kind of in this dais but it's soon

07:49

kind of dawned on me what happens now

07:54

what happens after you're woke what

07:59

happens to being because you leave

08:02

college and you go on into the real

08:04

world and my identity was so tied to

08:08

being an asian-american student leader

08:11

what was I gonna do now did I peak at 21

08:15

was it all downhill from here and like

08:19

most people I think when they leave the

08:22

university they go on and their career

08:25

sort of becomes their new identity that

08:27

they begin to form that's what they

08:29

focus on and when I joined the corporate

08:32

world you know one of the things that I

08:35

sort of strive to accomplish was to end

08:37

up becoming a c-level executive at a

08:41

asset management firm and you know I

08:43

worked really hard over 15 years and was

08:45

able to accomplish that and I remember

08:49

sitting in in our office and we had 50

08:53

employees and we built this thing from

08:56

the ground up and I thought well maybe

09:00

maybe I'm the bean now and and those are

09:04

the people maybe that's that's what this

09:06

was supposed to be but that didn't

09:08

really sit really well with me either

09:10

so I quit and our

09:17

their child is on the way

09:20

we have a almost two-year-old daughter

09:24

at home and I remember my daughter

09:29

coming up to me and you know she's just

09:31

comes up right to your sort of knees and

09:33

she looks up and she kind of puts her

09:36

hands up which is like the sign for I

09:39

want to be lifted and at that moment I

09:44

think I have sort of realized what my

09:46

parents were trying to communicate to me

09:48

and I sort of finally understood what it

09:50

meant to be the being thank you

09:53

[Applause]

English (auto-generated)

Samrat Upadhyay talks about the outpouring of love from Hoosiers during Nepal’s time of need after an earthquake.

Description of the video:

00:01

[Music]

00:05

everyone I'm gonna jump right in in 2015

00:11

one morning in April when I opened up my

00:13

laptop to write at 5 a.m. I sighed in

00:17

the news on Facebook I woke my wife was

00:21

sitting right there who through bleary

00:24

eyes looked at me in disbelief as I told

00:26

her this is a big one the next few hours

00:30

were spent in frantic attempts to

00:32

contact our loved ones in Kathmandu the

00:34

city where I grew up

00:36

my main concern were my parents whose

00:40

old age made them vulnerable

00:42

my wife's worry was primarily her mother

00:45

a widow who lived in a tall building a

00:48

monster earthquake had rocked Nepal the

00:52

initial quake that Saturday of eight on

00:55

the Richter scale was followed by 25

00:58

aftershocks

00:59

a 5 or higher that had everyone panicked

01:03

reports were coming in of entire

01:05

villages laid to waste in the mountains

01:08

my parents with whom communication was

01:11

difficult at first because of erratic

01:13

phone connections and lack of

01:15

electricity were camped out we learned

01:18

for days in rain on a small field near

01:21

their home on the outskirts of the city

01:23

my mother-in-law found shelter with one

01:27

of her daughters the overall human toll

01:30

was massive 9,000 dead and 22,000

01:34

injured one tragic news was the

01:38

destruction of centuries old temples

01:40

prized for the exquisite carvings in

01:43

Carmindy valleys old palace squares all

01:45

World Heritage Sites kathmandu durbar

01:49

square was in ruins Partin durbar square

01:53

considered the most beautiful of the

01:55

three had been decimated

01:57

these were world heritage sites so in a

02:01

very literal sense the whole world lost

02:03

physical access to its cultural history

02:06

the temples and monuments of these

02:09

squares were my pride and joy as I

02:12

escorted my MFA students

02:13

from I you on what I had begun to think

02:16

as my annual pilgrimage to the land that

02:19

guided my literary material that made me

02:22

the writer I am a year before the

02:25

earthquake my students had taken photos

02:28

of erotic carvings in the juggernaut

02:30

temple in patan durbar square for I used

02:33

Kinsey Institute that temple was now

02:36

gone in 2010 we climbed that Hara tower

02:41

whose original structure dates back to

02:43

1832 for a panoramic view of this

02:46

chaotic yet vibrant city at the top

02:49

I remember now with horror telling my

02:52

students that the monument was

02:54

vulnerable because Nepal was so

02:56

earthquake prone that Saturday Thera was

02:59

reduced to a stump Nepalese most of whom

03:03

are Hindus and Buddhists are well

03:05

attuned to the idea that nothing is

03:08

permanent after all the champion of

03:11

impermanence Siddhartha Gautama Buddha

03:13

was born here he also taught that life

03:16

by its very nature is filled with

03:19

suffering for many Nepali is living

03:22

abroad our attachment to Nepal is fierce

03:25

Indiana is my home but Nepal is my

03:28

homeland it's a place I have zealously

03:30

returned to in all of my novels and

03:33

short stories written mostly in that

03:35

Starbucks across the sample gates on

03:38

Indiana Avenue these trips I take with

03:41

my MFA students every year are

03:43

highlights of my teaching and I return

03:45

to Indiana with renewed insights on how

03:48

people live and love all over the world

03:51

the year before the earthquake we went

03:54

up to the Himalayan region of Mustang

03:56

where my students bathed as a ritual of

03:59

spiritual cleansing in the icy cold

04:02

water of 108 spouts in Medinah temple

04:06

situated at 12,000 feet we were

04:10

surrounded by mountains of unimaginable

04:12

beauty throughout the trip I was even

04:15

more moved by the kindness of Nepal ease

04:18

we encountered from the old grandma who

04:21

served us food at Hotel Bob Marley in

04:24

muktinath to the guide in the resort

04:26

town of

04:27

who went out of his way to arrange

04:30

transport for us but it was the

04:33

outpouring of kindness that I

04:34

encountered here in Bloomington in the

04:37

immediate aftermath of the earthquake

04:38

that I continued to treasure nearly five

04:42

years later when the wounds of that

04:45

earthquake were still fresh

04:47

I received notes of concern and sympathy

04:49

from countless Hoosiers strangers even

04:52

asking me what they could do to help the

04:55

earthquake victims halfway around the

04:58

world people they didn't know with whom

05:01

they didn't have the kind of intimate

05:03

geographical and emotional ties as I did

05:06

when we formed a Bloomington group to

05:09

collect money for disaster relief the

05:12

outpouring of donations was overwhelming

05:15

within one week we gathered more than

05:18

$30,000 to send back to Nepal I realized

05:22

then that I didn't need to go climb

05:24

mountains in Nepal to experience

05:26

kindness it was all around me right here

05:29

at home in Indiana it also occurred to

05:33

me then that it's in the midst of

05:34

intense suffering that people are the

05:37

strongest and this is true whether you

05:40

live in Kathmandu or Kokomo feeling

05:43

helpless my wife wrote on her Facebook

05:45

post from Bloomington after many failed

05:48

attempts at calling family in Kathmandu

05:50

during those early hours of the

05:52

earthquake when we managed to connect it

05:55

was our loved ones in Nepal who

05:57

reassured us don't worry we're fine

06:00

it'll be okay

06:02

thank you

English (auto-generated)

Chris Chyung reflects on being a politician and the threads that tie us together in Indiana.

Description of the video:

00:01

[Music]

00:05

[Applause]

00:07

hello so despite being a politician I

00:11

hate the sound of my own voice and I

00:14

like listening to people way more so I

00:16

just want to get a gauge of the room

00:18

who's interested in politics public

00:20

political science major political wonk

00:22

raise your hands okay mayor I see a lot

00:27

of people okay this so I never imagined

00:30

myself to be in politics in Indiana let

00:36

alone in this country ever I graduated

00:39

from Monster High School up in the

00:40

region the person who said on the card

00:42

that they were Bears Jersey with an IU

00:45

hat I can tell where you're from it's

00:47

probably near me and I didn't think I

00:51

would even want to stay in the state

00:53

quite honestly after graduating from

00:55

Munster in 2011 I was like the top

01:00

person to say I am getting the hell out

01:03

of here and I'm not coming back to

01:04

Indiana and everyone kind of knew it

01:06

they were like yeah he never really was

01:08

kind of like a dick he was kind of

01:09

standoffish and he didn't really want to

01:11

be like he wasn't really Hoosier

01:13

hospitality honestly when you talked to

01:15

him and looked at him he just didn't fit

01:17

that mold and I was like yeah you're

01:18

really right but when I went to New York

01:21

City and I when I went to college I

01:23

realized something that's really Queens

01:26

and it seems profound at the same time

01:28

it's that you can change so much about

01:30

you and how it is you can change your

01:31

name you can change your appearance you

01:33

can change all kinds of things about

01:34

yourself but you can't change where

01:36

you're from and that really stuck with

01:38

me because it was never going to change

01:40

that I was from Indiana that I cared a

01:43

lot about my friends back home you know

01:45

even though I would make fun of the

01:46

state and I would say things about

01:48

Indiana I mean I think we all do as

01:50

Hoosiers I think that's part of our

01:51

identity is that we can take shots at

01:53

ourselves and still be strong about it

01:55

and point out the flaws and find ways to

01:57

make things better so I came back and to

02:02

my own surprise was working in real

02:05

estate in Chicago commuting from my

02:07

district in Northwest Indiana which is

02:09

Dyer chervil st. John Griffith area

02:13

and I somehow caught the political bug I

02:16

mean it seems like in the past few years

02:19

politics is the new small talk which is

02:21

just awful

02:22

it's like we used to be able to talk

02:23

about the weather and talk about really

02:25

mundane that celebrities do and now

02:28

it's just like every story is political

02:30

every goddamn story

02:31

so it's really tedious it's really

02:33

annoying

02:34

but what I was immersing myself in that

02:37

because I hadn't considered myself an

02:39

inherently political person whatsoever

02:41

my family was never involved we didn't

02:43

donate we didn't volunteer on campaigns

02:44

we barely knew who was running I barely

02:46

voted in non presidential years so once

02:51

it became like part of the national mood

02:54

I guess the identity was just non-stop

02:56

politics 24/7 I immersed myself in it

02:59

and decided that I was going to do

03:01

something about it in Northwest Indiana

03:02

which as I said I still have a special

03:05

place in my heart for where I grew up

03:07

and I still want to see it become better

03:09

than it is today and improve the lives

03:11

of people and ultimately I decided you

03:14

know I got to get my ass up and run I

03:16

got to do something about my community I

03:18

can't just sit here and bitch about

03:20

what's wrong with where I live if I'm

03:22

not gonna do something serious about it

03:24

and all the speakers before we're saying

03:26

the exact same thing they were saying

03:28

that they got up and did something they

03:30

got this challenge put in front of them

03:32

and they met that challenge and overcame

03:35

it and that's kind of what I did when I

03:37

decided at age 25 to run for the Indiana

03:40

House of Representatives and then I won

03:42

my election after running a brutal

03:44

campaign by 82 votes out of a 25,000

03:49

cast so an extremely narrow win pretty

03:52

unexpected it was a narrow estate

03:54

legislative race in the entire state in

03:56

2018 and I discovered that I really

03:59

loved political strategy so it kind of

04:01

works out and I'm able to serve my

04:03

community in a way that's unique in that

04:05

I encourage everybody to do serving in

04:08

public office is unlike any other job

04:11

that you will have in your life honestly

04:13

it's such a blessing to be able to talk

04:17

to so many people in a unique way get on

04:20

their level one on one it's unlike any

04:22

education you can get at any big

04:24

University at

04:26

you know master's program or whatever

04:28

the best sociology class is to talk to

04:32

your neighbors to knock on their doors

04:34

to be invited into a really personal

04:38

space of theirs and to understand them

04:40

on a uniquely intimate level is

04:42

something that I think this country

04:45

needs a lot more of especially at this

04:47

time we I don't need to go on about how

04:50

polarized it's gotten and how difficult

04:52

it's gotten to talk to people who are

04:54

different from you but if there's one

04:56

thing that I realized running and that I

04:59

learned from my community is that I

05:01

think that Hoosiers I don't even think

05:04

that we align with one political party

05:06

or even an ideology all on one I think

05:08

we are aligned though however and that

05:10

were really independent minded and I

05:13

found that was a really unique thing

05:16

that when I was talking to neighbors of

05:18

all kinds of different stripes I mean I

05:20

got suburbs I've got a little bit of an

05:22

urban area and I've got rural precincts

05:24

as well

05:25

got some racial diversity not not a ton

05:28

but it's there and we could see all

05:32

kinds of threads that tie us all

05:34

together in unique ways I mean not every

05:36

thread ties us together we're not all

05:38

homogeneous but there's so much more

05:40

that unites us than what divides us and

05:44

it hurts my heart today to see how nasty

05:49

things have gotten I mean it's you don't

05:52

have to talk about it now I'm kind of I

05:53

felt bad closing it out because I'm like

05:55

bringing everyone back down to earth

05:57

it's a super downer here with talking

05:59

about politics I mean it's like

06:00

everyone's favorite topic right like oh

06:03

no one wants to talk about this

06:04

it's super annoying but it's important

06:09

because all of us need to help make it

06:11

better we know that the state of

06:12

politics is pretty corroded in in in

06:15

different areas and it's not going to

06:17

fix itself it's not going to fill that

06:19

void if we just sit back and don't do

06:22

anything about it so no matter what your

06:24

ideology is no matter who you support we

06:27

have got one hell of a presidential

06:29

election gubernatorial election attorney

06:31

general election state legislative

06:33

election 2020 is unique because G it's

06:36

the 2020 census is happening and then

06:38

the immediate term

06:39

there is when redistricting will happen

06:42

so if you care about that this is an

06:44

extremely important year so I just

06:46

encourage you to seek people out and not

06:49

only seek people out who you know you

06:51

support and you know who you align with

06:53

but also people who you disagree with

06:55

the most valuable thing I found when I

06:58

was campaigning was talking to people

07:01

who I disagreed with what were my

07:03

favorite conversations I mean talking to

07:06

someone you agree with is just an echo

07:07

chamber and it's really boring

07:08

intellectually I think for most people

07:10

so when you go out and talk to someone

07:13

who is just the polar opposite of you

07:15

and you challenge yourself to get on

07:17

their level to see where they're coming

07:19

from but to not sacrifice your ideals

07:21

then you are going undergoing a really

07:24

strong exercise mentally and helping

07:27

bridge gaps in communities which like I

07:30

said is something that is so important

07:31

nowadays so yeah I thank you all for

07:35

listening today I feel super awkward

07:37

it's like doing stand up up here and

07:39

pretend that before so I just encourage

07:44

you just please seek out those voices

07:45

seek out those people who disagree with

07:47

seek out those people who you agree with

07:48

and register to vote register your

07:51

friends to vote and make sure you get

07:52

informed about who's on your ballot so

07:55

thank you

07:59

[Applause]

Denny Spinner retells Huntingburg’s basketball history and how it brought a community together.

Description of the video:

00:01

[Music]

00:06

thank you very much

00:08

I am from hunting burg we are a city

00:11

like no other I am required by a City

00:13

statute to say that hunting burg is the

00:15

only hunting burg in the United States

00:17

if you google hunting burg you find us

00:20

we are we are there it's truly a who's

00:23

your thing to be from hunting burg and

00:25

there would be no any telling of idiot

00:27

re told I think must have a basketball

00:30

story so I got the basketball story

00:32

because hunting burg is a is a great

00:35

basketball story and the story goes the

00:38

start at the end of the story is I live

00:40

in a town of 6,000 people and the

00:43

hunting burger Morial Jim seats six

00:46

thousand people but the story really

00:48

goes back to 1949 because honey burg

00:52

Memorial Gym at the time it was built

00:54

hunting Berg's population was three

00:57

thousand and they built a gym that seats

01:00

six thousand people and the reason for

01:04

all this is because that city that was

01:06

mentioned before us the city of Jasper

01:09

Jasper and hunting burg were rivals all

01:12

the time and especially in basketball

01:14

and in 1940 Jasper was had the big gym

01:17

they were the county seat that's where

01:19

we played the sectional and for ten

01:21

consecutive years Jasper won the

01:24

sectional because it was played on their

01:26

floor they cheated you know they had to

01:28

sew but 1949 hunting berg had the team

01:32

they had beaten Jasper twice in the

01:35

regular season and they went over to

01:38

Jasper for the sectional championship

01:39

game and lost and it got worse not only

01:47

did they lose to a team that they had

01:48

beaten and thought they could win the

01:50

sectional

01:51

this very mediocre Jasper team look it

01:54

up it's the worst team to ever win the

01:56

state championship in 1949 the hunting

02:01

burg team that was destined to break the

02:03

record and break this jinx lost in the

02:06

championship game and that team won the

02:10

state championship imagine watching

02:13

the parade come back from Indianapolis

02:15

celebrating the state championship when

02:16

we knew we had a better team than they

02:18

did so what happened on that Monday

02:21

morning in March in 1949 when the all

02:24

the guys from hunting burg were at the

02:25

Palace of sweets having the coffee and

02:27

they said this has got to stop this has

02:30

got to stop and the only way that we can

02:32

ever stop this is we've got to build a

02:35

gym that's bigger than theirs so

02:39

logically so they thought about and they

02:42

said well how big a gym can we build

02:44

well we want to build it so big that

02:46

Jasper will never want build one bigger

02:48

than that so they went to the state

02:50

school board and they said how big a gym

02:52

can we build and they told him because

02:53

it was a school of only about 150 kids

02:55

you could do only build a gym it was

02:57

about it wasn't best the biggest Jasper

02:59

so they said okay the school won't build

03:02

a gym the city will the town will the

03:05

businessman got together and they formed

03:08

a holding corporation and bought the

03:11

property next to the high school they

03:15

sold bonds

03:16

everybody in town bought a bond my dad

03:19

had bonds to build the gymnasium they

03:22

bought the team to get that put a team

03:23

together and they heard about this

03:25

revolutionary new type of gymnasium in

03:27

Illinois where this that was sunken into

03:30

the ground and there was no posters to

03:33

obstruct your view the leading industry

03:36

and hunting burger at that time was

03:37

Olinger construction company which built

03:39

highways they built I said i-64 through

03:42

southern Indiana they took mr. olinger

03:45

to Illinois they stood in this little

03:46

gym he looked up and I said what do you

03:48

think he goes looks like a bridge to me

03:50

we can build that so they came back to

03:54

hunting burg and they build this big

03:56

hole in the ground next to the school

03:58

they fill it with concrete

04:00

they build steel arches all around it at

04:02

night the guys would come in with

04:04

wrenches and tighten bolts the citizens

04:07

that Cape would come and tighten bolts

04:08

of the bleachers so that the the gym

04:10

could be built and on in 1951 IU's

04:15

branch McCracken came to hunting burg

04:18

Indiana dedicate dedicate to hunting

04:20

burg Memorial Gym and it's six thousand

04:22

two hundred and fourteen seats

04:26

you think that you know these people

04:28

working nuts this will never fill up the

04:30

1952 sectional sold out every night 53

04:37

54 55 98 through the all through single

04:43

class basketball in Indiana the hunting

04:47

burg Memorial gymnasium sold out every

04:51

session you had to buy a season ticket

04:55

at your school and hope your name would

04:59

be drawn to get a ticket to go to the

05:02

sectional people would scalp tickets

05:04

people created ways to come into the

05:08

gymnasium there were guys who faked

05:10

carrying ice into the gym with

05:12

concessionaires and they reasoned they

05:14

found out that happened because they put

05:16

him in the bathrooms the bathrooms all

05:17

flooded so so that's you know you think

05:22

about this and when I was growing up in

05:23

hunting bird you know the Big Jim that's

05:27

what that was it wasn't Memorial it was

05:28

the Big Jim you were going to the Big

05:30

Jim yeah we're going to the Big Jim

05:31

you'd go to the Big Jim and the still to

05:35

this day the smell of pickles and

05:37

popcorn remind me of the sectional

05:40

because that was that that was just part

05:42

of it if you grew up in DuBois County

05:44

from 1950 to 1996 you've got stories

05:47

about going to the game at Memorial Gym

05:50

and watching your rivals across the way

05:53

you weren't impartial you watched

05:55

everybody you watched every game and you

05:57

cheered for every game because you

05:58

either wanted one team to win or Jasper

06:00

to lose it was it was everybody against

06:04

Jasper that's just the way it was but

06:07

then I think about that now

06:10

you know eight years ago I became mayor

06:13

or hunting burg probably the proudest

06:15

thing I've done I mean I'm I could be

06:18

mayor the place that I grew up in and I

06:20

think about Memorial Gym and you think

06:24

wow for over 60 years now people have

06:29

come to hunting burg to be part of that

06:31

experience I you know long before Field

06:36

of Dreams Kevin Costner said if they

06:38

build it

06:39

honey berg did in 1952 they built it and

06:43

for over 60 years now people have come

06:46

and it's a spirit that our community has

06:50

it was something that the community took

06:52

on it wasn't it said we have we can do

06:55

this let's let's let's do this thing and

06:57

nobody had enough craziness to say well

07:00

why are we building at 6,000 see Jim in

07:02

a 3,000 seat three thousand population

07:04

town because we needed it and they had

07:07

the foresight and the drive and the

07:09

ambition and the ability to do it and

07:12

now as mayor this is an inspirational

07:15

story for me every time I I hear

07:17

something about going on in town and

07:19

says well we can't do that says yeah we

07:20

can yeah we can and we've done things

07:24

like that in hunting bird

07:25

well we're blessed to have a lot of

07:28

great projects going on we're a

07:29

community that I'm very very proud of

07:31

and proud to lead right now but it's all

07:34

about Hoosiers love and basketball

07:37

loving each other having a purpose and

07:40

coming together and doing what seemed to

07:43

be impossible at the time so if you ever

07:45

come to hunting burg other than watch

07:48

going to league stadium where illegal

07:49

their own was filmed that's it honey

07:51

verb to that's why we're a city like no

07:53

other you got to cut Memorial Gym

07:55

because it is if you've if you've seen

07:58

the pictures of New Castle hunting burg

08:00

was built first the New Castle gym is a

08:03

copy of the hunting burg gym that design

08:05

is all across the state

08:07

it started in hunting burg which is a

08:09

city like no other thank you

08:12

[Applause]

English (auto-generated)

Jeff McCabe recounts his experiences during 9/11 and how it affected his family’s life in Indiana.

Description of the video:

00:00

I was leaning up against a an old

00:07

sycamore tree and I was near a creek

00:11

deep in the woods and that wasn't far

00:15

from Helms Berger out in Brown County

00:17

Indiana and it was this beautiful

00:21

beautiful day the Sun was shining the

00:23

sky was blue and was cool out it was

00:28

just just gorgeous and as I stood there

00:33

my friend Ed Wagler came over and

00:36

grabbed me by the arm and he said Jeff I

00:39

think we should pray and we prayed and

00:44

then I gave a Edda hug and I quickly got

00:48

over to my car and drove up about half

00:51

mile to the cabin that September that's

00:53

my wife September and I had rented up

00:57

there near Friendship cabin road and

00:59

walked in through the door in the cabin

01:01

and I hugged September and then I called

01:05

my Fred Jeff my friend John land Vil who

01:08

was at 40 Wall Street in New York City

01:11

and phone rang he answered and before I

01:15

could say anything he said hey Jeff

01:18

what's going on and I said started to

01:20

say something and he cut me off and he

01:22

said I think there's a parade today

01:24

there's ticker-tape coming down and

01:27

about that time September had the TV on

01:30

in the cabin and that's about the time

01:32

at about nine o'clock 903 that the

01:35

second airplane hit the South Tower at

01:38

the World Trade Center and I told Judd

01:41

what happened and I got off the phone

01:42

and we started to pack up and if we

01:49

could just we'll hit the pause button

01:51

right there and I'll take you back

01:55

twenty-eight years before that and about

01:57

twenty-eight years before that

01:59

what was that September it was 1973

02:04

right 1973 September and I were seniors

02:08

at Carmel High School and

02:12

after putting me through my paces for

02:15

several months September decided to let

02:18

me be her boyfriend and I thought that

02:20

was really great and I was on cloud nine

02:24

there for a few months and I will tell

02:26

you though we were different that we had

02:28

very different backgrounds because

02:29

September's family was one of the

02:32

founding families of Carmel right so she

02:35

was several generations in and she had

02:38

lived in the same house on the same

02:40

Street actually Main Street in Carmel

02:42

for her whole life and I on the other

02:46

hand had moved to Carmel with my family

02:47

when I started high school and my five

02:51

brothers and sisters like to tell people

02:53

about how we had all grown up and been

02:56

born in different cities in different

02:59

states from Nebraska and Idaho to New

03:03

York and West Virginia and then finally

03:05

to Indiana so we had a different sense

03:09

of home and we had a different sense of

03:11

place and being in that kind of thing

03:14

but I sure was crazy about her that

03:17

worked out for me and as soon as we

03:22

graduated I was 17 I went to school at

03:25

Annapolis and I was determined to become

03:27

a naval aviator and at that point I

03:30

think September was determined to make

03:31

sure that we got married by when I got

03:34

out of Annapolis so we we got engaged

03:37

because that's what people did back in

03:40

the 70s right if they fell in love young

03:42

people actually planned on getting

03:43

married and and so three days after I

03:48

graduated we went back to Indiana and we

03:51

got married in Carmel on Main Street in

03:55

the backyard of the house that September

03:58

grew up in and I think that was about

04:02

the best place we could have done that

04:03

but after that we left the next day and

04:06

we didn't really stop traveling for

04:08

about 23 years we we lived several

04:11

places in the country from Georgia to

04:14

Texas Florida and just all over ended up

04:20

in Atlanta but every year for those 23

04:24

years

04:24

we would come back to Indiana visit and

04:27

in fact every Christmas we'd come back

04:32

and we did that because it was important

04:34

to September and important for her to

04:36

know that her three kids our three kids

04:40

had a sense of place and being and a

04:43

place to come back to and that was

04:44

Carmel Indiana at that house on Main

04:47

Street and that worked out for us and at

04:51

one point I can remember we were living

04:53

in Atlanta my second daughter was a

04:55

senior in high school and she said dad

04:58

I've been to I've attended 11 schools

05:02

and I think this one should be the last

05:03

so so we worked that out she graduated

05:07

there in Atlanta and then she ended up

05:08

that Hanover College with my other

05:11

daughter Megan and they both graduated

05:14

from Hanover but come along come along a

05:18

few years there so now it's 2001 and

05:21

I've got an office in New York City I've

05:25

got an office in Atlanta and if you were

05:30

one of the thousands of people that year

05:33

who got an American Express corporate

05:36

card you got a letter from American

05:38

Express signed by me welcoming you to

05:41

American Express and promising you that

05:44

we would provide you the best travel

05:48

services that you could get anywhere in

05:50

the world that you could be confident

05:52

that if anything ever went wrong or

05:55

anything ever happened you'd be able to

05:57

get to an American Express office and

05:59

we'd be able to help you and I feel good

06:03

about that felt good about that so

06:06

you're probably wondering how I ended up

06:09

and or how September and I ended up in

06:12

Brown County on September 11th in 2001

06:16

well pretty simple really over the years

06:18

all those visits back to Indiana we of

06:21

course we visited Brown County and we

06:23

ended up buying some property on

06:25

Helzberg Road we call that property

06:28

September's for us now it's about 64

06:30

acres of beautiful woods beautiful place

06:32

and in 2001 we thought we could build a

06:36

cabin

06:37

on that property and have a vacation

06:40

have a cabin so that when we came to

06:42

visit in Indiana we'd have a place to

06:44

stay and I convinced September that

06:50

before we built the cabin we needed to

06:53

dig a big pond that way we'd have a

06:55

better idea where the cabins should be

06:56

on the property and I don't think I

06:59

really convinced September that but she

07:01

allowed me that notion that she she let

07:03

me get started on the pond so it was

07:05

about September 4th when a guy named ed

07:10

Wagler who I mentioned earlier in the

07:12

story called me up and he said Jeff he

07:15

said I'm gonna start on your pond on

07:17

Monday and if you get you get up here to

07:20

Brown County we'll walk the property

07:23

we'll get up at sunrise and we'll take a

07:25

look around and things go well let you

07:28

drive the excavator because I've seen

07:30

you I and the excavator and I know you

07:31

want to drive it so I thought about it

07:35

for a minute and I said you know ed I

07:38

really wish I could but I'm sorry I'm

07:40

too busy and I've got a meeting in New

07:43

York City that morning and I remember

07:46

that he paused and just for a second and

07:50

then he said he said yes sir

07:53

that sounds important and he paused

07:57

again and then he said but if you change

07:59

your mind if you change your mind I'll

08:02

be out there and you know the rest of

08:05

the day I thought about that and I

08:06

thought about him saying if you change

08:10

your mind I'll be out there and and I

08:15

thought about it enough and finally I uh

08:17

I decided I'd changed my mind

08:22

and I called my boss in New York Judd

08:24

and I said you know Judd I never do this

08:26

but I think I'm gonna miss that meeting

08:29

in New York on Monday morning he said he

08:32

said well Jeff if you think that's

08:33

important and that's what he said he

08:35

said if you think that's important to

08:37

miss the meeting that's fine with me you

08:40

just call in whenever you want and I did

08:43

that and then I told September we were

08:44

going to go to back to Indiana for the

08:48

weekend and

08:51

we can't we flew up to Indianapolis and

08:53

then we came down to Brown County had

08:56

this wonderful weekend wonderful weekend

08:58

beautiful weather great time and then

09:03

that Monday morning I went over to the

09:05

property and I got with it and we walked

09:07

the property and we looked at where the

09:09

pond would be and you know it was just

09:12

just this wonderful beautiful blue sky

09:15

morning and then I was leaning up

09:18

against that sycamore tree and standing

09:22

there near the creek and felt that old

09:26

flip phone in my pocket vibrate and I

09:29

got it out and sure enough it was

09:31

September and I answered the phone as

09:33

she said she said Jeff an airplane just

09:36

flew into the North Tower of the World

09:39

Trade Center and that's when it grabbed

09:42

me and said Jeff I think we ought to

09:44

pray and we did and the rest of the day

09:51

we drove back to Atlanta and really

09:55

September did quite a bit of the driving

09:57

and I called the rest of my teammates

10:01

who weren't in New York City and we

10:04

tried to fill that promise that we

10:05

talked about we actually had literally

10:08

thousands and thousands of business

10:12

travelers out all over the world when

10:15

when that happened and all of them were

10:18

stuck because there were no airplanes

10:20

flying there was nobody going anywhere

10:22

because nobody knew what was going to

10:24

happen next it was it was if you were

10:27

there and you can remember it was a

10:30

remarkable time a terrible time and

10:34

believe it or not in about 17 hours we

10:37

found everybody we knew where they were

10:39

and we were able to either get them a

10:43

place to stay or extend their stay or or

10:46

help them contact the people that they

10:49

needed to contact and make sure that

10:51

they knew they were okay and we felt

10:54

good about that like I said felt good

10:57

next weeks and months were a little bit

11:00

different because we we had lost

11:04

several colleagues in the World Trade

11:06

Center and we celebrated their lives and

11:09

we also had to move the headquarters of

11:11

American Express to New Jersey we had to

11:14

take take everybody out of the world

11:16

financial center where our headquarters

11:18

was well that building was rebuilt and

11:23

that was a big deal so you know I heard

11:26

what Letty said about when she was

11:29

talking about that moment when she and

11:33

Dell were looking over that scenic Vista

11:35

and I think she said there was no you

11:38

know like one moment or no magic moment

11:41

or particular epiphany and I can tell

11:43

you for for me and I think for September

11:46

that was true - I don't think we had

11:49

this big this big moment where we

11:52

decided of the world's change that we're

11:54

going to change their lives I think that

11:56

I think we just understood it so we

12:00

didn't have this big conversation about

12:03

what to do next or or you know how the

12:07

world was changing we just knew that we

12:10

needed to change with the world and we

12:14

decided then that we would that that

12:17

vacation cabin we could we're gonna

12:19

build could be our permanent home and my

12:24

son Ian is sitting right over there

12:26

Ian was in the 8th grade he's awful

12:30

young for his advanced stage now right

12:32

awful young looking but but anyway we

12:36

went to unit said Ian would you like to

12:37

go to school in Brown County with about

12:41

what 3 or 400 classmates or would you

12:44

like to to go to high school here in

12:46

Alpharetta Georgia in the suburb of

12:48

Atlanta with about 3,000 classmates and

12:51

he jumped right on that idea to go to

12:53

Brown County and so by the time school

12:55

was out or that when school started

12:59

in September of 2002 we had moved back

13:02

in he had started school in Brown County

13:04

and they called him Georgia for a few

13:07

years and eventually they forgot about

13:11

that though didn't they right you became

13:12

a just a regular Brown County guy but we

13:17

made that move

13:18

and fast-forward to today

13:22

right so for the last 15 years my wife

13:28

September who is sitting over there

13:30

behind Ian has been a volunteer fireman

13:34

and a assistant fire chief and a first

13:38

responder in Brown County and she and

13:42

her mom who's sitting beside her over

13:44

there who is also a fireman and is still

13:48

on the fire department at 89 years old

13:51

[Applause]

13:56

have touched the lives of hundreds of

14:00

people in Brown County at the worst

14:02

moments and and I think helped a little

14:06

right or maybe helped a lot and they

14:09

found a place and we feel really good

14:13

about that and for me for the last 10

14:16

years I have been doing this thing with

14:19

my family and friends that this big

14:21

adventure that we call Big Woods and now

14:24

hard truth hills and that kind of stuff

14:26

and for me it's been a dream because and

14:30

the biggest adventure because we're

14:32

building an enterprise but we're

14:34

building a culture right we're building

14:36

kind of a kind of a thing there that

14:39

kind of transcends the business part of

14:42

it and it's more about the experience

14:44

that we help people have when they come

14:46

to visit Brown County so it's a

14:48

wonderful thing and I can tell you that

14:53

I still go visit that big old sycamore

14:56

tree a lot and I think about these

15:00

things and I stand there as a creek and

15:02

I'm there in the deep woods that we call

15:05

September's for us now and I'm thankful

15:08

for every minute and every day that

15:10

we're here and I'm really proud to be

15:14

from Indiana and to be a Hoosier and to

15:17

have the wonderful family and friends

15:19

that I do and thank you for letting me

15:22

be here tonight

15:25

you

English (auto-generated)

Jean Capler discusses the LGBTQ+ experience as a Hoosier woman.

Description of the video:

00:00

I was driving from Bloomington up to

00:12

Chicago when the state police closed the

00:16

interstate right around Lafayette

00:18

diverting everybody off the highway now

00:22

it was snowing that night kind of heavy

00:24

but I was fine with that I like to drive

00:26

in the snow and I thought well you know

00:30

the winds blowing a little bit come to

00:32

find out we were actually starting a

00:34

blizzard but I didn't know that at the

00:36

time I thought maybe there was an

00:39

accident further on the highway they had

00:41

closed the highway so thought well I'll

00:43

just cut over to the state road take

00:45

that up north get back on the highway a

00:47

little further up head on up to Chicago

00:50

that was my plan but as I'm driving

00:53

along the conditions are getting worse

00:56

and worse the snow is just coming down

01:00

furiously and and the wind is picking up

01:03

and it's buffeting my car and visibility

01:05

is down to it like basically I'm on the

01:08

road because I can see a little patch

01:10

for some reason on the edge of the lane

01:12

was not covered in snow so I could see a

01:15

little dark patch there and that's how I

01:17

was standing on the road and I'm like I

01:19

really need to get off this road and

01:21

just hold up for the night in a motel

01:22

and I'll finish the drive tomorrow

01:26

except every little town that we were

01:28

passing through it was like little

01:32

motels had no vacancy signs up I'm like

01:35

okay maybe the next town no vacancy so

01:39

now I'm really starting to get worried

01:41

because everything's getting closed up

01:43

yeah I'm nobody's on the roads and I'm

01:46

out there with no place to stay so I'm

01:48

like alright if I cut back to 65 and I

01:51

get up to the next larger town maybe

01:53

they'll have a few hotels I don't find a

01:55

safe place so on the map because this

02:00

was before I broke down and got a cell

02:02

phone and I don't think they have GPS

02:03

then anyway on the map it looked like

02:06

this intersected with 65 so I'm taking

02:08

this little country road in the middle

02:11

of a bunch of cornfields in

02:13

now is clearly a blizzard but I'm gonna

02:16

get to 65 and I'm gonna find a hotel and

02:18

then my car dies in the middle of

02:22

nowhere in a blizzard and I have just

02:25

enough momentum to steer it off onto the

02:27

little sort of shoulder before the ditch

02:30

and I have no cellphone and I'm not sure

02:36

what to do at this point and it's really

02:38

cold and so I see some lights eventually

02:44

coming from the opposite direction

02:45

okay I'll flag somebody down at least

02:48

get me back to the town and I'll figure

02:49

it out so I get out of my car and to in

02:54

my lane and to flag them down but the

02:58

wind is blowing so hard at its fighting

03:00

ly cold and it's blowing me and the road

03:04

is so slick that I'm just moving without

03:06

moving my feet until I finally get some

03:08

traction and I'm waving and the car goes

03:11

by so I get back in my car completely

03:16

frozen at this point run the heater a

03:18

little while until I see some more

03:19

lights oh my god let's try again

03:21

nope went by now I'm I'm beginning to

03:26

feel like I might freeze in my car that

03:28

night I didn't have enough gas to just

03:31

keep the heater running

03:32

I see another set of lights and they

03:36

actually slowed down for me this time

03:38

and I'm like oh thank god and up drives

03:41

a white panel van and I've heard enough

03:46

horror stories about white panel vans

03:50

that I'm okay okay and I look and

03:55

there's a man in the panel van I'm like

04:00

alright that's forget in the van with a

04:03

man and so I get my keys out and I put

04:05

them between my fingers because

04:07

apparently that's supposed to be good

04:08

self defense but I'm not sure that that

04:10

actually works but it put my hands in my

04:13

pockets because not only are they cold

04:15

but I didn't want to offend him if he

04:16

was actually a nice guy

04:19

so I get in it turns out he was a very

04:22

friendly man he's like hey what happened

04:24

on my car just died for some reason it

04:26

just stopped running can you take me to

04:28

the other town I'm not sure where I'm

04:29

gonna stay but at least get me there and

04:31

he's like don't worry I'm going to meet

04:35

my wife at the VFW and you know you can

04:39

probably spend the night on our couch

04:41

but let me give her a call so he's

04:44

calling his wife and says honey I picked

04:47

up a woman on the road and I was really

04:50

hoping she was laughing on the other end

04:52

because I was gonna meet her shortly and

04:55

so we get to the VFW I hope in the door

04:59

and oh my god the warmth in this place

05:02

was just wonderful and you know people

05:05

are hanging around drinking beer eating

05:07

pizza being sociable I start talking

05:12

with a wife and she's very nice and she

05:14

was you know sorry my car froze and and

05:17

said sure you can stay with us tonight

05:20

sleep on the couch if you don't mind our

05:22

little dog will probably crawl up there

05:24

with you and I'm like that's fine just

05:26

like yeah we're here they bought me a

05:28

piece of pizza to be you know really

05:30

nice people so there she says you know

05:35

we're gonna take a pizza home to our

05:37

teenage daughter who's who's waiting for

05:39

us so we're gonna get out of here pretty

05:40

soon and then she sees my wedding ring

05:44

that I'm wearing and asked me you know

05:46

oh so you're married what does your

05:48

husband do now I was wearing a wedding

05:51

ring because several years before that

05:54

I'd had a commitment ceremony with my

05:56

partner my first partner who was a piano

05:59

teacher and and you know we in our minds

06:02

were married even though we were

06:04

completely illegal but I'm in this VFW

06:09

hall with some nice people and a

06:11

blizzard outside and I need a couch to

06:13

sleep on and I don't know these folks

06:16

and I don't know where they're at on

06:18

this you know their views about things

06:20

and so I said my husband is a piano

06:24

teacher now I'm not a person who lives

06:30

comfortably in the closet I never had

06:32

then I I can't even I don't even know

06:36

when I come out to people because we're

06:37

just talking and it comes out and it's

06:40

no big deal

06:41

you know even a few years before this I

06:44

was sitting in an entire shop in

06:45

Bloomington and a lady was in the

06:48

waiting room when I was getting new

06:50

tires she's watching CNN and there's a

06:52

story about a gay journalist who died

06:54

and she gets a sour look on her face she

06:58

looks at me and she says I don't care

07:00

what they say those people choose that

07:02

lifestyle and we ended up having a very

07:05

nice and interesting conversation about

07:07

how he didn't choose to be a lesbian I

07:09

just sort of figured it out yeah in the

07:12

tire story so here I am the f/w I go

07:19

home with them you know a married woman

07:22

married to a husband who's a piano

07:25

teacher I sleep on their couch their

07:27

little dog sleeps by my head we have

07:29

breakfast the next morning they drive me

07:31

into town I pick up my car somebody

07:33

towed it off the highway and brought it

07:35

into the gas station and and it's

07:36

running now it just froze apparently

07:39

everything was fine and I go on my way

07:42

now fast forward a number of years I

07:46

have a new partner now and in the summer

07:50

of 2014 after several years the fighting

07:54

really really hard to stop Indiana from

07:56

putting a marriage discrimination

07:58

amendment in the Bill of Rights of our

08:01

Constitution I'm in blooming foods in

08:06

the middle of June and my friend John

08:09

calls and says the courts ruled marriage

08:13

is legal in Indiana and I burst into

08:19

tears in the middle of blooming foods I

08:21

was so overcome like and it was weird

08:25

because I I was joyous I was incredulous

08:29

I was so relieved and at the very same

08:33

time I could feel something shift and

08:36

the world like like I took a step from

08:40

the margins into my community and I

08:43

hadn't even noticed that I'd been

08:45

the margins like I suddenly exhaled and

08:49

I didn't know I had been holding my

08:51

breath but it was it was such a shift

08:56

for me so I looked back from the tire

09:04

store conversation to being in the VFW

09:10

with these really nice people who were

09:12

gonna let me sleep on the couch and

09:14

saying that my husband was a piano

09:16

teacher because I didn't know what would

09:19

happen to now oh my god Jenny we can get

09:23

married you know and we've come so far

09:28

and yet at the same time I know we have

09:30

so far to go in Indiana and in this

09:32

country you know people can still get

09:36

fired because of their sexual

09:38

orientation gender identity we still are

09:40

dealing with white supremacy and even a

09:42

resurgence of that in our own

09:45

communities so we have a long way to go

09:48

and I don't know what all the answers

09:50

are for how to get where we need to go

09:52

as a community as a state I don't I

09:56

don't even know if that nice couple in

09:58

the VFW would have taken me home to

10:00

their couch even if I had said my wife

10:03

is a piano teacher maybe I'd like to

10:05

think that they would have probably

10:07

there but I don't know because it was

10:09

really damn cold outside and and I

10:12

didn't want to chance it

10:14

the one thing that I do know is that I'm

10:17

gonna keep working to make Indiana the

10:20

state where every Hoosier can be sure

10:24

that they don't have to choose between

10:27

safety and a blizzard and the truth of

10:30

their heart thank you

10:34

[Applause]

10:36

you

10:36

[Applause]

English (auto-generated)

Don Griffin analyzes prejudice in our communities and assumptions involving race.

Description of the video:

00:01

[Music]

00:07

well I'm a Hoosier I'm a reluctant to

00:14

sure which I think most people might be

00:17

a show of hands that anyone dream about

00:22

becoming a Hoosier

00:24

okay see well 10 years ago or no it's

00:33

I'm gonna start my story 10 years after

00:37

I came back and I had a three year old

00:39

and we were married and to my lovely

00:44

wife Nicole and we we took on the idea

00:50

of embracing everything that Indiana has

00:52

to offer and so that means that we were

00:57

going to be going to the affair the

01:01

County Fair we loved fair we loved fair

01:03

food that's just something that we love

01:05

to do we like the the corn dogs and the

01:09

tenderloins and what's what's another

01:13

one yeah Alif any years yes that was in

01:16

years so there we were we were at the

01:19

County Fair and normally we we kind of

01:24

stay around the food section I'm a

01:27

little scared of carne so we stay away

01:29

from that but there was a sound in the

01:36

grandstands and it was a sound of cars

01:39

and if anyone knows me they know that I

01:42

love cars and my little three-year-old

01:45

at the time Dexter loves cars as well

01:48

and so we're hearing all this noise and

01:51

he's like dad we we we got to go check

01:55

that out and I'm like well okay you know

02:00

normally like I said I stay stay in the

02:02

areas that I'm safe with and that I'm

02:05

used to but we went ahead and went into

02:09

the grandstands and

02:13

immediately I recognize that we're the

02:19

only people that that look like us

02:21

there's eyes all on us in living in

02:27

Indiana that's something that and being

02:29

a real estate agent that's something

02:31

that I'm normally used to but it's

02:34

different when you have your your

02:36

three-year-old and your family with you

02:37

and because what this is supposed to be

02:40

fun it's it's it's not my job right now

02:43

but we're trying to train him to you

02:47

know at that age hey we just we do what

02:49

we want to do you know you you go into

02:52

places that you're not necessarily

02:53

comfortable with because that's just

02:55

life so we hurry up and we scary and we

03:01

we we go up into the the grandstands we

03:04

find a seat and this this man is looking

03:11

at us he's glaring at us he's um he's

03:18

got overalls on he's got the Hat I think

03:22

it was it was probably red man I think

03:24

or it could have been John Deere I'm

03:30

being stereotypical so I probably

03:32

shouldn't do that but you know he he had

03:35

his arms folded like this and he was he

03:39

didn't make a he didn't make his face

03:41

didn't change it was just this face and

03:44

he was he was just looking at us and I'm

03:49

mad I'm like okay and my wife she's a

03:52

she used to be a zero to three year old

03:55

you know teacher and so she knows how to

03:58

redirect and she uses that on me a lot

04:02

it works most of the time so I'm like

04:08

man I'm gonna go talk to go and handle

04:12

this and she's like you need to just sit

04:15

down and enjoy the dog or and you know

04:18

tractor cool because that's what we're

04:20

there just enjoy the tractor pool now

04:23

like you know but but what was happening

04:25

in my mind is

04:26

you know I lived I grew up a mile or two

04:32

from the mountain real County

04:35

Fairgrounds and so all the the feelings

04:40

all the things that happened to me as a

04:42

child we're kind of welling up inside of

04:46

me as this adult and some of the

04:50

examples are you know I I had a teacher

04:52

who my first grade teacher she told my

04:56

parents that she had never had a black

04:59

child and she didn't know how to teach a

05:02

black child or the fact that I had to

05:05

stay in the principal's office during

05:09

recess so that the kids would no longer

05:13

play KKK and chase me with belts my dad

05:18

was a police officer one of the first

05:20

black police officers in Bloomington so

05:22

my name was little black piglet so these

05:25

are all these things are in my mind

05:28

right now like in this man that's

05:31

staring me down he's gonna be the brunt

05:34

of it and I'm big now you know and you

05:37

know I've got a business and you know

05:40

it's not gonna happen to my child

05:42

anymore we're gonna I'm gonna take care

05:45

of this and of course my wife is still

05:48

tugging at my pocket saying you know and

05:51

I'm like no I'm gonna go and talk to

05:53

this man because I'm not having it but

05:57

what stopped me is at that moment these

06:03

two little african-american girls one

06:08

was probably no more than six the other

06:10

one was four probably they were sisters

06:14

and they're by themselves and they're

06:18

there they're coming into the into the

06:23

area the grandstands like they own the

06:27

place

06:27

Here I am a grown-ass man and yet these

06:32

little girls are acting like they own

06:35

the place they knew where they were

06:36

going and they're they're looking

06:39

looking in our direction and I think

06:41

they're like oh they're saying oh look

06:43

more people like me you know like and

06:45

and so they start to run up the

06:48

grandstand but then they run past us and

06:53

I hear the words grandpa grandpa and I

06:59

turn around and they're climbing into

07:02

the lab of the man that I was judging

07:07

the man that I thought had such contempt

07:11

for me and my family and at that moment

07:16

he's got the biggest smile that that

07:19

I've ever seen

07:23

so of course I'm the asshole right we as

07:30

a people all of us have got to learn to

07:35

do better we have got to learn to stop

07:38

looking at people and judging them for

07:41

the way that they look and learn to get

07:44

to know the person some of my favorite

07:50

people in this entire world are people

07:53

that don't look like me that don't share

07:57

the same religion I do and are not the

08:02

same sexual orientation that I am and my

08:08

world would be a much more boring place

08:13

if if I didn't step out and look at

08:17

others try to try to figure out how

08:20

where people are coming from because I

08:22

want them to do the same with me so when

08:29

meeting new people and going to new

08:32

places always start with love

08:38

you

English (auto-generated)

Letty Newkirk remembers her homecoming to Indiana and her love of the arts community at IU.

Description of the video:

00:03

thank you everyone my story's called

00:06

homecoming and you'll have to use your

00:10

imagination but I'll try the day was

00:14

warm it was the perfect spring day in

00:18

Brown County the Sun was perfectly blue

00:21

the Sun was out and shining bright and

00:25

my husband Dell and I were standing by

00:29

our automobile up on the top of what's

00:33

called Kelly Hill witches Road 46 going

00:37

into Nashville from Bloomington there's

00:40

a pullout a gravel pullout and we were

00:43

standing there and looking to the

00:45

southeast to Brown County State Park and

00:49

before us was the most beautiful Vista

00:52

it was like a landscape painting the

00:56

pink dog woods were in full bloom the

00:59

dog woods were white and they were like

01:03

lace necklaces wandering around through

01:06

all these trees thousands of green trees

01:09

it was a beautiful painting and we were

01:14

standing there looking from one end of

01:17

the Vista to the other looking at this

01:20

beautiful scene and not saying a word we

01:23

were just standing there looking back

01:25

and forth and suddenly we turned to each

01:29

other and we stared at each other for a

01:32

while and without a word we got back

01:35

into the car and went on our trip that

01:40

was a moment when I realized that we had

01:43

made the most scary decision probably in

01:47

our whole lives we had made the decision

01:51

without saying a word to each other

01:53

until much later that we had decided to

01:57

leave a comfortable home true friends a

02:02

wonderful city out on the western edge

02:06

of Missouri and we were going to move

02:09

to Indiana it was the word was

02:14

homecoming in a way but it wasn't

02:19

something that is like Hollywood AHA and

02:23

violins playing in the background this

02:27

had a long background but it came up

02:31

during that beautiful day and became

02:34

reality for us as I said we had a

02:39

comfortable home in Missouri loads of

02:43

friends our children were raised in the

02:45

same town we knew everybody so why would

02:48

we move from this comfortable spot well

02:52

one of the reasons was that we were

02:55

lacking arts and culture and it wasn't a

03:00

sudden thing that we realized but it had

03:03

been growing for a long time to go to a

03:06

concert was a hundred and eighty miles

03:09

round-trip on a narrow two-lane highway

03:14

to Kansas City and we'd go to places

03:17

when we traveled we'd go to museums we

03:21

check out the city and see well is this

03:23

where we want to live and our checklist

03:26

wasn't full we came back home and I

03:31

think the seed the beginning of our

03:34

quest to find arts and culture in our

03:38

lives was also because our children were

03:41

in college and the dogs and I would

03:45

wander from one empty bedroom to another

03:47

the house was quiet the phone didn't

03:51

ring it was time for a change and years

03:55

ago when I was a student at Indiana

03:57

University I was a reporter for the

04:00

Indiana daily student and as a freshman

04:04

I was volunteered by my editor to be the

04:09

arts editor of everything artistic on

04:13

campus well I was a freshman and I

04:17

didn't know what it meant what it meant

04:19

was that I covered all kinds of events

04:22

knowing a single thing about Mozart or

04:26

art but every night I would rush back to

04:31

ernie pyle hall and sit at a typewriter

04:35

yes.we typewriters back then and pound

04:38

away until deadline time my editor

04:41

yelling over my shoulder hurry up hurry

04:44

up get done it's deadline time when the

04:47

semester was up I realized that I really

04:49

liked this beat I was enjoying it very

04:53

much so I reached once twice three times

04:59

by the time I graduated I was truly in

05:03

love with what was possible to do if you

05:08

just quieted your nerves and went and

05:12

did it and in the meantime Dell who was

05:18

studying for his graduate degree would

05:21

take breaks in recital hall and go

05:24

listen to a music performance before

05:27

going back to Franklin hall where there

05:29

were where that was our main library

05:31

back then to the Graduate Carol's time

05:38

went on and finally the decision came

05:43

that we really were going to move that's

05:46

when the feeling in my stomach started

05:49

this pit or this wait are we making the

05:56

right decision is this what we should do

05:58

the kids would call from college and say

06:01

mom why aren't you going to go to an

06:05

ocean coast or a big city why are you

06:08

going to plain old Indiana I couldn't

06:12

answer them

06:13

I just stuttered well it our going away

06:17

party all our friends were there it was

06:19

a beautiful evening they come up and say

06:22

well we're really gonna miss you after

06:24

all these years I'm sure you've checked

06:27

this out that and then their voices

06:30

would drop away I went home that night

06:33

and brushing my teeth I just started

06:36

I I thought we made the worst mistake in

06:39

our whole life and I cried and cried and

06:42

cried and I'm sure that until moving day

06:47

came I had so many doubts one day I

06:51

found myself walking out in cold weather

06:54

in aimless circles around my driveway I

06:57

was still puzzled about what we were

07:01

doing and not yet sure well moving day

07:05

came and you know I don't have a single

07:09

memory of that moving van coming down

07:12

that gravel Lane in Brown County and

07:15

unloading our furniture have you ever

07:18

had an operation or procedure where

07:21

finally the nurse comes up to you and

07:23

said wake up wake up you did fine that's

07:28

how I felt I just didn't I didn't have a

07:31

memory of it but and I was so lonely we

07:37

decided to live in a place that was

07:39

surrounded by zillions of trees I

07:42

couldn't even see my neighbor's house

07:44

there was nothing there but green and it

07:49

was so boring that the dogs decided to

07:52

sit on the porch at the porch window and

07:56

wait for the crunch of gravel when my

08:01

husband came home from work and I

08:03

listened and listened someone to talk to

08:06

besides the dogs so one day I decided to

08:14

wander downtown to Nashville and go in

08:17

an art gallery

08:18

someone had told me about her I read

08:21

about it in the paper but that was a

08:24

revelation because that friendly

08:27

friendly manager took me around and

08:30

showed me all this beautiful Brown

08:31

County art hanging on the walls and then

08:35

she invited us to come to reception an

08:37

opening of a new show on the weekend

08:41

well I thought I'll be a Wallflower I

08:44

can't go up and meet these people

08:46

I don't know anybody instead

08:49

people came and introduced themselves

08:51

and said hey I think you're the new

08:53

people in town

08:54

can you imagine there's eight hundred

08:56

and forty-three people in Nashville

08:59

anyway it was a beautiful evening

09:01

meeting new people and realizing that

09:06

we're not alone in the world and then

09:11

something else happened I decided my new

09:14

bravery to go over to Indiana University

09:16

and revisit the campus but now I went to

09:20

the Indiana University Art Museum I

09:23

walked in by the way when I was in

09:26

school so long ago there wasn't an art

09:29

museum here it was an empty space the

09:32

Fine Arts Building was under

09:34

construction but we had no art building

09:37

on campus it was a revelation to walk in

09:42

to those three stories full of art

09:45

spanning centuries and centuries statues

09:51

drawings oil paintings I was in seventh

09:55

heaven by the time the afternoon ended I

09:58

wandered through the Fine Arts Building

10:00

to see what it looked like and on the

10:03

wall were masses of notes and posters

10:08

and bulletins lectures tours movies

10:14

receptions it was eye-opening but the

10:19

best thing was the poster beside all

10:22

these notes it was a list of classes for

10:26

the next semester

10:28

dozens of art history classes I read

10:31

every line on that poster and I made a

10:36

vow to myself that I would go to a class

10:41

so I paid the fee went to class the next

10:46

semester I was more nervous than a

10:49

freshman which is really saying

10:51

something

10:51

I kept thinking do I have my pencils

10:54

will I understand why the professor's is

10:57

saying do I can I write fast enough but

11:01

by the time this

11:02

class was over I was on another plane I

11:06

was in another planet it was absolutely

11:10

wonderful I couldn't believe how much I

11:14

enjoyed learning about art something I

11:17

couldn't do in school when I was here as

11:20

a student I shared that with my husband

11:24

when I he came home it was so exciting

11:27

so then we went to classes a lot we went

11:31

to music religion all kinds of things

11:35

and I ended up taking dozens of art

11:38

history classes one day somehow I

11:43

learned about a docent class forming at

11:47

the Museum once again I geared up my

11:51

courage went to that first meeting there

11:56

were lots of lots of people there

11:58

looking very educated but by the time

12:03

that class was over I had found my

12:05

calling I was going to be a docent no

12:09

matter what now it's 15 years and I'm

12:13

still a docent I still sign up for tours

12:18

I still have that feeling when children

12:22

come in the door with their backpacks

12:25

loaded to the limit and excited and I

12:31

think oh I can hardly wait to show you

12:35

what's on the walls and in this building

12:38

and I have the same feeling of

12:41

anticipation when I see these wonderful

12:43

adults who come in and in the middle

12:48

years of their life they want to learn

12:51

about art and it's so wonderful to share

12:54

it with them so not long ago I was with

12:59

a group of second graders I think they

13:01

were second graders and we do since are

13:05

taught to keep the children close and

13:08

don't let them touch the artwork so we

13:12

were poised in front of one of the

13:15

museums

13:16

Jules it's a beautiful oil painting

13:19

someday you have to go and see it it's a

13:23

picture of Jesus and he has his hands up

13:28

and he's floating floating above his

13:33

tomb and his robes are floating around

13:36

him and the heavenly father is up there

13:40

gesturing come to me but we don't say

13:44

that to the children we say well what do

13:46

you see in this picture a little bit of

13:50

silence and all a sudden little blood

13:53

raises his hand and he said well I don't

13:57

know what's going on but that guy is in

14:00

a lot of trouble now you know I don't

14:06

smile a lot but I smiled and I smiled

14:11

and I smiled thank you very much

14:15

[Applause]

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