Hometown vibes, big time degrees
I woke up today to the news that an alumni of Chadron State College, Tim Walz was named as Democratic Vice Presidential candidate and was immediately reminded of how my alma mater is much more than what most people think it is. Last year in October, I was asked to keynote for the colleges’ Inspiration 2023 event about my connection to CSC. I titled the talk Hometown vibes, big time degrees. I walked down memory lane about how I came to this little corner of Nebraska where the pine trees grew among the buttes. How as we crested the “Job Corps Hill”, I knew that this was the place for me to go to college. I arrived fresh out of basic training and started my 21 year career in the Nebraska Army National Guards at the armory located right on campus. I played some DII football, met Jodi in our Intro to Teaching class, got married, had kids, graduated from college, worked, loved, cried, celebrated, worshiped, dug out of blizzards, ate potlucks, enjoyed the yearly county fair and the yearly Fur Trade days celebration together with some amazing folks who all have some attachment to this little state college. It was the thing, you see, that you can’t take for granted. A place where we work together to get through tough times and celebrate together over the harvest and the accomplishments of one another. Your hometown. That hometown vibe, the one where folks care for one another gave me and my family (All CSC grades now by the way!) the confidence to believe we could to do big time things in the world. Well, I can truly say, I have done some amazing things in my life, maybe not being picked as the potential Vice President of the United States, nonetheless they have been amazing to me. I don’t know Governor Walz, he graduated from CSC the year before I got there, but I think I know a little about what he is made up of. Tim Walz is a product of the same things I am. Someone raised in rural America, someone who knows what sweat equity means and how together we can do more than we can divided.
Thank you Chadron State College for preparing the leaders of today by being a hometown with big time degrees! Soar Eagles!
