True North

Where I look for hope.

I have never been to Minneapolis, but I know many of its children. Over the years, working with a community of people who I have come to cherish, I have had the privilege of helping dozens of their rising seniors write the college admissions essays that helped them achieve their dreams.

Not one of them wrote about politics.

It would not be appropriate for me to write about politics here, either. But I can speak to the diversity of opinions, ideologies and goals that we have discussed—anonymously, of course—and the one thing these kids all had in common: they were good people, who I respect deeply.

One girl comes to mind as I consider the events of this week. Her family, devout Catholics, adhered to a very conservative worldview. Her faith drove her in two directions: toward motherhood and a family-oriented life; and to service, as a community volunteer and eventually as a lawyer. She struggled, earnestly, with reconciling these ambitions.

During high school, her goal was to attend Hillsdale College, whose administrators helped write the Project 2025 manifesto. At a smaller, faith-oriented school, she felt that she could connect with both academic rigor and a community that reflected her values. Ultimately, she chose a different school, but her dreams remained the same.

Another student wrote about his mixed heritage—his maternal side is Native American—and how roaming the backwoods and canoeing the Boundary Waters helped him feel connected to it. Christmas, to him, was learning how to cast his new fly rod in the snow, followed by warm aromas of Italian cooking. 

Another spoke at length about how his own Catholic faith strengthened him and gave him purpose, and helped him summon the courage to come out to his family and friends, who accepted and supported him without batting an eye.

Another, whose huge voice and animated spirit were only ever barely contained, wrote about her desire to stand up for those in need, and to deploy her formidable athletic and intellectual talents on behalf of the causes and people close to her heart.

On and on… So many great kids, all different, yet all brimming with the energy of youth, and without exception, kind and honest. Nice, as they say there.

These people, to me, are Minnesota. 

As two extremely high profile Minneapolis murders rocked the national news and widened the already seismic rifts in our society, I thought about them. People from outside their community pull them in different directions, telling them what their city and state represents. Defining it in terms that will not resonate, but that may sow doubt.

I hope they will not listen, and instead hold fast to their ideals. I hope they find connections in college with people whose demographic or religious profiles are different than theirs, but whose hearts are equally strong. My gut tells me they will.

Our future—and the future of Minnesota—will not be determined by old men filled with hate. It will be built by kids like the ones I know. I take comfort in that. They will see past the facemasks, the guns, the blood… the speeches and memes… the political opportunism... to a better tomorrow. It will be their hands on the levers of industry, and eventually, of power.

To have worked with them is an honor. To imagine who they will become, and the world they will create, is a blessing at a horrifying moment like this.