Greetings from the Keweenaw Peninsula! If you’ve ever seen a person from Michigan show where they live by holding up their hand as a map, you know the routine. We have hand maps for both peninsulas. And if you use one hand to make the Upper Peninsula, the Keweenaw Peninsula is the pinky — that long stretch of land jutting out into Lake Superior.
I’m here on an outreach trip for work, and today I stopped by several hospitals and health clinics to drop off materials and share about the Epilepsy Foundation of Michigan. But I started my day at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, where I met with Student Disability Services.
While I was on campus meandering about, including in search of coffee, I saw several signs that I found really touching.
One said, “You don’t have to earn your place in our pack.”
Another said, “One pack united.”
And another: “Creating connections at the heart of campus.”
I think there’s something so wonderful and important about telling people of any age, but especially students, that they belong intrinsically without having to prove something, or do something, or be a certain way.
This is the kind of message we all long to hear. And frankly, we all deserve it, too.
If no one has told you this lately, or if you struggle to believe it, I’ll say it again:
You don’t have to earn your place.
You already belong as you are.
—Renee Roederer
