Rabbi Allen Secher recalls the early anti-semitism he suffered and how he consequently became a Civil Rights and Social Justice advocate.
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J.S. Puller, Chicago playwright and author, recalls an early acting experience playing "Hans Solo" for a grade school production and how it inspired.a lifetime of fan fiction and original storytelling.
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David Kovacs, Co-founder of the Chicago Interfaith Family School, tells the powerful story of enduring the suicide of his father as a 14 year old boy, and finding strength through a loving partner and shared religious faith..
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Jim Kleinmann, Artistic Director and co-founder of the playwright incubator PlayGround, recalls driving the Staten Island Ferry as a ten year old.
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Gaby Iori, publicist at Quirk Books, recalls how receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation in front of her second grade classmates started years of OCD.
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Katie Todd, award winning elementary music educator & children’s music artist, recalls being inspired by the creative leadership of Mr. White, her second grade teacher.
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Martin Ross, a nonprofit leader, recalls the advantages/disadvantages of growing up with an identical twin brother.
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Alex Kingsley, writer and game designer, recalls being in third grade, feeling isolated, and how their participation in a "Destination Imagination" program changed their perspective.
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Ken Tang, the first Vietnamese refugee elected to the Alhambra Unified School District Board of Education, recalls being a child, fleeing Vietnam on a fishing boat that was attacked by pirates.
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Victoria Oltarsh, author of "The Boy and the Secret of the Stars," recalls being 8 years old and walking in the Easter Parade on 5th Avenue, much to the chagrin of her Jewish mother.
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Lisa Lindsley, former investment banker turned shareholder activist, recalls being 8 years old and having her cousin returned to an orphanage by her aunt and uncle.
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Jill Hopkins, Director of Civic Events and New Media for Metro Chicago and Gman Tavern, recalls a 5th grade fight with a friend over New Kids on the Block, and how she learned the power of words.
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Eric Horvath, VP for Community-engaged Investing at Earlystone Management, recalls a traumatic simulation of the Ellis Island experience while in 5th grade.
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Bob Bossie, a 56 year member of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, recalls the moment he suddenly understood his calling, after partying morning, noon, and night in California.
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Mullissa Willette, President of Service Employees International Union 521, is devastated when her parents refuse to allow her to be double promoted from 3rd to 5th grade.
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Tammy Fisher, owner of The Pleasure Principles, recalls being in 6th grade in Austin, TX, and being bussed across town to help desegregate the school system.
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John Chisum, President of the Nashville Christian Songwriters, recalls moving from Birmingham, AL to Memphis, TN during the turbulent 1960's & his first interracial date.
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Jay Rehak, author, animator and podcaster, recalls being frightened by a horror movie and his father's zen-like advice.
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Allie McRaith, Chicagoan & worldwide nomad, recalls the moment her mother, suffering from cancer, would never fully recover.
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Woody Rini, Spiritual Advisor & Recovering Addict, recalls being 12 & having his pastor tell him he was responsible for his 17 sister going to hell.
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Vonda Brunsting, long-time labor & community organizer, recalls being 8 years old when her uncle lost part of his foot in a factory accident.
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Hannah Rehak, improvasationalist, podcaster, recalls making friends with a girl at a Summer Camp who later revealed that she believed all gay people went to hell.
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Ben Joravsky, Chicago Reader Investigative Reporter, Author, and Host of the Ben Joravsky Show Podcast, recalls one of his earliest experiences as a writer. (He was in fifth grade)
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Caleb Frankel, co-founder of Early Bird (a financial technology company), recalls moving 20 times in a short period of time after his parent's divorce.
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Gayle Petrillo, career and confidence coach, consultant, author and speaker, recalls suffering burns over 40% of her body when she was 2 and 1/2 years old.
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Ellie Moller, publishing priestess, creative writer & clothing designer, recalls becoming bulimic at the age of 18, after absorbing the offhanded comments of an aunt.
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Jon Taber, host of the podcast "Audit 15 Fun", recalls being 10 & experiencing the tragedy of his 13 year old brother's drowning & the aftermath of not being able to fully talk about it.
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Hope Rehak, comic, teacher, writer, recalls being recruited by a classmate to attend religious fundamentalist summer camp when she was in third grade, and how it cost her a friendship
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Harker Jones, LA screenwriter & former managing editor of "Out" magazine, recalls a childhood vacation on Mackinac Island, where a caricature artist labels his sister "cute" and him a "clown" and how those images haunted him for years.
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Tina El Gamal, artist, educator & arts administrator in Chicago, recalls being seven and having her mother accidentally drive off without her and the lesson she learned of self-reliance
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Dr. Kaci, Licensed Mediator, Life & Sex Coach, recalls being a teenager, and her mother trying to kill her.
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Russ Klettke, business writer, recalls a grade school essay contest in which he zagged instead of zigged, and how that decision has influenced his career choice and writing style.
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John Lee Dumas, founder & host of Entrepreneurs on Fire podcast, recalls a ski trip he took with his father when he was 8, and the impact it's had on his life.
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Alanna Bennett, screenwriter & culture writer, recalls being in fourth grade and living out of a Portland, Oregon motel with her mother, two cats and a hot plate.
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Molly Dunn, disabled writer and co-host of the podcast, Ketamine Insights, recalls her seemingly devout Catholic grandmother revealing why she hadn't been to confession in 35 years.
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Jeff Salidor, Day Trader and Pattern Technician, recalls his father's first words, after Jeff returns home following his mother's cancer diagnosis.
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Timothy Bernard Felton, actor, comedian, relates his rom-com experience that ended a bit differently than expected.
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Keyante Aytch, Co-founder and President of Sunbend Solar, recalls a childhood full of Power Rangers
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Mark Renz, retired Chicago Public School History teacher & administrator, recalls Ms. Marian Hesek, the 3rd grade teacher who inspired his lifelong career.
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Thom Clark, Co-founder of the Community Media Workshop, recalls his arrest and trial for destroying draft cards during the Vietnam War.
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Michelle L. Holleman, Highland Park City Councilwoman, recalls becoming a Brownie in first grade, thanks to the efforts of her community minded mother.
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Tom Avitabile, Founder of the Online Academy of Creative Skills, recalls landing a job at NBC at the age of 14.
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Dr. Philip Neely, Career Law Enforcement Officer, recalls how running track saved him from criminal behavior.
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Marty Pick, Retiree and former Program Director for Chicago's Hull House, recalls attending the 1952 Democratic National Convention at the age of 12.
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Travis Koury, ceramics teacher, recalls being 14 years old and committing a subversive act in response to his mother's demanding boyfriend.
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Thomas Liebert, MacAlester grad and family friend, recalls finding "historic" artifacts from his childhood home in Albany and linking the experience to his international travels.
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Randy Richardson, President of the Chicago Writers Association, recalls making an odd choice after learning of his parents' impending divorce.
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Bill Ayers, educator & author, recalls being a 10 year old and having his idyllic suburban childhood profoundly shaken by the suicide of an 18 year old neighbor.
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Kennedy Baldwin, Chicago writer, improviser and actor, recalls leaving a high school swimming class and being told by two of her friends she wasn't Black because she didn't struggle with her wet hair.
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Anna Munson - Carpenter, an ICU nurse and former perfectionist, recalls freezing during a viola solo in high school.
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Bree Lind, actor & writer from Seguin, TX, recalls a blow to the head during her first ride on a horse.
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Ed Dziedzic, retired teacher, recalls how two harmonicas he inherited changed his life.
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Michelle Gunderson, Early Childhood Educator & Union Activist, discusses the importance of adults not having "Childhood Amnesia."
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Kathy Kelly, International Peace Activist, recalls her first childhood love and how that person has circled back into her life.
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R DUB!, AKA "The Sultan of Slowjamastan" and the creator & host of Sunday Night Slow Jams, recalls breaking into radio at the age of 15, thanks in part to his supportive mother.
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Dr. Duane Davis, Educator & Executive Director of K12 Education Initiatives and My Very Own Library at the University of Chicago, recalls interviewing for a business internship though the Inroads Program.
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Kenzo Shibata, Union Activist and Teacher, recalls resisting recruitment in a gang when he was in 4th grade.
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Zaya Odish, Physical Therapist Aide, recalls immigrating to the Unites States when he was nine.
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Timothy Troy, filmmaker, (Crazy Little Monster Productions) recalls not making the baseball team as a player in high school and the valuable lessons he learned from the experience.
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Eli Boyer, family friend, recalls being physically removed from his home in the middle of the night on Father's Day during his difficult teen years.
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Nina Slesinger, co-host of the Podcast "Nina, Hannah & Emily in Paris," tells the story of creating a music blog as a teenager & the boldness of her "Almost Famous" experiences.
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Lawyer Darfour describes his journey from the South Side of Chicago to International Construction Management.
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Dr. Efrain Martinez, Middle School Principal & host of the "Wisdom & Productivity" Podcast, describes discovering why his mother mistreated him throughout his childhood and his journey to forgiving her and himself.
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Kristel Bauer, Wellness Expert, recalls visiting Austria as a little girl, and learning how to communicate with relatives through play.
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Kaelin A. Vu, Host of the Dear Lovely Universe Podcast, recalls being abandoned at the age of three by her mother.
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Eva Lopez, New York based Communication Strategist, recalls being eight years old and visiting a market in Mexico to buy a live chicken.
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Kelley Gessner, Product Manager for a web app, recalls her first "time out" in first grade; a "time out" she did not deserve.
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Doctor Joyce Kenner, Principal, Whitney M. Young Magnet High School in Chicago, recalls the values she learned working at her parents' record store as an 11 year-old in Dayton, Ohio.
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Jay Rehak, author, activist, music producer, is arrested at 16 as an accomplice to a crime, but is given the "Benefit of the Doubt" as a consequence of white privilege.
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Doctor Wilma Turner, author of Every Day Racism in America & the Power of Forgiveness, recalls integrating her high school.
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Jeff Holden, host of the "In Your Words" podcast, recalls being bullied about his weight when he was in grade school.
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Roy Huff, Science Fiction author and educator, tells the story of learning his father was gay and HIV positive.
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Scott Suma, author, minister and retired teacher, speaks of the profound influence his barber, a World War II veteran, had on him.
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Mollie Glazer, professional cellist & music teacher, recalls her early training and how those experiences have impacted the instruction she provides to her students.
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Stuart Blatt, TV and Movie Production Designer, on the "Hippie Aunt" who taught him to value painting your own refrigerator and creating "outside the box."
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Eileen O'Farrell Smith, Lifelong social justice advocate, remembers vomiting her First Communion host.
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Orlando Piedra recalls the difficulties of emigrating to the United States from Cuba as an eleven year old.
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Jay Rehak, teacher, author, activist, host of "Tell Me What Happened," explains how surviving a fall from a cliff when he was 7 years old has given him a sense of invulnerability, purpose, and surreality.
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Hamlet, an award winning musician, tells the story of growing up without people to call "mom" and "dad" and how other adults in his life helped him emotionally survive.
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Alina Celeste, award winning children's singer and YouTube personality, discovering at the age of 15, that her mother was a real person, and not the saint she believed her to be.
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Julie Biehl, Clinical Professor of Law, Director of the Children and Family Justice Center &Interim Associate Dean for Clinical Education of the Bluhm Legal Clinic, recalls being raped at her first dance.
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Jay Rehak, teacher, author, activist, host of "Tell Me What Happened," remembers challenging his 4th grade teacher and the price he paid for it in a memory he calls,"All that for a bag of chips."
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Jay Rehak, teacher, author, activist, host of "Tell Me What Happened," details his first fight with "One Hand on the Mailbox."
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