Emazing

Dear Erin,

Man it has been a long long time. The funny thing is I had so little personal interaction with you it seems weird that I would have such strong memories of you. I can remember almost our entire “interview” when I was applying to STAND, and I am fairly certain I have never been so nervous about anything. Seems strange to me now, knowing what I do about you and STAND in general, that I was nervous, but never the less I was sweaty palmed and chain smoking the whole time.

I remember going into it I thought it was just something for WMU, not a national thing, so I wasn’t that nervous going in, but once I found out the scope of what I was getting into…so began hand wringing.

You are responsible for me getting involved with STAND, and that had a huge impact on my life in so many ways. It might not seem like all that big a deal to you considering you probably have brought in dozens of people into the STAND world, but to me I see little ear marks of it all over my life. Aside from the purpose of STAND, which in its self was huge to me, there are the people. I look down this friend list of mine as I slowly whittle it away, and see the smiling faces of so many extraordinary people I have met there. I think of all the late late nights, and deadlines, and the general panic of “what if this gets fucked up”. What it all boils down to is, if it weren’t for you that 3 year period in my life would have been so very different, and I think where I am now would have been much further off in the distance.

I was pretty butt-hurt when I first started that you were already moving on in your role at STAND, I felt like you got me in, so I wanted to have a chance to prove myself to you. Not that Scott wasn’t a good leader, far from it, but I had something to prove to you. Just know that everytime I went batshit and worked for like 3 days straight on something I was hoping you were watching. I don’t seek approval from many, as just about anyone who knows me will verify, but for you I just felt so grateful and inspired that it made me push extra hard.

Ok, this is getting soggy. To sum up you were/are awesome and some day when you are running for office I would love to be on your team.

Today was a great day, but tomorrow our FBfriendship will end,

Curt