Grandad was one of my college professors. Dr. Howard Stien taught Biology. Spring of my freshman year at Whitworth, I took Human Biology (a class for non-majors) from him.
The class was challenging and I worked hard. There were few people I wanted to make proud more than Grandad. I had taken biology classes in high school, but Stien (that's what we called him) took us much deeper. Of course. This was college. I renamed the class "Stien's Philosophy of Biological Humanness".
The final paper was to be a for-or-against argument, but I was in turmoil. What I had learned had challenged my faith and my understanding of God and of us. I could not make an argument either way. So I wrote Grandad a letter, which was not the assignment. I explained the upheaval I was experiencing and my inability to defend either side.
Grandad wrote me a letter back.
"Kyrsten,
"I read your paper with great interest and no little concern. Your paper merits my carefully considered response both as your professor and as your Grandfather. It is brilliantly written... I am proud beyond words that you dared risk doing what your heart, mind, soul and body tells you must be done. That kind of courage is rare in young students when faced with the expectations of profs, particularly grandfather profs...
"You have demonstrated an exceptional ability to manipulate information and communicate ideas in writing. Best of all, you have learned to recognize dissonance... I am encouraged that you have gained some understanding of the material miracle that is Life and that you have considered all this in the 'context of your personal beliefs, experience and values'... You are dealing with it honestly and I think maturely."
He signed it "GOK" - grandfather of Kyrsten. And he gave me an A.
I have never felt more validated.
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