Nora
Griffin-Wiesner
she / her / hers
Service Project: Minnesota Humanities Center
Hello! My name is Nora Griffin-Wiesner. I am from Golden Valley, Minnesota. Growing up, I was a part of the Kelly Drive Pumpkin Growers Association (GDPGA) where my neighborhood used growing giant pumpkins as an excuse to come together as a community. We would gather throughout the year and then plan a big "weigh off" party at the end of the year. The KGPGA fostered community across generations and backgrounds and instilled in me a great appreciation for cross cultural communication. As a member of Move for America, I hope to continue contributing to and learning from conversations that bridge divides.
The Greatest by Sia feat. Kendrick Lamar
I have used this song as a pick me up for just about everything. I have often felt a fair amount of pressure to prove how I am special and what I am "great" at and as I have gotten older have found that in many ways this mindset hurts me more than it helps. I like how Sia talks about being "free to be the greatest". I know it's probably not actually this deep but that word "free" really resonates with me and feels like it takes the pressure off the idea that I must be the greatest. Its vagueness also adds to its universality, reminding me that you don't necessarily need to be the greatest at something, but working to be the greatest version of yourself, whatever that looks like, is enough. This mindset has been something that I have had to get comfortable with and am still working on but has helped me in many ways get better at things by leaving more room for giving myself grace and treating the things that I am not already great at as opportunities rather than evidence of failure.
So Am I by Ava Max
This song speaks to an experience that most people can relate to, feeling weird. I’d say I spend about 75 percent of my life feeling weird about something which this song really validates.
Cinderella Snapped by Jax
In addition to using very intentional language to rewrite some of the traditional stories that many young girls hear, it also doesn’t shy away from sounding angry which is an emotion that I have had a difficult relationship with. Growing up I would feel a lot of shame for getting angry and I came to see it as a point of weakness that would open a door to being labeled as “emotional”, “dramatic”, or “irrational.” Any of my intellect could not exist if I got angry because then anything I had to say was just because I had a lot of feelings. A part of growing up for me has been working on honoring my emotions, listening to what they are telling me, and believing that they do not take away from my ability but actually add to it.