Ryan Hayes Writing Minor

 

My name is Ryan Hayes, and I am a Junior completing a major in Economics and a minor in Writing at the University of Michigan.  I hail from a small town named Chanhassen, MN located in the southwest suburbs of Minneapolis.  As a proud Minnesotan, I've carried both my faux Canadian accent and love for the cold with pride my whole life. On campus, I have been apart of the nationally ranked Michigan Club Hockey team; I am an active member of Phi Chi Theta, a business and economics fraternity, and MPowered StartUp Academy.

 

I have many attributes or accomplishments that define me and my outlook of the world. From being an Eagle Scout and having the urge to help communities to being an inspired chef as I strive to find things that give my life spice, who I am is a construct of both my past experiences and present desires.  Alas, my identity and how I view the world is anchored to an experience, a feeling that I've chased for my whole life: finding balance.

 

Growing up in the icy tundra's of Minnesota, ice-skating was a rite of passage.  Wobbling legs often lead to bruised behinds and egos, but finding balance on skates is like learning to walk, humbling and powerful.   A misconception in ice-skating is that a skate has one blade, but in reality it has two edges.  Skating is the constant alteration between inside and outside edges.  Balancing on ice is a constant alteration between edges; an equilibrium that is less of a constant state but rather the blurring between two balance points.  This process of constantly searching for balance is very much engrained in who I am, and what I do.  I'd like to think of myself as empathetic.  I’ve always carried with me the belief that the process of establishing a common understanding between peers is rooted in accepting that truth is the blurring of multiple perspectives, just as the edges of my ice skates blur as one.  My goal of viewing issues through a different perspective dictates my interactions with friends, the words I write and my professional aspirations.

 

I am many things.  I am a daydreamer.  I am a problem solver.  I am faithful.  Yet empathy acts as the adhesive bond to transform these descriptions into a holistic identity.