Frank Rawland '87
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- Frank RawlandFrank: My name is Frank Rawland. I currently live in Chicago, Illinois. I’m a member of the Grinnell College Class of 1987. Let’s see...
- Frank RawlandFrank: I’m- why did I come to Grinnell? Well, my sister, my sister Anne, was in the class of 1982 so I’d had a chance to see the campus and without really making a firm decision at first, the idea of Grinnell just kind of went in by osmosis, I guess... although, I did apply to other schools when Grinnell accepted me, I didn’t really think about those other schools any more. It was, you know, I knew enough of the culture here, or had an inkling of the culture. I coudn't sa- You never really know Grinnell, even after four years. That was in 1983, that I came here.
- Frank RawlandFrank: I had been a very good student in high school. I’d been an athlete, a swimmer. I regret to say that I gradually lost altitude with all of that, with all of the exceptional amount of effort that I put into that. But, I would also say that I maybe discovered myself emotionally at Grinnell.
- Frank RawlandFrank: It was a- I grew up in a very difficult family environment. It was kind of a slow-speed train wreck that turned into a high-speed train wreck in the later years that I was at home. Getting to Grinnell was getting to clearer head space. So, that's- that was the really significant thing about Grinnell for me, even though, of course, I got a good education from it.
- Frank RawlandFrank: Let’s see. As- when I entered Grinnell, I was planning to be a Physics major, and then - because I’d been good at that. I’d been good at the sciences, in general. And then I came up hard against... well, how tough Physics is taught at Grinnell and I- it.... I realized it was maybe a little above my pay grade. And also that I would have to be taking... you know, half- all of my- half of my class load would just be two things: Physics and whatever Math units were associated with those Physics units.
- Frank RawlandFrank: And I didn’t- although I had been good at Math, I did not love Math enough to devote as much time to it as it was gonna require. It would have used all the capacity I had and then some. I wouldn’t have had anything left for the Social Sciences or Literature or Art, or- y’know, and I did care about all that.
- Frank RawlandFrank: So, I switched to Economics my sophomore year and earned a degree in that instead. And... and that.... I wouldn’t say in life I’ve directly profited from that in any way, but it has helped me understand all of the debates, all of the arguments that go on in our wider political culture and helped me tell who is, you know, who is rational and who is speaking complete bushwa. So I got that out of it.
- Frank RawlandFrank: Does anybody ever talk about the.. you know, the illicit recreational activities that they might have engaged in?
- Sophie Haas & Frank RawlandSophie: You can talk about that.Frank: OK. Well, in the 1980s, you were supposed to say, “Just Say No” to drugs and I... No, I was very open to experimenting with that, which I had been completely against all of that in the public school system. And then I flipped around on that almost completely. There were some things I wouldn’t do, but it was… and I don’t think I destroyed too much of my brain doing that. It was all.... It was- it was all good and I didn’t- y’know, after Grinnell I’ve kind of left all that behind anyway, so... Believe it or not you don’t turn into a washed-up monster. Just, you know, a couple of years of that and then, y’know, you can be done with it.
- Frank Rawland & Sophie HaasFrank: Anything else..? Would I talk about… favorite places on campus, favorite professors who influenced you... No, I guess that’ll do. OK?Sophie: Okay, right. Thank you so much.
Alumni oral history interview with Frank Rawland '87. Recorded June 2, 2012.