"Work Hard, Be Passionate, and Enjoy Life" - Curt Menefee

Story by Mary Peters
Photo by foxsports.com

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Work hard, be passionate, and enjoy life.  Curt Menefee says these are the three secrets to success.

Menefee grew up in Atlanta and thought that he was going to be a professional football or basketball player.  Looking back, he knows that he was not good enough to play these sports, but he thought he could be a television producer or photographer.  Being on camera never crossed his mind until a local sports professional in small town Iowa asked him if he had ever thought about it.

Menefee was interning at CNN in Atlanta when he was recruited to attend Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Coe College had no journalism or communications degree, but he knew that he wanted to go to a small school away from home.  He had reached out to all of the local television stations because he wanted to get involved.  Four months later, John Campbell, a local sports professional there, called him.

He "said, 'Hey, I just need someone to carry some gear at a game.  You willing to do it? You don't get to be on TV, you don't get to be famous,'" Menefee said.

He took him up on that offer and Campbell continued to ask him to come back and help, while giving him more opportunities as he continued to work hard at the station.

"So I was suddenly nineteen, and year before, hadn't done anything in television, and then was on the air in less than twelve months," Menefee said.

He continued to work hard, be passionate, and enjoyed the experiences he said.

By the time that Menefee turned 29 years old, he had covered two Dallas Cowboy Super Bowls and their loss in the NFC Championship for a local radio station, as well as four World Series by the New York Yankees in six years as a local Monday through Friday anchor.  Despite the events that he got to cover, Menefee says that one of the challenges in the industry is starting out.  He wanted to consistently do one thing better each time he was on the air. Working hard, being passionate, and enjoying life was his every day.

"I think that as long as you're passionate in whatever you do, and that comes from finding that thing that's right for you," he said.  "And you work hard at it and you enjoy it, it's all going to work out for you because you'll be in the right place."

Currently, Menefee is the studio host "FOX NFL Sunday, as well as hosting UFC on FOX and UFEA Champions League on FOX.

I have transcribed the interview below, but you can also listen to the audio here.  

Q:  We talked about where you were born, which was Washington D.C. for two months and then you ended up in Atlanta.

A:  Yes.

Q:  Growing up, what did you see yourself doing for a career?

A:  I think that like lots of kids growing up, I thought that I was going to be a professional athlete...either a football or baseball player. Those were my two loves. I was always a good athlete in all sports. I played basketball and baseball and football.  Wasn’t the fastest guy in the world, but when I was in high school, actually my sophomore year, I blew out my knee and that forced me to think about some other things.  Now that I’m older, I definitely know that I had no shot at being a professional athlete or anything.  When you’re a kid, you think you can.  But it made me think about what else I wanted to do besides being a professional athlete.  Of course my mom wanted me to be a lawyer or a doctor.  And I’m just like hmm. But I figured that I wanted to do something in the world of sports.  And at that time I thought that maybe I wanted to be a photographer or a television producer or something so that I could be around sports from a journalistic standpoint, but I never thought about being on camera and that really didn’t happen until I was on my way to college and I went to Coe and interned at CNN.  I’m sure things that we will get to a little later.  But John Campbell at Channel 9 kinda took me under his wing and said ya know, "why don’t you put your voice down on camera…I mean on tape.  Have you ever thought about being on camera?"  And that was the first time in my life, honestly, that I ever thought about it and things kinda went from there.  And I give John all the credit in the world. 

Q:  Let’s back up for a second.  You talked about Atlanta and you worked at CNN.  What were you doing there?

A:  Well, what I decided…when I was seventeen years old and trying to figure out where I wanted to go to college, I was fortunate to have a lot of choices of where to go, but I knew that I wanted to go to a small school away from home.  So, Cedar Rapids, Iowa kinda fit the bill being a long way away.  It taught me geography because I don’t know if I knew where Cedar Rapids, Iowa was before then.  But I decided to go to Coe and Coe had no journalism program at all.  But the guy who was recruiting me mentioned Fred Hickman, who worked at CNN Sports at the time, was on the air…that was when CNN did sports…had gone to Coe and so I reached out to Fred.  Called him up just to find out about the school, really.  And he called me back and we talked on the phone.  I wound up going to Coe. But the summer after my freshman year, he helped me get an internship at CNN, which was based in Atlanta, so when I went home for that summer, I interned at CNN and all I did was log games at the beginning.  And then while I was there, a couple of weeks in, I would stay late.  We would finish up at about 11:30 at night.  Ya know, CNN Sports Tonight was the show that aired eleven o’clock eastern.  It just kinda wrapped up the day’s highlights and all of that.  So when they finished, all the other interns would go out and have a beer or whatever.  You could drink at 18 at that time.  And I would stay and I would hang out with the editors and I taught myself how to edit.  Or they taught me.  But learning on my own and a couple of weeks into it, the kid who was the morning intern, quit because he needed a job to make money to go back to school.  And in order to get that position, you had to know how to edit.  And so I had been hanging around and had taught myself how to edit well enough that they allowed me to do that.  We got paid five dollars for every three hours you worked.  It was the only paid internship there and obviously that wasn’t enough to go back to school on, but I was able to do it.  And so I did that from three in the morning until noon and then I would go home to get a couple of hours of sleep and then I would work on a loading dock at a moving company from three in the afternoon until midnight and then go home and get a couple hours of sleep.  But at that time, you’re eighteen years old, turning nineteen.  It’s what you want to do.  So I was more than happy to do it.  But that’s what I did that summer at CNN.  When I went back to Cedar Rapids, I called all of the local stations and said “hey, I interned at CNN last summer.  I’m willing to do anything.  Anybody have anything?”  And no one did.  But about four months later, John Campbell called me and said “hey, I just need someone to carry some gear at a game.  You willing to do it?  You don’t get to be on tv, you don’t get to be famous” and I said sure. And then he called me up the next week and said “do you want to do it again?” and I said yeah.  And then from there he said “what do you want to do in this business?”  And that’s when he kinda said okay, let me try to help you out.  And taught me how to shoot a camera.  I knew how to edit at that point, but he taught me about writing and then after we were doing that for a while, he said “hey, why don’t you put your voice down on tape?”  He let me take the highlights and VOs that we do at night and just try it.  So we did that and unbeknownst to me, took it to the news director and he and the news director said why don’t we let him report on high school and Coe College sports.  And so I started doing that in April of my sophomore year, so I did that for a couple of months.  And then that summer, the weekend sports anchor left and took a job in Wichita, Kansas, gave them two weeks notice, so they had no one.  I auditioned and wound up filling in for the weekend sports anchor for the rest of that summer.  So I was suddenly nineteen and a year before, hadn’t done anything in television, and then was on the air in less than twelve months.  So it was kinda a whirlwind thing in the beginning but again, I’m fortunate to have John Campbell on my side.  Or have had him at that time.  And we still keep in touch, whenever I’m back in Iowa.  We were there in May, we went out to breakfast with John and his wife, Mary. 

Q:  What is it about John that got you interested?  What was it about what he taught you, that made you know you wanted to do this?

A:  I think you put your voice back on tape and you kinda experiment with some things and the writing aspect of it.  I think I just…it felt natural, it felt comfortable.  I’m not going to say it wasn’t work because it was, it is a craft.  And you have to work on it, especially when you are starting out, you know nothing.  But I was thrilled by the excitement of learning how to do this and how to get better.  And I just love covering sports.  I mean, that was part of it.  Especially when you’re starting out, and more so back then, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa…even today…you’re shooting, you’re editing, you’re writing, you’re voicing over because I was reporting at the time.  And so you see a project from start to finish, an idea come to fruition and I like that aspect.  Just like…it’s a weird thing.  When I was in college, I loved taking tests because it was a thing where you prepared for a day.  For an event.  And then in the end, you got to see whether or not your preparation was right.  As far as reading and writing papers, yeah I did that and did well enough.  Let’s say it that way.  But I always loved tests and to me, that’s what reporting is.  That’s what sports is.  I always tell people that when I was a play by play guy especially, you study and prepare to do a football game and you’ve got two teams and fifty-three guys on every team and every guy has a story and the team has its art that goes over the year and you don’t know what’s going to come up during a game and you’re really, probably, only going to use 15-20% of what you studied, but you’ve got to have that base of knowledge instantly and be able to recall it instantly, because if not, then you embarrass yourself on national television.. I’ve always enjoyed that aspect of it and I think that’s really what appealed to me. Okay, boom here it is...make it happen.

Q:  Then you had those experiences in college, got all of that experience with John Campbell…what was the next step? What was your path to where you are? You did cover tennis, soccer, boxing, football?

A:  I told you that I started reporting April of my sophomore year. That’s when the weekend sports anchor left. I filled in all summer until they hired someone else. I wanted to do the job full-time.  I wanted to take it, but I would have had to leave school in order to do it.  And John was really good to me.  He was like “don’t quit school to take this job.  This career…this business...is too fickle.  You’ll always have an opportunity here, if you stay here, to have a job down the road two more years".  As opposed to if you quit now and wish you had not quit school and try to go back.  So, they wound up hiring someone else as the weekend sports anchor, but I stayed and became a paid employee as the number three guy in sports.  So I reported and filled in anchor.  So I still had two years left of college.  I did that full-time my junior and senior year while going to school.  Then when I graduated, they offered me a job in news.  And I didn’t want to do news.  I knew that I wanted to do sports.  So I left and I went to Des Moines and I worked doing sports there as the number three guy, sports reporter.  Then I went to Madison, Wisconsin and that was the first anchor job that I had as the weekend sports anchor.  I left there and went to work for a company called SNN, which is like what ESPN News is now, where we just did highlights and interviews 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  It went bankrupt after eight months.  I was unemployed for eight months.  And worked on the first campaign for Senator Russ Feingold because I had met him on a flight once.  Did that for eight months.  Because the Gulf War broke out, is what happened.  SNN went bankrupt and everybody got laid off in December of 1990.  The Gulf War broke out in January of ’91.  So nobody was hiring sports reporters or sports talent or anybody in local news, really.  So I wound up hanging out until July of that year and I wound up working in Jacksonville, Florida as the weekend anchor.  Then went to Dallas, Texas as the Monday through Friday anchor.  And then went from Dallas to New York City as the Monday through Friday anchor at the Fox affiliate.  So all of this bouncing around and all of these different places happened in…I graduated when I was 21 and I was in New York when I was 29, so all of that was in an eight year period.  It was just the way it goes when you’re starting out.  Lots of moving. And then when I got to New York, I was the Monday through Friday anchor for the local Fox affiliate and that’s when I hooked up with the Fox Network doing play by play for NFL games and then I’ve hosted soccer.  I’ve hosted UFC.  I’ve done boxing play by play.  I’ve done baseball.  I’ve done basketball…college.  WNBA.  I’ve done tennis.  I’ve done studio play by play for all types of events.  I’ve done a travel show.  So, it’s the more you can do. 

Q:  In those eight years, what was…do you have any favorite memory or favorite coverage?

A:  There’s a lot.  Along the way, I was learning so much.  And I was fortunate enough…from just the standpoint of some of the stories I would do, like on just local people or local kids, to me, were as exciting as covering a Super Bowl or a World Series because it’s a whole different level. It’s a different level of storytelling as well. You’re not just reporting a fact that everybody knows and sprinkling it with highlights and interviews and entertainment. I really enjoyed the journey. A lot of good stops along the way. But I was fortunate enough with professional sports. I was in Dallas for three years and the Cowboys won two Super Bowls and then lost the NFC Championship Game the final year that I was there.  I go to New York the next year, I go to New York in ’95 and in ’96, they win the first of four World Series in six years. So in a nine year span, I covered two Super Bowl champions and four World Series champions as the local guy, as the guy who knows everybody on the team and knows the ins and outs.  Some people don’t get to do that once in their life, so that was something I’ll actually always look back on that was pretty cool as well.

Q:  What was that like?  Obviously that’s probably different from what you’re used to.

A:  It is.  It’s different from the standpoint…at the beginning, it’s kind of that.  Well, first of all, let’s back track…just being at the games.  You’re like gosh, I get paid to do this.  My whole life as a kid, I went to one pre-season NFL game.  That was all I had ever been to and now here you are at the Super Bowl.  Not to show my age, but the first Super Bowl I went to, I worked, was the Cowboys and Buffalo Bills out here in Pasadena.  Little did I know that I’d ever live out here.  And Michael Jackson did the halftime show.  You’re like wow, I’m getting paid to do this.  But you’re covering a team, especially the Cowboys in Dallas and the Yankees in New York who are legendary teams in the sports world, not just in their sports.  All around the world.  They’re revered and every little thing they do in that town is big news. So to be affiliated in some small way with those teams was fun because you know, by covering the teams, the local fans kinda identified you with those teams to a certain degree.. And so that was enjoyable. I think that part of the fun is that also you establish those relationships with people.  And you can say that you keep your distance and you’re a professional and all that…I try to be, but it’s like anything else…any time that you’re around someone, people on a regular basis, you have people that you connect with, that you wind up going to dinner with, their families and all of that.  So you start rooting for those people and you’re happy for them to have success in their profession, in what they do.  So I think that that becomes an interesting emotion because it’s not necessarily about being a fan and being happy that the Yankees won.  It’s about having a relationship with Jorge Posada and being happy that he won as an individual.  Or same thing with the Cowboys and their players.  So from that standpoint, it’s fun. 

Q:  You also wrote a book called “Losing Isn’t Everything”.  What was your reasoning behind that?  Why did you choose to do that?

A:  I think it goes back to covering all of these sports all of these years.  As I said in the intro of the book, we see the people that win and we are happy for them and we know their story. And they get to be the broadcasters and they get to go back and go to the Hall of Fame. They can go on the reunion tour forever as a Super Bowl champion or as a World Series hero. But what happens to people that lose? Big monumental events. I didn’t want people who just lost games or who were on a team that lost an event. I wanted someone who was known for being the reason that they lost. How do you go on? And how do you keep going? Because as you find out in this book, for some of these people, almost on a daily basis or certainly on a regular basis, people bring it up to them. And it’s the biggest failure of their life on the biggest stage. And they have that constantly brought up. How do you keep going, if you will. How do you try and succeed in life? Because I think that we all have adversity that we have to overcome. Most of us just haven’t done it in front of millions of people. And something that’s replayed over and over on YouTube or television.  You know, whenever there’s an NCAA tournament, the Christian Laettner shot is replayed.  Or University of Houston losing to NC State. So every year, these guys have to relive this and have people bring it up. Well, what can we all learn from these people and how they’ve had to battle back from adversity or guilt? Both positively and negatively. The mistakes they’ve made in trying to deal with it. The fights they’ve gotten in, the anger. The drug problem some of them have had.  Divorces some of them have had because they hadn’t dealt with it.  The therapy they had because they hadn’t dealt with it. Or the positive. The ways that they were able to put it behind them. And are able to laugh about it now, or what have you. It was really having covered so many sports and knowing how the people that lose just kinda disappear, other than the fact that we know them for losing. And you know that these are people.  They’re not just athletes. They’re not just coaches. So how do they deal with those people? So that was interesting to me.  And a case study almost.

Q:  You talk about adversity.  So what are some of the challenges that you have faced in your career?

A:  I think that one of the big things is, at least for me, and everybody is obviously different…but starting out, was making the decision that I wanted to do this for a career and that I was committed to it.  Because it’s not an easy road when you start out.  I talk about all of the places I lived. The first job I had out of Cedar Rapids, when I was working in Des Moines…when I first started, I made thirteen thousand dollars and I was on a six month probation and then after the six months, I got a raise to sixteen thousand.  I was like whooo, I can live.  Ya know, now I can have two packs of Ramen noodles.  So it’s a struggle.  If you don’t love this...and it’s a lot of hours and it’s weekends and it’s holidays and you’re making no money. You better be committed to wanting to do this as a career.  And then also, you decide okay, I’m willing to move and bounce around and live in different places. Some people want to settle in one place and get married and have a family and do all that. You know, you sacrifice some of that or give it up in exchange for having the career that you want. And that’s a decision that you have to make early on.  So I think that wasn’t a challenge for me once I accepted that that’s what I wanted to do, but it can be for other people.  You have people along the way that you work with in certain places and they never left. No that that’s a bad thing. It’s the perfect thing for some people, but they didn’t want to give up certain things in order to move and chase because they are happy where they are. So I think that’s one of the things. And then just professionally.  One, about constantly being better.  I mean, everywhere I was, I tried to be the best sports anchor in that town, the best sports reporter or whatever.  Rather than looking at where I want to be five years down the road. I think that served me well. But it’s something that you have to keep focused on. You can’t worry about “okay, if I do this, I’ll get a job in the bigger market or if I do this, I’ll get a job nationally”.  You just have to go out and grind and be really good at it and hopefully, if you want to progress and go to different places, then that stuff will come along. And then I think in this day in age now, it’s just the challenge of staying focused and knowing and being secure in who you are and what you do. Knowing and hoping that your bosses love you and what you do. And not worry about what goes on in the outside noise on social media.  I think that’s as big a challenge as anything right now. And it’s not just, you know, Twitter trolls get all the attention. I did UFC on Saturday night and look, 95% of the people are really nice and kind to me on social media, but there’s always those people. Someone was saying that I have a frog voice and they can’t stand me on the air. And I go “well, first of all, I made a joke about Kermit the Frog in the opening there”. And I usually don’t read my mentions while I’m on the air because I don’t want it to put me in a negative frame of mind, but I did because everyone was sending me birthday wishes that day, so I wanted to answer some of them. And I knew that I had never heard anybody complain about my voice, so it didn’t bother me because I’m secure about that.  But that’s a challenge.  The point that I was making is that the Twitter trolls tend to get a lot of credit, but it’s not just them.  It’s the noise of the media. Every blogger, every magazine, every newspaper…they have someone dedicated to sports media. And again, I’m fortunate that 95% of the time, it’s positive.  But sometimes it’s not. And I think that, at least for me, the way that I approach it, is if someone makes a valid point that’s right, I have no problem with it because I’m not perfect. We all screw up. We say a name wrong or we stumble or what have you. And if someone is making a valid point, okay. They’re right. They’re a critic. That’s their job. If they make a point that’s not valid, then I am hopefully secure enough to go “eh, that doesn’t bother me because he doesn’t know what he’s talking about” or “he doesn’t know the situation”. But there are those times in between where you’re like “well, is he right? Is he wrong? Does he have an agenda? Or why is he picking on me?” So you’ve got to find a way to kinda put your head down and try to keep going no matter what, not let it get to you and certainly not let other people know that it gets to you, if it does.  I think that’s a challenge that you face every single time you’re on television. And for me, doing NFL season, I mean, I’m on twelve hours of live tv every Sunday, on national tv. So it comes with the territory.

Q:  Was there any sportscaster that you looked up to or was there any role model or mentor? Was it John Campbell or was there anyone else that you looked up to?

A:  John is definitely my mentor. I wouldn’t be on this side of the camera for sure in this business at all had it not been for John. And that’s why I still keep in touch with him to this day. But there are people along the way that help you out. I try to remember that whenever someone calls me and asks for help or wants to send me a tape or every year I go…the NFL does a boot camp for players that want to get into media. They’ve had it for…I think this is the eleventh year and I’ve done it every year except one when I was on my honeymoon. Because I believe in sharing the knowledge and passing it forward and all that stuff. But the thing is that I think...always try to learn from different people along the way. Again, both positively and negatively. See what people do and how they do it and go, especially when I was younger…”let me try this” or “that’s not really for me”. And learn different styles and what you’re comfortable with. Because in the end, I truly believe you have to be you or else it comes off as fake and people will realize you’re faking. Or at some point, you’ll get tired at faking it and acting, so you won’t be successful at it. So you’ve got to find your comfort zone when you’re young. I tell people doing the Cedar Rapids and Madison and Jacksonville.  That was my minor leagues. Like you say your boyfriend is in baseball. This is my single A, double A, triple A where you go and you take your swings and you make your mistakes and you find out “am I a doubles hitter or am I a singles hitter? Am I a homer hitter?” You know, whatever it is that you excel at and what your strengths are. You learn those things there so you get promoted up each level and hopefully you’re a better and better player.

Q:  You have a secret to success. And you’ve said it comes in three steps: it’s work hard, be passionate, and enjoy life. Where did this come from and then how do you adapt it to every single day?

A:  I don’t know. Maybe it comes from doing all three, ya know. I think that once you do it, you realize, it’s not a big secret. We make life and success a lot more complicated than it really is. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to reach every goal that you want, but if you do those things…you know, if you’re passionate about it and you work hard and you enjoy it, then the rest of it doesn’t matter. That’s what the success is all about. Success is about you and what you have inside of you and what you feel inside you. For some people, success is being a dog walker and seeing the joy of teaching a dog…I say that because my dog was barking in the background…but teaching it how to do tricks. That can make you just as successful as if you’re the President of the United States, if that’s what your inner peace is all about. So I think that as long as you’re passionate in whatever you do, and that comes from finding that thing that’s right for you. And you work hard at it and you enjoy it, it’s all going to work out for you because you’ll be in the right place.

Q:  What’s the best piece of advice, or maybe a couple pieces of advice, that you have gotten on your journey to where you are?

A:  It goes back to the hard work thing. And again, we talk about working hard. Some people look at it as drudgery. If you enjoy something, you work hard at it, but it’s never really work. But I think that’s the thing because I go back to talking about trying to get to different levels and I have so many young people who come to me and go “okay, I want to work…I want to do what you do. I want to be on national tv. How do I do that?” I’m like “ah, I don’t know”. But I can tell you how to work on local tv and your job is to be the best you can at that. And when you do that, you get other opportunities. If you do that and you don’t work hard and you don’t succeed at that, you’re never going to get an opportunity to get to the finish line. I think the best piece of advice, and it truly is, is just the hard work aspect of it. I don’t care whether it’s television or fixing cars, whatever it is that you do, in order to be successful at it and be among the best, you gotta work hard. People think that life is easy if you can naturally sing, if you can naturally act…whatever it is…but what separates the five million other people that can naturally sing and act from the people that are successful, are the ones that work hard.

Q:  So those people that you see that are successful. What that you think they hold? What makes them do well in this industry?

A:  I think the work aspect. The work ethic. I see so many people starting out, not just young people. But retired athletes in sports…so many of them think “okay, I know football so I’m just going to sit down and I’ll talk about football and I’ll get paid and I’ll be good at it”. It’s not. The people that are good are the ones that work, the ones that do their homework, the ones that know what they’re talking about when they get on the air, the ones that will only use that 15-20% of the knowledge prep that they’ve done rather than using everything they have in their head because they haven’t done their homework. And that really separates people. You see people come and go so quickly that you would think, “oh, this guy was a great athlete or great coach and he’s a good talker on television and he’s great at interviews. He will be a natural at it”. And you find out they’re not willing to work at it. And you go, well…after a year or two, they’re gone. And people will say “whatever happened to that guy?” And the next person comes. And I think that’s a trait that you see in every aspect of it. The people who work hard are the ones that rise to the top. As the saying goes, “the harder I work, the luckier I get”.

Q:  Switching topics a little bit…so you have been to over 80 countries and all seven continents. Where’s the best place to go?

A:  That answer is always dependent on what you’re going for and when you’re going. The Maldives is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been, from an ocean standpoint. Obviously, Antarctica is a unique place, having gotten to spend three nights there and three days with a bunch of scientific researchers was actually one of the coolest….no pun intended…things I’ve ever done. I love New Zealand. I say when the crap goes down, that’s where I’m moving. And apparently a lot of people are getting the message because Americans are buying there in droves.  Africa. We did a safari for eight days in Tanzania and that…I hate the term life-changing…but it really was. When you see animals in their natural habitat and the circle of life and you end up being fascinated by dung beetles rolling feces across the plain. Because it shows you how magical and special all life is. And so that was enjoyable. And the people of Tanzania were fantastic. South Africa was kinda the same thing. And I know that I’m rolling over so many places and you asked for one, but so much of it is really dependent on…like we just went to Myanmar in March and just the people there are some of the sweetest people that I have ever met anywhere. And for me, that’s what I enjoy. I enjoy meeting people in their natural habitat. And in their environment. And trying to find places that…look, I’m not adverse to a Four Seasons and a pool and all that, don’t get me wrong…but trying to find people that are living day to day and how they live and that’s where some of that, getting back to the enjoying life and being passionate and working hard comes from. You see these people all around the world that are doing this. And they are some of the most joyous, kind, friendly, happy people that you’ll ever meet, whereas you’ll be here in Los Angeles and people are just grinding and miserable because their car is not as big as someone else’s. Or their house isn’t as big. And you go places where they’ve got one tv in the whole village and everybody loves each other because they find a way to get along. They don’t have the petty “keeping up with the Jones” crap that we have. So I find a lot of joy in that. That’s why I try to unplug at least once a year. Or go on some crazy trip somewhere and people are like “why are you going there?” A part of it is just kinda a way to reconnect.

Q:  Is there anything that I may have missed or anything that you would like to add?

A:  No, I think you have done a very good job. It showed that you did your research beforehand. I think that you have asked the right questions. I can’t think of anything.