Andrew Milgram

So my mom grew up in Southeast Texas for a while.

As a child, she had lived in the Middle East, in Baghdad.

Interestingly, when the king was overthrown, she and a lot of the American families were taken hostage.

It's a super fascinating story.

She and her mother and brothers, while the men were forced to work by the rebels.

So my mom had had this really interesting life, but had married my father at a pretty young age.

And my father had a big personality and himself had had an interesting, colorful life.

So when he passed away, she was 35 years old and had these two young kids.

My sister's seven years younger than me, so she was really a baby.

And my mom really pushed us.

to take control of things and to make decisions on our own and get out and challenge ourselves and drive ourselves to create our own outcomes and find our own path.

She really pushed us.

I love my hometown.

I love the community I grew up in.

It was super nurturing and really a lovely childhood in all ways other than the one we discussed.

great people.

But she really pushed us to leave.

She said, I want you to go out into the world and find your own way.

I come from a good tradition of that.

My grandfather, when he was just after bar mitzvah age, was living in what is now Ukraine.