NE North Dakota News

Amber Flynn, a University of North Dakota alumna and Grand Forks community member, recently spoke at the Memorial Union as part of the 18:83 Speaker Series. Flynn shared insights from her personal journey, including overcoming a serious injury before her freshman year of high school.

She recounted falling 20 feet from a tree, resulting in significant injuries. “And I showed up on the first day as a freshman with a mouthful of metal, a back brace and the best Nike sweatsuit that you could find in town,” Flynn said. She added that the experience changed her outlook: “That fall literally and figuratively changed me.”

Flynn is now a mother of three, owner of Grand Real Estate, and serves on several boards in Grand Forks. She used her experiences to highlight lessons about leadership and personal growth.

Drawing parallels between caring for lawns and life’s challenges, she remarked, “The grass is green where you water it.” She emphasized focusing on present circumstances rather than comparing oneself to others.

Her talk explored four main themes: passion, perspective, grace, and compassion. On passion, she explained how balancing business ownership with family life reshaped her understanding: “Sometimes I’ve felt like maybe I’m not as passionate about things anymore, especially in seasons of exhaustion and burnout,” she said. “But I learned that passion is sometimes an ember that needs tending to.”

Flynn discussed how learning about the Latin root of “passion”—meaning “to suffer”—broadened her perspective. “Passion isn’t just about excitement and enthusiasm,” she said. “It’s about enduring the difficult parts around what we care most deeply about.”

She also addressed mental health challenges common among leaders. “Through therapy, I learned that sometimes heart work and hard work are conflicting,” she said. She encouraged taking time to rest instead of constantly seeking something better elsewhere.

Illustrating the importance of perspective with images of a damaged but thriving tree near her parents’ house, Flynn noted: “No one would ever know it had faced pain, suffering and brokenness.” She continued: “It’s easy to make judgments from one side of the story. But if you shift your perspective even slightly, you might see what looks whole and strong while never seeing the pain and suffering behind it.”

Flynn reflected on her service with the Grand Forks School Board. Describing heated meetings, she stated: “Usually those words aren’t about policy or disagreement... They’re about pain, love for their children or fear.”

She highlighted patience as essential for progress: “Sometimes progress looks a lot like patience, just like it does when you’re tending to your grass.” Regarding compassion in leadership roles, Flynn remarked: “When we lead with compassion, we stop comparing lawns and we start building gardens.”

She concluded by encouraging self-compassion along with compassion for others: "Maybe at the end of the day we're all just existing in the same yard watering our own patches of grass," adding encouragement for community support during difficult times.