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When you feel like life has dealt you a hand of unfair cards.
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Instead of voting, you double down.
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You stuck in the game.
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You face battles.
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You felt broken.
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But hey, do us a favor.
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Put your hand on your heart.
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You feel that.
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You're still here.
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Welcome to the Resilience Files Unlock, where survival meets transformation.
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Welcome to the Resilience Files Podcast, where we share real stories of courage, healing, and the power of the human spirit.
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Sometimes the strongest lessons about resilience come from the youngest voices.
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Today's story is a part of our Teen Spotlight series.
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Now, he's not exactly a teen.
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He's a little younger than that, but we are so excited to hear his story.
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I'm your host, Carrie Bernanz, and this podcast is dedicated to sharing real stories of adversity, courage, and the strength people take, even in the hardest parts and moments of their lives.
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Each episode reminds us that resilience isn't about avoiding challenges, it's about learning how to grow through them.
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I am so excited about our young guest today.
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Our young guest's name is Nitai, an 11-year-old from Long Island, New York, what started as a fun jet skiing trip with his dad quickly turned into a frightening moment in an open ocean.
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From his experience, something powerful about courage, faith, and staying calm happened.
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Now, I don't want to tell the entire story.
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We have him here.
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Before we begin, I want to dive into the story.
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So, Nita, please take us away with your essay.
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Hi, my name is Nitashirone.
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I'm 11 years old.
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I live in Long Island, New York.
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This story happened when I was younger, and I always loved going jet skiing as a kid.
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I didn't really think about danger or how fast things things could change.
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I just knew I was excited to be out in the water with my dad, jet skiing, laughing and enjoying the day.
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Then everything changed in just a few seconds.
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My dad and I fell off the jet ski because when we got on the jet ski, my dad kept tilting to the right.
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He didn't think much of it, and we started riding.
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And at some point it started raining so hard we couldn't see.
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And we went past the line.
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The worker told us not to go past.
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My dad threw himself off the jet ski and me because it was about to fall on us.
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And it started floating away from us.
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I swam as hard as I could and reached it.
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My dad didn't.
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He was drifting farther and farther away in the sea.
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From where we were, we couldn't even see the horizon anymore.
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Felt like the ocean was endless.
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We were both screaming for help, but no one could hear us.
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I was terrified.
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My heart was racing.
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And I didn't know what was gonna happen next.
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I had never been that scared in my life.
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I remember thinking that this was not how the day was supposed to go, and I felt helpless watching my dad drift away.
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In that moment I did the only thing I could think of.
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I prayed.
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I asked God to help us, I asked him to keep my dad safe.
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I tried to stay calm even though I was scared inside.
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I kept screaming and looking around, hoping someone would see us.
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After it felt like forever, a fishing boat noticed us and came toward us.
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When that saved us, I felt a huge wave of relief.
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We were alive, we were safe, we had been given another chance.
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That day saved me.
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After that experience changed, I became more mature and more aware of how fragile life can be.
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I started appreciating my family more and stopped and stopped taking moments for granted.
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I realized that life could change in an instant and that being grateful matters.
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I also learned that even when things feel completely out of control, staying calm, having faith, and not giving up can make a difference.
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I understand now that fear doesn't mean weakness, it means you care.
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And courage is continuing even when you're afraid.
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Today I am a student who tries to be thankful, respectful, and positive.
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I think more about my actions and how lucky am I to be here.
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That experience helped shape who I am becoming.
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I want to share my story because
Load full transcript
I believe other kids and families can learn from it.
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I want people to know that scary moments don't have to define you in a bad way.
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They can help you grow and if my story helps even one person feel hope, faith, or strength, then it matters.
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I throughout something scary and made me stronger.
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I'm grateful for life for my family and for the chance for the chance to share my story so others don't feel alone.
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Wow.
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It's hi.
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That is so beautiful.
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It made me so emotional.
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Well let's go back for a moment to the day before that happened when you and your dad was jet skiing.
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Can you tell us about the day was like before everything started to change?
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Yeah, I'm pretty sure we were like really happy when we got to the hotel.
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Because like the first day that we went, and we're in the pool, we're having fun, we're laughing, me and my dad were at the beach, and then at night we were all planning to go jet skiing, and then we just went and yeah.
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Nice, I love that.
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So you guys are really happy.
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That's wonderful.
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Okay, so let's say so.
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You got there to the jet skis.
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Obviously, you guys didn't know it was gonna rain at all.
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You didn't know anything that was like you just thought you were gonna have just a fun day, right?
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When you were going outdoors.
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And suddenly things started to feel changed.
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Walk us through that moment when you realized something wasn't right.
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When me when my dad started drifting off, because when he pushed me off that he was like doing it as a joke.
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And then when he when he was drifting off, I knew I couldn't like drive it.
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He's trying to warn me to like take my mom's hat and like unlock the jet ski so I could start driving to him.
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But I couldn't hear him because he was too far, and the towel was like he had a towel on his neck because it was sunburns, and it was like choking him.
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Wow.
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When you initially thought it was a joke, then you realized it was something more than that.
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What was your what was the next thing that was going through your mind?
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I was like, like, we're gonna die.
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Like I didn't think God would like save us.
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You were going through the mind that you thought you were gonna die and that was it.
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Yeah.
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That sounds like a really intense moment, especially for someone that's not years old.
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You shared in your essay that you decided to pray during that moment in that time.
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Can you tell us like what made you turn to prayer in that moment?
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Because I knew there's nothing to do.
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Like I couldn't do anything, I couldn't swim to him.
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I was trying to move the jet ski to him, like somehow.
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But I couldn't do anything, so I just started praying.
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And then I we saw a fishboat coming to us and they just saved us.
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Wow, so in that moment something incredible happened and the fishboat popped up out of nowhere.
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Did you see the fish boat at all prior to that moment?
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Nah, not really.
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No.
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It just came out and then we started screaming.
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And how long did you feel like you were in the water before you saw the fishboat?
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Like 20 minutes.
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Oh wow, 20 minutes.
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That's a wow.
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What was the like the moment you realized that somebody was coming to help?
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You said you started screaming, and then what happened?
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I started crying out of like joy because they picked on my dad and then we started driving back.
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Wow, that's beautiful.
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Experiences like that can really change your life and the way we see life.
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You mentioned that after that you started appreciating your family more and you started appreciating things and that you even the way that you looked at fear changed.
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Can you tell us how does that how did that experience change everything for you?
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Like I I was with my dad more and I was with my family more a lot.
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And I used to like go with them like places on like Friday or like other days, and we used to spend more time used to boot them, and we used to watch movies more often stuff.
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Oh wow.
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Yeah, that's beautiful.
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I think like you said, you realize how fragile life was.
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And that's something scary yet revealing at a young age, and you're right, frag life can be very fragile, and we don't know how long we have on this earth because you know, death is
inevitable, unfortunately.
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But I am happy that you are here with us.
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I'm happy your dad is here with us, and I think that's a powerful realization.
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I think sometimes the hardest and scariest moments can end up teaching us the biggest lessons.
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Like looking back right now, what do you think?
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What do you think that experience taught you about courage?
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That like God will like always save us and like don't be like afraid.
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Yeah.
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That's beautiful.
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Yeah, I think a lot of kids and even adults can learn something and even your belief in God and trusting that God will save you no matter what.
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Yeah.
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If another kid finds himself in a scary situation like this, what advice would you give them?
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Uh, if I would like try my best to do anything, if that doesn't work, I would pray to God or something or something.
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Like I'll tell them to pray or to try anything, even scream for help.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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So having faith and believing and praying and screaming and just doing something, then not to do anything at all.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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That's really wise advice, and it shows how much you've really grown from that experience, and it takes a lot of courage to talk about moments like this.
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Before we wrap up today's episode, I want to hear like, now that you are 11, is there any challenges that you feel that people at 11 are going through that you feel like you've learned from that you can give advice to?
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A lot of stuff is going on right now in the world.
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And that there's like scary moments that happen for a lot of young people, you know, and people are wondering like, how do they continue to progress forward or how do they not have fear about the unknown?
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If any young person is listening to this episode and they're wondering, how do you build courage?
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What would you tell them?
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I don't know.
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It's like sometimes when you're really scared and then you become like brave all of a sudden like your adrenaline just kicks in and like you know what to do.
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Like your instincts.
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So would you tell them to trust their instincts?
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Yeah, like all the time.
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All the time.
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Okay.
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That sounds good.
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Is there any specific ways that you practice courage?
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Yeah.
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When I'm scared of something, I just and everyone's telling me to do it, or even if they're not, I just do it.
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Cause like you know it's gonna happen, you know what's gonna happen next.
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You know if you fall, if you something happens, just go for it.
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Yeah.
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Well, let's say we practice good courage on the resilience battle.
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So if people are telling you to do something that's dangerous, don't do it.
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Don't do it.
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No, no, no, no.
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But if they're if it's practicing good courage would be like taking the chance of doing something even when you're afraid, if you know it could help you grow.
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Raising your hand in the classroom, like if you're feeling shy and scared and you're like, you know what, today I'm gonna just raise my hand even if I don't know the answer, and I would be okay with getting it wrong and trying, then not trying at all, right?
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Or the courage to try something new in a sport or trying something new with painting or art or whatever that looks like for you.
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If you could go back and talk to your nine-year-old self in that moment, what would you tell him?
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Like before it happened or after?
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Or while it happened?
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Well, I'll tell him like, don't be afraid.
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Like, God will help you, and everything will be like alright.
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That's beautiful.
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Thank you so much for sharing your story with us.
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I really appreciate it.
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I think it's so beautiful.
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Is there anything else that you would like to leave people on today's episode?
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Any young people listening?
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Always believe in yourself.
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Always believe in yourself.
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Straight from the mouth of the beautiful child.
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Okay.
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Thank you so much.
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You have such a beautiful smile.
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So much success and continued, continued courage and success in sharing your story.
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I think it's gonna encourage other people to also have courage and to believe in themselves.
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Thank you so much.
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Do you have any questions for me?
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Has anything ever happened to you?
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Yeah, it's a good question.
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Yeah, I I a lot of things happen to me.
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I'm grown, but I would say um I got hit by a car in 2024, January 1st, 2024, by a trunk driver in New York City, and that changed my life forever.
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I had over 13 fracture bones in my face and injured hip and left foot, surgeries and procedures and stuff the last couple years, and it definitely changed my life.
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And I went through a dark season of life, but I also had a lot of courage and faith that I would push through and um know that I also believe in God.
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I also believe that God had something bigger and better for me and that he saved my life for a reason.
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So I think to know that even in that moment, I still believed and trusted God, and even in the moments of being in the hospital in the trauma unit, you know, that God still existed despite it being a tough situation and a scary situation at that.
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But um coming back much better, stronger than ever.
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So thank you for asking.
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Yeah.
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Well, do you have any other questions?
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No, no problem.
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We appreciate you so much for sharing your story.