Common Grounds with Keith - The Path to His Dream Job

WEBVTT
00:00:18.879 --> 00:00:22.480
Hello, everyone, welcome back to Unfinished.
00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:38.240
Today it's a little different because we are doing our first guest episode, and I'm coining my guest series Common Grounds.
00:00:38.799 --> 00:00:50.479
It's gonna be conversations with friends, family, listeners about things that they are still working on, or things that took them a while to figure out.
00:00:51.439 --> 00:01:09.200
For this first episode, I figured it was or made the most sense to have someone on that I've known for sixteen years, and that is uh my best buddy Keith.
00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:10.560
Welcome, Keith.
00:01:10.640 --> 00:01:12.079
Thanks for joining me today.
00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:14.560
Good morning, everybody.
00:01:14.799 --> 00:01:16.079
I think it's morning.
00:01:16.719 --> 00:01:17.439
Still barely.
00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:18.640
Still barely.
00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:22.079
Um yeah, ma'am.
00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:23.040
How are you?
00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:23.920
I'm alright.
00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:28.640
Um just getting through, staying as busy as ever.
00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:29.680
Yeah.
00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:30.560
Yeah.
00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:34.799
Um I got all of my plate.
00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:42.640
Tell me, like, just in general or well Yeah, just in general.
00:01:42.879 --> 00:01:46.640
Um like school just started a little bit ago.
00:01:46.879 --> 00:01:53.680
So like getting in the routine of that, which we're four weeks in now, so like we're I like mostly settled in.
00:01:54.079 --> 00:02:01.359
Uh but finding a start coaching cross-country on Monday, so that'll add like another thing.
00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:02.400
Dang man.
00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:07.359
And then here like a month or so, uh jazz band is gonna start.
00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:10.000
So I'll be doing that on Thursdays too.
00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:19.199
Um for the people listening who don't know, um you're playing jazz band or teaching?
00:02:19.759 --> 00:02:23.919
No, my like playing jazz band, the band that I play in.
00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:29.120
Um we meet every other Thursday, and then we do a couple concerts a year.
00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:41.199
So we'll do a Christmas concert at the warehouse, and then we'll do a spring concert at the warehouse, and then we also have another smaller performance at the Symphony Gala, which is that's pretty easy.
00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:41.680
It's fine.
00:02:41.919 --> 00:02:44.080
That's like a 30-minute set or something.
00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:54.560
So now it's not hard, but it's cool to go like play and still keep my my own like playing active and fun.
00:02:54.960 --> 00:03:07.919
Sometimes a little seems a little tedious because it's on Thursdays, so it'll be the end of my week when I finally got through everything, and then I'm like, oh, I gotta do another thing on Thursday night.
00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:09.280
I don't want to.
00:03:09.599 --> 00:03:11.199
Just filling your plate up.
00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:12.000
Yeah.
00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:21.599
Um, and then you know, just try to keep up and spend time with my girlfriend as much as I can when I can.
00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:23.439
Hell yeah, man.
00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:28.400
Well, I'm glad you actually brought that up because that's what you're here to talk about today.
00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:29.280
Yeah.
00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:46.960
Um so let's you're gonna discuss your um I guess process of going through life and getting to where you are at today of being a teacher.
00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:55.840
So let's run it back to um high school, like being in high school, about to graduate.
00:03:56.159 --> 00:03:58.960
Okay, was teaching always the plan?
00:03:59.439 --> 00:04:08.879
Um not when I was like younger, but I think probably around my sophomore year of high school is when I started getting like really into it.
00:04:09.199 --> 00:04:22.959
I think the first thing, well, first off, uh Jeff Mason, which we'll get into that a little bit later, but uh just like a really good role model for me at the time.
00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:31.600
And I just like what what what kind of life he had, and I I just kind of strive to be like that or be that way.
00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:37.920
Um, and so I just kind of made it a goal to keep myself as involved in music as I could.
00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:46.959
I you know like got an all-state band a few times, um, did a bunch of honor bands, every band class I could take.
00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:49.199
I started taking choir at one point.
00:04:49.680 --> 00:05:00.480
Um, so I just kept myself like in the music realm as much as I could, but also still like getting through and graduating high school.
00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:10.240
Um so I think around my sophomore years, like I said, when I decided that I wanted to go and be a music teacher.
00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:16.800
Um, and then obviously when I was a senior, it came time to think about music school.
00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:39.680
Um again, Jeff Mason, who had been a role model for me, and uh Travis Watson, my uh saxophone lessons conductor, um, had also they both had gone to UNC and Greeley, and so I'd heard that was a really good music school, so I decided to get an audition ready, head down there and audition.
00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:44.079
Um I got in, so that was exciting.
00:05:44.240 --> 00:05:50.160
Um finished high school, got through the summer, and then uh 2013.
00:05:50.319 --> 00:05:55.839
No, I'm sorry, fall 2012 would have been my first semester at UNC.
00:05:56.079 --> 00:06:00.480
Um so went to Greeley, did the semester there.
00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:09.680
Um financial stuff did not fall in line like I had predicted it would, and so it just got too expensive for me to be there.
00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:20.800
And so at the time I still wanted to be a music major and be a music teacher, so I ended up coming back to Grand Junction and going to CMU and then sticking with the same thing.
00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:24.720
So I was doing music education, um, which was fine.
00:06:24.800 --> 00:06:29.519
Like I saved money, I knew I was gonna be like relatively stable.
00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:34.480
Yeah, and CMU had a decent music program as well at the time, right?
00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:38.399
Yeah, like I could still get my degree there, and it helped because I was just closer to home.
00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:43.759
I had more friends, there's people I knew, it just was more comfortable.
00:06:43.920 --> 00:06:54.319
And not that I was uncomfortable at UNC or anything, but being close to home gives you the like freedom of not having to be in the dorms.
00:06:54.480 --> 00:06:54.800
Yeah.
00:06:55.199 --> 00:06:57.680
So you can either live at home or get an apartment.
00:06:58.160 --> 00:06:58.720
Yeah.
00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:05.120
Um, so yeah, so I moved back to Grand Junction, started going to CMU.
00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:10.000
I finished out that spring semester, which was spring 2013.
00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:10.480
Yeah.
00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:20.959
And then I don't know what it was at the time, but I just kind of got bogged down in all the like work of it.
00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:26.240
Because when you're in high school, you're kind of just playing all the time or like singing, you know.
00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:29.279
There's it's a lot of performing and it's fun.
00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:36.240
Well, and it's only a couple like classes throughout the day because you have all your other courses in high school.
00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:48.639
And so um, you know, by the time like I got to the end of that first like full, like full year, I was like, this seems more like I'm doing a job now.
00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:54.160
And like if that's the case, I don't know if this is what like this is what I want to be doing.
00:07:54.399 --> 00:07:59.040
And so I made the decision and I switched out of music.
00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:08.639
Told myself I'd still play and stuff, so like I still did pet band and I did marching band, and I actually was pretty much in all the same groups I think I was before.
00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:17.360
I just was not doing all the um music ed classes, like theory, ear training, piano, stuff like that.
00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:22.560
And you said you made that decision after your first full year of college, yeah.
00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:27.600
It was like the end of uh like 2013, like the end of that first year.
00:08:27.920 --> 00:08:39.279
Um, so I started looking at stuff and I had just kind of thought about what I had wanted to do, like other than that, yeah, and like what kind of degrees CMU had offered.
00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:41.279
And where did that kind of lead you?
00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:45.840
Um, I I eventually settled on criminal justice, is where I ended up.
00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:47.360
Were there any other options?
00:08:47.679 --> 00:09:16.559
Yeah, there I'm I had thought about uh science, like some kind of science or like physics or something like that, but the coursework just seemed a lot heavy, and I was trying to keep since I had already spent that first year in music, I was trying to find something that I could still achieve and not spend too much time in school still.
00:09:16.799 --> 00:09:25.600
Um, which I wish I would have just chose based on what I actually wanted to do and not what I thought was gonna save the most money.
00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:43.120
Well, and just in general, that's kind of I think the shitty thing about graduating high school and going to college in general is like being forced to decide what you're gonna do for the next 40 years.
00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:43.919
Yeah.
00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:52.960
Um when you're 18, yeah, your brain is like not developed, and they're like, pick this is the most important decision of your life.
00:09:54.080 --> 00:10:04.240
Like thinking back 12 years and who we were back then, um I wouldn't fucking trust us to pick dinner.
00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:06.240
No, dude, for real.
00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:11.600
Like our main priority was saving money for boosts, yeah.
00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:15.440
Like, which sometimes we didn't even save money for it.
00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:18.720
We just bummed off the people whose house we'd go to.
00:10:19.440 --> 00:10:25.519
And so yeah, we're forced to like decide what our life is gonna be like at 18.
00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:26.480
Yeah.
00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:28.799
Um, that's just tough.
00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:32.720
But yeah, so you ended up on criminal justice.
00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:33.120
Yeah.
00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:35.360
What was like the deciding factor for that?
00:10:35.679 --> 00:10:43.039
Um, well, I I thought about like the type of jobs I could do, um, like with that kind of degree.
00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:47.600
And so with that, there's like three, like three paths you could go.
00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:56.559
Um, you could be like a cop, uh, like the um, you know, police policing.
00:10:56.720 --> 00:11:02.320
Uh you could go into law, like law school, or that was just taken.
00:11:03.039 --> 00:11:06.639
I was gonna give you shit about cops policing.
00:11:06.879 --> 00:11:07.519
Yeah.
00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:09.200
You a cop?
00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:12.480
Try again.
00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:26.720
Um uh or or working in corrections, like uh um like a correctional officer, just kind of the same as policing, but those are generally like the three like paths people take.
00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:29.759
And so I was like, well, all three of those like kind of interest me.
00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:34.559
Like, I could see myself doing doing eight of those, so like I'll kind of stick with that.
00:11:35.039 --> 00:11:45.919
And so I started studying that, took my intro to criminal justice class, really liked my professor, he was awesome, and I was like, dang, I think I like this, I think I can stick with it.
00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:56.480
So I started taking classes, criminal justice classes, and um just started learning about the different things, and I was you know pretty interested.
00:11:56.879 --> 00:12:09.600
Uh but like you said, a lot of what we were doing back then was kind of just getting booze, drinking, partying, partying, the hookah lounge.
00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:10.960
The hookah lounge.
00:12:11.120 --> 00:12:12.480
Oh my gosh.
00:12:12.799 --> 00:12:16.799
How uh we spent so much time and money there.
00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:21.200
I think at one point we were hitting it like four or five times a week.
00:12:21.440 --> 00:12:26.000
Yeah, well, I mean, we had marching band Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:30.559
We'd go after every marching band, and then probably once on a weekend or something.
00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:34.080
So, like it was at least three times a week.
00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:40.559
Yeah, suffice to say, we weren't making the best life decisions, um, and then old Chicago.
00:12:41.919 --> 00:12:43.440
You were there for that whole thing.
00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:47.039
Yeah, two dollar pizzas, three dollar drafts.
00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:49.519
I'm like, you guys were old enough to drink at that point.
00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:50.399
I wasn't.
00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:52.879
Yeah, you guys had uh your lemonade.
00:12:53.120 --> 00:12:54.080
My lemonades.
00:12:55.600 --> 00:12:57.039
Hey, they're all good.
00:12:58.559 --> 00:13:10.080
Um, anyway, so um yeah, I mean, I was still doing okay in classes, but I wasn't doing the best I could, and things just kind of started slipping away.
00:13:10.240 --> 00:13:15.440
Um actually in 2016.
00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:19.600
Um it's when I joined uh drum core.
00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:21.120
It's when I did troopers.
00:13:21.360 --> 00:13:21.840
Yeah.
00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:30.159
Um for people who may not not know, um, drum core is essentially like professional marching band.
00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:32.080
Yeah, that's the way to describe it.
00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:40.480
And so I auditioned for that, went at the end of the spring semester in 2016.
00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:45.519
So that would have been the end of your junior year of college?
00:13:45.759 --> 00:13:48.159
Technically, yeah, that would have been my end of my senior year.
00:13:48.320 --> 00:13:53.600
If I would have graduated like on time, yeah, that would have been the end of my senior year.
00:13:53.919 --> 00:13:58.240
So if I started criminal justice to start out with, I would have graduated then.
00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:05.200
With music, that would have been the end of my classes, and I would have done spring or uh student teaching in the fall of 2016.
00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:07.759
Yeah, I realized I did my math wrong.
00:14:07.919 --> 00:14:08.080
Yeah.
00:14:08.320 --> 00:14:10.720
End of 2013 was the end of your freshman year.
00:14:10.879 --> 00:14:20.159
So um, so anyway, went away for three months, did troopers, probably the most incredible summer of my life.
00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:30.159
Like I that's the place where I really learned like how to work really hard and how to persevere, even when you don't want to.
00:14:30.559 --> 00:14:35.519
And just met a lot of people across the country, across the world.
00:14:35.679 --> 00:14:39.519
Like we traveled all you know, all over the place.
00:14:39.840 --> 00:14:43.840
Um lost like 50 pounds last summer, just crazy.
00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:48.480
Three months, probably not healthy, but yeah, that's conversational for another time.
00:14:48.799 --> 00:14:53.519
Well, and you were just doing music and marching every single day for three months.
00:14:53.840 --> 00:14:55.919
Yeah, but I mean it sun up to sundown.
00:14:56.080 --> 00:15:00.799
Like the 30-day spring training, like we woke up at 7 a.m.
00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:05.200
and our we our rehearsal ended at 10 p.m.
00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:12.639
So we had three hours off for meals during that day, but that was like we were grinding the whole time.
00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:15.200
Anyway, so did troopers.
00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:23.600
Um, I said had the most like incredible time, and by the end of that summer, I was like, fuck, I messed up.
00:15:24.080 --> 00:15:26.639
Like, I I do really want to do music.
00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:35.440
So that just like reignited your spark for yeah, and so I was kind of stuck in this like weird, like hard place.
00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:49.759
Like I've already spent all this time, like three years doing criminal justice work, and I am like really running out of money, which turns out I was already out of money.
00:15:50.000 --> 00:16:00.399
Um and so I I just went back to school and I was like, I'll just finish out criminal justice and keep doing as much music as I can.
00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:12.799
And yeah, after that summer of doing um doing uh the troopers, I I I'm pretty sure I failed every single criminal justice class that I had.
00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:15.600
Did you just like not have it in you?
00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:18.799
Yeah, you were just like not motivated, yeah.
00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:34.639
Um, and I even I think I had a gen ed to put English, like my English class, I failed because I just didn't eventually got to a point where I was like, I'm not graduating of this degree, and even if I needed it for music, like it's just too late.
00:16:34.799 --> 00:16:42.240
Like I'm out of money, there's no way I switched to music now again and be have the money to finish this through.
00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:47.039
And if I'm not doing that, then why like why try any of these classes?
00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:51.440
So I just finished up that semester doing all my music stuff.
00:16:51.519 --> 00:17:10.640
So I would have been like marching band, I was in uh the jazz ensemble as well, and so finished up that they let me keep doing jazz ensemble for the rest of that school year, so that would have been 2017 through the spring of 2017, yeah, even though I wasn't a student.
00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:15.759
I mean, they they did the same thing for me, yeah.
00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:28.640
For marching band, yeah, because I was no longer a student there after my first year because I failed and I was still they still allowed me to do the marching band, which was nice.
00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:29.279
Yeah.
00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:32.400
I'm glad we had decent professors there that yeah.
00:17:32.559 --> 00:17:32.799
Dr.
00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:37.920
Hankel was yeah, and yeah, he gave me a lot of grace too.
00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:38.880
And it was actually Dr.
00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:40.079
Canstra that did that.
00:17:40.319 --> 00:17:41.519
Oh, Canstra was mine.
00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:45.519
And so got to the end of 2017.
00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:49.440
Um I was out of school.
00:17:49.839 --> 00:17:53.920
I had no hope of getting back into it.
00:17:54.240 --> 00:17:56.720
Yep, let's uh explore that a little bit.
00:17:56.880 --> 00:18:07.359
Like, you're coming up on the end of that first semester where you realize you're not gonna graduate with a criminal justice degree.
00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:10.000
What's going through your mind?
00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:14.960
Like, what are you starting to plan or think about what's gonna happen?
00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:16.319
Are you freaking out?
00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:33.119
Yeah, well, I was young enough to know to not know that I needed to confront things, and I just avoided them until it ended up bite me in the ass later, you know.
00:18:33.599 --> 00:18:36.799
So that's that's tomorrow Keith's problem.
00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:37.680
Yeah, yeah.
00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:49.279
Um, so I just kind of like didn't confront things, and um I I did kind of start thinking about like, well, I'm gonna have to work.
00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:54.880
So like I like I'm gonna have to figure something out eventually.
00:18:55.119 --> 00:19:11.279
But I was working at Pizza at the time, and I'd been a delivery driver, I was a manager there, and so I kind of I had something steady enough that I was making money and able to pay rent and um you know like getting through.
00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:34.000
It was around that time that I started really smoking weed a lot, and I'll get more into that in a different conversation, but just relevant to the story, that's why I really started getting into what am I trying to look for?
00:19:34.160 --> 00:19:35.519
What word am I looking for?
00:19:35.759 --> 00:19:45.279
Um soothing, like blocking out your emotions and just covering up like self-medicating, yeah.
00:19:45.359 --> 00:19:46.400
That's what I'm looking for.
00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:48.240
Uh self-medicating.
00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:51.039
And so I kind of just did that.
00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:55.920
I remember one day specifically, I just like didn't feel good.
00:19:56.319 --> 00:20:03.440
My parents didn't know at the time that I was not going uh not going to school.
00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:09.200
And so I eventually just told them, I was like, I'm not going to school anymore.
00:20:09.440 --> 00:20:12.240
And they were like, okay, like it's fine.
00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:15.839
Like, don't feel like you're should be afraid to tell us.
00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:21.599
And I remember that day, I just like started crying, and I like couldn't stop for hours.
00:20:22.079 --> 00:20:25.119
So it's like what what kind of triggered that?
00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:38.160
Uh I think part of it was I guess maybe I hadn't fully accepted that I wasn't going to school, I wasn't gonna be like this big picture of success that I thought that I was going to.
00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:44.000
I think admitting admitting that to my parents is one like kind of like oh shit.
00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:53.279
Yeah, because there's kind of this uh like idea in general of going to college is kind of the expectation for most people.
00:20:53.519 --> 00:20:54.160
Yeah.
00:20:54.400 --> 00:20:59.039
And then not finishing is like automatically seen as a failure.
00:21:00.319 --> 00:21:13.119
Um that's tough because one, college isn't necessarily for everyone, yeah, but also like shit happens, and even if it is for you, like that doesn't need that time.
00:21:13.279 --> 00:21:17.680
Yeah, like I like for me, I was too young to be making those kind of decisions.
00:21:17.839 --> 00:21:22.000
I just wasn't I didn't have enough life experience to get through that.
00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:26.000
Yeah, I'm I feel like I'm barely old enough to make those decisions now.
00:21:26.559 --> 00:21:27.279
I'm a teacher.
00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:32.799
Every day I'm like, they let me watch these kids.
00:21:32.960 --> 00:21:34.160
Oh, that's funny.
00:21:35.039 --> 00:21:44.720
Um so yeah, I guess let's kind of go through after your after you dropped out.
00:21:44.960 --> 00:21:45.599
Yeah.
00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:50.640
And you talked to your parents like the next few years, kind of what that looked like.
00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:50.960
Yeah.
00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:52.640
Like jobs and yeah.
00:21:52.799 --> 00:21:55.920
So it was a lot of change in that like couple years.
00:21:56.160 --> 00:22:06.160
And like it really I mean, I guess that was four years of like a lot of stuff that happened.
00:22:06.400 --> 00:22:11.759
But I like I said I was working at Pizza.
00:22:12.480 --> 00:22:15.599
I had fallen in love with this girl.
00:22:15.920 --> 00:22:17.680
And moved to Denver?
00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:18.160
Yeah.
00:22:19.039 --> 00:22:20.319
I'm not going to get into relationships here.
00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:20.720
Yeah, no.
00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:24.079
I was like, but we could get to that in a way.
00:22:25.119 --> 00:22:26.559
But just relevant to the story.
00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:28.559
Like I fell in love with this girl.
00:22:28.799 --> 00:22:30.799
She had moved back to Denver.
00:22:30.960 --> 00:22:35.680
And so at one point we had decided that I was going to move to Denver.
00:22:35.759 --> 00:22:38.000
There's more job opportunities down there.
00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:43.359
And how long after you dropped out was it that you moved to Denver?
00:22:43.680 --> 00:22:45.680
Um, so I dropped out.
00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:52.319
I'd stopped doing like the music stuff pretty much in 2017.
00:22:52.400 --> 00:22:54.240
So it was May of 2017.
00:22:54.559 --> 00:23:00.480
And then just kind of did the long distance thing with her up until the beginning of 2018.
00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:05.200
And so sometime in that summer or fall, we decided that I was going to move.
00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:08.400
And so 2018, January, January 2018.
00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:10.400
So like six months or so?
00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:10.799
Yeah.
00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:12.400
Six or seven.
00:23:13.759 --> 00:23:14.799
You're welcome.
00:23:15.680 --> 00:23:20.880
Um, yeah, so I moved to Denver, January 2018.
00:23:21.119 --> 00:23:23.200
Obviously, I wasn't gonna work.
00:23:23.440 --> 00:23:26.480
I guess not obviously, but I wasn't gonna work at Pizza anymore.
00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:31.279
I needed something a little more that I thought was gonna be professional.
00:23:31.680 --> 00:23:36.880
And so I went through this temp agency and got a job at this place.
00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:42.799
Um was it are you gonna say Blue Moose?
00:23:43.119 --> 00:23:43.279
Yeah.
00:23:43.440 --> 00:23:43.759
Yeah.
00:23:43.920 --> 00:23:57.039
Um it's called Blue Moose a Boulder, but they we made like hummus, it's like our main thing, but we made a bunch of like uh dips, like like cream, like cheese-based dips and stuff.
00:23:57.279 --> 00:23:59.119
But honestly, really good stuff.
00:23:59.519 --> 00:24:01.200
It was pretty good, yeah.
00:24:01.519 --> 00:24:13.279
Um but you know, I started off just in there, like cooking chilies and stuff um at night and like cooking beans, and eventually they brought me on the day shift.
00:24:13.440 --> 00:24:15.039
I started doing that.
00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:29.039
Um then at some point uh a the kitchen manager position opened up, and I ended up you know taking that taking that role.
00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:35.839
And one thing about that job is like it was just a rotating carousel of people that have come in and out of there.
00:24:36.240 --> 00:24:47.920
I feel like a lot of like classified as like a warehouse type job, even though like you're cooking stuff like that warehouse kind of job is usually a rotating.
00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:48.960
Yeah.
00:24:49.200 --> 00:24:52.319
Like uh food manufacturing is one there you go through.
00:24:52.559 --> 00:24:53.599
That's a better way to describe it.
00:24:53.920 --> 00:25:10.640
So I mean, I think by the time I had left there, like in our like little kitchen, like the where we cooked all the stuff and made like mixed, there was only no, there was nobody that I that was there when I started.
00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:17.279
And I was there for about a month, approximately a year and six months.
00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:22.720
So by the time I like left there, there was nobody there that I had started with.
00:25:23.759 --> 00:25:32.319
Um, and so like being being a manager there was probably the biggest job I had done up until that point.
00:25:32.559 --> 00:25:36.000
Like we were making food that was getting sold out in stores.
00:25:36.079 --> 00:25:40.480
Like this wasn't just like Pizza Hut, where it was like, yeah, my pizza's pulled, I need a new one.
00:25:40.559 --> 00:25:41.920
Like, okay, I'm gonna make you a new one.
00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:45.440
Food quality is a lot more important, like food quality.
00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:47.440
Like there was some stuff that happened.
00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:58.319
Um we I guess somewhere somewhere in the country, someone had found a piece of plastic or something in their um pumice or cheese or whatever.
00:25:58.559 --> 00:26:03.440
And so they had to do like the FDA had to come and do an investigation.
00:26:03.759 --> 00:26:21.279
And I mean, they were pulling records that I, you know, I mean, we had to keep track of like, you know, what days, like who was making what in what day, like who was cutting the cream cheese, who was opening the bags of beans or something.
00:26:21.440 --> 00:26:23.119
And I think that's what I think that's what it was.
00:26:23.200 --> 00:26:24.240
It was the hummus.
00:26:24.880 --> 00:26:37.759
And I mean, they I had to sit in a room with like our the owner of the company, plant manager, our quality inspection person, a lawyer, a person from the FDA.
00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:41.599
Like this, like this was not and how old are you at this point?
00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:43.680
Uh 20.
00:26:44.720 --> 00:26:46.799
It's probably 23 at that point.
00:26:47.039 --> 00:26:50.480
So I mean I was in my 20s, but still young, you know.
00:26:50.720 --> 00:26:51.039
Yeah.
00:26:51.200 --> 00:27:01.200
And so, I mean, I'm sitting in there and they're just like grilling me, you know, like who worked, like on here it says that this person did this.
00:27:01.599 --> 00:27:04.079
Were they wearing proper protection that day?
00:27:04.319 --> 00:27:07.279
I'm like, I mean, do you know what goes on here?
00:27:07.440 --> 00:27:09.279
I don't I don't remember that.
00:27:09.440 --> 00:27:11.839
Like, I I just don't know.
00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:15.440
Like, I gave them what I could the best, best I could.
00:27:15.680 --> 00:27:24.559
And I think eventually they probably couldn't figure out who specifically was to blame.
00:27:24.720 --> 00:27:33.440
But pretty much what they did is pick whoever made the most money and fired that person so that they could save money.
00:27:33.839 --> 00:27:36.880
Um, because they probably had to pay out a settlement or something like that.
00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:44.799
So they ended up firing our nighttime kitchen manager, I think made more than me, and so that was the end of that.
00:27:45.200 --> 00:27:57.839
And so somewhere around the end of 2018, I had me and my girlfriend at the time had broken up, and so we went our separate ways.
00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:06.079
I stayed in Denver because I was like, well, I'm already here, uh our apartment, I can't just stay here and pay for it.
00:28:06.160 --> 00:28:11.119
Like I made enough money barely at the time to get through that.
00:28:11.359 --> 00:28:13.920
So I kept working, that was fine.
00:28:14.160 --> 00:28:18.000
I think July, it's probably like a week before my birthday.
00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:25.279
Um business was slowing down at the company I was working, and again, I think they did the same thing.
00:28:25.440 --> 00:28:31.680
I just picked whoever made the least amount of money and said, We're letting you go.
00:28:32.079 --> 00:28:32.880
Sorry.
00:28:33.359 --> 00:28:37.759
So I got let go from that job, didn't get fired.
00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:41.839
I still got like I was still in good standing, but I got let go.
00:28:42.319 --> 00:28:46.000
And so at that point, I was kind of like in a tough place.
00:28:46.880 --> 00:28:56.960
Um I ended up moving out to Longmont with one of our old friends, Mark, which I think that's where we started like kind of making up because you were in Greeley at that time.
00:28:57.200 --> 00:29:03.599
Yeah, because I moved to Greeley at the beginning of 2019, and that's kind of what we like.
00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:05.200
That was that was like right.
00:29:05.359 --> 00:29:07.519
I was gonna say that's when we like reconnected.
00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:09.920
Yeah, but we weren't ever like not connected.
00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:12.640
Yeah, that was when we started up, yeah.
00:29:12.960 --> 00:29:19.759
Um, and so 2019, uh I moved to Longmont.
00:29:20.079 --> 00:29:24.480
I started working at this uh RV dealership.
00:29:24.720 --> 00:29:42.079
Um, I'd applied for a job there, and I I worked in the parts and service department as like uh intake and like inventory person, and I mean that place was a mess.
00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:50.880
They had parts, RV parts of like rooms full, like up to the ceiling, and just like different RV parts and stuff.
00:29:51.200 --> 00:30:00.640
And I don't I don't understand why it was like that because they when people would come in to get their RV fixed, they would order the part.
00:30:01.039 --> 00:30:04.079
So they had a bunch of parts, but they would always order.
00:30:04.319 --> 00:30:04.960
Yeah.
00:30:05.599 --> 00:30:07.359
So I don't know what that is about.
00:30:07.759 --> 00:30:18.559
Either way, my job was to um go around the whole place and just count inventory and make sure the numbers were right on stuff that we weren't gonna sell.
00:30:19.200 --> 00:30:28.880
And then I had to go on the computer and try to find pictures of the part or take pictures of it and put it on the spreadsheet so they knew what it looked like.
00:30:29.839 --> 00:30:31.920
That was the most boring job I've ever done.
00:30:32.079 --> 00:30:48.400
I sat at a computer for eight hours for a day, five days a week for a month, and I I mean if you've ever done a job like that, it's it's literally those the worst thing I for me that I could that I could do.
00:30:48.799 --> 00:31:03.279
I've done quite a few different jobs, and I think the worst ones are those kinds, yeah, because the like mental exhaustion is personally, I feel like the mental exhaustion is way worse than physical exhaustion.
00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:03.680
Yeah.
00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:21.920
Like I'd much rather go work my body and like be physically exhausted and cut finish the day and like be good rather than sit and do nothing and just be like trying to stay awake at work and then come home and you're just like, I didn't do shit, but I'm like so tired.
00:31:22.160 --> 00:31:22.640
Yeah.
00:31:23.359 --> 00:31:38.640
Um and you know, like I was in an office, so I talked to like the same four or five people that like that worked at the RV dealership, but I didn't, you know, I didn't have a girlfriend, so I didn't go home to anybody.
00:31:39.039 --> 00:31:41.440
Mark was busy doing his hand panting.
00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:44.799
Yeah, so you bringing that up.
00:31:44.960 --> 00:31:54.640
Um this whole time since you moved to Denver and Warcamp Blue Moose, got let go from the other job and the RV um dealership.
00:31:55.839 --> 00:31:59.519
Um are you doing any sort of music during this time?
00:31:59.839 --> 00:32:00.400
Nothing.
00:32:00.640 --> 00:32:01.680
Not at all.
00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:09.119
So I think I'd taken up much of it probably three or four times that whole like two years, two, three years.
00:32:09.519 --> 00:32:27.759
Were you just like because after you left uh or were done with DCI and realized that is what you wanted to do, but then not put yourself in like um any, I guess, situation to be involved with music.
00:32:27.839 --> 00:32:29.519
Like, what was that like for you?
00:32:29.920 --> 00:32:32.640
Um I don't know.
00:32:32.799 --> 00:32:54.720
I at the time I was really concerned about like my relationship because I I I think I had figured that like, well, if I wasn't gonna have my dream job, like maybe I'll work on like getting a life in feeds, which again we'll go into that in a different episode, but that's kind of where my mind was at.
00:32:54.960 --> 00:33:01.680
And I just accepted like I probably won't be playing my instrument in any groups or anything like anytime soon.
00:33:01.839 --> 00:33:06.240
So the sooner I give that up, the better I just move on from it.
00:33:06.480 --> 00:33:06.880
Yeah.
00:33:07.119 --> 00:33:13.599
And so um, yeah, I I wasn't, I mean, I wasn't doing anything at all.
00:33:13.839 --> 00:33:22.400
I think Mark had asked me to play trumpet one time for like a recording or something, and I was like, dude, I I haven't played in almost two years.
00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:26.720
Like I I don't feel comfortable like doing anything and like recording for you.
00:33:26.799 --> 00:33:30.000
I just don't want to I don't want to put that out there.
00:33:30.240 --> 00:33:30.880
Yeah.
00:33:31.279 --> 00:33:39.279
And so I um yeah, I like wasn't I wasn't playing or anything.
00:33:39.599 --> 00:33:46.000
Uh eventually I quit that RV dealership because I was like, I can't, I I can't do this anymore.
00:33:46.240 --> 00:33:48.559
Like that's just awful.
00:33:49.279 --> 00:33:54.400
And at that time I moved down to Denver, back down to Denver from Longmont.
00:33:54.960 --> 00:33:57.920
Uh to my friend at the time, Joe.
00:33:59.119 --> 00:34:01.119
Which we won't get into that either.
00:34:01.440 --> 00:34:06.240
Um uh he had an extra room at his cousin's house.
00:34:06.480 --> 00:34:09.039
And so I ended up staying there for a little bit.
00:34:09.280 --> 00:34:17.679
I didn't have a job, I just was kind of working at their house doing um doing random stuff.
00:34:17.840 --> 00:34:23.039
Like we we took out a window and were drilling into some brick and stuff.
00:34:23.119 --> 00:34:29.039
So I literally was just kind of hanging out for it's probably two or three weeks.
00:34:29.920 --> 00:34:34.480
Um late 2019 came, it's probably September, I think.
00:34:34.719 --> 00:34:48.800
Uh my grandpa was in very bad health, he had pancreatic cancer, and so I started thinking, I was like, I'm in Denver, I'm not, I don't have a job, I'm not doing anything.
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:55.280
The reason I came here is no longer in my life, like why am I here?
00:34:55.440 --> 00:34:59.599
So and you're not doing anything like productive or worthwhile at that point, yeah.
00:34:59.920 --> 00:35:05.519
So I just decided uh move back and back to Grand Junction.
00:35:06.320 --> 00:35:13.039
So move back to Junction, um, just living at my parents' house, so I didn't need to pay rent or anything.
00:35:13.199 --> 00:35:18.800
Um, but I mean I still need to get a job, like I need to I need to do something.
00:35:19.039 --> 00:35:21.679
So I started working again.
00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:24.800
Got a job at Starving Arden's.
00:35:25.039 --> 00:35:31.760
Um just a local, like if you don't know, it's like a local breakfast, like lunch place.
00:35:33.119 --> 00:35:37.679
Um started off serving just a couple days a week.
00:35:37.920 --> 00:35:54.639
Um and then like any food restaurant or you know, kind of lower paying job, it's just a rotating carousel of people that come in in and out of there.
00:35:55.360 --> 00:36:06.800
And I I ended up being there long enough that I got, I wouldn't even say promoted, but I just started doing manager stuff and started working like five days a week.
00:36:07.039 --> 00:36:09.519
Um, like closing, opening.
00:36:09.760 --> 00:36:29.920
I started being a cook there too, and like doing money stuff, but I'm still serving, and it just was like I was doing stuff all the time, and so um this was around COVID, so things got kind of hairy there.
00:36:30.079 --> 00:36:33.440
We were shut down for uh probably a month or so.
00:36:33.760 --> 00:36:43.519
I I couldn't say exactly, but we started opening back up and I was still serving, and I mean there was the whole mask thing, and like that whole thing it was just a mess.
00:36:43.760 --> 00:36:48.960
I got it's almost hard to believe that that was real.
00:36:49.360 --> 00:36:49.679
Yeah.
00:36:49.920 --> 00:36:51.199
That whole time period.
00:36:51.599 --> 00:36:53.039
Yeah, feels like a fever train.
00:36:53.280 --> 00:36:53.920
Yeah.
00:36:54.320 --> 00:36:59.039
Um, so I was working, I was working there.
00:36:59.440 --> 00:37:07.599
Eventually, I something happened that I just like it pissed me off.
00:37:09.280 --> 00:37:20.320
Some some server like asked me to switch shifts, and I did, and then when I showed up, they were there, and they were like, Oh, well, you can just go home and come back and work your regular shift later.
00:37:20.480 --> 00:37:21.920
I was like, fuck no.
00:37:22.400 --> 00:37:27.840
You asked me to switch, and now I got up early to come here, and you want me to go home and come back later?
00:37:28.079 --> 00:37:28.639
Like, no.
00:37:29.280 --> 00:37:36.480
And my manager at the time just kind of like laughed in my face, and I was like, Okay, well, that's it there.
00:37:36.639 --> 00:37:41.599
I don't want to work for you if that's how if that's how things are things are gonna be.
00:37:42.079 --> 00:37:44.400
So I quit there.
00:37:44.639 --> 00:38:01.119
Um at the time, my girlfriend, um, she is a music teacher also, and so which we knew each other from from I mean actually high school from because of that.
00:38:01.360 --> 00:38:15.920
But she was a music teacher, and she said the school district here needed um paraprofessionals, uh, aids for sixth grade band classes, and so she kind of got me in the door there.
00:38:16.159 --> 00:38:17.199
I started doing that.
00:38:17.599 --> 00:38:22.159
So this was your like first reintroduction into music.
00:38:22.400 --> 00:38:22.639
Yeah.
00:38:22.880 --> 00:38:30.159
How long of a gap from when you left DCI until um that happened?
00:38:30.480 --> 00:38:32.079
That was 2020.
00:38:33.440 --> 00:38:35.039
Beginning of 2021.
00:38:35.199 --> 00:38:39.360
It's like January, whenever they start to pull back up in 2021.
00:38:39.519 --> 00:38:42.719
So four-ish, five years.
00:38:42.960 --> 00:38:43.360
Yeah.
00:38:43.599 --> 00:38:49.679
Because I think I had played in that, like I said, that jazz band up until May 2017.
00:38:49.840 --> 00:38:53.440
So I'm within it almost five, four years.
00:38:53.760 --> 00:38:54.800
Yeah, like four years.
00:38:54.880 --> 00:38:55.519
Yeah.
00:38:55.760 --> 00:39:01.360
So were you were you nervous because you hadn't played in in so long?
00:39:01.519 --> 00:39:10.320
Um, even though like you're you're um going to like aid with sixth graders who are just learning how to play an instrument.
00:39:10.400 --> 00:39:15.280
Like what was that like process for you?
00:39:15.679 --> 00:39:29.280
Um it's kind of hard to remember what that was like, because I again was had some pretty awful relationship issues.
00:39:30.079 --> 00:39:44.800
Um I I don't really remember what that like whole thing was like, like that process, but I do know like once I got into it, I really, I really enjoyed it.
00:39:45.039 --> 00:39:50.559
And um I mean I would I would try all over North Grand, like all over.
00:39:50.719 --> 00:40:00.719
I mean, I was out in Fruda helping there, I was at West Middle School, Bookliffe, Orchard Mesa, you know, like I was all over the place.
00:40:01.280 --> 00:40:06.480
Um and then I also was a bartender, uh, which was fun.
00:40:06.719 --> 00:40:08.079
I enjoyed doing that.
00:40:08.320 --> 00:40:10.480
It wasn't it wasn't super hard.
00:40:10.559 --> 00:40:16.400
I worked as I worked at a hotel, so it was kind of just like this fancy thing in the lobby.
00:40:16.639 --> 00:40:19.280
I've never got really terribly busy.
00:40:19.519 --> 00:40:25.599
It was serving mostly like the business trip crowd.
00:40:25.920 --> 00:40:26.320
Yeah.
00:40:26.559 --> 00:40:30.719
Um like it was slow enough that I never had another person working.
00:40:30.880 --> 00:40:37.840
Every once in a while we'd have like a Christmas party or something, and we'd split that, but I mean it was working by myself as a bartender.
00:40:37.920 --> 00:40:41.920
So that was super that was easy, and I I like that.
00:40:42.079 --> 00:40:55.039
It was I got to meet a bunch of poor people from all over the place that were traveling in, had a good time there, and then I would do the the you know helping with band stuff during the day.
00:40:55.360 --> 00:41:02.639
So kind of lived off that for a little while, um, and that was fun.
00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:22.960
So you go from originally doing music education, switching your major, dropping that, working a bunch of menial jobs, now you're aiding for middle school um band classes.
00:41:23.280 --> 00:41:32.960
How do you go from there to now people are trusting you to teach and be responsible for a classroom of students?
00:41:33.199 --> 00:41:37.199
Yeah, so I mean, we're almost at the end.
00:41:38.079 --> 00:41:41.599
I mean, that was a lot of trial and tribulation in there.
00:41:41.920 --> 00:41:47.840
Um, but I mean, once I started doing like this kind of music stuff, I got I got really into it.
00:41:48.000 --> 00:41:55.039
I started helping out uh with marching band, I would do uh junction high school, I would just help as a tech there.
00:41:55.199 --> 00:42:03.920
Uh one year the director uh let me write some music and like design some show stuff, and I was a learning experience, you know.
00:42:04.079 --> 00:42:15.440
I think you're better at some stuff than you actually are, and you see it on the field or you hear it, and you're like, oh I am not what I thought I was.
00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:26.480
Um and so I I was doing that 2022, would have been the fall of 2022.
00:42:26.719 --> 00:42:40.159
Uh, my buddy Lyndon, I had seen him out at I think some brewery or a bar or something, and he told me that they were looking for someone to come be an aide at their school, which is Caprock Academy.
00:42:40.559 --> 00:42:50.159
Um, and so I had applied there and I started being an aide for him, which was a little more steady than um than working in the school district.
00:42:50.320 --> 00:42:53.599
I had like an eight-hour day, it was four days a week.
00:42:53.760 --> 00:43:05.840
I still bartended to one night, so that ended up being a little more steady than traveling all over the place and you know filling out mileage stuff.
00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:08.639
And so I ended up just working there.
00:43:09.679 --> 00:43:14.880
I did that whole year, 2022, and then going into 2023.
00:43:15.679 --> 00:43:20.639
At the end of that year, I sort of starts getting really interesting.
00:43:21.119 --> 00:43:31.840
Um, I had quit because I started doing Instacart, which is if you don't know, is just where you deliver groceries to people and stuff.
00:43:32.079 --> 00:43:36.960
Figured I could make more doing that than I could being at the school.
00:43:37.199 --> 00:43:41.760
So I left the school for a little bit, started doing Instacart.
00:43:42.719 --> 00:43:59.760
A few weeks later, my friend Lyndon, who was the band teacher there, who I was aid helping aid for, um he was really sick, food poisoning or something, and he asked me if I could come back and sub, uh, be a sub for him because it was easier for him to do that than.
00:44:00.639 --> 00:44:02.320
Have them not doing anything.
00:44:02.480 --> 00:44:13.119
And so I came back, I saw for him one day, and I don't know if fate or just the way things went that day.
00:44:13.360 --> 00:44:19.519
Um, the choir teacher there, I guess that day, had decided that she didn't want to teach choir anymore.
00:44:19.840 --> 00:44:38.719
And so she had told the head of school at the time, and um at that same afternoon, I mean, I was subbing for I was I was a substitute, and it was the same day he had asked if I could come down and see him at his office.
00:44:39.039 --> 00:44:40.000
So, okay.
00:44:40.320 --> 00:44:41.440
Ooh, you're in trouble.
00:44:41.760 --> 00:44:41.920
I know.
00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:43.760
I was like, I did something wrong.
00:44:43.920 --> 00:44:45.199
Like, it's don't say something.
00:44:45.280 --> 00:44:46.480
I've only been here one day.
00:44:46.559 --> 00:44:48.559
I'm just want one day is a sub.
00:44:49.039 --> 00:44:51.679
So he sat me down, he said, Hey.
00:44:54.400 --> 00:44:57.199
How close are you to getting your bachelor's degree?
00:44:57.519 --> 00:45:00.400
And to be honest, at the time, I didn't know.
00:45:00.639 --> 00:45:09.519
I knew that I had a bunch of credits, probably enough to have graduated, but not the right, not the right credits that I needed to fulfill a degree.
00:45:09.679 --> 00:45:10.000
Yeah.
00:45:10.159 --> 00:45:16.480
And so you had some from your music and some from criminal justice, but they didn't pair up to give you a full degree.
00:45:16.719 --> 00:45:16.880
Yeah.
00:45:17.199 --> 00:45:25.039
And so I was like, to be honest, man, I I've got to be pretty close, but I don't really, I don't really know.
00:45:25.679 --> 00:45:36.320
And so he told me, um, he was like, the choir director decided that she didn't want to teach choir anymore.
00:45:37.519 --> 00:45:40.400
You know all the kids here, you know how things work.
00:45:41.360 --> 00:45:46.000
You're waiting you're more than qualified for music to do this.
00:45:46.320 --> 00:45:48.800
He said, I will make you a deal.
00:45:49.039 --> 00:45:53.599
I will let you teach here under a sub-license because it's a charter school.
00:45:53.840 --> 00:45:56.320
So they can go based off people's experience.
00:45:56.480 --> 00:46:07.840
He said, if you can get a substitute license, I will let you take the choir job as a full-time choir teacher here if you can get your bachelor's degree by the end of the year.
00:46:08.639 --> 00:46:12.480
So I was like, okay, I'll do it.
00:46:12.800 --> 00:46:16.800
So I applied for the job because of technic technical stuff.
00:46:16.880 --> 00:46:24.239
I applied for the job, got the job as the choir director, got my substitute license, all was good.
00:46:26.239 --> 00:46:26.880
June.
00:46:28.079 --> 00:46:38.159
Some news came out about I don't know, pressing the names and stuff.
00:46:38.639 --> 00:46:40.239
About a previous director.
00:46:40.480 --> 00:46:40.800
Okay.
00:46:41.039 --> 00:46:46.239
I'll just say a previous band director had a scandal.
00:46:46.960 --> 00:46:48.960
We'll just keep it, we'll just keep it there.
00:46:49.199 --> 00:46:54.880
Had a scandal and was no longer gonna be working at their school.
00:46:55.360 --> 00:47:10.719
And so my friend Lyndon um had been trying to get into uh an old a high school only teaching job at the time, and so he applied for it, got the job, and he was leaving Cap Rock.
00:47:10.880 --> 00:47:16.320
And so um I obviously was more familiar with band.
00:47:16.559 --> 00:47:24.079
You know, I had done choir before, but I was more familiar with band, yeah, doing band stuff, and that's why I had helped with most the year prior.
00:47:24.400 --> 00:47:28.079
And it's like it's still music, but it's very different, yeah.
00:47:28.400 --> 00:47:40.480
And so um the you know, pedestal just said, Well, how about you just take over the band program instead, and well, you help me find someone who can teach choir.
00:47:40.639 --> 00:47:43.360
So I was like, All right, this is it.
00:47:43.840 --> 00:48:12.880
And so 2023 fall finally started as a full-time band director, and I mean technically that was like my dream job that I had strived for like my whole life, uh like all most of my life that I could have cared about my career, and so what was what was that feeling like?
00:48:14.159 --> 00:48:20.400
Because you originally the dream was to be a music educator, yeah.
00:48:20.639 --> 00:48:32.320
And even though you've done some aiding, like you now get this job, like what what's going through your head, what emotions are you feeling?
00:48:32.559 --> 00:48:37.760
And like do you remember your first day as like the band director?
00:48:38.079 --> 00:48:39.360
Uh I do.
00:48:40.239 --> 00:49:03.119
Um, I I mean it was obviously it came with like the caveat that I had to finish my bachelor's degree, which I eventually found out I only needed 17 credits to graduate, which that pissed me off because I wish I would have known that years earlier, because I would have just found a way to do those 17 credits.
00:49:03.360 --> 00:49:03.679
Yeah.
00:49:03.920 --> 00:49:10.400
Well, because 17 credits is what, like six, seven classes, maybe?
00:49:10.639 --> 00:49:11.039
Yeah.
00:49:11.280 --> 00:49:21.440
I mean, if I do like oh I think full time is 15 credits, it's like 15 or 16 if I remember correctly.
00:49:21.760 --> 00:49:28.000
But you can take up to 18 and still be like yeah under like but that's that's for a semester.
00:49:28.159 --> 00:49:29.760
Yeah, that's not a year, yeah.
00:49:29.840 --> 00:49:30.960
That's just for a semester.
00:49:31.119 --> 00:49:37.039
So I was like, I could knock that out like one semester.
00:49:37.280 --> 00:49:37.599
Yeah.
00:49:37.840 --> 00:49:58.239
Either way, um like it came with that caveat, but just like getting that job, like I was like, damn, I'm finally like accomplished, like I have reached the status that I think that I should be, and that all my like friends from school like all got to.
00:49:58.719 --> 00:50:00.239
Did you feel late?
00:50:00.559 --> 00:50:03.119
I did, I did feel really late.
00:50:03.360 --> 00:50:16.880
Um because a lot of your a lot of our friends who went into musée education, like a lot of them they did at the first go-around of like go through college four years, graduate, get a job.
00:50:17.119 --> 00:50:17.440
Yeah.
00:50:17.760 --> 00:50:28.719
And even like there were people at the end of my college career when I was about to leave that were freshmen who had already gotten music jobs before me.
00:50:29.039 --> 00:50:39.920
So I like kind of felt late, but I just I felt like I had finally got there.
00:50:40.239 --> 00:51:03.280
And part of what I tried to tell myself often at the time was that I was nowhere near where I thought I would be at this point in my life, but I was ten times the person I ever thought I would become when I was younger.
00:51:03.599 --> 00:51:18.400
I would have never assumed that just my emotional intelligence, which still was not 100% great then, but was far better than I thought it would have been when I was in high school or even college.
00:51:19.599 --> 00:51:35.920
And so um I I just tried to keep that in mind, like even though I was late getting here, like I still, you know, I still accomplished what I was what I wanted.
00:51:36.159 --> 00:51:40.320
And so that year was hard.
00:51:40.880 --> 00:51:44.159
I'm learning how to be a full-time teacher for the first time.
00:51:44.960 --> 00:51:57.199
I am having to deal with parents, lesson plans, and administrators, planning concerts, going on trips, doing festivals, all the while.
00:51:57.599 --> 00:52:05.920
Teaching students, teaching, yeah, teaching students and doing my own classwork because I still had to finish these, you know, set up team credits.
00:52:06.000 --> 00:52:06.159
Yeah.
00:52:07.599 --> 00:52:16.719
And so, like, I'm teaching a full day of you know seven, seven fifteen to you know, three thirty.
00:52:16.880 --> 00:52:19.360
And at the time I taught elementary too.
00:52:19.599 --> 00:52:25.920
Like I was swimming between fifth grade, sixth grade, Cap Rock as a K through 12.
00:52:26.079 --> 00:52:26.639
Yeah, yeah.
00:52:26.880 --> 00:52:30.400
And so, I mean, I was doing middle school, I would do elementary school.
00:52:30.559 --> 00:52:35.840
I got kindergarten classes, had seniors in high school, like I was all over the place.
00:52:35.920 --> 00:52:52.719
So I would do that all day, and then after school, I would stay at the school working for two to three hours every day to do my my own school work because in my mind I know that if I don't finish this, I don't get to keep this job.
00:52:53.119 --> 00:52:59.519
Yeah, so um I was gonna ask you about that.
00:52:59.679 --> 00:53:21.679
Like having to go back to school to get your degree to keep this job, like was there any point within that like time that you were doing those classes, especially with how busy you were and learning all this new stuff that you felt like you might quit again, or was that not an option?
00:53:21.920 --> 00:53:23.280
Yeah, almost every day.
00:53:23.519 --> 00:53:25.280
Like going like I'm serious.
00:53:26.000 --> 00:53:27.599
Teaching is hard.
00:53:28.239 --> 00:53:30.559
Teaching K through 12 is harder.
00:53:31.039 --> 00:53:39.519
Teaching K through 12 and then doing two or three hours of your own schoolwork at the end of the day is awful.
00:53:39.760 --> 00:54:00.480
Like, honestly, I wouldn't recommend that for anybody, which I know people like do their masters and stuff, but that I feel is more designed and not that it's not hard, but it's more designed for people who are already working as professionals, you know, especially in music.
00:54:00.719 --> 00:54:04.159
I feel like that's a lot more planned for people who are already teaching.
00:54:04.400 --> 00:54:15.519
I'm doing a bachelor's degree, so I'm having to write papers and do research and stuff and do these fucking online discussions.
00:54:15.760 --> 00:54:20.159
Make sure you have your initial post in by Wednesday and respond to two friends.
00:54:20.639 --> 00:54:26.639
God, yeah, I really like how in your post you said, dude.
00:54:27.679 --> 00:54:30.000
It's tough, because I'm also going back to school.
00:54:30.159 --> 00:54:30.480
Yeah.
00:54:30.719 --> 00:54:33.440
Um, and God, those discussions suck.
00:54:33.760 --> 00:54:54.480
You just like especially on the discussions where almost every single person's post is like the same, and you have to respond, and you feel this like need to make your response different than the first response, but you're essentially saying all the same shit.
00:54:54.800 --> 00:54:56.639
What do you what can I say about that?
00:54:56.960 --> 00:55:03.440
I really like how you said this, which is the exact same thing as the person above you, which is also the same thing that I said in my poster.
00:55:05.280 --> 00:55:09.440
Anyway, so I'm having to do all this stuff, and it it's like it's just tedious.
00:55:09.519 --> 00:55:13.119
Like it felt like I was just checking boxes, but I had to do that.
00:55:13.280 --> 00:55:15.920
Like I had to do this so that I could get through.
00:55:16.559 --> 00:55:18.800
Is that what kept you from not quitting?
00:55:18.960 --> 00:55:19.199
Yeah.
00:55:19.440 --> 00:55:32.480
Was because you hadn't felt like you reached that point of accomplishment a little bit and realized that like you still weren't fully there, and this was the last step to get you there.
00:55:32.719 --> 00:55:33.199
Yeah.
00:55:33.519 --> 00:55:38.480
I like it just was in the back of my mind if I don't do this, I'm not working here anymore.
00:55:38.639 --> 00:55:40.239
They're not gonna have me back.
00:55:40.880 --> 00:55:46.559
Like I have to, like, this has to be done this year, otherwise, we're not gonna get it back.
00:55:46.800 --> 00:55:58.320
And so um, I'd ended up pushing a couple of those classes to the summer, but that still would have been before school started the next year.
00:55:58.639 --> 00:56:09.519
And if you are taking classes during the summer, you can do you can gradu, you can graduate, which is just walking at the ceremony that spring.
00:56:09.760 --> 00:56:23.760
And so I finished that up, had registered for my summer classes, and then I got to walk across the stage in May of 2024 with my bachelor's degree.
00:56:24.320 --> 00:56:28.719
Um, and it which ended up, it wasn't a music degree or criminal justice degree.
00:56:28.800 --> 00:56:44.800
It was just a general studies, like liberal arts, you know, you just had to do like an internship, um, which I had counted just like managing a band program, which I won't get into that because I don't know.
00:56:46.480 --> 00:57:02.000
Anyway, um I just had to complete enough like upper level credits and do that, and you know, I I was good, and so I got my bachelor's degree, general studies, went back the next year.
00:57:02.320 --> 00:57:08.480
Um yeah, went back the next year, and like I was a teacher.
00:57:08.559 --> 00:57:10.239
I had my job secured.
00:57:11.199 --> 00:57:16.159
You were a full strength band teacher in fall of 2024.
00:57:16.400 --> 00:57:17.039
Yeah.
00:57:17.280 --> 00:57:22.159
Um excuse me.
00:57:22.400 --> 00:57:28.239
Um yeah, so you graduate, you finish your classes, you're full blown.
00:57:28.800 --> 00:57:39.679
Um you've now taught or officially like taught not counting that first year for two years.
00:57:40.320 --> 00:57:43.280
This is my fourth year still, not counting that first year.
00:57:43.599 --> 00:57:43.840
Yeah.
00:57:44.239 --> 00:57:45.199
Two years, yeah.
00:57:45.599 --> 00:58:03.440
Um was there ever a moment early on, especially, but at any point during this that like you felt like you were like failing in that teaching process?
00:58:03.599 --> 00:58:07.119
Like after you became the official like band director?
00:58:07.440 --> 00:58:09.760
No, I felt like things you struggled about.
00:58:11.360 --> 00:58:24.400
And there were a couple things that first off, I had been an aide there before, and so I already knew all the kids, I knew the system, so it was really easy for me to integrate.
00:58:24.559 --> 00:58:40.719
I wasn't like some outsider that was trying to fight, like create a whole new program or anything, and you know, I changed things from the way Lyndon had done it, and I still got a little bit of pushback, but for the most part, I had good standing and rapport there.
00:58:41.440 --> 00:59:08.239
Also, the other needs of the teacher struggled with just some like pushback because she was trying to do things differently than that had been before, and so with the amount of pushback that she got, it kind of put me under this light that, like, oh, he's doing it right and she's doing it wrong, which I don't think was fair, but that's just kind of where it landed.
00:59:08.320 --> 00:59:13.119
And so it seemed like I was just like thriving and like killing it.
00:59:13.679 --> 00:59:19.760
Um yeah, I there was not not really any point where I was like, I'm not doing a good job.
00:59:19.840 --> 00:59:29.039
Like I knew, I knew like for the most part, I was I was succeeding and accomplished.
00:59:29.599 --> 00:59:34.480
You had the support from your staff and parents and the students and stuff like that.
00:59:35.039 --> 00:59:35.920
Students.
00:59:36.480 --> 00:59:42.719
Um, so yeah, I I didn't feel any of any of that.
00:59:43.440 --> 01:00:01.039
Um going on the opposite end, what's something that in this process of being the band director that you were the most proud of or is has been like the most rewarding?
01:00:01.679 --> 01:00:12.880
Um I know it seems like cliche to say, but like just like helping kids.
01:00:13.119 --> 01:00:22.079
Um one of the things that I kind of went in there with, this attitude that like I'm gonna make every kid like a fan kid.
01:00:22.239 --> 01:00:25.840
Like I want every kid to love band and really to have a good time.
01:00:26.239 --> 01:00:34.800
You wanted to essentially give them what you discovered your sophomore year of like that connection to band and music.
01:00:36.000 --> 01:00:41.599
And at some point I just had to realize that band isn't for everybody.
01:00:41.920 --> 01:00:50.559
Um, and I guess one thing I forgot to mention is at Caprock, where I teach, the kids have to take music up until eighth grade.
01:00:50.719 --> 01:00:56.400
And so starting in fifth grade, going to eighth grade, they have to take either band or choir.
01:00:57.519 --> 01:01:48.719
And that kind of leaves a lot of kids forced to do something that they don't want to do, and that really helped me shift my mindset that not every kid is gonna love band, and some kids just don't want to do it, and I can't there's nothing I can do to force them to like it, but uh as long as I can keep a good relationship with those kids and have some of the things that they learn in in band and in music, transferable skills to what they're gonna do in the rest of their life, persevering, working as a team, um, keeping organized, things like that.
01:01:48.960 --> 01:01:54.480
Like if they can take those things away from being a band, I'll be happy with that.
01:01:54.639 --> 01:01:58.159
I don't expect them to ever want to pick up their saxophone again.
01:01:58.400 --> 01:02:00.800
And that like that's fine, that's okay.
01:02:01.119 --> 01:02:12.800
As long as they are getting some kind of character, you know, character building and you know, are good citizens to society, I'm okay with that.
01:02:14.000 --> 01:02:30.480
The thing about um them being like forced to do music, um I think for some people, like for some kids, is good because it forces them to do something that maybe they didn't think they wanted to do.
01:02:31.039 --> 01:02:40.320
And then if they end up with a decent teacher who like works with them, and uh I feel like it can kind of like change their mind.
01:02:40.480 --> 01:02:44.880
Maybe not essentially like change it to where they're like, I'm gonna be a teacher, right?
01:02:45.039 --> 01:02:53.360
I'm gonna be a music teacher now, but it gets them to explore something that originally they might not have wanted to do.
01:02:53.599 --> 01:02:54.239
Yeah.
01:02:54.880 --> 01:03:20.800
So just like you coming around to the idea of like accepting that maybe they won't continue music, but still um, I guess building their character a little bit, I think is good because even if they don't continue playing music, it like they have that those memories of your teaching of like, yeah, he was my band director, but he also taught me all of these things.
01:03:20.960 --> 01:03:21.280
Yeah.
01:03:21.519 --> 01:03:27.840
Which could motivate them to do something else um and help others in any other way.
01:03:29.119 --> 01:03:42.239
I actually last year there was one one girl who I didn't she didn't at least I thought she did not like fan.
01:03:42.800 --> 01:03:49.360
And she already um she didn't know how to read music.
01:03:49.599 --> 01:03:58.159
And I could tell, like when we would play and stuff, she just would look elsewhere, she would look at her friends to look at the fingerings and stuff.
01:03:58.639 --> 01:04:00.000
Pulling the drumline move.
01:04:00.159 --> 01:04:01.360
Yeah, exactly.
01:04:01.519 --> 01:04:03.679
I'll just hear, I'll just play it by ear.
01:04:03.920 --> 01:04:12.400
And so um she just like wouldn't, like I and I knew that she was just there, she wasn't causing a distraction.
01:04:12.639 --> 01:04:13.519
It was fine.
01:04:13.679 --> 01:04:26.159
Like I had a good relationship with her, like it wasn't, you know, it wasn't like I was trying to pull teeth every day, getting her to you know, shoots it and kind of thing her along, whatever.
01:04:26.400 --> 01:04:44.639
And then one day, randomly, I don't know, I think it just clicked for her out of read music, and she was just paying attention, like she was following along in the music, and I was like, Whoa, that's crazy, because she did not know what was going on before that.
01:04:45.039 --> 01:04:57.039
And like I around the same time, um, one of my other teacher friends had told me that this girl said that I was her favorite teacher, and I was like, What?
01:04:58.320 --> 01:05:01.440
Out of all the people who could have said that, I would not.
01:05:02.239 --> 01:05:20.800
She's one of the last people I would have picked who would say that I was her favorite teacher, and so that kind of made me feel good, and internally it made me feel like, okay, I am making a difference in a lot of these kids' lives, even if they're not in the band or whatever the case, you know.
01:05:21.039 --> 01:05:34.719
She ended up getting like a little in the band, and she still, you know, she still plays and you know, does her best, but and I I don't think she'll go on to do a band, but she said I was her favorite teacher.
01:05:35.360 --> 01:05:38.400
That makes me feel good that I'm at least making a difference.
01:05:38.719 --> 01:05:59.599
Was that kind of uh excuse me, was that kind of another like milestone or like finish line for you kind of like getting back into being the director, but maybe this one was a milestone that you didn't know about until it happened.
01:06:01.440 --> 01:06:02.320
Kind of.
01:06:06.800 --> 01:06:10.719
Yeah, I would say it was like another, like another milestone.
01:06:11.599 --> 01:06:25.440
The previous year, so not last year, last school year, but the year before that, I had some health issues, which I'll probably also go into in another episode.
01:06:25.840 --> 01:06:30.000
But I ended up having to take the fourth quarter off of school.
01:06:30.239 --> 01:06:32.480
And so like that sucked.
01:06:32.639 --> 01:06:34.880
I I hated to be away from the kids.
01:06:34.960 --> 01:06:36.559
Like I wanted to be there.
01:06:36.880 --> 01:06:54.880
But just hearing the like community like kind of rally around me and you know, want me to come back and tell me their kids really missed me, and having the kids say, like, we really didn't, you know, we didn't like doing van without you.
01:06:55.039 --> 01:06:59.760
Like we wanted you, like we wanted you to be our band teacher.
01:07:00.159 --> 01:07:12.400
That was kind of like a milestone where I was like, okay, I really have like established myself here, and I do know that I'm doing like what I'm doing is is a good a good job.
01:07:12.639 --> 01:07:32.960
Yeah, I feel like that's kind of I don't know personally, but I feel like that can be kind of hard in music education of like just starting out within your first couple of years and getting like established of hitting that like okay, I'm making a difference and like people want me here.
01:07:33.199 --> 01:07:33.840
Yeah.
01:07:34.400 --> 01:07:37.039
Uh yeah, so that that was really good.
01:07:37.199 --> 01:07:41.199
And like just those kind of things happen like occasionally.
01:07:41.440 --> 01:07:51.119
I'll get an email from like a parent or something says, you know, like that was one of the best concerts like I've ever seen at CalfRock.
01:07:51.280 --> 01:07:56.960
Or I just had one the other day that her um a mom emailed me.
01:07:57.119 --> 01:07:59.920
Her kid came from another music program.
01:08:00.480 --> 01:08:22.319
Her grade is a little behind just because of the way things work out with scheduling, and so she's really ahead of where her grade was, but me offering her other opportunities to play more difficult music, and she kind of like got that spark like relit for like for her love for music.
01:08:22.399 --> 01:08:35.199
And the mom would just email me about that to say, like, I really appreciate you like keeping her that opportunity, and without keeping her keeping her in that in that building, yeah, kind of bringing her back to it.
01:08:35.439 --> 01:08:36.880
Yeah, nice.
01:08:37.439 --> 01:08:44.800
Um we've been talking for a while, so let's uh kind of circle back just a little bit.
01:08:45.439 --> 01:08:45.760
Okay.
01:08:46.319 --> 01:08:59.600
Um so now that you are here, what would you tell 18-year-old selfie who just graduated, planning on going for music education?
01:08:59.760 --> 01:09:02.800
Like, what would you tell that version of yourself?
01:09:07.680 --> 01:09:08.479
A couple things.
01:09:08.720 --> 01:09:11.279
The first thing is what I had said earlier.
01:09:12.560 --> 01:09:15.840
You this is me talking to my 18-year-old self.
01:09:16.159 --> 01:09:28.079
You are not gonna be where you think you should be, but you are gonna be 10 times the person you think you'll be right now.
01:09:29.199 --> 01:09:35.199
Who you envision yourself as a person right now, you're gonna be 10 times that.
01:09:35.840 --> 01:09:42.800
But you're probably not gonna be where you think you are in four years, you're not gonna be a band director.
01:09:43.439 --> 01:09:44.479
And that's okay.
01:09:44.640 --> 01:09:46.319
You're gonna be a better person.
01:09:47.199 --> 01:09:58.560
And and that that's like one of the the second thing I would say is that it's okay if you're not a band director in five years or four years or whatever.
01:09:58.800 --> 01:10:07.600
Yeah, trust the process, you will go through hard times and do difficult things, but that's okay.
01:10:07.840 --> 01:10:08.960
You'll get there.
01:10:09.279 --> 01:10:10.319
That's really deep.
01:10:10.479 --> 01:10:11.119
Yeah.
01:10:12.720 --> 01:10:24.079
Similar similarly, what would you say to 25-year-old you who's already dropped out of music and criminal justice?
01:10:24.319 --> 01:10:26.720
Yeah, what would you tell that version of yourself?
01:10:27.039 --> 01:10:31.840
Because that's the person I think you would want to tell more.
01:10:32.000 --> 01:10:32.239
Yeah.
01:10:32.479 --> 01:10:38.319
Because 18-year-old you is still has this idea that he's gonna go do it.
01:10:38.479 --> 01:10:42.479
25-year-old you is not in that anymore.
01:10:42.880 --> 01:10:47.840
I was like, those are bad, like bad times, bad headspace.
01:10:48.479 --> 01:11:01.119
Um I would say it seems like failure, but really what it is is learning.
01:11:01.439 --> 01:11:12.159
All the things that you're going through and all the things that you are viewing as failures, is you learning how to be a better person.
01:11:12.399 --> 01:11:15.039
You're learning not to do these things again.
01:11:16.960 --> 01:11:24.079
So that in the future, when these situations come up, you'll be better prepared to handle them.
01:11:28.000 --> 01:11:28.960
I like that.
01:11:29.439 --> 01:11:33.199
I think that could go for anyone speaking to their younger self, honestly.
01:11:33.359 --> 01:11:34.000
Yeah.
01:11:34.640 --> 01:11:41.199
Um, I think that's kind of a good place to stop.
01:11:41.359 --> 01:11:41.600
Yeah.
01:11:41.840 --> 01:11:54.800
Um last thing is what would you tell anyone who's listening who might be going through the middle stages of your story?
01:11:54.960 --> 01:11:55.279
Yeah.
01:11:55.600 --> 01:12:01.680
They could be 20, 30, 40, who knows.
01:12:01.760 --> 01:12:09.600
But anyone who's going through that like middle section type era of your life, what would you tell that person?
01:12:13.279 --> 01:12:33.359
I would say it's really easy to think that when you're when your emotions, when you're sad or you're scared, or you're mad, it's really easy in the moment to think that those feelings are gonna last forever.
01:12:34.880 --> 01:12:37.199
But you have to know that they're not.
01:12:38.239 --> 01:12:48.960
It's okay to feel sad, it's okay to be afraid, it's okay to be mad and lost, but just know that that's not gonna last forever, whatever the case.
01:12:49.119 --> 01:12:56.800
You will experience happiness again, you will experience love again in whatever situation that'll be.
01:12:58.479 --> 01:13:06.239
Your emotions that you classify as negative, they won't be there forever.
01:13:06.319 --> 01:13:08.239
And it's okay to feel those.
01:13:11.680 --> 01:13:14.399
I'm still learning that.
01:13:14.640 --> 01:13:14.960
Yeah.
01:13:15.119 --> 01:13:18.159
I mean, I I'm not I'm not 100% there either.
01:13:18.319 --> 01:13:22.800
Sometimes when I'm mad or pissed off, I'm like, I'm just gonna be mad or pissed off forever.
01:13:23.039 --> 01:13:26.800
And the next day I'm smiling, happy, teaching, or whatever the case.
01:13:27.039 --> 01:13:29.680
It's really easy to get stuck in those feelings in the moment.
01:13:29.840 --> 01:13:30.479
Yeah.
01:13:30.880 --> 01:13:36.319
Um one thing I'm I think I'm gonna ask all my guests going forward.
01:13:37.359 --> 01:13:44.399
Um, we just spent last hour and 13 minutes talking about this.
01:13:44.640 --> 01:13:49.920
What's uh another area of your life that you feel unfinished in?
01:13:50.159 --> 01:13:56.479
And it doesn't have to be very long, but just something that you're still working on.
01:14:01.359 --> 01:14:03.840
Responsibility and accountability.
01:14:04.159 --> 01:14:17.359
You know, uh, you know, I went through a lot of tough times, and some financial stuff is still like kind of lingering and trying to keep up on that.
01:14:17.520 --> 01:14:28.159
And a lot of that is you know, still learning to hold myself accountable for those things and doing things that I don't want to because they're gonna help me.
01:14:28.479 --> 01:14:41.199
And you know, just holding myself accountable to make sure I'm staying on track in that realm and you know, not getting off track in a place where I'll end up there again.
01:14:41.520 --> 01:14:42.159
Yeah.
01:14:43.039 --> 01:15:02.239
I I think that's just something that uh kind of comes around the age of 30 of like realizing like more that you have to be responsible and take accountability because that's something that I'm dealing with and still figuring out as well.
01:15:02.479 --> 01:15:12.399
Yeah, there's nobody on the other side that's just like holding your hand to make sure you're doing all these things, like you have to internally be that person that's making sure you're doing that.
01:15:12.800 --> 01:15:14.079
And that's not always easy.
01:15:14.239 --> 01:15:16.319
No, it's hard, it's hard.
01:15:16.960 --> 01:15:17.680
Yeah, man.
01:15:17.920 --> 01:15:20.319
Well, thanks for sharing all that.
01:15:20.560 --> 01:15:21.600
Yeah, thanks for listening.
01:15:21.840 --> 01:15:27.760
I really appreciate it just to help you take something from it.
01:15:28.079 --> 01:15:28.560
Yeah.
01:15:28.800 --> 01:15:30.640
Well, I appreciate you being here.
01:15:30.960 --> 01:15:41.760
And to any of you guys listening, I appreciate you guys stopping by and hanging out with us for this first conversation of common grounds.
01:15:42.560 --> 01:16:00.640
If anything resonated with you in this conversation, feel free to follow us on Facebook, join our Discord community, and if you know anyone who would benefit from today's conversation, share it with them.
01:16:01.600 --> 01:16:09.760
Until next time, keep learning, keep growing, give yourself a little grace along the way.
01:16:10.079 --> 01:16:12.960
Because we are all unfinished.