WEBVTT
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00:04.980Hello and
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00:09.444welcome to the latest episode of the Bad Times, Good Stories podcast.
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00:13.397My name is Joe Flanders, and I have not said that
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00:17.141sentence or sentences. Yes, those 2
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00:21.537sentences together in over 5 years. I am very
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00:25.621excited to be back with my podcast, Bad Times,
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00:29.444Good Stories. Where each week I talk with somebody more
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00:32.290often than not that I do not know or have never met,
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00:36.384and I ask them to tell me about the shittiest times from their
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00:39.099life that they are able to laugh about now.
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00:44.830A lot has happened in the 5 years since I've
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00:49.302been on the show, but one thing I have observed in
00:49.802 -->
00:54.231all of my podcast listening is that I oftentimes skip the introduction to
00:54.247 -->
00:57.668get to the heart of the podcast I'm listening to. So,
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01:01.715uh, for those of you curious what the hell I've been doing for the last
01:02.215 -->
01:05.8105 years, I will have my intro at
01:06.310 -->
01:09.825the outro after the episode, uh, so that you can
01:10.325 -->
01:13.727listen to that. So we are gonna jump right in. Uh, I have a comedian
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01:17.902and, uh, former teacher himself. I am
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01:22.385a teacher. I've been Teaching for 5 years now. Teach high
01:22.433 -->
01:25.712school video production in South Central LA. So I
01:26.212 -->
01:30.376was excited to have somebody who knows the classroom well, Aaron Monté.
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01:35.417He is a really funny stand-up. His new special is called Good Morning,
01:35.466 -->
01:38.910Mr. Monté. It is— I'm going to double-check that because
01:38.926 -->
01:42.703I run a tight ship here. Good Morning, Mr. Monté is indeed
01:43.203 -->
01:46.849the name of the special. I watched it. It's really funny.
01:48.185 -->
01:51.155We talk about that a little up top, but then we dive into, I think
01:51.655 -->
01:55.619the theme of the episode is sort of being in over our heads and
01:55.796 -->
01:59.553how we adjust to that. So he talks about his
01:59.569 -->
02:03.069first days of, as a substitute teacher working in
02:03.197 -->
02:06.617a kindergarten classroom. He talks about teaching.
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02:11.916He was subbing the last day before the COVID shutdown
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02:15.525started. Uh, I talk about my first days,
02:15.782 -->
02:19.647not as a sub, but as an actual in-classroom teacher, and how
02:20.147 -->
02:22.918that led to getting carted off on an ambulance.
02:24.121 -->
02:28.483Um, and then also getting fired from my dream job working with,
02:28.691 -->
02:33.133uh, Danny McBride of Eastbound and Down and Righteous
02:33.181 -->
02:37.030Gemstones and other things because I was a moron who
02:37.530 -->
02:40.769was unaware of my job duties. So, um,
02:41.283 -->
02:43.966yeah, that's the theme sort of of today's episode.
02:44.432 -->
02:47.259I hope you guys enjoy it. I'm excited to be back.
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02:51.227If you do enjoy it, please spread the word, get other folks listening
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02:54.922to it. So without further ado, here is
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02:58.617my conversation with the very funny and talented Aaron Monte.
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03:02.714All right. Uh, Aaron Monte is on the show. Congrats on
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03:03.887the standup special.
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03:04.963Thank you.
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03:06.850I was watching that, so I
03:07.350 -->
03:10.810don't know if I should say congratulations or my condolences on finding out
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03:12.250you're 60% white.
03:14.300 -->
03:16.440You know, you seem to have the pros and cons.
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03:17.370Yeah, right,
03:17.870 -->
03:20.990exactly. I, you know, I try to, I try to, you know, see the best
03:21.490 -->
03:24.510in every situation. Anything that happens, I try to make the most of it.
03:25.010 -->
03:27.430You know, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, you know.
03:27.430 -->
03:28.150Of course.
03:28.650 -->
03:30.290Yes, that's a lovely white saying.
03:30.290 -->
03:31.690Yeah. Right,
03:32.190 -->
03:35.230right. Exactly. Exactly. Got to use them now. I got to use all of them.
03:35.730 -->
03:39.095Yeah. Now I realize not everything in a standup set is truth,
03:39.351 -->
03:41.867uh, but was that, did that, is that actually real?
03:41.995 -->
03:43.037Um, so I've
03:43.537 -->
03:46.289never actually taken a DNA test myself. Okay.
03:46.722 -->
03:50.824All right. My uncle and my aunt on different sides of the family have,
03:50.968 -->
03:53.837and it was like an overwhelmingly percentage white in,
03:54.350 -->
03:57.699you know, with, you know, with, with, with their, with their test.
03:57.971 -->
04:00.182So I just thought that was funny and just started Googling. I was like,
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04:02.041well, if they are, it's probably the same for me.
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04:04.070Yeah, safe bet.
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04:07.750Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. So I just thought it was so funny. I had
04:08.250 -->
04:10.289all these observations about it and I was like, how does that work? So,
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04:13.830um, yeah, it's surprising to like be like, oh dang, I didn't even realize how
04:14.330 -->
04:17.030white I was, to, you know, that's insane.
04:17.030 -->
04:17.790Yeah, what was your
04:18.290 -->
04:21.290reaction? I mean, not like it's life-shattering, but it did— was it, was it kind
04:21.790 -->
04:22.960of just like a whoa, what the fuck?
04:23.190 -->
04:25.630Like, I guess so. I mean,
04:26.130 -->
04:27.890at least like it was like 70% from my uncle or something like that,
04:28.390 -->
04:31.170which was crazy because like Yeah. Yeah. I mean, but all of us are,
04:31.400 -->
04:34.800we're all, uh, Louisiana Creole people. So we all are from
04:35.300 -->
04:38.740Louisiana and we all are aware of our ancestors that are slaves and slave
04:39.240 -->
04:42.300owners. So it wasn't like a super surprise. At the same time,
04:42.800 -->
04:45.119you don't expect it to be that much. Like that percentage is crazy.
04:45.900 -->
04:46.540Yeah.
04:47.040 -->
04:47.700Yeah. That's gotta be.
04:47.700 -->
04:47.740Yeah.
04:47.740 -->
04:50.380'Cause I did it and, you know, just pure
04:50.880 -->
04:54.120European mutt. Um, no culture to speak
04:54.620 -->
04:55.200of.
04:55.200 -->
04:56.360Just, yeah. Yeah.
04:56.500 -->
04:58.760Just, I was glad I was like 40%
04:59.260 -->
05:02.802Irish. I was, that's what I've always felt. Connected to the most. Uh,
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05:05.871but the rest of it, whatever. German, French,
05:06.128 -->
05:10.080English. Yeah. Just boring mutt.
05:10.562 -->
05:13.985So no real surprises there. I was
05:14.017 -->
05:17.600hoping to have like 2% Native American or something,
05:17.696 -->
05:18.387you know, kind of fun.
05:18.436 -->
05:20.958Anything, anything, any spice, a little
05:21.458 -->
05:21.890spice to it.
05:22.388 -->
05:25.553Spice. The most, the blandest, most mayonnaise,
05:25.891 -->
05:29.340uh, just And that does check
05:29.840 -->
05:32.220out, so, uh, I couldn't say I was surprised.
05:33.340 -->
05:36.640Um, but yeah, man, that's, uh, congrats on the special again. That's really cool.
05:36.820 -->
05:38.870Thank you so much, man. Yeah, it was a lot of fun to make.
05:38.920 -->
05:40.340I'm glad I got to do those jokes. I mean, I've been working on those
05:40.840 -->
05:42.100jokes for like 10 years now, so.
05:42.100 -->
05:43.140Wow.
05:43.140 -->
05:44.020Um, yeah, the plan was to make
05:44.520 -->
05:47.460us— was to make a special. I shot it last year, so the year before
05:47.960 -->
05:51.100that I'd always planned to make it. Um, but then, you know, once things
05:51.600 -->
05:53.440on the internet started getting better, I was like, oh, I can actually make it
05:53.940 -->
05:55.520and people will watch it and stuff. You know what I mean? I didn't do
05:56.020 -->
05:58.000this before, didn't really have a lot of subscribers. I was still gonna do it.
05:58.500 -->
06:01.600I was gonna do it regardless. But, um, once things started really taking off,
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06:03.940then I was like, all right, now's the perfect time. So I'm glad I get
06:04.440 -->
06:06.220to do that and put it all on wax or, you know, have a project
06:06.720 -->
06:08.870of some sort. All these jokes I've been doing for years now.
06:09.380 -->
06:09.780So, um,
06:10.280 -->
06:13.920yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah, that must, that must have felt nice, uh, for sure.
06:14.420 -->
06:18.020So yeah, um, when we were talking about potential stories, it's— I noticed kind of
06:18.520 -->
06:22.187a potential theme that we could talk about, which is I
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06:26.435think pretty universal, but the idea of being in over our heads
06:28.002 -->
06:31.336in different scenarios. So you had a couple that came to mind, and I
06:31.836 -->
06:35.439certainly do too. So,
06:35.843 -->
06:38.755I mean, we should just dive in. I mean, I guess you said, where should
06:39.255 -->
06:39.257we start?
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06:42.719I can definitely go into first day of teaching. That's a
06:43.219 -->
06:46.537funny story. I remember the first assignment I had as
06:46.553 -->
06:50.010a substitute teacher. Um, yeah. Or maybe not
06:50.510 -->
06:53.070even the first, maybe second or very early on. So I'm not, I'm learning all
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06:53.890this stuff as I go.
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06:55.859I got, um, so you started as a sub?
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06:57.130I started as a sub.
06:57.130 -->
06:57.390Yeah.
06:57.390 -->
06:59.310Right. Started as a sub, did that for 5
06:59.810 -->
07:02.670years and I was in the classroom full-time for 5 years. Um, and now I'm
07:03.170 -->
07:05.470at this job now. I'm thinking about going back to subbing. That is the,
07:05.970 -->
07:08.430that is, I kind of miss it a little bit. Um, and I think it
07:08.930 -->
07:10.950would help me out with like time management and stuff like that. It's kind of
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07:14.850hard to actually be important at your job and, and pursuing another life
07:15.350 -->
07:19.730outside, outside of school. So, um, that's the goal, but, uh, this This
07:20.230 -->
07:23.270one time I remember I went to, I got hired at a school, um,
07:23.770 -->
07:26.490that was known for having a lot of behavior issues. Like all the kids at
07:26.990 -->
07:30.090the school was bad. Like these kids were bad. Um, and I
07:30.590 -->
07:32.650think it was just an elementary school, not even like middle school. You would think,
07:33.150 -->
07:35.130you know, middle schools usually are rough, but this is elementary school.
07:35.130 -->
07:35.390Right. That's what
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07:35.879I did.
07:36.390 -->
07:37.990Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
07:37.990 -->
07:38.150Yeah.
07:38.150 -->
07:38.930So, oh, you did middle
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07:39.330school?
07:39.910 -->
07:42.950Yeah. 'Cause I was in my, in my, uh, credential program,
07:43.450 -->
07:45.670the professors kept saying like, look, if you can sub middle school, you can do
07:46.170 -->
07:49.700anything. And I was like, All right, let's do it. And then I actually
07:50.200 -->
07:52.720found like, well, I only subbed at one school and it was a middle school
07:53.220 -->
07:56.380and they kept bringing me back and it was close and I was like,
07:56.880 -->
07:59.560well, yeah, let's keep doing it. Yeah. But anyway, yeah, we can get to my,
08:00.060 -->
08:02.660my story. So, so you're, you're just starting out subbing and—
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08:03.220So I'm just starting
08:03.720 -->
08:06.960out subbing. I go to this classroom, um, you know, the classroom's, um, it's a
08:07.460 -->
08:09.980kindergarten class, um, kindergarten classroom. I mean, it's—
08:09.980 -->
08:11.110I can't imagine.
08:11.300 -->
08:14.880Can't be too bad. You know, kindergarten is rough in its own ways, but Can't
08:15.380 -->
08:18.600be too bad with behavior, really, right? So I show up and, um, the first
08:19.100 -->
08:22.020thing I see is in the back of the classroom, there's a big, really big
08:22.520 -->
08:26.080desk with just papers scattered all over it, like stacked, like just scattered.
08:26.580 -->
08:28.200Not, not like, not like a neat pile, nothing like that.
08:28.200 -->
08:28.700Right.
08:28.700 -->
08:29.060And I'm like,
08:29.560 -->
08:31.900what is all this stuff? Right? And so I walk in and whoever the lady
08:32.400 -->
08:34.700was there, um, in the morning, I guess she was part of the staff.
08:34.900 -->
08:38.300Um, she's there and I was like, hey, like, you know, is there a lesson
08:38.800 -->
08:41.960plan? Where's the, you know, the teacher's lesson plan? Like, she goes,
08:42.460 -->
08:45.870oh honey, there's no teacher here. I was like, what do you mean? She was
08:46.370 -->
08:50.030like, they've been having subs all year. You're, you're just joining the— yeah,
08:50.530 -->
08:51.650you're just next to the sub list.
08:52.570 -->
08:56.410Yeah. And this is so early on, so like,
08:56.910 -->
08:59.750you know, obviously as a sub early on, you're like, I need, I need to
09:00.250 -->
09:02.190at least have a lesson plan to give me something to do. Like, you— it's
09:02.690 -->
09:04.730hard, you're not good at improvising yet in the classroom, right?
09:05.160 -->
09:05.510No.
09:05.510 -->
09:05.670I show up
09:06.170 -->
09:09.150and that's when I realized, okay, there's this pile of papers here because they,
09:09.650 -->
09:12.770they've had Subs coming in and just do the,
09:13.270 -->
09:15.210hey, do this, draw that. Yeah, I always write this and then just throw it
09:15.710 -->
09:17.870on this desk, right? From there—
09:17.870 -->
09:19.270Who's put it— wait, so sorry, who's putting these
09:19.770 -->
09:20.440papers on the desk?
09:20.710 -->
09:23.230I guess any other sub that was there, I'm guessing.
09:23.730 -->
09:24.270Oh, okay.
09:24.270 -->
09:26.430So it seemed like assignments they had been doing and they were just
09:26.930 -->
09:28.410like, all right, I'll turn it in, I guess, and just put it on the
09:28.910 -->
09:32.290table. It was just scattered all over, like, like this high probably,
09:32.790 -->
09:35.650of just unstacked neatly papers just everywhere, right?
09:35.710 -->
09:36.490Oh my God.
09:36.990 -->
09:37.030Okay.
09:37.030 -->
09:39.769That's when I realized, I'm like, oh dang, I'm, I'm really deep in now.
09:40.269 -->
09:42.750Like, this is gonna, it's gonna be rough. Like, there's no, there's no teacher here.
09:43.250 -->
09:45.980They're not used to anybody telling them what to do. They're just doing whatever.
09:46.870 -->
09:47.610Whatever.
09:47.610 -->
09:50.250So I'm trying to get, I'm trying to take roll and,
09:50.370 -->
09:54.230uh, there's, and I'm trying to, you know, figure out who all's who.
09:54.730 -->
09:57.870And there's one kid, um, I can't remember the kid's name, but I'll call him,
09:58.370 -->
10:01.990I'll call him Danny for now. We're going to Danny and, uh,
10:02.050 -->
10:04.290I don't know where he's at, but all the kids are like, yeah, he's here.
10:04.790 -->
10:06.610He's outside though. I was like, what do you mean? And they're like, yeah,
10:07.110 -->
10:11.090he's, he's bad. He's really bad. He's outside.
10:11.590 -->
10:13.970So I go outside, like him, he's like, he's like hanging off of one of
10:14.470 -->
10:16.810the planters or something upside down or something like that. I was like, Danny,
10:17.310 -->
10:21.170come on, man. We're starting class. He's like, no. Like,
10:21.670 -->
10:24.110and like, as an experienced teacher now, like, you know, like you're just kind of
10:24.610 -->
10:27.230like, all right, whatever. He's going to come to class eventually. But at that time
10:27.730 -->
10:29.730I'm like, all right, I got to get this kid in the classroom.
10:29.730 -->
10:30.110Right.
10:30.130 -->
10:32.630You know, when we were kids, like, if you're out of the classroom, you're gonna
10:33.130 -->
10:33.280get in trouble.
10:33.370 -->
10:33.710Like, you're gonna—
10:33.710 -->
10:35.610yeah, you're not gonna be out for long.
10:35.710 -->
10:38.210When we were kids and had an actual teacher.
10:39.150 -->
10:42.290Yeah, exactly. So, so he's like hanging off the planter and I'm trying
10:42.790 -->
10:45.490my hardest. I'm like, come on, man, come on inside. Like, let's get class started.
10:45.990 -->
10:48.470And one of the other teachers from another class walks by. She's like, oh,
10:48.970 -->
10:52.250don't worry about him, just leave him. I'm like, dang, man, you just
10:52.750 -->
10:56.030leaving him outside? And she's like, nah, you're not gonna get him inside, just leave
10:56.530 -->
10:59.140him out there. So I'll leave him, I'll leave him, I'll leave him in there,
10:59.640 -->
11:02.920right? And the rest of the class, you know, is also like
11:03.420 -->
11:05.920fighting and doing all kinds of stuff in class. And I'm— I, I start to
11:06.420 -->
11:08.760make my own schedule. I start to figure things out. I'm there for a long
11:09.260 -->
11:11.100time. I have to have been there for like at least 3 weeks or something
11:11.600 -->
11:11.580like that.
11:11.580 -->
11:12.280Oh wow.
11:12.340 -->
11:14.960I'm making a little schedule. I'm dealing with all the fights
11:15.460 -->
11:18.760in the classroom and everything that goes down. And fighting in kindergarten is crazy to
11:19.260 -->
11:19.300me. I just—
11:19.300 -->
11:21.500Yeah, what causes a fight in kindergarten?
11:21.860 -->
11:22.260Anything.
11:22.630 -->
11:26.670Literally anything. It might be worse than middle school because it could be anything at
11:27.170 -->
11:27.170all.
11:27.170 -->
11:29.930He's looking at me, took my crayon, took my—
11:29.930 -->
11:31.210Exactly. Doesn't have
11:31.710 -->
11:34.370to make sense at all. They're going to fight. And so I had made a
11:34.870 -->
11:37.710schedule where like I would read them a story every day. I'd put them in
11:38.210 -->
11:41.170a circle, do read them a story at least once a day, like after lunch
11:41.670 -->
11:45.130or something to calm them down. One day we're, we're, uh, I had them all
11:45.630 -->
11:48.390in a circle for the reading or the reading the story.
11:48.890 -->
11:51.770And, um, we're in there and this is the day that Danny came inside.
11:52.030 -->
11:55.370And he was finally sitting down. Like, he would make appearances every now and then
11:55.870 -->
11:59.210and disrupt and then leave again. Um, and we're all
11:59.710 -->
12:02.470inside, we're all sitting there, I'm trying to read the story, and out of nowhere
12:02.970 -->
12:05.920Danny gets up in the middle of the class, in, in the, in the circle,
12:05.990 -->
12:08.330and he starts going— he starts doing a dance. He's like,
12:08.830 -->
12:12.590Hennessy, Hennessy, Hennessy, just saying that over and
12:13.090 -->
12:15.480over. Just, he just kept saying that, going Hennessy, dancing.
12:17.830 -->
12:21.310And immediately I'm, I'm trying not— trying my hardest
12:21.810 -->
12:24.890to not laugh. And I'm like, and I'm like, why does this kid know about
12:25.390 -->
12:27.750Hennessy? He has his dance put together with it. Like, this is crazy. Is he
12:28.250 -->
12:29.470drinking at the crib? What's going on? And so—
12:29.470 -->
12:30.890Yeah, clearly, uh, something.
12:31.310 -->
12:31.730He's still
12:32.230 -->
12:35.470going. And eventually I, I crack up and I just start laughing. I start dying
12:35.970 -->
12:39.370laughing. It's hilarious. And then— but that was a mistake because then,
12:39.870 -->
12:42.930of course, after that, every other kid in class stood up and started
12:43.430 -->
12:46.730going, Hennessy, Hennessy, because they realized it made me laugh.
12:46.798 -->
12:50.311So they all stood up. That was a
12:50.811 -->
12:54.049class of all these 6-year-olds in a circle around me singing Hennessy
12:54.226 -->
12:57.884and dancing to this song, right? And so now I'm
12:57.932 -->
13:01.221like, now it's even funnier. Now it's even more funny that these 6-year-olds are
13:01.721 -->
13:02.248all doing this to me. So I'm—
13:02.248 -->
13:02.665Yeah.
13:03.322 -->
13:04.975I'm dying laughing. And,
13:05.216 -->
13:07.638uh, I finally get them to, you know, sit down and stop. But then they
13:07.718 -->
13:11.168knew after that, anytime they didn't want to do some work,
13:11.312 -->
13:14.233all you had to do was stand up And do the Hennessy dance.
13:14.442 -->
13:15.068And so—
13:15.116 -->
13:16.626Oh my God.
13:17.107 -->
13:17.750And it got me
13:17.830 -->
13:21.475every time. It made me laugh every time. And they kept doing it.
13:21.924 -->
13:23.915It was out of control. It was out of control to the point, like,
13:23.948 -->
13:27.962it was literally all the time the kids would be doing
13:28.462 -->
13:31.847that in class. And,
13:32.987 -->
13:36.311and I, I mean, I wanted to, I wanted to like have the right standards
13:36.811 -->
13:39.761or something like, I will not you know, not dance and sing Hennessy.
13:39.825 -->
13:42.790But then it's like, right, how do I have the kids being— stop.
13:43.175 -->
13:46.493How do I have the kids— how do I have the kids,
13:46.862 -->
13:50.468you know, get them to stop this behavior without addressing that they're talking about
13:50.968 -->
13:55.518Hennessy or what it is, right? It's like, I don't know which kids know what
13:56.018 -->
13:55.918the Hennessy is.
13:56.015 -->
13:58.691What the hell it is. Yeah. Does Danny even know?
13:59.301 -->
14:02.811Yeah, yeah, Danny. I assume Danny knows because he had
14:03.311 -->
14:03.837the smooth dance to go with it.
14:03.885 -->
14:06.620So I feel like, okay, I wonder
14:07.120 -->
14:10.440if somebody at home has like a Hennessy dance when it's Friday night or something
14:10.940 -->
14:11.900and they just start doing that.
14:11.900 -->
14:13.880And then it was perfect. They kept doing it.
14:14.380 -->
14:18.260I had to try to get them the right Hennessy standards. And it—
14:18.760 -->
14:20.750The best state standards are the Hennessy standards.
14:21.300 -->
14:21.620Yeah,
14:22.120 -->
14:24.860exactly. But moral of the story is they never had me come back to sub
14:25.360 -->
14:28.160that class again. That's how— that's how corrupt it was.
14:28.160 -->
14:28.660I know.
14:29.160 -->
14:32.000I was waiting like if the principal stopped by as everyone's going,
14:32.500 -->
14:32.580Hennessy.
14:32.580 -->
14:35.180Yeah, I wish. That would have been so funny.
14:35.180 -->
14:35.260They would have understood.
14:35.760 -->
14:39.107They would have been like, oh, we get We get it. They never found out
14:39.299 -->
14:42.430about the Hennessy. I never even curbed
14:42.930 -->
14:45.915the behavior. Whoever had that class next was, I'm sure,
14:46.348 -->
14:50.137having the worst time with that Hennessy stuff. And that's—
14:51.567 -->
14:51.695That
14:51.727 -->
14:52.931was your lasting impact.
14:53.028 -->
14:55.356That was my lasting impact with them. That's the last
14:55.856 -->
14:58.856thing that they ever did in class is this. And then I was like,
14:58.888 -->
15:02.244all right guys, see you later. That was a nice time for you.
15:03.149 -->
15:06.982And that's the benefit of subbing, right? It's just like, well, not my
15:07.482 -->
15:07.843problem anymore.
15:10.090 -->
15:10.412Surprisingly,
15:10.509 -->
15:13.575not the worst experience I've had at a school. One time there, I was in,
15:13.591 -->
15:17.110I was in one school and they were fighting so much in
15:17.126 -->
15:20.012class, so much in class, every 2 seconds.
15:20.285 -->
15:23.144Kindergarten again? No, this is actually 5th grade. Okay,
15:23.176 -->
15:26.197great class. They kept fighting every single day in
15:26.229 -->
15:30.040class. It was so bad to a point where they had to call I
15:30.540 -->
15:33.630guess, uh, someone in the district who's high up.
15:34.880 -->
15:36.980And she came in and she was like, you need to get this class under
15:37.480 -->
15:39.630control. And I was like, you need to get this class under control.
15:40.360 -->
15:43.540I've been trying. You can't
15:44.040 -->
15:46.320try this. Like, she was mad at me. I'm like, you go in there and
15:46.820 -->
15:49.600see what they're doing in there. How about that? She gonna see what's up.
15:49.840 -->
15:52.340Wow. What were they fighting about?
15:52.340 -->
15:53.560There was one boy in class
15:54.060 -->
15:56.670who was antagonizing them all the time. He was one of the little boys.
15:56.860 -->
15:59.770He was little. He was tiny. I'm like, why are you cursing all the time?
15:59.790 -->
16:03.340Everyone's gonna beat you up, man. And he just kept getting beat up in class.
16:04.110 -->
16:07.390And then he continued, would continue to just keep doing stuff to him. And then
16:07.890 -->
16:10.570it was kind of became like a group versus group thing where they were just
16:11.070 -->
16:14.389all the friends fighting. Yeah, it was, it was insane, man. Insane.
16:14.389 -->
16:14.870So what
16:15.370 -->
16:17.150did you try to do to like curb that?
16:17.670 -->
16:18.290To them fighting?
16:18.710 -->
16:19.710Yeah.
16:19.710 -->
16:21.460I didn't come back to the school. That's what I did.
16:26.410 -->
16:29.110That's what I did is I didn't come back. That's what I did.
16:29.340 -->
16:29.640Yeah,
16:30.140 -->
16:33.280man. That is wild. Yeah. I had a couple of those. I mean, was that
16:33.780 -->
16:37.240the worst that you've experienced, like as a sub or, or teaching in general?
16:37.740 -->
16:40.560Probably that's the worst. The one, I mean, because the second one, the first one,
16:41.060 -->
16:43.020I didn't go back to that school because I know I'd never want to go
16:43.520 -->
16:46.820back to that school. No. But the second one, they, that was a week and
16:47.320 -->
16:50.240I don't even think I finished that assignment. I think I did 3 days and
16:50.740 -->
16:53.460then they didn't have me back. So that was definitely the worst. Like they didn't
16:53.960 -->
16:54.810call me back again. You know what I mean?
16:54.810 -->
16:56.510Like, they're like, yeah, yeah.
16:57.010 -->
16:59.950But see, I respect the hell out of the fact that when the district person
17:00.450 -->
17:03.850came down, you're like, what the hell do you want me— like, I've been here
17:04.350 -->
17:08.0702 days. What do you want me to do? Because people don't
17:08.570 -->
17:12.270understand when you're a sub, like, there's no, like, magic elixir to just
17:12.770 -->
17:14.770create rapport and respect with the students.
17:14.770 -->
17:15.550They don't give a shit. Yeah, that builds
17:16.050 -->
17:19.330up over time. Either they respect you off top or not, and then it's a
17:19.830 -->
17:19.990wrap after that.
17:20.738 -->
17:22.792Yeah, no, exactly. I mean, I,
17:23.161 -->
17:27.174yeah, when I was, well, first, like, so with the kindergarten
17:27.674 -->
17:31.267stuff, like at some point it seems like you get to the,
17:31.507 -->
17:34.862it's sad that it's healthy, but it is healthy realization that like, well, I,
17:35.745 -->
17:38.296I'm just clocking in. Like I'm trying to make sure nobody dies.
17:38.489 -->
17:38.666Right.
17:38.714 -->
17:38.922Like that
17:38.955 -->
17:42.181really is. But I mean, like that first day when
17:42.681 -->
17:44.556you realized you had no game plan and that was one of your first teaching
17:44.604 -->
17:48.000experiences, like. I mean, what'd you do that first
17:48.500 -->
17:50.660day? Like, you know, when kids are showing up,
17:52.280 -->
17:52.920man, that first—
17:52.920 -->
17:55.120what did I do that first day? That first day, I,
17:55.620 -->
17:58.440I, um, I mean, I would just go with whatever schedule that I know— I
17:58.940 -->
18:01.520knew people had. Like, in the morning you do reading or then do math,
18:02.020 -->
18:04.460and most of the time they didn't have their books or like, you know,
18:04.960 -->
18:07.780just making stuff up, man. I was making so many things up. Story time was
18:08.280 -->
18:10.920probably the best thing in the schedule to me because like after lunch they're all
18:11.420 -->
18:13.060riled up and I'm like, all right, let me have them sit down and listen
18:13.560 -->
18:16.900to the story. But And I didn't, I ended up being the downfall of everything,
18:17.400 -->
18:18.260I guess. So definitely.
18:18.260 -->
18:19.200Well, sure. Yes.
18:19.200 -->
18:20.920Yeah. First day I just
18:21.420 -->
18:24.420had them take out books and whatever we could try to do and get figured
18:24.920 -->
18:24.720out.
18:24.720 -->
18:24.800Yeah.
18:24.800 -->
18:27.460It was so, that class was rough, man. That class was rough.
18:27.960 -->
18:31.660Oh man. I wonder what it was. Yeah. Generally, generally I had a lesson planned
18:32.160 -->
18:35.000at that middle school. Like I ended up doing a lot of subbing for the
18:35.500 -->
18:36.290gym, for a gym teacher.
18:36.440 -->
18:36.820Uh-huh.
18:36.820 -->
18:38.780Which is funny cuz I don't
18:39.280 -->
18:43.160look like a gym teacher. Uh, my sports knowledge probably rivaled the other gym
18:43.660 -->
18:43.920teachers, but yeah.
18:43.920 -->
18:43.940Yeah.
18:43.940 -->
18:47.044There's a certain look that one expects from a gym teacher.
18:47.157 -->
18:47.349Right.
18:47.703 -->
18:50.979And all 5'7 of me does not fit that description.
18:51.718 -->
18:54.915Um, and, and I'd never done like it.
18:56.135 -->
19:00.199I'd never experienced gym, uh, uh, gym class out here where
19:00.472 -->
19:03.588it's like 4 classes combined. So there's like 200 kids.
19:04.327 -->
19:04.536Right.
19:04.584 -->
19:06.993And each, you know, my roster, I'm looking at it the first day and
19:07.493 -->
19:08.134it's like 50 kids.
19:08.985 -->
19:10.366Um, what the fuck?
19:11.153 -->
19:14.924Um, But most of the time I was, you know, the other gym
19:14.940 -->
19:18.069teachers were there. So it was kind of like, you know, I'm just like,
19:18.630 -->
19:21.566I mean, God, middle school, just like, you know,
19:22.144 -->
19:25.176I kind of felt like a warden walking around with a whistle outside on the
19:25.208 -->
19:28.529blacktop, you know, just like making sure nobody's getting into
19:28.578 -->
19:29.155fights and stuff.
19:29.219 -->
19:30.038Yeah. Yeah.
19:30.246 -->
19:31.851Because it's like high fences and
19:32.351 -->
19:32.476everything.
19:32.524 -->
19:33.503And right.
19:33.551 -->
19:35.942And just being in like a middle school locker
19:36.442 -->
19:38.509room, I have no desire to experience that again.
19:38.669 -->
19:39.263Oh my God.
19:39.327 -->
19:40.113Just a shower
19:40.129 -->
19:40.771of ax.
19:41.397 -->
19:42.423I can't even imagine.
19:43.257 -->
19:43.402Good Lord.
19:43.578 -->
19:47.348And just the awkwardness of like the kids that have developed and
19:47.848 -->
19:51.423the kids that haven't, and they're all mingling. And I mean, I'm just like,
19:51.439 -->
19:54.808why? I mean, those were the worst years of my life by far. Middle school.
19:55.449 -->
19:59.347Man, middle school is— 7th grade specifically is the worst grade
19:59.845 -->
20:02.460of all time. I don't know what it is that happens to kids that year,
20:03.069 -->
20:04.882but they lose their minds in 7th grade.
20:05.700 -->
20:06.374Yeah. And they
20:06.582 -->
20:09.710lose all their scrutiny. Yeah. Go ahead. What?
20:09.710 -->
20:10.690I said they lose all respect
20:11.190 -->
20:11.570for any human.
20:11.970 -->
20:12.410Yes.
20:12.410 -->
20:12.950Yes.
20:12.950 -->
20:14.770Yeah. They don't care. It's like they're truly getting pulled
20:15.270 -->
20:18.110in, like the, like childhood is trying to hold onto them.
20:18.110 -->
20:18.250Yeah.
20:18.250 -->
20:18.630And then
20:19.130 -->
20:22.730like whatever, like adolescent stuff and puberty is pulling 'em the other
20:23.230 -->
20:23.010way.
20:23.010 -->
20:23.110Yeah.
20:23.110 -->
20:23.840And then they just explode.
20:24.250 -->
20:25.730Yeah. They can't handle it. They don't know
20:26.230 -->
20:26.290what to do about it.
20:26.290 -->
20:27.350No, they can't handle it. Yeah.
20:27.460 -->
20:28.250I, I was,
20:28.750 -->
20:31.790I was subbing at a middle school. I honestly, I, it's the only middle school
20:32.290 -->
20:34.410I ever subbed at 'cause I knew lots of principals at, at, you know,
20:34.910 -->
20:38.554at different levels and, um, yeah. I mostly did elementary, but there was one
20:39.054 -->
20:41.570school that would call me all the time in Compton, and, um, they would have
20:42.070 -->
20:45.436me come and I wouldn't even have a class. They would just hire me to
20:45.936 -->
20:49.094go to the problem classes that are out of control just to try to get
20:49.126 -->
20:52.223them under control. And so they would literally hand me a list of all these
20:52.255 -->
20:54.645classes, like, all right, first period you're gonna go to this class, second period.
20:54.709 -->
20:54.741Wow.
20:55.624 -->
20:58.463But the principal was— I
20:58.963 -->
21:02.923don't want to call this person dumb, but they saw the solution They
21:03.423 -->
21:07.012thought the solution to the problems in class would be to put all the bad
21:07.076 -->
21:08.310kids in the same classes.
21:08.839 -->
21:09.016Yeah.
21:10.042 -->
21:12.399Yes. I have seen this theory before.
21:13.088 -->
21:16.472I'm like, what do you think is gonna
21:16.972 -->
21:20.721happen? What do you think is gonna happen? So these kids, these, these kids
21:21.221 -->
21:24.841are terrorizing every class and the teachers are like, oh, I guess it's 3rd period.
21:24.889 -->
21:28.657I got all the bad kids in the whole school coming into the classroom.
21:29.202 -->
21:31.670And so they have these, all these kids are all every single class all day
21:32.170 -->
21:35.570long. I'm like, y'all at least separate them into a couple groups. I don't
21:36.070 -->
21:39.370know, I don't see how there's— they got more power in numbers now that
21:39.870 -->
21:41.530you got them all together. It's ridiculous.
21:41.530 -->
21:42.550And I don't know if this was the
21:43.050 -->
21:46.770case like with you, but there's always like 3 good kids mixed
21:47.270 -->
21:49.810in with those 20, and I just feel terrible for them. Oh yeah, like they're
21:50.310 -->
21:52.510just like, I mean, quiet, trying to do their work.
21:53.350 -->
21:57.101Yeah, yeah, there was, there was a couple classes where like It was,
21:57.197 -->
22:00.292'cause honestly it was maybe like 5 or 6 boys that were really causing all
22:00.340 -->
22:01.222the problems in this class. Sure.
22:01.286 -->
22:01.928Yeah. Right.
22:01.976 -->
22:03.114So any class that they were in
22:03.467 -->
22:06.289together, no one else was learning a thing. No one else.
22:06.338 -->
22:07.059Yeah. No, of course
22:07.559 -->
22:07.187not.
22:07.492 -->
22:08.967No one else was getting anything done.
22:09.721 -->
22:11.084This theory was explained to me by
22:11.584 -->
22:15.622a principal and it, and it's actually, I guess in, in theory,
22:16.119 -->
22:19.663uh, it's meant to make the teacher's job less, or the day less
22:20.163 -->
22:23.143shitty because instead of being marginally annoyed all day.
22:23.673 -->
22:26.644By splitting them up, and then you have one of them in each class and
22:27.144 -->
22:30.435you're annoyed. You just have a shitty 50 minutes, and then the rest
22:30.935 -->
22:34.129of the day is pretty okay. That's how it was explained to me. And I
22:34.258 -->
22:38.290was like, well, I mean, I get that.
22:39.334 -->
22:42.787And in a way it is caring, I suppose, to the teacher. You do have
22:43.287 -->
22:47.510them in mind, but that can be a really shitty 50 minutes.
22:47.606 -->
22:47.927Yeah, right.
22:48.088 -->
22:50.337Especially if whoever has them the last period of the day.
22:50.642 -->
22:51.236Oh my God. Yeah.
22:51.510 -->
22:54.270I, and I am gonna be honest, I didn't see a
22:54.770 -->
22:58.040single kid write their name on a piece of paper to complete an assignment.
22:58.330 -->
22:59.270Yeah. Not one.
22:59.270 -->
23:02.070No, no. Yeah. I, I, that doesn't
23:02.570 -->
23:06.130shock me. Um, but yeah, man, at that middle school there
23:06.630 -->
23:09.150was, I, I, it was usually just day stuff, you know?
23:09.150 -->
23:09.350Yeah.
23:09.350 -->
23:09.690That's all I
23:10.190 -->
23:13.350really wanted to sign up for. Uh, 'cause I was just dipping my toe into
23:13.850 -->
23:14.740the teaching water.
23:14.810 -->
23:16.090Yeah.
23:16.090 -->
23:17.770Um, but I'd done gym enough and
23:18.270 -->
23:20.710the guy was like, the gym teacher was like, hey, actually, can you sub for
23:21.210 -->
23:24.058me like all next week? And I was like, all right. Yeah. Pretty straightforward.
23:24.283 -->
23:24.461Yeah.
23:24.671 -->
23:27.767Yeah. He, he failed to mention that the entire gym department,
23:27.896 -->
23:31.429physical education department had COVID, so it was all subs.
23:33.780 -->
23:37.125And let me tell you, nobody has any less res—
23:37.237 -->
23:41.578there's nobody that has less respect in a school than a substitute
23:42.078 -->
23:44.617gym teacher, I think. Uh, in the eyes of the students.
23:45.036 -->
23:45.133Right.
23:45.197 -->
23:48.485Because I had kids that were dressed in gym,
23:48.565 -->
23:52.246that just were in gym class all day. Um, and didn't leave.
23:52.749 -->
23:56.234I had a kid climbing a fence. Some kids broke into the weight room and
23:56.734 -->
23:59.648were lifting weights. Um,
24:00.279 -->
24:03.948like it was chaos. Uh,
24:05.436 -->
24:08.749yeah, man. And then by the end of that week, the principal actually had to
24:09.249 -->
24:12.156move her desk outside onto the blacktop.
24:12.947 -->
24:14.497Uh, where your class was?
24:15.847 -->
24:19.199Onto the blacktop. Yeah. She had to go to, 'cause it was all subs
24:19.265 -->
24:22.499and I was kept, I was like, hey, Just so you know, there's probably a
24:22.532 -->
24:26.170liability here. I don't know where all the entrances are to the
24:26.670 -->
24:29.970weight room and such, but yeah, these kids are lifting way
24:30.035 -->
24:32.414too much weight. And, uh,
24:34.070 -->
24:37.414my give-a-shit meter is starting to run low here because this is
24:37.606 -->
24:38.314chaos.
24:39.060 -->
24:41.012I love that they're truly into the gym to—
24:41.351 -->
24:44.319into the weight room to actually just use the weights. They're actually— we're just trying
24:44.819 -->
24:45.142to get a pump in, bro.
24:45.933 -->
24:48.660Yeah, I know, I know. But it's like padlocked
24:49.160 -->
24:52.321and stuff. I'm like, clearly this is like, Like, you're not supposed
24:52.821 -->
24:55.945to be in here. Uh,
24:56.314 -->
24:59.697yeah, 'cause we weren't even in the gym. We were just outside every day,
25:00.066 -->
25:03.129uh, because it's sunny California. Yeah. And we
25:03.629 -->
25:07.138can do that. Um, so anyway, yeah,
25:07.202 -->
25:10.730man. I mean, I, I, um, as far as like, yeah,
25:10.746 -->
25:14.835getting in over our head, like, so I did all that stuff.
25:15.300 -->
25:17.529I was dreading it every day. Like truly.
25:18.282 -->
25:21.729Because I came from like freelance filmmaker, uh, making my
25:22.229 -->
25:25.528own schedule very much. It worked as like a bachelor lifestyle.
25:25.656 -->
25:28.606I was like paying my rent, doing a lot of editing and all sorts of
25:29.106 -->
25:31.475other stuff, but, you know, certainly not saving anything. Yeah.
25:31.828 -->
25:32.950Yeah, exactly.
25:33.655 -->
25:37.486But I had gotten married and then it was COVID and my wife didn't pressure
25:37.986 -->
25:40.227me, but I was like, all right, I, I've kind of gotta like, let's figure
25:40.727 -->
25:40.868something out here.
25:41.349 -->
25:41.510Right.
25:41.606 -->
25:43.545And, uh, it was COVID, so I was able to get
25:44.045 -->
25:47.186my teaching credential. I'd always thought about teaching and,
25:47.362 -->
25:50.650uh, you know, Mr. Feeny played a large role in my life on
25:50.666 -->
25:51.244Boy Meets World.
25:51.613 -->
25:52.399Shout out Mr. Feeny.
25:53.197 -->
25:53.473Um, yep.
25:53.938 -->
25:58.189Uh, but the idea of actually like not
25:58.689 -->
26:01.621being on my own schedule was hard to adapt to. And then,
26:02.680 -->
26:07.893uh, my school that I'm still at and I love, but they
26:08.393 -->
26:11.566were looking, I got a history credential and then because I didn't know
26:11.598 -->
26:12.817you could get a film credential.
26:13.507 -->
26:14.037Oh, wow.
26:14.390 -->
26:17.472And yeah, and I've learned through
26:17.972 -->
26:21.612my first year of teaching AP U.S. History, I prefer reading books about history
26:21.628 -->
26:25.239and calling my dad about them and talking to my dad. I do not
26:25.739 -->
26:29.172like trying to instill why this is important to—
26:29.316 -->
26:29.637Yeah.
26:29.717 -->
26:30.038Yeah.
26:30.215 -->
26:31.788Even though it very much is.
26:32.478 -->
26:32.703Right.
26:34.147 -->
26:37.598But anyway, man, yeah, I didn't do the student teaching route because that didn't
26:38.098 -->
26:38.769pay and that wasn't an option.
26:39.026 -->
26:39.347Yeah.
26:39.539 -->
26:41.704So I was like, um, a,
26:41.961 -->
26:45.697like a, I was some kind of intern, so I was getting paid, not great,
26:45.778 -->
26:48.680but I was getting paid. But that meant I wasn't sharing the room with an
26:49.180 -->
26:50.781established teacher. I was totally on my own. Mm-hmm.
26:50.829 -->
26:51.278Mm-hmm.
26:51.695 -->
26:52.561And, um,
26:53.636 -->
26:57.020yeah, within, uh, the first 2 weeks I had 2 panic
26:57.520 -->
27:01.029attacks and was brought out on a stretcher and had to go on medical leave.
27:01.478 -->
27:02.344Oh my God.
27:02.921 -->
27:06.1132 and a half months of it. And it was entirely
27:06.289 -->
27:09.913my doing. Like, people were like, were the students like, no. The kids were actually
27:10.413 -->
27:14.080pretty good. I was so, I wasn't sleeping like the
27:14.580 -->
27:17.767first day of school. I had so much anxiety. It was the second
27:17.847 -->
27:21.052day. Um, I was like tossing and
27:21.552 -->
27:24.979turning, sweating. I was staying up till
4:00 AM working on lesson plans
27:25.479 -->
27:26.053for the second day of school.
27:26.261 -->
27:26.357Yeah.
27:26.646 -->
27:28.489And like worried about like,
27:28.970 -->
27:32.175uh, we, I did like a, a teacher during like
27:32.675 -->
27:35.653the opening year PD was like, oh, just do like the spaghetti stick challenge.
27:35.718 -->
27:39.130It's a good like teamwork thing where you give 'em like, Uh,
27:39.630 -->
27:43.130raw spaghetti sticks, marshmallows, and they build a tower and the tallest tower
27:43.630 -->
27:44.770wins. I'm sure you have. Yeah.
27:44.770 -->
27:45.570Yeah.
27:45.570 -->
27:46.750And even that, I was
27:47.250 -->
27:50.110like, well, what happens if they just like all say no and then they won't,
27:50.610 -->
27:53.150they won't do it. And I'm like tossing and turning. And of course, like they
27:53.650 -->
27:57.090don't, it was all juniors and seniors and they don't, they're like, whatever.
27:57.590 -->
27:59.190Sure. We'll put marshmallow towers.
27:59.190 -->
28:01.170Yeah. They're like, we're done. This is over for
28:01.670 -->
28:01.620us.
28:01.650 -->
28:04.930Yeah, exactly. And if they don't want to do it, they just, they're not
28:05.430 -->
28:08.010gonna like, they're gonna throw marshmallows at me or anything. They're just like, nah.
28:08.510 -->
28:08.150And then they're just on their phones.
28:09.952 -->
28:11.172You know, like it was just—
28:11.557 -->
28:11.959so were
28:12.459 -->
28:15.796you in a, like a district intern program with the district or like, or yeah.
28:15.956 -->
28:19.232Yeah, I was a, I was a university intern was the, the term.
28:19.344 -->
28:19.424Yeah.
28:19.489 -->
28:19.601Okay.
28:19.665 -->
28:21.993It was like through Cal State LA. So I was like, I had
28:22.493 -->
28:25.654to do a class and stuff like that. And, um,
28:26.151 -->
28:29.732yeah, it was just every single thing. And I was just like, is this how
28:29.796 -->
28:33.697it's gonna be for the rest of my life? Is this what, and I
28:34.197 -->
28:38.402can't leave. I don't have a planning period. Uh, I've got 6 periods.
28:38.450 -->
28:42.047It's film and it's history and it's US, it's AP US history. And like,
28:42.127 -->
28:45.980I had spent the whole summer like reading the entire AP US
28:46.480 -->
28:50.460history book and like, I was just like, this is a pivotal
28:50.557 -->
28:53.623year in our history and the kids need to know this. And I'm stressing out
28:54.123 -->
28:56.594about that and they don't give a fuck. And then I learned that like,
28:56.915 -->
28:59.339it's not even possible to get through AP US history.
28:59.548 -->
28:59.869Yeah.
28:59.966 -->
29:00.190Yeah.
29:00.463 -->
29:02.855It's insane. And like,
29:03.176 -->
29:07.076yeah, man, it was both panic attacks happened like before first period.
29:07.831 -->
29:08.184Man.
29:08.296 -->
29:10.976And the first one, uh,
29:12.325 -->
29:15.550I almost, I feel like I, in a weird way, like willed myself
29:15.695 -->
29:19.402into having it. I'm like, am I having a panic attack right now? I think
29:19.902 -->
29:22.981I'm, I think I'm having a panic. Am I? No, I could be.
29:23.463 -->
29:24.057I think I am.
29:24.522 -->
29:27.058And then I just started breathing really heavily and then just
29:27.154 -->
29:30.536like, Uh, no, I, I,
29:30.552 -->
29:33.857I think the worst that I had, um, well, no, I've had
29:34.357 -->
29:38.243panic attacks and had, uh, panic attacks
29:38.357 -->
29:41.525over, um, uh, doing IEPs.
29:42.318 -->
29:45.293I had a really mean, like, AP— APIS, like,
29:45.341 -->
29:48.788assistant principal we did IEPs with. And the first time we do IEP,
29:48.804 -->
29:51.350no one taught me how to do anything. It's also during COVID my first year,
29:51.626 -->
29:53.345um, okay, in full-time for special ed.
29:53.410 -->
29:53.670Okay.
29:53.932 -->
29:54.542Which is crazy.
29:54.976 -->
29:57.963So yeah, to do that— for our audience, what are IEPs?
29:58.895 -->
30:01.609Oh, IEPs is an individual education plan.
30:02.107 -->
30:06.026Um, yes, uh, for students with, um, disabilities, for learning disabilities,
30:06.058 -->
30:09.801they get a special plan for support, um, every student.
30:09.849 -->
30:13.350So like, this student needs to, you know, work on it closer
30:13.850 -->
30:16.498to the board, or this student needs to, um— their goals are, you know,
30:16.514 -->
30:20.660to just use commas in sentences or things like that. Smaller, really small really small
30:21.160 -->
30:24.600details for everyone's, um, for every student's, you know, plan to—
30:25.100 -->
30:27.780for education. So, um, sometimes make it really simple, like just get kids to use
30:28.280 -->
30:31.160the in sentences, you know, that's the goal. Um, my first time doing it,
30:31.660 -->
30:34.960I didn't know how to do any of that. No one taught me. I,
30:35.460 -->
30:38.600I'm at home. So the, the— I had a Zoom meeting with the assistant principal.
30:39.100 -->
30:41.620She's all right, go ahead, complete the IEP. I go to the website for the
30:42.120 -->
30:44.480IEPs and, and it says you don't need to update anything. So I was like,
30:44.980 -->
30:48.760all right, guess I'm done. And if you— and the thing is,
30:49.260 -->
30:50.020and the thing that scared me, because we go into the IEP with, with the
30:50.520 -->
30:53.920parent And, uh, nothing's done.
30:54.420 -->
30:56.220And I, and I said, now I'm seeing what she's going to. I'm like,
30:56.720 -->
30:58.940oh, I had to do that. I didn't know that. I didn't know I had
30:59.440 -->
31:02.060to click this button or that button. So none of it's done. And then immediately
31:02.560 -->
31:04.700she's like, well, you know, officials, and you can get sued for that. Like you
31:05.200 -->
31:08.500can straight up get sued for not doing your IP right. Or, you know,
31:09.000 -->
31:12.220not having prepared. So like, so I'm like, so that was the first
31:12.720 -->
31:14.040thing that gave me anxiety. So I get off of Zoom and I'm like,
31:14.540 -->
31:17.640oh my God, let me, I'm like typing frantically on the, you know,
31:18.140 -->
31:20.760on the things. And I'm like, I don't even know these kids. It's my first
31:21.260 -->
31:21.500year. Yeah.
31:22.050 -->
31:22.500Right.
31:22.500 -->
31:23.000Yeah.
31:23.000 -->
31:25.360Have you had any interaction with them?
31:26.260 -->
31:30.620Like, literally very, very little, you know, teaching a couple of
31:31.120 -->
31:33.580hours. And then after that, you're like, well, I guess that's that. And the kids
31:34.080 -->
31:36.220are losing connection. You can't even talk to them.
31:36.320 -->
31:38.060Yeah. They don't have their,
31:38.560 -->
31:40.120they don't have their cameras on. Yeah.
31:40.120 -->
31:41.520They don't know how to use the computer.
31:42.000 -->
31:44.300The parents don't even know how to use the computer. They use, they got their
31:44.800 -->
31:46.980face all on the Zoom trying to figure out what to do. And yeah,
31:47.480 -->
31:50.650so that, so ever since then, like after that, I had anxiety about IEPs.
31:50.740 -->
31:53.960all the time. Even when that— when I no longer had that assistant principal,
31:54.460 -->
31:56.320I was still like, every time I would do an IEP, I'm like, oh God,
31:56.820 -->
31:59.260I hope I'm doing this right. Oh God, like, I would just get like PTSD
31:59.760 -->
32:01.920from not having done it that first time. And like, I'm gonna get sued.
32:02.420 -->
32:05.320Oh my God, it's a wrap for me. But the only other worst time,
32:05.820 -->
32:09.260also around COVID, was that— was that, uh, March 13th. Was it 12th,
32:09.760 -->
32:13.49013th? That day the world shut down officially, or in America at least.
32:14.220 -->
32:14.260Oh yeah.
32:14.260 -->
32:17.240Um, I'm in class, also a class that's not mine. I don't know
32:17.740 -->
32:17.660these kids.
32:17.770 -->
32:19.770I'm a sub, so you're subbing at that point.
32:19.770 -->
32:19.990Yeah, I've been at
32:20.490 -->
32:22.950this point, right? Yeah, I started going full-time right after COVID. That was when I
32:23.450 -->
32:27.330first got my full-time gig. Um, so, you know,
32:27.830 -->
32:30.110uh, or right during COVID I guess. Um, so we're in— I'm in class,
32:30.290 -->
32:32.730and then, uh, every now and then someone from the office comes in and is
32:33.230 -->
32:36.190like, hey, um, you know, we don't know if this school's gonna shut down today,
32:36.690 -->
32:39.250so we're just gonna get these packets ready. Like, all right, cool. And I go
32:39.750 -->
32:41.870back to teaching. An hour or two later, they come out like, hey, it looks
32:42.370 -->
32:44.930like we're possibly gonna shut down, so We need you to get this ready,
32:45.050 -->
32:47.530or, you know, write down these codes and put them on the board from the
32:48.030 -->
32:50.270copy down. All right, cool. And then finally they came in like, yeah, things are
32:50.770 -->
32:54.250definitely shutting down. We gotta get— you gotta get all these kids, all their books,
32:54.750 -->
32:57.090put them in their backpacks, make sure they write down this code to get on
32:57.590 -->
33:00.290later on. And, uh, and I'm like, oh damn. All right, so, uh, so I
33:00.790 -->
33:02.410start trying to get it all together. It's towards the end of the day now,
33:02.910 -->
33:05.750and, uh, I'm starting to get it all together. And, um, one of the boys
33:06.250 -->
33:08.590in class was being like real resistant to anything I would say to do,
33:08.650 -->
33:11.350and he's like— and he's like not listening. I'm like, oh, can you write that
33:11.850 -->
33:13.530down please? Show me that you wrote that down and then you can leave.
33:14.030 -->
33:17.270Like, it's end of the day. And then he just wouldn't listen. He would just
33:17.770 -->
33:19.930sit down and he'd come back, he's like, I don't know if I want to
33:20.430 -->
33:24.110write that thing. I'm like, bro, please just write that on the board so
33:24.610 -->
33:26.570we can get out of here. And I'm stressing out. I'm trying to get every
33:27.070 -->
33:29.170book in these kids' backpacks.
33:29.170 -->
33:30.890Yeah, because we're literally facing like the end
33:31.390 -->
33:34.590of the world. Like, you know, we weren't sure, like, you know, like— okay,
33:35.090 -->
33:35.250yeah, keep going.
33:35.250 -->
33:37.750Sorry. Like 10 times to tell this kid to go write something
33:38.250 -->
33:40.660down. And finally got to the point where I was like, Bro, I'm yelling at
33:41.160 -->
33:43.500him now, and I'm— and yo, me yelling is scary. I have a really deep
33:44.000 -->
33:46.820voice, so if I'm yelling, it's really scary. And I'm like, bro, just write it
33:47.320 -->
33:50.480down, just write it down. I'm screaming at this kid, please just write that down.
33:50.980 -->
33:53.760I'll write it down for you. I'm like, start writing it down. I'm, I'm so
33:54.260 -->
33:57.500upset, and he's like scared. Like, at the end of the day, I'm like,
33:58.000 -->
34:01.500just go, just get out of here, just go. He gets out,
34:02.000 -->
34:04.980and I remember, I remember literally months later,
34:05.480 -->
34:07.720or like a few weeks later, we're on Zoom, and I'm like Damn, I'm probably
34:08.220 -->
34:11.880never gonna see that kid again. I just— Lex's last memory is me screaming at
34:12.380 -->
34:15.970him, write down the code.
34:16.400 -->
34:19.560I'm like, every day, I mean, I hope that kid forgives me for doing that
34:20.060 -->
34:23.640because I, I feel horrible for screaming at that kid right before COVID I don't
34:24.140 -->
34:27.240even know what his name was, where he's at now. I hope he's all right
34:27.740 -->
34:29.100though. That's gotta be traumatizing.
34:31.550 -->
34:35.330Well, that's, that's always going to be the the push and pull of,
34:35.830 -->
34:39.470of teaching and students because they just don't, they don't understand that it's
34:39.970 -->
34:42.910literally the job. And in this case,
34:43.410 -->
34:46.850it was your only job at that point was to make sure he writes
34:47.350 -->
34:48.590down the fucking code.
34:48.930 -->
34:50.670Exactly. That's all. And he's just like,
34:51.170 -->
34:55.190I'm like, bro, kids are leaving. They're going home now.
34:55.690 -->
34:58.910You need to go home. Get outta here. Write this down. Hurry up. Yeah,
34:59.410 -->
35:01.270man. I think about that all the time. I'm like, man, I hope that kid's
35:01.770 -->
35:05.603all right. 'Cause I, that's the last thing that, remembers of me is screaming at
35:06.103 -->
35:06.972him about writing that shit down, man.
35:08.695 -->
35:08.711Oh,
35:09.822 -->
35:13.785but yeah, man, I just like, so I had that first panic attack
35:13.930 -->
35:17.579and then I'm talking to like, you know, our like
35:18.047 -->
35:21.599problem solving coordinator and, you know, I mentioned to
35:22.099 -->
35:25.546her like, I mean, I was not in a good headspace, so I'm literally just
35:26.046 -->
35:29.186like, yeah, you know, like I'm driving into work and I just kind of think
35:29.234 -->
35:33.002like, wonder if it would be easier to just like run into the guardrail
35:33.502 -->
35:37.145and not even in a suicide way, but just in like, well, then I
35:37.177 -->
35:38.044wouldn't have to come in.
35:38.140 -->
35:39.730Yeah. The end of the world. Then I have an
35:39.762 -->
35:40.324accident.
35:40.645 -->
35:43.102But because I fucking said that, of course
35:43.696 -->
35:46.586she then had to tell the principal and then we had to do the like
35:46.667 -->
35:49.958questionnaire about suicidal tendencies. And I'm like, oh,
35:50.520 -->
35:54.053and I feel bad that I'm wasting his time. I'm like, no, that's not— I
35:54.117 -->
35:57.359mean, I get it. I did say that, but it's— I, I was more,
35:57.487 -->
36:00.227it's a very dark, I have a dark sense of humor. I know you don't
36:00.727 -->
36:03.929know me because you hired me a month ago and I was
36:03.977 -->
36:07.278very chipper in that meeting and now it's a total shit show.
36:07.582 -->
36:09.890And that's so crazy.
36:11.028 -->
36:14.088And like, you know, and so then I'm like, oh,
36:14.185 -->
36:17.229so he was, it was like a two, it was like the first week of
36:17.729 -->
36:19.184school. It was like Wednesday or something.
36:19.441 -->
36:19.537Yeah.
36:19.601 -->
36:20.979Of the first week. And he
36:21.479 -->
36:23.945is like, well, Christ, man, like just, take the rest of the week off,
36:24.105 -->
36:27.344come back on Monday, you know? I'm like, okay, yeah, I'll do that.
36:28.114 -->
36:32.155And then like, I made it Monday and then Tuesday morning I
36:32.203 -->
36:35.924like have another panic attack. And I'm, it's again,
36:35.988 -->
36:39.276I'm like, am I breathing heavily? No. Well,
36:39.660 -->
36:43.092maybe I should be breathing heavily. Yeah, that would make me feel better.
36:43.670 -->
36:47.631And so like, I knock on the door of like another first-year teacher right
36:47.679 -->
36:48.721across the hall from me.
36:49.122 -->
36:49.235Yeah.
36:49.507 -->
36:49.860And like,
36:50.967 -->
36:54.481like, I think I'm having a heart attack.
36:55.684 -->
36:59.454And then the other teacher across the hall is like, you know,
36:59.630 -->
37:03.272veteran. He's like, I don't give a fuck about anything. And he's
37:03.772 -->
37:06.385like, dude, you gotta relax. And I'm like, just like falling on the ground.
37:06.433 -->
37:09.994And I'm just like, uh, uh. And it did. I basically worked myself into
37:10.042 -->
37:13.427thinking I was having a heart attack. And so she's like, do you want
37:13.927 -->
37:17.023me to call 911? I'm like, I guess so. And so,
37:17.039 -->
37:19.849like, you know, and so by the time, like,
37:19.993 -->
37:23.220the paramedics show up and they come in with a stretcher,
37:23.605 -->
37:27.346they put me on the stretcher and there's no kids in the classroom yet.
37:27.716 -->
37:31.296But on the— they take me down the elevator and then they open the doors
37:31.392 -->
37:34.154and all the kids are on the first floor waiting to go up. So all
37:34.654 -->
37:38.633the kids are just seeing me getting carted off and I'm like, oh dear God,
37:38.714 -->
37:39.099this is—
37:39.099 -->
37:41.957Oh, you give the thumbs up like an NFL player.
37:42.471 -->
37:46.019Yeah, exactly. And I'm
37:46.581 -->
37:50.515like, oh yeah, that's so good.
37:50.579 -->
37:53.903Yeah, I'll be back, kids. And they're like, who the— we hardly know you,
37:54.047 -->
37:57.821dude. Like, we've been 3 days. You had us build some spaghetti
37:57.885 -->
38:01.690towers and now that's fucking it. You were out half of last week.
38:01.754 -->
38:03.762Now it's Tuesday. Like, what?
38:05.191 -->
38:08.546And I just was seriously like not sleeping. I was— I— this
38:08.579 -->
38:11.932is how But to finish that off, so like they take me to
38:12.432 -->
38:16.039the nurse's office and the paramedics leave for
38:16.539 -->
38:19.953a minute. And then the nurse, 'cause I was still like, you know,
38:19.969 -->
38:23.499panting really heavily. And so she gave me,
38:23.819 -->
38:26.948you know, you're supposed to like, I guess, use like a small paper bag to
38:27.448 -->
38:27.589breathe into.
38:27.670 -->
38:28.536Yeah. Yeah.
38:28.777 -->
38:30.766She gave me a grocery
38:30.814 -->
38:34.327store size paper bag, like a, like a Ralph's
38:34.827 -->
38:38.807bag. And I'm like, even in that state of mind,
38:38.888 -->
38:42.310I'm like, okay. So I'm like trying to breathe into this whole
38:42.519 -->
38:45.894big ass— my head is just in the bag. And I'm like,
38:46.456 -->
38:49.573then I'm like, start laughing because I can, even in my state of mind,
38:49.589 -->
38:53.526I can acknowledge this is absurd and ridiculous. Yeah. And then the paramedic
38:54.026 -->
38:57.688comes back and he's like, what are you doing? Like takes the bag
38:58.188 -->
38:58.812off my head.
38:59.455 -->
39:00.403Oh my God.
39:00.660 -->
39:01.656And he's like putting a,
39:02.106 -->
39:05.781Uh, I mean, he, he was like, uh, do you
39:05.878 -->
39:08.735want, like, he, he, they put the things on me and I was,
39:08.783 -->
39:10.147my heart rate was high enough.
39:10.227 -->
39:10.484Yeah.
39:10.548 -->
39:12.539That legally they were like, we should take
39:13.039 -->
39:14.481you in. I'm pretty sure it's a panic attack.
39:14.786 -->
39:15.042Yeah.
39:15.508 -->
39:16.599Um, I now
39:16.792 -->
39:20.612knowing what I know now, I would've said, fuck that. I'm, I'm dying or
39:21.125 -->
39:25.555I'm gonna get better because that fucking $2,000
39:26.055 -->
39:25.908ER trip.
39:26.502 -->
39:29.440I can't even imagine. Just for you to calm down
39:29.489 -->
39:33.343and come out. Come outta the hospital. Just for, hey man, calm down
39:33.843 -->
39:34.066for a little bit.
39:34.933 -->
39:37.615And that was the crazy— yeah, yeah, basically. Yeah. I basically,
39:37.679 -->
39:41.261they took me to like the nearest hospital. They did the def— they put all,
39:41.277 -->
39:44.714they did all the tests. I'm getting all sorts of scans and shit. And then,
39:44.730 -->
39:48.135yeah, the, the person was like, yeah, I think, uh, yeah, you're good.
39:48.424 -->
39:51.620You're fine. And by that point I had calmed down.
39:51.796 -->
39:55.185And, but then like, I was like a mile from the school and that's where
39:55.685 -->
39:59.103my car was. And I was like, Oh man. I guess I'll just walk back
39:59.200 -->
40:03.053inside. So I walked back and then I
40:03.553 -->
40:06.875called that problem coordinator. I was like, and she must have just thought I was
40:06.987 -->
40:10.279fucking insane because I was like, yeah, I mean, I guess I feel better
40:10.779 -->
40:14.020now. So, uh, I don't know. And she's like, no, like you
40:14.068 -->
40:17.905gotta talk to somebody. Like, like we can't
40:18.405 -->
40:19.318have this every fucking—
40:19.415 -->
40:20.667Oh my God. There's, there's too few of us.
40:20.796 -->
40:20.844Yeah,
40:20.860 -->
40:21.566that's a good point.
40:22.450 -->
40:24.5502 things about the story that are hilarious is one,
40:25.190 -->
40:29.110that school nurses in— I'm assuming everywhere in the United States—
40:29.610 -->
40:31.040don't get resources for shit.
40:31.550 -->
40:31.830No.
40:31.830 -->
40:33.130And these poor people have
40:33.630 -->
40:36.830trained all their lives and probably their goal to be nurses, and they
40:37.330 -->
40:39.930get to these schools and the main solution you see for anything is an ice
40:40.430 -->
40:43.210pack. You send the— yes, you see a kid who has a stomachache, he's getting
40:43.710 -->
40:46.950an ice pack. You see a kid, his arm is split open, yeah, he's getting
40:47.450 -->
40:50.514an ice pack. It's like, it's like, bro, Give them something else.
40:51.380 -->
40:54.715I had a student the other week come back with a frozen
40:54.763 -->
40:56.895sponge, but we didn't have any bags.
40:57.232 -->
40:58.274Oh my God.
40:59.332 -->
41:02.988It's like, oh my God.
41:03.084 -->
41:06.451Yeah, every, every— I'm like, damn, give these nurses something else to work
41:06.951 -->
41:09.690with. Y'all just getting ice packs for every solution. Kid throws up, he's getting an
41:10.190 -->
41:12.335ice pack. It doesn't matter what it is.
41:12.463 -->
41:13.730Yeah, exactly.
41:14.243 -->
41:17.546And then the same thing, well, then it's like, yeah, no, you see so many
41:18.046 -->
41:21.300teachers like have like anxiety attacks or like breakdowns
41:21.800 -->
41:24.640and shit like that. And it's, and that's, that's so common, man.
41:25.140 -->
41:27.220It's so, I've been to so many schools where like you see a teacher one
41:27.720 -->
41:29.760day and they have a bad class and the next day they're like, yeah,
41:30.260 -->
41:33.260she's out sick. And then a couple days later you're like, I don't think she's
41:33.760 -->
41:34.100coming back.
41:35.580 -->
41:39.860Yeah,
41:40.360 -->
41:44.420man. So like I ended up on medical leave. I like, I used,
41:44.920 -->
41:47.560uh, one of those like talk therapy websites right away because I needed to get
41:48.060 -->
41:49.975like somebody to diagnose me.
41:50.280 -->
41:50.456Yeah.
41:50.521 -->
41:51.693Or find out what the fuck is going
41:51.709 -->
41:54.856on. So I basically found out, uh, and I know it's
41:54.920 -->
41:58.324overprescribed and everyone says they have it, but it was an ADHD
41:58.853 -->
42:02.771combined with OCD. Oh my God. And so I
42:02.803 -->
42:06.175was staying up until 4 or 5 AM trying to make sure the lesson
42:06.675 -->
42:09.306plan was perfect. But I was staying up until 5 AM cuz I would get
42:09.806 -->
42:09.996distracted.
42:10.670 -->
42:11.569Yeah. Yeah.
42:12.420 -->
42:13.769And so I wasn't sleeping.
42:14.186 -->
42:16.900And was just going, literally just going, losing my mind.
42:17.639 -->
42:21.477Uh, and, you know, so finally,
42:21.573 -->
42:24.688yeah, I was like, got on medication and, you know,
42:24.785 -->
42:27.932over the end, like my mom had to come out. And at the same
42:27.996 -->
42:31.208time, we had just gotten like a 5-pound puppy, uh,
42:31.368 -->
42:34.050a 2-pound puppy who we still have, a Maltese.
42:34.114 -->
42:34.371Yeah.
42:34.676 -->
42:34.997And he was
42:35.078 -->
42:38.225too happy for us, so we had to like give him back for a
42:38.725 -->
42:41.501while and then get— it was just like life was awful.
42:42.120 -->
42:45.170And I'm submitting stuff on Schoology, on the
42:45.670 -->
42:49.330platform. I'm making videos like any of the kids are going to fucking watch them.
42:49.390 -->
42:52.710Like, well, you may have been wondering where I was. They're like,
42:53.210 -->
42:54.510motherfucker, I don't even know who you are.
42:57.330 -->
43:00.770Man, it's so rough. There's a teacher at my school
43:01.270 -->
43:04.850currently. I won't give too much of his information out, but yeah, he had like
43:05.350 -->
43:08.930a breakdown kind of thing. And then his school was
43:09.430 -->
43:11.610like, hey man, take the week off and come back next week. And he came
43:12.110 -->
43:15.250back. Um, but then he, I think he just made himself sick,
43:15.310 -->
43:19.230like by just having, you know, breakdowns and stuff. So then now he's just been
43:19.730 -->
43:22.030out. And I'm hearing kids in the hallways, like, you hear what happened to him?
43:22.530 -->
43:26.390And he's like, yeah, I heard he lost his mind. They're all spreading whatever
43:26.890 -->
43:29.150ideas. Yeah, I heard he lost it. Now he's like, I can't come back.
43:29.650 -->
43:33.130And it's like, damn, man, I hope he's all right, man. It's rough.
43:33.630 -->
43:36.110And that's definitely what they were saying about me. I mean, you know, the fact
43:36.610 -->
43:40.670that there was the, the, the, the theatrics of being carted out in the
43:41.170 -->
43:44.441stretcher. It's just like,
43:44.923 -->
43:48.261so I came back in like November. I came back like a
43:48.373 -->
43:51.551week, 2 weeks before Thanksgiving break, you know? And,
43:52.209 -->
43:55.692and, uh, I mean, I got through that first year. Now that I,
43:55.852 -->
43:59.768I'm just teaching film instead of like US history, you know,
43:59.849 -->
44:02.417there's like less pressure on myself where it's like,
44:03.540 -->
44:07.023I'm just trying to teach like more like life skills more than anything. 'Cause most
44:07.523 -->
44:08.563of these kids aren't trying to go into movies.
44:08.676 -->
44:09.783So I'm just like, yeah,
44:09.799 -->
44:10.457you know, exactly.
44:10.778 -->
44:14.339I'm bringing in like financial, like literacy things
44:14.452 -->
44:18.157and just trying to get them to like be a person by the time
44:18.657 -->
44:22.713they graduate, like know a few things. I'm doing a lot of paid internship
44:23.213 -->
44:26.386opportunities and stuff like that. So like now I'm just like, look, the ones that
44:26.886 -->
44:30.734want help and are trying to like, you know, improve their
44:31.234 -->
44:32.322lives, I'm trying to be there for them.
44:32.418 -->
44:34.616Yeah, exactly. The, the ones that would,
44:34.744 -->
44:39.480would, uh, come to you for guidance, they'll, they'll show themselves and Right.
44:39.980 -->
44:42.520Yeah. It's, it's so funny though. Like you literally never know who those kids are
44:43.020 -->
44:45.510sometimes too. Like we had, um, the school I'm at now,
44:45.580 -->
44:49.200um, we had, so I work in marketing and I also work with the football
44:49.700 -->
44:52.820team. Um, and we had a big scandal at our school. We got in trouble
44:53.320 -->
44:55.860for, um, our principal, our president was doing,
44:56.360 -->
44:59.380um, I guess he had some people involved that were trying, we were trying to
44:59.880 -->
45:03.320get really, we got really good players from all over the state. So such good
45:03.820 -->
45:06.560players. And I guess the way they're recruiting was illegal and the parents were also
45:07.060 -->
45:07.820falsifying information, all kinds of stuff. So we got, it was a huge news story
45:08.320 -->
45:12.030in in California and in the country actually this year.
45:12.560 -->
45:15.400But, um, uh, yeah, so we got in trouble. And a lot of those boys
45:15.900 -->
45:18.900that were, you know, I work at a private school in Torrance, so it's like,
45:18.940 -->
45:22.320okay, all these boys are coming from like Long Beach or Compton, these other places,
45:22.820 -->
45:25.739and they're not private schools, so they're not used to people telling them how to
45:26.239 -->
45:28.280wear, what to wear, or like how to act or behave. And they're just like,
45:28.780 -->
45:31.100yo man, I'm just going to school, leave me alone type of thing. Um,
45:31.600 -->
45:34.040right. But so a lot of them are always acting tough and like, like they
45:34.540 -->
45:36.000were too, you know, like they were too good for everybody. And I still had
45:36.500 -->
45:39.000a relationship with a lot of them, but Um, you know, sometimes you feel like
45:39.500 -->
45:41.160they don't, they don't really care about me. I'll say what I need to say.
45:41.660 -->
45:43.240And a lot of school— the school would always come to me and be like,
45:43.400 -->
45:45.680hey, can you tell these boys they need to actually wear uniform, or they can't
45:46.180 -->
45:48.240wear slides to school, or they can't— you know, all these little things. I'm like,
45:48.740 -->
45:50.880damn, I gotta be a liaison for y'all. I gotta, I gotta tell them what
45:51.380 -->
45:54.720to, what to do and say, like, I guess. So, um, yeah, so we
45:55.220 -->
45:57.320didn't— I never, you know, a lot of those boys would always be walking around
45:57.820 -->
46:00.920like they were hard, they were too tough for everybody. But, um, I saw a
46:01.420 -->
46:03.260lot of them— so a lot of them left after the whole scandal happened.
46:03.760 -->
46:04.120A lot of them left the school.
46:04.120 -->
46:04.140Mm-hmm.
46:04.510 -->
46:06.140Um, yeah. And, uh, I, I went
46:06.640 -->
46:10.400to our basketball game, our playoff basketball game the other day, and like so
46:10.900 -->
46:13.920many of those boys were there. Just— are there all other schools now, but so
46:14.420 -->
46:16.310many of them were there because they liked our school. They really liked being there.
46:16.500 -->
46:19.100So they show up and all of them are coming up and dabbing me up,
46:19.600 -->
46:21.740be like, man, we miss you. And I'm like, man, y'all, I would have never
46:22.240 -->
46:25.380known that you'd have missed me for how I was walking around before and
46:25.880 -->
46:28.760like, you know, just acting tough and all that. And you never know, like you
46:29.260 -->
46:30.940have a good influence on them, which is, which is pretty cool to see.
46:31.440 -->
46:34.130And they're like, man, we miss y'all. Like Miss you, Mr. Monte. Like, it'd be
46:34.630 -->
46:36.140cool to come back. And I was like, I was like, y'all like y'all schools?
46:36.170 -->
46:39.210They're like, no, we don't. We wanna come back here. You know? So,
46:39.710 -->
46:40.410um, yeah.
46:40.410 -->
46:40.550Yeah, that's awesome.
46:40.810 -->
46:40.870Yeah.
46:40.870 -->
46:43.310I mean, yeah, there's, you know, it's, there's,
46:43.810 -->
46:47.170there's plenty of, of students that make the job worthwhile for me.
46:47.290 -->
46:50.550Um, so, but yeah, I mean, it's just, it's taken,
46:51.050 -->
46:53.240this is year 4 for me and finally I'm like,
46:53.390 -->
46:56.730okay, I know how to do this. Well, cuz I
46:57.230 -->
47:00.690would treat, because I just came from like a performing background, so I basically treated
47:01.096 -->
47:04.243Mentally, I had 6 performances a day.
47:05.046 -->
47:05.239Right.
47:05.287 -->
47:08.852You know, and it was, and like the students don't give it, it's okay
47:09.060 -->
47:12.368if the presentation isn't flawless and it's not done yet.
47:12.432 -->
47:15.098Like, right. They come in with no expectations.
47:15.547 -->
47:15.708Yeah.
47:15.868 -->
47:16.334They don't care.
47:16.928 -->
47:18.293They're not forced audience.
47:19.080 -->
47:21.585Yeah. We got it in here. Yeah.
47:22.211 -->
47:22.468But in
47:22.968 -->
47:26.064my head at the, when I started, it was just like, this has gotta
47:26.564 -->
47:29.019be perfect. And it's like, it's a job that will never be perfect.
47:29.292 -->
47:29.388Yeah.
47:29.517 -->
47:33.160When you're trying, when perf— perfection is in the hands
47:33.208 -->
47:35.937of 150 teenagers, it's not gonna happen.
47:36.097 -->
47:36.787It's not, it's not
47:37.287 -->
47:37.317gonna happen.
47:37.782 -->
47:40.687It's based on, you know, a buy-in. But anyway.
47:41.313 -->
47:42.373Yeah, absolutely.
47:43.159 -->
47:45.085Um, but yeah, so that was a
47:45.585 -->
47:49.033situation where like I was knowingly in over my head. I was trying to think
47:49.533 -->
47:53.126of one. Um, and, and I know you have another one that kind of fit
47:53.626 -->
47:56.931that, that mode too, but Uh, one where I didn't know I
47:56.963 -->
48:00.512was in over my head was when I first moved out here, I got my
48:01.012 -->
48:03.082dream job and then I was fired.
48:03.885 -->
48:04.190Damn.
48:05.073 -->
48:08.750Uh, I was working for Danny McBride and his production
48:08.783 -->
48:12.315company, uh, when they were doing Eastbound and Down. And like,
48:12.476 -->
48:15.800they went to the same college as I did, obviously years before.
48:16.410 -->
48:20.168And like, we had even like, they brought Pineapple Express to
48:20.668 -->
48:24.629our school for like an advanced screening. And like, we had the Almost Famous like
48:24.694 -->
48:28.520party night. Like they came to our house, like our college house that
48:28.568 -->
48:28.875night.
48:29.375 -->
48:29.618Oh, sure.
48:29.698 -->
48:31.796And like our Christmas card was like
48:32.200 -->
48:35.667them, uh, you know, uh, it was a picture of them with us
48:36.167 -->
48:39.631and everything. And so like, anyway, uh,
48:40.627 -->
48:44.018I just went to like a Q&A. They were screening like Eastbound and Down
48:44.518 -->
48:48.025season 1 at like Arclight or something. And, uh, they recognized
48:48.525 -->
48:51.107me and then they were like, hey, are you looking for like work or something?
48:51.172 -->
48:51.577I was like, yes.
48:52.667 -->
48:53.372And absolutely.
48:53.420 -->
48:54.494So I just thought I was in,
48:55.071 -->
48:58.469right? I was just like, great. And so I just was
48:58.969 -->
49:02.523so fucking oblivious to the fact, cuz I wasn't even getting paid at first.
49:02.940 -->
49:05.873And then they brought me on as a writer's assistant for Eastbound and Down.
49:06.546 -->
49:10.312And, and, you know, it would just be shit like
49:10.392 -->
49:13.694Danny would be in the office and, uh, he'd just be
49:14.194 -->
49:17.700like, oh, we really should like, um, we should get that picture, that thing,
49:17.764 -->
49:20.232that, that thing framed and like put it up on the wall or something that
49:20.732 -->
49:22.059was already framed. Like, oh, that should go up on the wall.
49:22.477 -->
49:22.558Yeah.
49:22.638 -->
49:22.799And I'd
49:23.299 -->
49:25.876be like, yeah, it should. Not realizing he's fucking telling me,
49:26.988 -->
49:30.241like, just completely
49:30.741 -->
49:34.073oblivious. Like, yeah, yeah. Like, they were just all nice guys.
49:34.251 -->
49:37.505So I just was like, I'm part of the crew now. You know? Like,
49:37.893 -->
49:41.483no, you fucking idiot. You're the lowest on the totem pole. Like,
49:43.146 -->
49:46.311you know, like I remember we would walk, their office was in, uh,
49:46.456 -->
49:50.313Hollywood and like we would walk to like an outdoor bar restaurant.
49:50.905 -->
49:54.784And you could still smoke outside there. And I was smoking at the time and
49:55.284 -->
49:59.017Danny would be like, yeah, I'm definitely not down with the smoking.
49:59.503 -->
50:02.258I'm like, oh, I get it.
50:02.485 -->
50:03.230Just so
50:03.619 -->
50:06.438oblivious. Oh my God. What was happening?
50:07.470 -->
50:09.325Oh my God. That is so funny.
50:10.552 -->
50:11.149And it was just a
50:11.214 -->
50:14.409bunch of that. And then, yeah, I think the last, and I just had
50:14.441 -->
50:16.797no idea I was on the last straw where like,
50:17.407 -->
50:20.411Chick-fil-A, I guess, had just opened in Los Angeles.
50:20.475 -->
50:22.628So they had me like drive to the, I think it was on like the
50:22.804 -->
50:25.904USC campus or something in like 2011,
50:26.563 -->
50:29.90420. Yeah. So I drove there, uh,
50:30.032 -->
50:33.534brought it back to the, the office. And then the next morning I
50:33.566 -->
50:37.100was just like 10% under the weather, you know?
50:37.180 -->
50:39.911But I was like, eh, I don't really feel like coming in today. So I
50:40.411 -->
50:43.252just like told 'em I had food poisoning and then that was it. That was
50:43.428 -->
50:46.420it. They were just, they were like, Well, just don't come back.
50:47.120 -->
50:50.180Yeah. Yeah. Like I realized, I, I was like, I'll check in on the document,
50:50.300 -->
50:50.640you know?
50:50.640 -->
50:50.740Yeah.
50:50.740 -->
50:51.740The Eastbound document.
50:51.740 -->
50:52.120Yeah.
50:52.120 -->
50:53.700And then I like didn't have access to
50:54.200 -->
50:58.060it. That didn't register. I was like, hey, I realized I don't have access
50:58.560 -->
51:02.280to the thing. Uh, what's going on?
51:02.780 -->
51:02.940That's hilarious.
51:02.940 -->
51:06.480And then finally, like the actual, like his assistant had to
51:06.980 -->
51:10.380like call me the next day. Like, look, man, like I, you don't have a
51:10.880 -->
51:11.360job here anymore.
51:14.381 -->
51:16.838You didn't do anything you were supposed to do.
51:17.673 -->
51:21.269And like, I have, I have another one.
51:21.366 -->
51:24.609This, I didn't even say this one. It also relates to
51:25.109 -->
51:27.515jobs. I'll stick with the job theme since we're already on that. But I,
51:27.948 -->
51:30.260uh, I, I used to work at a, I used to, as a side hustle,
51:30.276 -->
51:33.953I used to do security at a gay bar in West Hollywood
51:34.547 -->
51:38.609that doesn't exist anymore. It was called, it was called Flaming Saddles. Flaming Saddles.
51:39.027 -->
51:41.965Yeah, Flaming Saddles. Um, they often would have, uh,
51:42.559 -->
51:45.850uh, male dancers there in cowboy hats on top of like the
51:46.350 -->
51:48.885tables or whatever. Um, but I'm doing— I'm just doing security.
51:50.025 -->
51:50.619Doing security was—
51:50.619 -->
51:51.133it was cool.
51:51.181 -->
51:53.734It was like $300 a night just for a
51:54.234 -->
51:56.704few hours from like 8 to, I don't know, whenever the bar closed, and then
51:57.204 -->
51:57.555we, you know, clean up and stuff.
51:57.667 -->
51:57.764Sure.
51:58.213 -->
51:59.610Um, but I worked there because a
52:00.110 -->
52:02.660friend of mine was the manager at the, at the, uh, at the bar.
52:02.725 -->
52:06.060And so me and my room— my roommate at the time on Boy DC.
52:06.560 -->
52:08.880We were working there, so we— no paperwork, nothing. He just had us come in,
52:09.380 -->
52:13.050do security. Honestly, it was super illegal, but, but we were there doing that.
52:13.180 -->
52:14.120Um, yeah.
52:14.120 -->
52:16.560So we're doing that, and most of
52:17.060 -->
52:18.580the time nothing was ever going on, so I'd just be standing around kind of
52:19.080 -->
52:22.220watching, or like, the other dudes are like dancing. The dudes— male
52:22.720 -->
52:26.220dancers are hilarious to me. I don't know why. They seem more awkward than sexy
52:26.720 -->
52:29.660to me, so I'm always wondering, I'm like, how do women or gay men find
52:30.160 -->
52:33.750this Attractive, right? They're not doing much,
52:34.250 -->
52:35.370right? Yeah.
52:35.370 -->
52:37.470What do they— are they just like swinging their dicks? Like,
52:37.970 -->
52:37.880what do they do?
52:38.450 -->
52:40.370Yeah, one guy would do this all the time. He would
52:40.870 -->
52:40.860just do this.
52:41.150 -->
52:43.810Oh, okay. Kind of like a— he'd just do that,
52:44.310 -->
52:45.350like shimmy with the hat.
52:45.350 -->
52:47.610Yeah, I feel like you guys aren't doing anything
52:48.110 -->
52:51.730special at all. Or like hump a lady's face every now and then.
52:52.230 -->
52:54.690That's what they do. I, I would just say I used to be standing around,
52:54.870 -->
52:58.370but like for some reason Uh, no one— not no one,
52:58.870 -->
53:02.430but a lot— the management and the higher-ups of this bar did not like me
53:02.930 -->
53:06.080at all. And I don't know what I did. I was never rude to anybody.
53:06.430 -->
53:08.670I never like said anything. But I remember my roommate telling me one time,
53:09.170 -->
53:11.510he's like, yo man, this is the first place I've ever been where no one
53:12.010 -->
53:15.290likes you. He was like, he was like, I've never been in a place
53:15.790 -->
53:18.810where people were just like, I don't like Aaron. And he was like, he's like,
53:19.310 -->
53:21.550it's usually me that people say that about, but this is the first place I've
53:22.050 -->
53:23.130ever been where they just don't like you. No, it's you. I was like,
53:23.630 -->
53:26.070I don't know what I did. And they'd like, every now and then I'd be
53:26.570 -->
53:29.270in, I'd be standing there and, uh, they would accuse me of like talking to
53:29.770 -->
53:32.610girls all the time, which I was not doing. And like girls would come up
53:33.110 -->
53:35.350to me and be like, talk to me sometimes, you know, only straight men at
53:35.850 -->
53:39.050the bar or security there. So like, you know, they'd always come talk to me,
53:39.550 -->
53:41.370but I wouldn't, I'd be like, I'd be like, hey, thank you, whatever. And then,
53:41.870 -->
53:44.590you know, they'd walk away. And then I literally one time was standing there,
53:45.090 -->
53:46.870I was there, it was a really big night and all these, and then we
53:47.370 -->
53:50.880had a bunch of security there and, uh, a couple guys I had never seen
53:51.380 -->
53:53.180before, like, because we were there every, like, almost every night. So there's a couple
53:53.680 -->
53:56.060guys I had never seen, we're doing security, and one of the dudes literally has
53:56.560 -->
53:59.740a girl and he's like dancing on her. Like, security on duty, he's dancing on
54:00.240 -->
54:02.140her. And I'm standing like maybe a few feet away, I'm like, yo, he's just
54:02.640 -->
54:05.660dancing on this shorty. Like, this is crazy. This is not at all— 2 seconds
54:06.160 -->
54:08.740later, the manager walks up to me, he's like, hey man, Aaron, you really gotta
54:09.240 -->
54:12.240stop talking to these girls. I'm like, bro, I'm not even doing nothing. He's dancing
54:12.740 -->
54:15.600on a shorty right now. He's right there. What are you talking about?
54:16.550 -->
54:19.980But the worst part, the worst story, and this is a story— this may have
54:20.480 -->
54:23.740been the reason why they decided they didn't fuck with me like that. One day
54:24.240 -->
54:27.260I'm working, um, I'm working the Saturday brunch, and they used to have a drag
54:27.760 -->
54:30.820show on Saturday brunches, right? Um, I'm working the door. I usually wasn't at the
54:31.320 -->
54:33.400door, at the front door, but it's me and another dude, we're on the sides
54:33.900 -->
54:36.720of the door, you know, next to each other. Uh, and we're talking, and the
54:37.220 -->
54:40.210drag show was fucking lit most of the time. Like, their performers were fucking awesome,
54:40.280 -->
54:43.253like funny and like really talented. And, uh,
54:43.654 -->
54:47.070there was one drag performer, she would do a thing
54:47.166 -->
54:51.480where she would, uh, get off stage with the microphone and then run
54:51.513 -->
54:54.528outside of the bar, run around the entire bar, and still singing,
54:54.624 -->
54:56.372and then come back into the bar, right? That was her whole thing.
54:56.628 -->
54:56.901Yeah.
54:57.222 -->
55:00.654So yeah, I'm there for the drag show, me and the
55:01.154 -->
55:04.150other security guard are just talking, we're just talking, you know, you know, just bullshitting,
55:04.182 -->
55:07.293you know, whatever. And, um, I guess she goes to get off stage to do
55:07.793 -->
55:11.646this, this gag And she starts running out and I, I'm like, I step
55:11.710 -->
55:15.005in, I'm not looking. So the, the door's to my back. So I step
55:15.505 -->
55:19.141in very slightly inside, you know, like where the doorway is. And she clips
55:19.189 -->
55:22.320me, she clips my shoulder and falls and
55:22.417 -->
55:22.804rolls,
55:25.887 -->
55:29.582rolls. She falls hard as fuck. Oh. She falls hard
55:29.614 -->
55:32.470as fuck, gets up, starts limping. She's now limping,
55:32.664 -->
55:36.260keeping the dick going. Does the
55:36.760 -->
55:39.920full lap, goes all the way around, goes inside, and I'm standing there. I feel
55:40.420 -->
55:43.100like shit this whole time, like, oh fuck, I cannot believe I just did that.
55:43.600 -->
55:46.720I'm feeling horrible. And then,
55:47.220 -->
55:49.580uh, this honestly might be the reason why they don't fuck with me, but I
55:50.080 -->
55:53.480feel horrible. I'm standing there and the whole time, like, I'm trying to have fun
55:53.980 -->
55:56.120at work now, and I'm like, man, I really feel horrible. I keep saying this
55:56.620 -->
56:00.280to the other security guard, and eventually security guard, he goes, he goes, hey man,
56:00.780 -->
56:03.140listen. That's a grown-ass man. He gonna be all right.
56:08.550 -->
56:12.240At the end of the day, that's a
56:12.740 -->
56:16.100grown-ass man. He'll be all right. You're right. That's a
56:16.600 -->
56:18.180good point.
56:19.800 -->
56:20.500It's crazy how
56:21.000 -->
56:24.300often, like, we just need to hear somebody say something like that. Yeah.
56:24.800 -->
56:27.220It's just like, oh, okay. Yeah. All right. That may have tore you up the
56:27.720 -->
56:28.840whole rest of the day. Right.
56:28.840 -->
56:30.560This performer is like my height and weight,
56:31.060 -->
56:34.520like 6'2, you know, 200. pounds. Like, this is the guy,
56:35.020 -->
56:40.940same size as me, man. Oh my God.
56:41.440 -->
56:44.640Yeah. And then that job, we, we ended up, uh,
56:45.140 -->
56:48.000we would call off randomly because we, we weren't really hired there. They would just
56:48.500 -->
56:48.779call us, right?
56:49.760 -->
56:51.660You didn't even really work there.
56:51.660 -->
56:52.040Yeah,
56:52.540 -->
56:54.580yeah, exactly. We had done it a few times. We just called or texted,
56:55.080 -->
56:57.620hey, we're not coming in. And one day we were just drinking at it on
56:58.120 -->
57:00.470like during the summer or something like that, and then in the daytime. And then
57:00.970 -->
57:03.470we were like, let's not go. And then they just never called us back again.
57:03.970 -->
57:05.790I was like, yeah, that's how it goes. That's how it goes.
57:09.330 -->
57:12.550That's kind of great. They just mutually decided like,
57:13.050 -->
57:13.470we don't need to keep doing this.
57:13.470 -->
57:14.350Yeah, we don't need to go back.
57:14.850 -->
57:16.070Yeah. That's, what are we doing?
57:16.070 -->
57:16.830Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
57:16.830 -->
57:18.390See, that's funny though, you mentioning
57:18.890 -->
57:21.470how there was multiple security guards for that event and most of 'em you hadn't
57:21.970 -->
57:22.280even seen before.
57:22.430 -->
57:22.670Yeah.
57:22.670 -->
57:24.750Because that's always the one thing. It's a nice, like,
57:25.250 -->
57:28.696and the movie I saw today, You know, there's the thing where the, one of
57:29.196 -->
57:32.951the assassins is dressed as like the bellhop or whatever at the hotel.
57:33.256 -->
57:33.433Uh-huh.
57:33.561 -->
57:35.665And you always just, a part of me is always just like,
57:36.933 -->
57:40.482wouldn't somebody be like, what, it's your first day?
57:40.706 -->
57:42.778Like, yeah, no one's suspicious.
57:42.826 -->
57:44.239Like, yeah, there's just
57:44.255 -->
57:47.707something kind of suspicious about it. But no,
57:48.124 -->
57:50.677it said that I thought about when I worked at the grocery store, like with
57:51.177 -->
57:51.865you and the security guards.
57:51.930 -->
57:52.150Yeah.
57:52.150 -->
57:54.490You're not asking 'em any background information. You're like,
57:54.990 -->
57:56.690all right, you got the same shirt on that I have. Right. So I guess
57:57.190 -->
57:58.300we're all, you know, like, what the fuck?
57:58.370 -->
58:00.510Right, right, exactly. Yeah, man.
58:01.010 -->
58:00.790Yeah.
58:00.790 -->
58:02.410It's so funny, man.
58:02.410 -->
58:04.310Yeah. I had jobs like that. Yeah. I mean,
58:04.810 -->
58:07.660like, I don't know, just like working in a movie theater and,
58:08.450 -->
58:11.810uh, that's where I learned, like, if you just walk confidently, you don't
58:12.310 -->
58:13.270have to pay for a movie ticket.
58:13.270 -->
58:14.970Oh yeah. You can go anywhere. And,
58:15.470 -->
58:17.370and as long as you look like you're supposed to be there, you, no one's
58:17.870 -->
58:19.832gonna ask Oh yeah, exactly.
58:20.078 -->
58:20.979Because that's what—
58:21.479 -->
58:25.018because I, as a worker, I would— I, I— that's when I realized
58:25.518 -->
58:27.830it. I was like, oh, I didn't even stop that guy. He just walked right
58:28.330 -->
58:31.467in. It's like, well, I got to start doing that, you know?
58:31.646 -->
58:34.264And then, yeah, I did. Yeah.
58:34.898 -->
58:38.102Yeah. Let's just see if they stop you. I mean, you got nothing to lose.
58:38.510 -->
58:41.583They stop you like, oh yeah, sorry, I forgot I had to buy a ticket.
58:43.822 -->
58:44.689Exactly.
58:45.090 -->
58:46.921Crazy. One of those days.
58:47.017 -->
58:47.804Exactly, man.
58:49.185 -->
58:50.790Uh, but yeah,
58:50.807 -->
58:53.905man. Um, yeah, just jobs.
58:54.259 -->
58:57.582Uh, but, um, well, yeah, I mean, I feel like, uh,
58:58.835 -->
58:59.365you feel good?
59:00.039 -->
59:01.870I feel great. How do you feel?
59:02.191 -->
59:04.744Well, good. I feel great too. Um,
59:05.900 -->
59:10.140I'm glad that we've moved past the Overall
59:10.640 -->
59:12.300feeling of being in over our heads, I guess.
59:12.300 -->
59:13.720Yeah, me too, man. I mean,
59:14.220 -->
59:16.940listen, I'm sure those, I'm sure they'll come. I'm sure more opportunities will come to
59:17.440 -->
59:19.500feeling over my head. Yes.
59:19.500 -->
59:20.870Oh yeah. It's, it never leaves,
59:21.220 -->
59:23.560but at least the specific examples that came to mind.
59:23.560 -->
59:24.540Yeah. Yeah.
59:24.540 -->
59:24.600We've,
59:25.100 -->
59:26.280we've passed those ones.
59:26.280 -->
59:26.820Passed those.
59:26.820 -->
59:28.240Right. So we'll do a follow-up in a couple
59:28.740 -->
59:32.140years. Yeah. So we can talk about the crazy shit that we were in over
59:32.640 -->
59:33.520our heads on in the future.
59:33.520 -->
59:33.660That's true.
59:33.660 -->
59:36.850But for now, I actually feel
59:37.350 -->
59:38.230fairly comfortable.
59:38.230 -->
59:39.770Good, good. Me too.
59:39.770 -->
59:41.430God forbid tomorrow's
59:41.930 -->
59:43.590going to be a disaster, of course, right?
59:43.590 -->
59:45.530As soon as tomorrow starts. Yeah,
59:46.030 -->
59:47.750no, no.
59:47.750 -->
59:49.470But anyway, yeah, man, thanks so much for coming
59:49.970 -->
59:52.930on. And, and where can people find you on social media and stuff?
59:53.430 -->
59:56.610Yeah, man, you can find me on Instagram. And what else do I have
59:57.110 -->
01:00:00.800on TikTok? I haven't been using as much lately, but sorry about that.
01:00:01.250 -->
01:00:05.040Instagram @therealairnmahn. Um, my YouTube channel, Aaron Monte Comedian,
01:00:05.160 -->
01:00:07.800just put out a special called Good Morning, Mr. Monte, if you ever want to
01:00:08.300 -->
01:00:11.240check that out. Um, also on— what else am I on? Instagram?
01:00:11.740 -->
01:00:14.840Twitter? Twitter? Nah, I'm not going on my Twitter. I don't be using that too
01:00:15.340 -->
01:00:17.500much. You could use it, it's all the same.
01:00:18.260 -->
01:00:21.950Any social media is @therealAaronMonte except for my YouTube, which is Aaron Monte Comedian.
01:00:22.180 -->
01:00:24.890Um, check out my YouTube special. And, uh, yeah, that's pretty much it.
01:00:25.780 -->
01:00:28.500All right, man. Well, yeah, thanks again, uh, for coming on.
01:00:28.958 -->
01:00:29.312Yeah, of course.
01:00:29.361 -->
01:00:29.989Thanks for having me, man.
01:00:30.908 -->
01:00:33.083That was the episode.
01:00:33.180 -->
01:00:35.307Thanks again for Aaron for coming on.
01:00:36.942 -->
01:00:40.411Really enjoyed chatting with him. I thought it was a great first episode back.
01:00:40.911 -->
01:00:45.347Kind of gives y'all a peek into what's
01:00:45.847 -->
01:00:49.424been going on in my life, namely that, like I said,
01:00:49.521 -->
01:00:53.210I am entering my 5th year of teaching high school
01:00:53.242 -->
01:00:57.293video production in South Central, and I found something that
01:00:58.433 -->
01:01:02.030Can be very stressful, but also very rewarding. I enjoy
01:01:02.079 -->
01:01:03.845working with the students and,
01:01:05.806 -->
01:01:10.066you know, helping them hopefully beyond just video production things,
01:01:10.340 -->
01:01:14.180because honestly, most of them aren't trying to do that as a career. So helping
01:01:14.680 -->
01:01:18.175them in other ways has been very rewarding, and it's great staying in touch with
01:01:18.675 -->
01:01:22.559former students. Who knows, maybe a former student or two is watching
01:01:22.607 -->
01:01:25.459right now. In which case, hello. But yeah,
01:01:25.555 -->
01:01:29.025after the last episode of this show— oh, by the way,
01:01:29.587 -->
01:01:33.073for those of you watching on YouTube or Apple Podcasts,
01:01:33.363 -->
01:01:36.913I guess I have the video on Apple Podcasts.
01:01:37.845 -->
01:01:41.556It's just me, by the way. So I'm not going to pretend
01:01:42.056 -->
01:01:45.347I've got a whole team working here. So if we're not—
01:01:45.636 -->
01:01:49.074if I'm— I'm not even going to say we're— if I'm not on
01:01:49.106 -->
01:01:53.018Apple Podcasts video yet, It will be soon because
01:01:53.308 -->
01:01:55.227it's exciting stuff, right?
01:01:57.000 -->
01:02:01.280If you're watching and you're wondering why my
01:02:01.409 -->
01:02:05.138background seems to be a machine
01:02:05.638 -->
01:02:09.289of some kind and various breakfast cereals as opposed to
01:02:09.789 -->
01:02:13.364lunch or dinner cereals, week 6 of our
01:02:13.477 -->
01:02:16.183kitchen renovation, supposed to take 2 weeks.
01:02:18.332 -->
01:02:21.881And the person doing it for us is a family friend. So,
01:02:22.025 -->
01:02:23.984you know, that never can go awry.
01:02:24.674 -->
01:02:25.445Awry? Awry.
01:02:26.441 -->
01:02:29.957He's doing a fantastic job. He's just treating it like he's doing us a favor.
01:02:30.487 -->
01:02:34.068So, you know, interesting. So that's
01:02:34.568 -->
01:02:38.242why my kitchen is in my office. These are the only kitchen
01:02:38.742 -->
01:02:41.341items I need. An ice maker that's not plugged in.
01:02:44.153 -->
01:02:47.226Collagen, red pepper, crushed red pepper, and cereals.
01:02:48.931 -->
01:02:51.151So that's, that's the explanation for that.
01:02:52.003 -->
01:02:54.715But yeah, since, since the episode, the last episode aired,
01:02:55.540 -->
01:02:58.695we were at the height of Black Lives Matter,
01:02:59.018 -->
01:03:02.432and I felt like we were just truly living in bad times, and I wasn't
01:03:02.932 -->
01:03:06.199really in the mood to find
01:03:06.393 -->
01:03:10.006the good stories in those times. So what was
01:03:10.506 -->
01:03:14.845supposed to just be a brief hiatus turned into soul
01:03:15.345 -->
01:03:18.904searching and decided that I'd always liked the idea of being a teacher.
01:03:19.691 -->
01:03:24.094What I was doing, what I'd come out here to do, I wasn't really connecting
01:03:24.110 -->
01:03:27.340with people. I was doing a lot of lonely editing work on things I wasn't
01:03:27.840 -->
01:03:31.368passionate about. And I was like, I want to be around people. So I got
01:03:31.645 -->
01:03:36.088my teaching credential and Yeah,
01:03:36.489 -->
01:03:40.307it was really bumpy at the beginning. And now
01:03:40.419 -->
01:03:43.692finally, uh, on year 5 of teaching, I feel like I finally
01:03:43.788 -->
01:03:47.542have a firm grasp on
01:03:47.574 -->
01:03:50.943that. I'm gonna have another panic attack now. Now that I
01:03:51.443 -->
01:03:55.049feel confident, oh, it's, it's all gonna go downhill. But I had time to do
01:03:55.499 -->
01:03:59.044this show, which I love doing. And, uh, hopefully we
01:03:59.544 -->
01:04:02.906can grow it together. That's the part that's not just me. If you
01:04:02.971 -->
01:04:07.004are watching or listening and you enjoy the show, please get
01:04:07.504 -->
01:04:11.053the word out. I know there are tons of podcasts. I'd like to think ours
01:04:11.166 -->
01:04:14.466is a little different in that we are
01:04:14.966 -->
01:04:17.264focusing on the bad times that make great stories.
01:04:18.486 -->
01:04:22.174So if anything in today's episode resonated with you or you just want to say
01:04:22.674 -->
01:04:25.700hello, you can always email us. I said us again.
01:04:26.072 -->
01:04:29.493It's so funny. We always I feel like you just want to pretend like
01:04:29.541 -->
01:04:32.915you're a bigger deal than you are. It's just me. I have no one
01:04:32.948 -->
01:04:36.572else. If you'd like to email me,
01:04:36.654 -->
01:04:38.731uh, it is badtimesgoodstoriespodcast@gmail.com.
01:04:42.292 -->
01:04:45.360Would love to hear from you. Uh, if you have a story you'd like me
01:04:45.860 -->
01:04:48.509to read on the air, go ahead. If you have a story you just want
01:04:48.525 -->
01:04:52.064to share with me and not read on the air, make that clear. But I'm
01:04:52.115 -->
01:04:56.214excited. We've got We, I have
01:04:56.295 -->
01:05:00.918a number of great guests coming up and I'm
01:05:01.418 -->
01:05:05.396excited. I'm excited. I'm excited to be back and I hope you enjoy
01:05:05.445 -->
01:05:08.798this episode and future episodes. And if
01:05:09.298 -->
01:05:12.555you're new, there's plenty of episodes to go back and listen to.
01:05:13.313 -->
01:05:17.477It is truly a passion of mine and I can't wait to see where
01:05:18.235 -->
01:05:21.957this takes us all. On this journey of embracing the
01:05:22.457 -->
01:05:26.055bad times. So until next time, I forget what I used
01:05:26.555 -->
01:05:29.688to say. So until next time,
01:05:29.784 -->
01:05:31.118I'll see you next time.