Speaker 1: Hello, holy shit, I'm actually on with GEK.
Speaker 2: What a baby? How you doing?
Speaker 3: What? Uh?
Speaker 2: I'm better now that you're here, sick. How's life, buddy?
Speaker 2: What's going on? Hit me? Hit me in the balls?
Speaker 2: Gets get crazy? Come on, baby, come on, come on man,
Speaker 2: hit me, sir, hit me, hit me, hit me.
Speaker 1: All right, So I figure I should talk about my
Speaker 1: codependency because that's what I talked to about with my
Speaker 1: actual therapist.
Speaker 2: Sure yeah, sure, sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So let's see. So I'm in recovery. I'm like
Speaker 1: five months clean off of fetanyl.
Speaker 2: Congrats, I thank you.
Speaker 1: I normally tell people my my drugs of choice are slow,
Speaker 1: which is sex, love, opiates, and women.
Speaker 2: Oh, I really only.
Speaker 1: Abstained from the opiates. And my therapist is like, I
Speaker 1: don't understand how you could literally say that you'd rather
Speaker 1: eat dog shit than do dope again, but you can't
Speaker 1: abstain from women. And I normally replied with the joke.
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, you know, it's hard when they just
Speaker 1: throw themselves at me. But I feel like like I
Speaker 1: grew up alone a lot, Like I was a latch
Speaker 1: tea kid, you know, like I make sure I was
Speaker 1: up in time for school, got home, did my homework,
Speaker 1: fed myself, showered, make sures in bed bird.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: So it's like I seek attention because I didn't have
Speaker 1: it as a kid, which I feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of people do. But yeah, what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2: What are my thoughts on that?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: My god? Uh slow interesting sex love, opiates women. Opiates
Speaker 2: feels like it's the odd one out of that acronym. Yeah,
Speaker 2: why opiates? Why is opiates finding itself in that acronym.
Speaker 1: Well, it's like I went, I went to rehab like
Speaker 1: for the opiates and then come to find out that,
Speaker 1: like my codependency was like a bigger issue, Like I'm
Speaker 1: addicted to attention.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what code the whole codependency thing? What does that
Speaker 2: look like? Really?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: What is how does that manifest itself? A codependency addiction?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: I like constantly like have to be talking to somebody,
Speaker 1: if not like multiple women, because I get that dopamine
Speaker 1: hit from the attention.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But on the like negative end of the spectrum, like
Speaker 1: if I get ghosted or like I don't hear back
Speaker 1: for a bit. It's like books at my day and
Speaker 1: it's like I could like a week or two ago,
Speaker 1: I went on this date, and uh, like I didn't
Speaker 1: hear back from this girl for like a couple of
Speaker 1: days before our date. It went really well, but like
Speaker 1: I was like really shitty. I was like, I'm too
Speaker 1: gorgeous to be ghosted?
Speaker 2: Is by the way? I can I just say this?
Speaker 2: And is this not? Like? Everyone? Is this not most people? Do?
Speaker 2: Most people not? And I'm not gonna I don't think
Speaker 2: most I don't think it's a universal experience to like
Speaker 2: need I mean, it is, of course a lot of
Speaker 2: people that are like want to be talking to multiple
Speaker 2: people at once, but a lot of people only want
Speaker 2: to be talking to one person at once. But it
Speaker 2: isn't that a kind of a universal experience to feel
Speaker 2: shitty when you've been ghosted?
Speaker 1: I feel like it is, you know.
Speaker 2: So why what do the opiates? Are the opiates just
Speaker 2: just a thing on the sidelines, or are they intertwined
Speaker 2: in the the sex and love?
Speaker 1: Well, It's like I feel like it was intertwined. Like
Speaker 1: I didn't realize it at the time, but after like
Speaker 1: going to treatment and stuff, It's like if I was
Speaker 1: able to get high and have that sense of ease
Speaker 1: and comfort, I didn't have to seek out attention.
Speaker 2: Interesting. Yeah, that makes sense. Hmmm mmm yeah. So it's
Speaker 2: like you're just kind of trying to fix some chemical,
Speaker 2: uh maladjustments in your brain, whether it be through drugs
Speaker 2: or through another person.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: Interesting, M And so how has it been being five
Speaker 2: months sober?
Speaker 1: It's pretty cool, Like my they call it like a
Speaker 1: pink cloud of early sobriety where you're like, fuck, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is the that's kind of coming gone, coming up
Speaker 1: some like half a year. So now it's just life.
Speaker 1: So I'm trying to live life on life terms. I
Speaker 1: do a lot of like volunteer work because they say
Speaker 1: that it's a good way to stay sober. I like
Speaker 1: help lead like heroin Anonymous meetings, which Heroin Anonymous just
Speaker 1: kind of encompasses.
Speaker 3: Like all opiates.
Speaker 1: And I do like aa like any sort of like
Speaker 1: anonymous program. I volunteer with the special needs like twice
Speaker 1: a month and once a week I go to pet
Speaker 1: COO and I volunteer with like the place where they
Speaker 1: have the like kitten adoptions. Hmm.
Speaker 2: That's that all sounds nice man. Yeah, have you been
Speaker 2: enjoying the five months of being sober?
Speaker 3: I have.
Speaker 1: I've made like a move to a new town I'm in.
Speaker 1: I'm in Prescott, Arizona. So it's all my friends up
Speaker 1: here are sober. You know, I don't know where to
Speaker 1: find dope up here. You know. Oh you uh new geography,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a new start. M hm.
Speaker 2: And what are you What does sobriety look like in
Speaker 2: terms of like sex, are you like upstanding from like
Speaker 2: having sex with anyone?
Speaker 1: So they call that emotional sobriety. So it's like anytime
Speaker 1: that I would like have sex with somebody, or even
Speaker 1: if I'm like talking to people, they call it acting
Speaker 1: out right. They have they have a sex and love
Speaker 1: addicts anonymous, which I went for a bit, and then
Speaker 1: this dude was talking about how he fox dogs and
Speaker 1: I was like, this is not I don't think this
Speaker 1: is for me.
Speaker 2: Wow, yeah, you know what's crazy? I bet And it's
Speaker 2: like kind of a something and I know this is
Speaker 2: probably an invasion of a sacred space, but uh, you
Speaker 2: know when a guy start when a guy is in
Speaker 2: a meeting and he starts talking about having sex with dogs,
Speaker 2: is everyone else in the meeting like oh shit? Even
Speaker 2: I am like that's the lot.
Speaker 1: I feel like they're thinking it, but you're not like
Speaker 1: supposed to like comment on something that's well, I mean,
Speaker 1: you'd like you can, but you can't like direct it
Speaker 1: at them. This is a cross cross like if I interrupt, ye,
Speaker 1: if I interrupt wh somebody's sharing, or if I go
Speaker 1: to my share and I'm like this, fuck, you know,
Speaker 1: we're like I've never you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Like, there's this comedian named there's this comedian named Greg
Speaker 2: Roguel and I think he did this joke on an
Speaker 2: episode of Louis or maybe I just saw him do
Speaker 2: the joke. I don't know, but he has this joke
Speaker 2: about Tiger Woods where he's like, you know, they're they're
Speaker 2: on the news calling Tiger Woods a sex addict. These
Speaker 2: were beautiful women he was having sex with. Now, if
Speaker 2: he was having sex with like a dead chicken, I'd
Speaker 2: be like, wow, that guy is addicted to sex.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: When when I went to treatment, they were asking me
Speaker 1: about like my sexuality and like promiscuity and stuff. I
Speaker 1: was like, well, I'm pan sexual, and I guess it's
Speaker 1: like you know, when it comes to like sleeping with somebody.
Speaker 1: I literally told my therapist, I'm like, if somebody's down
Speaker 1: to clown, we're going to the circus, you know, fucking interesting.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get mine, And she was like, I think
Speaker 1: you might be a sex addict.
Speaker 2: If someone is down to say that again, if someone
Speaker 2: is down to clown, I'm going to the circus.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: If somebody's down to clown, we're going to the circus.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean I've lived a lot of my life
Speaker 2: like that too. Does that make someone a sex addict?
Speaker 1: I mean, are you preoccupied with sex or like relationships?
Speaker 2: What is preoccupied? Man?
Speaker 1: Like, if you think about it often for more than
Speaker 1: like thirty seconds at a time.
Speaker 2: Do I think about sex for more than thirty seconds
Speaker 2: at a.
Speaker 1: Time multiple times throughout the day?
Speaker 2: Probably do? Is that not normal?
Speaker 1: I mean I thought it was.
Speaker 2: How many? What's defined multiple?
Speaker 1: I don't they like never told me like an exact number.
Speaker 1: But it's like, if I'm preoccupied with it.
Speaker 2: Is that? Well? You know what's about is the thing
Speaker 2: I saw some TikTok that was like, uh, humans are
Speaker 2: our only biological derivative is to have sex. I mean,
Speaker 2: if there was truly a god, like, the only actual
Speaker 2: meaning of life is to have sex. Like that's the
Speaker 2: only like inherent one, So it makes sense. Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: the only that's the thing that our bodies are hardwired
Speaker 2: to do, is to We're biological programmed for the meaning
Speaker 2: of life being to eat and to have sex and reproduce.
Speaker 2: That's our like biological hardware or whatever programming. So of
Speaker 2: course it's gonna take up, you know, a lot of
Speaker 2: brain space, is it not?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think? So?
Speaker 2: Are you thinking about sex right now?
Speaker 1: I mean we're talking about it.
Speaker 2: But like are you thinking yeah, well we're talking like,
Speaker 2: are you like thinking about it in like a horny way?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: No, okay, me neither, but I you know, I was.
Speaker 2: We are talking about it, yes, which is a step
Speaker 2: above thinking about something. Is talking about something. If I
Speaker 2: talked about sex multiple times a day all the time,
Speaker 2: that would probably be a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Hmm, okay, let me think, Let me think, Let me think,
Speaker 2: Let me think. So, what's the future plan for you, sir?
Speaker 1: The future plan?
Speaker 3: Hmm?
Speaker 1: Like just in general or like with this subject.
Speaker 2: Let's start start with with this subject and then we
Speaker 2: can go into general.
Speaker 1: So with this subject, I feel like it would be
Speaker 1: good for me each focus more on myself and not
Speaker 1: just like trying to get some tail or, you know,
Speaker 1: like trying to find somebody to to fill the hole
Speaker 1: within myself that I need to, ye know, do on
Speaker 1: my own. You know, like they say, you can't love
Speaker 1: somebody until you truly love yourself, because they come, they
Speaker 1: become like my whole world, Like I do the whole
Speaker 1: like insist treatment, which probably isn't a good thing because
Speaker 1: then it's like if they if I like, like if
Speaker 1: I lose them, I lose like a part of myself,
Speaker 1: which is a healthy.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I know, but like, isn't that fucking that's
Speaker 2: so stupid, you know. Uh, I'm I'm sorry to react
Speaker 2: so strongly, but uh yeah, but it's like, of course
Speaker 2: that's it's so it's the one thing. And I was
Speaker 2: talking about this, I was rantic about this on the
Speaker 2: podcast recently. But it's so stupid to be like that's
Speaker 2: not healthy because it's like, you know, it's like saying like, oh,
Speaker 2: if my wife died and left, if my wife left
Speaker 2: me or cheated on me or died, I would feel
Speaker 2: like losing a part of myself and that's not healthy.
Speaker 2: It's like, well, it's fucking yea, this is life, you know,
Speaker 2: it's supposed to I think, I think, I don't know,
Speaker 2: there's something about like therapy and about psycho whatever and
Speaker 2: about you know, there's something very sterile in all of this.
Speaker 2: Do you know what I mean? Do you are you
Speaker 2: picking up what I'm saying, Like I need to have
Speaker 2: a perfect emotional whatever with everything, And it's like life
Speaker 2: is not sterile. It's beyond our attempts to sterilize it
Speaker 2: with therapeutic whatever. That's at least how I feel in
Speaker 2: this moment. So I think it's I don't know if
Speaker 2: there is a correct way to love. There's things that
Speaker 2: are glaringly unhealthy and glaringly toxic, but then there's things
Speaker 2: that are just like, well, yeah, you form a connection
Speaker 2: with someone because of oxytocin or whatever, and when they
Speaker 2: are no longer there, it sucks, you know, And when
Speaker 2: they are there, it is good and there's no and
Speaker 2: a lot of the emotional sterilization is just attempting to
Speaker 2: tempting to avoid the sucks part. But yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: that's that that doesn't happen. You know, there's no reason
Speaker 2: to believe that you should be exempt from things occasionally sucking,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean, yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Guess what I would like an example it being unhealthy.
Speaker 1: So like I was with this girl for like four
Speaker 1: and a half years, and I was like saving up
Speaker 1: her ring and stuff and it didn't work out, you know,
Speaker 1: Like I was using at the time, and like she's
Speaker 1: just like I can't do this. She actually she like
Speaker 1: was prepared to leave me, and then like stayed with
Speaker 1: me like through like the first time that I tried
Speaker 1: to get sober, which shows like she actually really cared.
Speaker 1: And then when we ended up splitting up, I was
Speaker 1: gonna like use the money that I saved for the
Speaker 1: ring to go to Peru and go to like an
Speaker 1: Iowas to retreat, but before I got my passport, I
Speaker 1: releft m So it's like it's, you know, is somebody
Speaker 1: such a big part of you that you're gonna I
Speaker 1: don't know, self sabotage or you know what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like you like the concept of like you're filling
Speaker 2: a hole, and it's like, well, if it's not this lady,
Speaker 2: then it's gonna be fucking drugs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll fill the hole with another hole.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah. Uh it's weird, make it. I mean, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, we all I don't want to get to
Speaker 2: and I don't think that this is a bummer. But
Speaker 2: it's like, aren't we all kind of filling a hole?
Speaker 2: In some sense? Is in a lot? Is in a
Speaker 2: lot I'd love to have. I really would love to
Speaker 2: talk to more. Uh, you know, get alternative perspectives on
Speaker 2: this from you know, whatever philosophy douche bag people there are.
Speaker 2: But uh, I mean, isn't a lot of life filling
Speaker 2: a hole? I mean, like our like is having friends,
Speaker 2: Filling a hole is getting is achieving things. Filling a
Speaker 2: hole is like working out, filling a hole, having kids,
Speaker 2: having like like all these like positive things. It's all
Speaker 2: filling a hole of some kind. Yeah, everyone, Yeah, and
Speaker 2: and so I guess it's just about filling the hole
Speaker 2: with as much things that are considered positive instead of
Speaker 2: negative so that you look back on your life and
Speaker 2: you enjoy it. But yeah, you know it feels a
Speaker 2: little complicated. I guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah, life's the trip.
Speaker 2: What's your name again, Sterling? Sterling? Sterling, Sterling, Sterling? How
Speaker 2: did you feel about this phone call? Sterling?
Speaker 1: I was stoke that I actually got on mm hmm.
Speaker 2: You're you're you're a good guy, Sterling. I like you.
Speaker 2: You seem like a nice fella.
Speaker 1: Thank you Mike Boy's gig.
Speaker 2: Hmmm, I'm trying to is anything I'm trying to think
Speaker 2: if there's anything else? This was an interesting thing. Do
Speaker 2: you feel like you'll you'll be able to like have
Speaker 2: do you do you feel optimistic about your ability to
Speaker 2: kind of work on your sexual relationships and have them
Speaker 2: be more healthy to your to your definition?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so, Like if I actually try to
Speaker 1: start working on it.
Speaker 2: Would you ever have would you ever have sex with
Speaker 2: a dog?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: Okay, that's good. I don't think that's a good idea.
Speaker 2: I don't think that's a good thing to do. Is
Speaker 2: there anything else you want to say to the people
Speaker 2: of the computer before we go starling?
Speaker 1: Hmmm. It's better to be a dopeless hope addict than
Speaker 1: a dopeless than a hopeless dope addict, and don't do drugs. Oh?
Speaker 3: I like that?
Speaker 2: Say that way, hopeless. It's better to be a dopeless.
Speaker 1: A dopeless hope addict than a hopeless dope addict.
Speaker 2: A dopeless hope addict and a hopeless dope addict.
Speaker 3: I like that.
Speaker 2: I like that. She put down a shirt or a
Speaker 2: fucking bracelet or whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a bumper sicker.
Speaker 2: Thanks for calling Sterling. I appreciate you word.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Geck.
Speaker 2: They came in. Likewise, that was sterling slow sex love
Speaker 2: opiates women. I stole the feel like, Yeah, no, that
Speaker 2: all that all makes sense. I think it's bad to
Speaker 2: have sex with dogs. I'll say that on the record.
Speaker 4: Hello, Hello, where's your shirt?
Speaker 2: Where's my shirt?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Where's your shirt?
Speaker 2: Jessica? What's up? How you doing?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 2: How's life?
Speaker 4: I don't do one all right. I decided to call
Speaker 4: in today because I figured you'd be interested in my
Speaker 4: story on nineteen And to put it simply, I'm going blind.
Speaker 2: You're going blind?
Speaker 4: Yes, So, I have a rare genetic condition called Stargart disease.
Speaker 4: It affects one in ten thousand people worldwide, and it
Speaker 4: basically like I'm losing my central vision. So it's supposed
Speaker 4: to deteriorate over time until all I really have is peripheral.
Speaker 4: But my perferal vision could go to So.
Speaker 2: How do you know I'm not wearing like a skin color.
Speaker 4: Shirt because I have Well that's a good question. But anyway,
Speaker 4: I have a lot of functional vision at the moment,
Speaker 4: so I can see a lot of things, but I
Speaker 4: have a hard time reading, recognizing faces and things like that.
Speaker 2: You know, but what, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 4: The thing is I got bullied in high school because
Speaker 4: people didn't believe me.
Speaker 2: Whoa what.
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, people would say, oh, yeah, she
Speaker 4: pretends to be blind because my vision will fluctuate. Sometimes
Speaker 4: it's better, sometimes it's worse. And I would use a
Speaker 4: white cane to get around sometimes, and people say, oh, yeah,
Speaker 4: she doesn't use a cannel all the time. She's pretending
Speaker 4: to be blind, or like I knew her, you know,
Speaker 4: because I got diagnosed at thirteen. I didn't always know
Speaker 4: I was going blind. Something was wrong with my vision,
Speaker 4: but I didn't have the tools to help me. So
Speaker 4: people are like, yeah, I knew her before, and she
Speaker 4: wasn't blind before. People would step in front of me,
Speaker 4: throw things at me, you know, the usual.
Speaker 2: Wow, crazy crazy. So what are so? You're nineteen us?
Speaker 3: Are you?
Speaker 2: Are you going to school? Are you? What are you
Speaker 2: doing now? I assume you've graduated high school? Right? What
Speaker 2: are you doing now?
Speaker 4: Yeah? So I took a gap year to kind of
Speaker 4: figure out what I wanted to do, especially like things
Speaker 4: that I could do. I want to like two different
Speaker 4: Like I don't know if you ever hear there's like
Speaker 4: camps and stuff for people. I feel like there's like
Speaker 4: a camp for kids with epilepsy and shit like that.
Speaker 4: I went to two blind camps, camps for blind kids,
Speaker 4: and that's kind of where I found that I can
Speaker 4: be a nurse, which is something that I wanted to do.
Speaker 4: So I'm going into a nursing program in December.
Speaker 2: Cool. Cool? Yeah, is that something that you think your
Speaker 2: condition will affect your ability to do.
Speaker 1: In a way.
Speaker 4: I'm only going for my LPN, so that's a step
Speaker 4: above a CNA and a step below and aren So
Speaker 4: there might be some things that I won't be able
Speaker 4: to do, like give an IV or take blood, et cetera.
Speaker 4: But not all nurses that have to perform those functions.
Speaker 4: I mean you should know how. But as long as
Speaker 4: I get through the school, I spoke to someone from
Speaker 4: the board of nursing, as long as I graduate from
Speaker 4: the program, I can become a nurse.
Speaker 2: Cool. Cool hmm. So what's your situation like at home? Like,
Speaker 2: are your parents helping you out? And you like, is
Speaker 2: everyone supportive and whatnot?
Speaker 4: Yeah, my parents are very supportive, so are my brothers.
Speaker 4: You know, I can't drive, so My parents are always,
Speaker 4: you know, open to giving me rides wherever I need
Speaker 4: to go. I have a pretty good support system, I'd say,
Speaker 4: I have some blind friends to so that helps.
Speaker 2: Really, where'd you meet these other blind friends?
Speaker 4: Blind camp?
Speaker 2: Blind camp? What's I got to know everything about blind camp?
Speaker 4: Yes, I'd love to tell you. So the first one
Speaker 4: I went to, and I never knew this was a thing.
Speaker 4: So I got diagnosed when I was thirteen, and that
Speaker 4: was COVID. And then I went back to school and
Speaker 4: I had a vision teacher to teach me things like
Speaker 4: brail and whatnot. But she told me about these blind camps.
Speaker 4: I'm like, what on earth are you talking about? And
Speaker 4: I found out that through government funded organizations like the
Speaker 4: Center for the Blind and Visually Appaired at least that's
Speaker 4: what's in my state. I live in Pennsylvania every summer
Speaker 4: and there's a camp at the CBBI Center where kids
Speaker 4: go for free and we spend about like three weeks
Speaker 4: in dorms and we learn things like how to navigate
Speaker 4: the world, you know, with vision loss. So we learned
Speaker 4: kitchen skills, technology skills, communication skills, career skills, do some
Speaker 4: braille orientation and mobility, and also we do fun things
Speaker 4: on the weekend.
Speaker 2: What kinds of fun things do you guys do on
Speaker 2: the weekends?
Speaker 4: Oh my god, So I forget what the place is called.
Speaker 4: It's like you go and it's like it's called medieval Times.
Speaker 2: I think, oh, you guys, the medieval times.
Speaker 4: Yeah, some people were pissed off. The completely blind kids
Speaker 4: were kind of pissed off because they couldn't see anything,
Speaker 4: but the food was good.
Speaker 2: Well there, I mean, I mean, you know, what what
Speaker 2: do you what are you gonna do? I guess you
Speaker 2: could go to like a fucking orchestra or a concert
Speaker 2: or something something more auditory than Medieval Times. Yeah, the
Speaker 2: blind No, Actually, the blind kids have a point. They've
Speaker 2: got a point. What the fuck is the point. It's
Speaker 2: like saying, hey, we're gonna go I'll go see a
Speaker 2: movie or something.
Speaker 4: Oh we did?
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 4: Well, So for blind people, you can request special headphones
Speaker 4: that tell you what's going on in the movie. Every
Speaker 4: movie has it. It's called auditory description that you can
Speaker 4: turn on, so it tells you what's happening in the movie.
Speaker 2: Basically, Wow, No, okay, I knew about that, But is
Speaker 2: that like a thing that you just can go to
Speaker 2: any movie theater and request.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, my brother works at a movie theater too,
Speaker 4: so I mean, most of the time the headphones don't work,
Speaker 4: so I need someone next to me to tell me
Speaker 4: what's going on. But they do have that.
Speaker 2: M What movie did you see?
Speaker 4: It was the live action of the Little Mermaids. That's
Speaker 4: the one that I saw. We had two choices. I
Speaker 4: don't remember what the other choice was. I don't I
Speaker 4: don't remember what with that at the time, but that's
Speaker 4: what I decided to see. It was all right, it
Speaker 4: was good.
Speaker 2: Uh so, what did any drama ever go down in
Speaker 2: blind camp?
Speaker 4: This one necessarily no, But then one I went to
Speaker 4: at Penn State, we definitely had drama. So that was
Speaker 4: the following year. It was ten days long. You know,
Speaker 4: it's learning how to navigate college life. And my roommate
Speaker 4: was the most insufferable person. Insufferable person on this planet,
Speaker 4: I believe.
Speaker 2: Really.
Speaker 4: Okay, so my roommate, oh my god, her name is Ada,
Speaker 4: but she always told us to call her this name,
Speaker 4: and I don't remember what it was either. But at first,
Speaker 4: you know, we were all understanding that she's on the spectrum.
Speaker 4: I'm on the spectrum too, so I understand being socially awkward,
Speaker 4: not understand social cues and whatnot, maybe being a little annoying.
Speaker 4: But this girl pissed me off so bad. Okay, let
Speaker 4: me tell you one of the things that she did.
Speaker 4: I remember we were talking, so she has a lot
Speaker 4: of provisions, a lot worse than one. And I remember
Speaker 4: she was telling me, well, well, you're lucky. You're lucky
Speaker 4: you get to see better than me. You know that.
Speaker 4: Why would you say that to me? Why would you
Speaker 4: say that to me? I remember I was doing my
Speaker 4: makeup in the dorm and everyone's waiting on me. So
Speaker 4: my friend asked, hey, like, ado, where Jessica. She's like,
Speaker 4: she's putting on her face paint or whatever. I don't
Speaker 4: like makeup or something. I don't know. That wasn't all
Speaker 4: of it, though, I'm trying to remember, because I like
Speaker 4: the thing is, I remember that feeling of how irritating
Speaker 4: she was, but it's kind of hard to recall like
Speaker 4: everything that she did, so I'm gonna be.
Speaker 2: There are a hierarchy of in terms of like, like,
Speaker 2: are like the most popular kids at blind camp? Are
Speaker 2: they the more blind kids or the less blind kids?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 4: Who know the funny ones.
Speaker 2: The funny ones is there? There's no like uh uh
Speaker 2: cast system based on who is more or less blind.
Speaker 4: I mean, like some of us are, okay, not a
Speaker 4: social hierarchy. I got a little confused there. So some
Speaker 4: kids are more, some kids are completely blind, some kids
Speaker 4: can see shadows. It really depends. Some kids have spots
Speaker 4: in their vision, some kids have tunnel vision. Your vision,
Speaker 4: I think needs to be a certain amount of terrible
Speaker 4: to get in, and I get it. I got in
Speaker 4: both of them. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Mmm, do you still hang out with anyone from blind Camp?
Speaker 2: They still talk to any of them?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: Yeah, my friend Wendy, she's sleeping over tomorrow night. I
Speaker 4: believe she has a stigmatism, which is when you're like
Speaker 4: eyeballs or not shaped the right way, and the stagnus,
Speaker 4: which is when your eyeball is constantly like shake back
Speaker 4: and forth. So that's that's her blind story. But I
Speaker 4: only ever met one person with my disease, because it's
Speaker 4: that rare, because one in ten thousand. You hear that,
Speaker 4: but I looked it up because I'm terrible with statistics
Speaker 4: and numbers. That's point zero one percent of the population worldwide.
Speaker 4: Mm I you know, it's it's a it's a pretty
Speaker 4: lonely feeling. Not gonna lie, but you know, my friend
Speaker 4: Wendy's coming over tomorrow, so that's cool.
Speaker 3: Hm hmmm.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think if I have any other any
Speaker 2: other questions about blind Camp. Is it true that your
Speaker 2: other senses start to become stronger.
Speaker 4: Not unintentionally. You have to learn those things yourself. It's
Speaker 4: not like you go blind and suddenly you have a
Speaker 4: heightened sense of touch, smell, hearing. You have to learn
Speaker 4: to utilize those things in such a way on your own.
Speaker 2: And have you done that with any of your other senses?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I would touch. Learning brail is really hard because you, like,
Speaker 4: look at it, it is so small you can barely
Speaker 4: know what you're feeling. When I first started learning braille,
Speaker 4: I was like, what is this? What is this? Because
Speaker 4: I just couldn't tell what letter was what. It's actually
Speaker 4: really difficult, but eventually you get used to it. As
Speaker 4: far as me hearing goes, I can never tell what
Speaker 4: anyone's saying, but that's just because I suck at the
Speaker 4: auditory processing aspect of it.
Speaker 2: What do you want the people listening to this podcast
Speaker 2: to know about being blind? That maybe they haven't thought
Speaker 2: about before.
Speaker 4: I'm going to This is the part where I'm probably
Speaker 4: going to talk a lot. This is why I wanted
Speaker 4: to get on here. Oh okay, Yeah, so I did
Speaker 4: say that I got bullied in high school because people
Speaker 4: did not believe me. You don't understand my high school
Speaker 4: had thirty. Let me go back with this number, like
Speaker 4: it's a really big high school.
Speaker 2: Hold on, I'm sorry, your high school thirty? What?
Speaker 4: Hold on?
Speaker 3: Huh?
Speaker 4: I need to look at the exact because I'm on
Speaker 4: the spot right now, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thirty thirty thousand, no.
Speaker 4: Not thirty, Okay, three thousand, two hundred and ten students.
Speaker 2: That's pretty crazy for a high school. That it's a lot.
Speaker 4: And to feel like I had that entire school going
Speaker 4: up against me was a lot. I didn't know who
Speaker 4: I could trust. There was this one girl that I
Speaker 4: thought I trusted, you know, we grew up knowing each other.
Speaker 4: She had heard everything I had to say in class.
Speaker 4: I had this one class. It was a small class.
Speaker 4: It was like emotional support, math or something. I don't know. Anyways,
Speaker 4: she heard all the things that I had to deal with,
Speaker 4: and still she went behind my back and told people. Yeah,
Speaker 4: she actually does pretend to be blind. So I found
Speaker 4: her in the hallway one day and I was pissed off.
Speaker 4: I swung at her and well, I missed, And so
Speaker 4: you know, what does that tell you? Ignorance when it
Speaker 4: comes to disabilities like this can do a lot of damage.
Speaker 4: I in my senior year, I had really thought about
Speaker 4: taking my life because I couldn't deal with it anymore.
Speaker 4: The constant harassment, people going behind my back, who I
Speaker 4: thought I could trust in spreading this rumor. It was awful,
Speaker 4: It really was. I felt like I felt like an amusement,
Speaker 4: a circus class. People would laugh at me in the hallways,
Speaker 4: take pictures of me, take videos of me, like I
Speaker 4: was some zoo animal. It was. It was ridiculous.
Speaker 2: And how did you feel once you graduated a lot better?
Speaker 4: I didn't have to deal with that anymore. I mean,
Speaker 4: there's still people saying those things about me. But what
Speaker 4: am I gonna do? You know, I still live in
Speaker 4: my hometown. I'm only nineteen. I can't get away from
Speaker 4: these people. But I just I hope that one day
Speaker 4: these people that harass me will realize what they had
Speaker 4: done and that blindness is a spectrum. There are all
Speaker 4: different kinds of blindness. It's not you're blind or you're not,
Speaker 4: or you wear glasses or you don't. Right, I'm losing
Speaker 4: my central vision and that's something I have to live
Speaker 4: with on top of the bullying that I dealt with.
Speaker 2: Are you optimistic for the future in general?
Speaker 4: I definitely am great. I think my past might haunt
Speaker 4: me forever, but that's okay because going into this nursing program,
Speaker 4: I feel right about it. I feel like this might
Speaker 4: be the best thing for me.
Speaker 2: In what way do you feel like the past will
Speaker 2: haunt you forever?
Speaker 4: I graduated two years ago and I still think about
Speaker 4: it all the time. The bullying that I dealt with
Speaker 4: it was really bad. I mean, like I just every
Speaker 4: time I passed by I could hear people talking about
Speaker 4: Not every time, but you know, the paranoia that set
Speaker 4: in with these kinds of things, going around and feeling
Speaker 4: like no one would believe you. On top of being
Speaker 4: recently told that I was going blind. People didn't believe
Speaker 4: me and they were not nice sometime in trust me.
Speaker 4: Just things like that, there's emotions they stick with you
Speaker 4: for a long time.
Speaker 2: M Do you feel like you have a pretty good
Speaker 2: community with I mean, you know, both both your friends
Speaker 2: from blind Camp and other friends.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I do. I don't have a lot of friends
Speaker 4: outside of blind Camp. That is a whole nother story.
Speaker 4: I lost them my friends in high school. But yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean my blind friends are you know, people that
Speaker 4: I can fall back on, lean on. But I feel
Speaker 4: like no one else understands me.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 4: Pretty weird people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in what way?
Speaker 4: Okay? So between my boyfriend and I, my boyfriend's watching
Speaker 4: this live stream right now. Oh my god, say hi Eden,
Speaker 4: say hi to him? Please?
Speaker 2: Is he here?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: Oh? Does he want? He can say hi if he wants.
Speaker 4: No, I'll say, you say hi to him. He's watching
Speaker 4: the live stream.
Speaker 2: Oh wait, you said what you're saying me say hi
Speaker 2: to him?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I don't even. I don't even is he like here here?
Speaker 2: I mean, like, is he with next to you?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: Oh, well, if if he's next, I'll say, I don't
Speaker 2: know if he's next to you.
Speaker 4: It's okay. It's the privilege to be acknowledged by the gecko. Anyhow,
Speaker 4: the nine eleven jokes went crazy at the second line Camp.
Speaker 4: I want to I don't know what that was about
Speaker 4: to be honest, I feel like that.
Speaker 2: Go ahead.
Speaker 4: So when we first all met each other our first
Speaker 4: day at the Penn State camp, we have this objective.
Speaker 4: We all got got put into groups and we were
Speaker 4: given like these I don't remember what they're called. They're
Speaker 4: like rods and stuff. You put them in the whole
Speaker 4: kids play with them. It's it's really hard to explain,
Speaker 4: but if you saw it, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 4: But anyways, it's a group activity, who can build the
Speaker 4: tallest tower whatever. My group kind of got sidetracked and
Speaker 4: started building the twin towers, the plane and the Pentagon.
Speaker 2: Interesting. Interesting today? Get today? I get mad at you guys.
Speaker 1: No, I mean, no, you weren't even.
Speaker 2: Alive when nine to eleven happened.
Speaker 4: No, I was.
Speaker 2: You aren't even alive? Nope, I don't think. I don't
Speaker 2: think it was, are you. I don't think. Are you
Speaker 2: saying that nine to eleven wasn't your idea?
Speaker 4: Well, that wasn't my idea either.
Speaker 2: I think it was how did you meet your boyfriend?
Speaker 4: So he used to work at it nifty fifties? You
Speaker 4: know what that is? Right? He's little restaurant's supposed to
Speaker 4: be like the fifties or whatever.
Speaker 2: No, I know, I don't know a place called uh
Speaker 2: chea burger chea burger, but I don't know a nifty fifties.
Speaker 4: So it's basically like it's like imagine kind of like
Speaker 4: it's to sit in. It's like a burger joint, fast
Speaker 4: food place, kind of saying restaurant, but it's supposed to
Speaker 4: be themed like the fifties. Anyways, I went there with
Speaker 4: my friend Natalie, she's on my friend anymost fucked that bitch,
Speaker 4: but I'll get into that in a moment. But anyways,
Speaker 4: I saw him. He was my waiter, and I thought
Speaker 4: he was cute, like you know, he got He was
Speaker 4: close enough so I could actually see his face, and
Speaker 4: I thought he was cute. So I left my number
Speaker 4: and he texted me and we started going on dates
Speaker 4: from there. And it's like a year and a half later.
Speaker 2: So why don't you Why don't you like this lady
Speaker 2: that you just said you don't like?
Speaker 4: Oh my sorry, So Natalie, I remember in my second
Speaker 4: blind camp, I was flaming this bitch, but I decided
Speaker 4: to talk to her again after her mom died. But
Speaker 4: she when I say secret animas, So do you like
Speaker 4: some friends are not your friends. This girl was jealous
Speaker 4: of me before I met Aiden. I'd be talking to
Speaker 4: other guys and whatnot, and she would see if she
Speaker 4: could talk to them too, or she'd be like, oh
Speaker 4: my god, call lease share him.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, what will do?
Speaker 4: Is that appropriate behavior?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: And and this is a person who used to be
Speaker 2: your friends?
Speaker 4: Oh? Absolutely? I just like.
Speaker 2: And this is what? When when did you stop being
Speaker 2: friends with this girl? Like when you were seventeen or something?
Speaker 1: Then?
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, well listen, here's let me tell you something.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna act like a fucking
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go you know what. You know what, everyone,
Speaker 2: I'm going unk mode from now on, no more being,
Speaker 2: no more of this passive bullshit. I'm going straight up
Speaker 2: unk mode. I refuse to not Okay, here's what I'm
Speaker 2: gonna do. I'm gonna go uncomode. Listen, here's the thing
Speaker 2: you're gonna One day, You're gonna you're gonna be uh
Speaker 2: an old lady, and you're gonna realize that when you
Speaker 2: were seventeen, not only were you incredibly immature and stupid,
Speaker 2: but everyone around you was incredibly immature and stupid. Not
Speaker 2: your fault that you're incredibly immature and stupid, but the
Speaker 2: fault of the fact that you're seventeen and you're in
Speaker 2: high school. And so I'm gonna tell you something. You
Speaker 2: can either recognize that and let go of your anger now.
Speaker 2: You could do it when you're in your fifties, or
Speaker 2: you could hold on to it forever and die. So
Speaker 2: she is, yeah, do you still hang out with her?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 4: She she's two hours away now, but she keeps harassing
Speaker 4: me in any possible way she can find.
Speaker 2: What do you I don't what is she in your life?
Speaker 2: Or is she what do you mean? What do you mean?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Is she your friends?
Speaker 4: I don't want her to be my friend. She thinks
Speaker 4: we're friends, and that's like fucked up of me to do.
Speaker 2: I'm aware, Okay, all right, wow.
Speaker 4: So I finally stopped talking to her when she told
Speaker 4: me that she would never date a blind person. That's
Speaker 4: too far for her. She draws the line because she
Speaker 4: wants them to be able to see her and what
Speaker 4: she looks like.
Speaker 2: And she said, hold on, all right, all right, okay,
Speaker 2: I'll I'll let you finish.
Speaker 4: She said, I already have a hard time being friends
Speaker 4: with you because you're losing your vision, because I want
Speaker 4: you to see me. I have a hard time staying
Speaker 4: friends with you because of that.
Speaker 2: The second, that's a stupid thing to say, But saying
Speaker 2: that they want that, that she wants to not date
Speaker 2: another blind guy, it's totally fair. I'm gonna say that's
Speaker 2: totally fair.
Speaker 1: She said that to.
Speaker 4: The wrong person, you know, I it's okay to think that.
Speaker 4: Some I just felt as though that was an inside thought.
Speaker 2: I I feel like, if you're well, it's superb because
Speaker 2: I think if I were blind, i'd want to date
Speaker 2: a non blind person because too, if we're both blind,
Speaker 2: then you know you're the blind leading the blind. You
Speaker 2: know that expression absolutely at least one person. I think
Speaker 2: it's helpful. It's helpful for at least one person to
Speaker 2: not be blind. I think it's a it's a strong
Speaker 2: logistical play that she's talking about right now. I don't
Speaker 2: think she should be faulted for it, but I no,
Speaker 2: I agree it was a dick move to say that
Speaker 2: that you that she doesn't want to be friends with
Speaker 2: you because you're blind. That was a dick move. But
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know anything about this lady
Speaker 2: that you are friends with that you hate. She could
Speaker 2: be She's probably fine, she's probably fine. You're I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: She's probably fine.
Speaker 4: It's not that probably.
Speaker 2: But but but anyway, fuck, give me your name one
Speaker 2: more time. Jessica, Jessica. And and you know what, you're
Speaker 2: fine too. You're gonna go into medication and you can
Speaker 2: go into nursing. It's gonna be good. You know it'll
Speaker 2: be It'll be good, It'll be good. Well, what was
Speaker 2: your experience of this phone call? How did this phone
Speaker 2: call feel to you? Was this helpful in any way?
Speaker 2: Was this anything? Was this anything? I'm sorry, I'm today,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm today is a fucking weird ass to day
Speaker 2: and I'm and I'm just I don't know if I'm
Speaker 2: doing this well today, but I but I but I
Speaker 2: I'm doing it. Go ahead.
Speaker 4: You kind of put some things into perspective for me.
Speaker 4: As far as you know, my relationship with Nattalie, we're
Speaker 4: all fucking immature. In the end, it doesn't completely matter.
Speaker 4: I mean, as long as we are treating each other
Speaker 4: with basically respect, that that is what matters. At the
Speaker 4: end of the day. You know, it's not something to
Speaker 4: whip my head off over, you know.
Speaker 2: Okay, good, good, well, Jessica, is there anything else you
Speaker 2: want to say to the people as a computer before
Speaker 2: we go?
Speaker 4: Yeah, just you know, everyone be nice, to be nice
Speaker 4: to disable people. I feel like people are either overly
Speaker 4: nice or they are overly ignorant. You know, two things
Speaker 4: can be true at the same time. Also, but I
Speaker 4: just don't want someone else to go through what I
Speaker 4: went through as far as the bullying goes, you know,
Speaker 4: keep an open mind.
Speaker 2: Thank you for sharing your story with us, Jessica. I
Speaker 2: appreciate it great.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Bye bye.
Speaker 3: From Jared. Hello, Hello, what's up.
Speaker 2: How's it going?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 3: That's too bad? Honestly pretty good? Low key pretty good?
Speaker 2: Why is it going low key pretty good?
Speaker 3: I don't know, Like I would say, like, the past
Speaker 3: three years has been pretty great. I've had some pretty
Speaker 3: good opportunities to travel the world, and like I was
Speaker 3: actually recently able to accomplish a really big dream something
Speaker 3: that like I've been working towards two for the past
Speaker 3: like and I wanted to say, like three and a
Speaker 3: half four years.
Speaker 2: Oh shit, I lay it on us man.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, I mean, like the big dreams that like
Speaker 3: actually happened was I visited. I visited New York City
Speaker 3: like for the first time, like in twenty nineteen and
Speaker 3: ever since then, I was like, fuck, I need to
Speaker 3: be here, like this is like the place I want
Speaker 3: to live. And I recently got a job offered to
Speaker 3: start there in like June, and I was living there
Speaker 3: over the summer as well, and it was such a
Speaker 3: good experience.
Speaker 2: Cool, cool, cool, what what what job?
Speaker 3: I'm basically just another corporate live at a bank.
Speaker 2: You gonna get to live You're gonna get to live
Speaker 2: in New York.
Speaker 3: Though, Yeah, that's a big thing. It's it was like
Speaker 3: so surreal over the summer because it's like wow, like
Speaker 3: I finally accomplished this dream and like I yeah, I
Speaker 3: just was not something I actually expected to actually happen,
Speaker 3: because I don't know. But like right now, I'm just
Speaker 3: kind of like, I what else is the next That's
Speaker 3: kind of what I've been struggling with.
Speaker 2: Interesting, Okay, so well let's talk because where in New
Speaker 2: York are you?
Speaker 3: So right now? Actually right now, I'm not living in
Speaker 3: New York. I'll be in New York. I'll be back
Speaker 3: in New York like in the summer because right now,
Speaker 3: I'm in a grad program, so I'll be back when
Speaker 3: I once I finished your program.
Speaker 2: Oh wait, you'll be back. Oh wait, you're you're You're
Speaker 2: going to New York in the summer of next year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, like full time jobs. Yeah, and then this
Speaker 3: past I was in the city. Just do an internship
Speaker 3: over the summer.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, all right, so you are going to Okuess
Speaker 2: you don't live in New York, but you are guaranteed
Speaker 2: a job that will allow you to live in New
Speaker 2: York in about.
Speaker 3: A year exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, very cool. Where do you want to live there?
Speaker 3: It depends on the market, but like, ideally I would
Speaker 3: love to live in the East Village again because that
Speaker 3: was such a good experience for a few reasons. I mean,
Speaker 3: the restaurants a were great, the bar seiers there is great.
Speaker 3: The age there is a little too young for me maybe,
Speaker 3: but like I would STI love to live there.
Speaker 2: How old are you?
Speaker 3: I am in my late twenties, Okay, I remember when
Speaker 3: I first visit in East Village was like relatively I mean,
Speaker 3: I could be wrong, this is just from my own perspective,
Speaker 3: but like when I first was there, I felt like
Speaker 3: the East Village is more for like mid to late twenties,
Speaker 3: while like I don't know, neighborhoods maybe Murray Hill and
Speaker 3: like Hips Bay was more for like real post undergrad
Speaker 3: type vibes there. But now it's like getting younger and younger.
Speaker 3: I feel like, yeah, you think have you seen yeah,
Speaker 3: have you seen that in your experience so far?
Speaker 2: I totally. I mean there's certain parts, like a Lower
Speaker 2: east Side is like huge, you know, like a lot.
Speaker 2: I mean, like you know, NYU kids are all over
Speaker 2: the Lower east Side, But you know, I don't know.
Speaker 2: That's the funny thing, right, is because those kids, like
Speaker 2: I guess I don't know how many of them when
Speaker 2: they get out of like college age, are going to
Speaker 2: stay in New York City. So it seems like that
Speaker 2: it's just going to keep being like a rotating a
Speaker 2: batch of eighteen to twenty two year olds just kind
Speaker 2: of like coming in and out.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, that's I feel like that's always been like
Speaker 3: the tradition of like those specific neighborhoods in the city,
Speaker 3: just because like of how crazy it is, Like I know,
Speaker 3: there's like a big like controversial thing too of like
Speaker 3: how people are fluctuating, like you said there's a lot
Speaker 3: of turnover in the city because of like how hectic
Speaker 3: it is, and like you know, there's like a very
Speaker 3: few like real New Yorkers. But that's a whole different thing,
Speaker 3: I feel.
Speaker 2: Like, And you said that the past three years have
Speaker 2: been really really good. Why have the past three years
Speaker 2: been really really good?
Speaker 3: I've had some I mean, I consider myself really lucky
Speaker 3: and really blessed to have opportunities to travel the world.
Speaker 3: And like I get took my first year of trip
Speaker 3: back in like right when I graduated undergrad and like
Speaker 3: I've been addicted to go and like growing abroad and
Speaker 3: like seeing the world since then, and like every year
Speaker 3: I've had the opportunity to go abroad and it's been
Speaker 3: such a great experience. And like a few of the
Speaker 3: past two years I've been able to like build a
Speaker 3: multiple trips to different countries, so that's been like even
Speaker 3: even great, and like you know that on top of
Speaker 3: like you know, actually accomplishing dream, it's been like such
Speaker 3: a great time and like I don't know, the I
Speaker 3: just yeah, super appreciative of like what I've been able
Speaker 3: to see, the places I've been able to go. And
Speaker 3: then like I have plans to keep on traveling as well.
Speaker 2: Nice, Nice, Nice. Where else do you want to go?
Speaker 3: Actually my groad trip, I've been trying to plant it out.
Speaker 3: I want to go to Vietnam and Southeast Asia. I
Speaker 3: really want to do the I could be pronounced it incorrectly,
Speaker 3: but I really want to do the ha Gian Loop.
Speaker 3: I know it's like really popular, but like I've seen
Speaker 3: videos on like TikTok and Instagram. I's like I need
Speaker 3: to experience like that looks beautiful, Like that's something I
Speaker 3: just really want to go.
Speaker 2: Cool. Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I think, you know,
Speaker 2: of all the things that I the older I get
Speaker 2: and the more I've kind of achieved in my life,
Speaker 2: the more apathetic I actually become towards a lot of things.
Speaker 2: The amount of things that I truly care about has
Speaker 2: gone has gone down over the years, which which has
Speaker 2: pros and cons. I think that a man is rich
Speaker 2: in proportion to the amount of things he's he can
Speaker 2: afford to let alone. You know that phrase, Yeah, I
Speaker 2: kind of agree with that.
Speaker 3: I mean, like, yeah, the less you're able to care about,
Speaker 3: the more rich you are, just because like you can
Speaker 3: afford to not care about certain things. Is that kind
Speaker 3: of like what you're getting at.
Speaker 2: Well, a little bit, I was gonna say. But the
Speaker 2: thing that I'm like, I know for a fact I'm
Speaker 2: gonna want to keep doing this is traveling for sure.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think that's something I don't think
Speaker 2: I'll ever stop doing, at least until you know. I
Speaker 2: have a list of places that I still really want
Speaker 2: to go. There's probably a lot of places around the
Speaker 2: world that I'll die not having gone to. Like, I
Speaker 2: don't know, I mean, let me look at a map here.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna just start lifting. I'm just gonna start listing
Speaker 2: off countries that I never need to go to.
Speaker 3: I hope you don't put anybody off doing that.
Speaker 2: Well, it's not about I mean, like where I like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, am I ever going to go to Belarus?
Speaker 2: Maybe I'll go to Belarus, I don't know. I'm trying
Speaker 2: to find a country. I'm really trying to find a
Speaker 2: place from, Like I don't think I'm ever going to
Speaker 2: go there. I want to go to Alaska.
Speaker 3: What about like Antarctic?
Speaker 2: I would love to love to go to the Antarctic.
Speaker 2: I'll probably never go to Turkmenistan. I'll probably never go to.
Speaker 2: Uh actually, you know what. I'm looking at a map
Speaker 2: and I'm like, I actually the actually want to go
Speaker 2: to I want to go to Peru. I'm like, all right,
Speaker 2: there's actually not as many places as I thought that
Speaker 2: I would do that I'll die never going to because
Speaker 2: I want to keep going places exactly. I want to
Speaker 2: see what's I know, Russia is a whole thing right now,
Speaker 2: but maybe when they're not, it'd be it'd be interesting
Speaker 2: to see what's going on there. It's fucking huge, look
Speaker 2: at it.
Speaker 3: Yes, I have that conversation the end of day about Russia.
Speaker 3: I was like, you know, I would consider going there,
Speaker 3: maybe like a few years after conflict ends, but you know,
Speaker 3: who knows it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd like to see Moscow. It's just it just
Speaker 2: seems like such a interesting place where it's sucking cold
Speaker 2: and crazy and I don't know, I don't I don't
Speaker 2: know anything about it. I don't know any fucking thing
Speaker 2: about anything. But uh, yeah, I don't know. That's the
Speaker 2: one thing. Like there's a lot of things where I'm
Speaker 2: there's a lot of things where I'm like, I don't
Speaker 2: need to do that, you know, Yeah, I know, And
Speaker 2: I'm not just like in like whatever, skydiving or like
Speaker 2: when someone's like you got to go to this restaurant,
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'll I don't need to do that ever, ah,
Speaker 2: or like a party that is that I don't. There's
Speaker 2: a lot of things nowadays where I'm like, I just
Speaker 2: don't fucking need to do that. But the one thing
Speaker 2: I'll just continue to do is yeah, traveling and seeing stuff.
Speaker 2: So uh, I'm with you on that. I think that's
Speaker 2: just cool. So did I don't? Did I ask her
Speaker 2: already what places are all on your bucket list?
Speaker 3: No? But like right now would be like mostly Southeast Asia.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I haven't. I've been to almost I've been
Speaker 3: to like so, I've been to Europe, I've been to Asia,
Speaker 3: and I've been to South America and obviously live in
Speaker 3: North America, but like I just haven't been to Africa yet,
Speaker 3: which sucks because like I don't know when I'll be
Speaker 3: able to do that, like after I do this like
Speaker 3: Southeast Asia trip. It's just like I don't know where
Speaker 3: what attractions are cool and like you know, what would
Speaker 3: be like perfect, not like perfect, but like ideal, so
Speaker 3: like what I would want to see I was thinking
Speaker 3: about like maybe Mount Kilimandreuro, but I don't know when
Speaker 3: I want to do that, Like that's like different out
Speaker 3: of the priority list. But like right now, I'm like
Speaker 3: for my graduation trip after this grad program, well, I
Speaker 3: want to do like Vietnam on Thailand and maybe like Cambodia,
Speaker 3: just because like that's a really cool part of the world.
Speaker 2: I really want to see Cambodia. What's going on in Cambodia?
Speaker 3: Uh like incre Watt. I think, yeah, it's like super remote,
Speaker 3: like really ancient, like a lot of history, and it's
Speaker 3: like definitely one of the bucket less items I want
Speaker 3: to see.
Speaker 2: Mmmmm. So what is it that attracted you so much
Speaker 2: to New York that you're so stoked about living here?
Speaker 3: That's a great question. It's pretty much everybody has asked
Speaker 3: me that, because like you can get from people from
Speaker 3: different broads of the spectrum of like loving the city
Speaker 3: life and like just have no idea or like have
Speaker 3: zero desire to live in any kind of city. It's like,
Speaker 3: so I don't know, like I went't there like right
Speaker 3: after like a graduate like undergrad, and I think it's
Speaker 3: just like it's reminded me so much of a college
Speaker 3: campus where it's like it's super lively, there's public transportation,
Speaker 3: and there's always something going on. I think that's like
Speaker 3: the main draw of it for me. I've been around
Speaker 3: like obviously I was talking about like being around the
Speaker 3: world and stuff, but like and there's last cities around
Speaker 3: Europe and Asia like that, but like, I don't know,
Speaker 3: there's just like no city that I've been to that
Speaker 3: has made me feel that I have about New York.
Speaker 3: It's really weird. But I also have like this crazy
Speaker 3: not like crazy experience, but interesting experience. It was summer.
Speaker 3: It's where I was like, I don't know where It's
Speaker 3: just like I definitely to come back then.
Speaker 2: What what was the experience?
Speaker 3: This is actually one of the main things I wanted
Speaker 3: to talk about calling in So this is like I
Speaker 3: don't know, it's a crazy it's kind of a crazy story.
Speaker 3: I guess, I guess depending on how you ask. But
Speaker 3: there I'm like kind of like connected with this girl.
Speaker 3: This girl that like like our parents know each other,
Speaker 3: and like we've known about each other since we were kids.
Speaker 3: My parents like worked for her parents at a restaurant,
Speaker 3: and like ever since then we know each other. We
Speaker 3: known about each other. We went to the same middle school,
Speaker 3: high school, and college, and we never talked until like
Speaker 3: this past summer where like, you know, she hit me up.
Speaker 3: She saw that like I was living in the city
Speaker 3: and like we actually connected and actually, like you know,
Speaker 3: I was like, wow, this guy girl is actually really cool.
Speaker 3: You know, we're from She's also from the same hometown
Speaker 3: as me, not in the US, So there's also that
Speaker 3: crazy thing like we speak the same language, our native languages,
Speaker 3: and like, I don't know, it just looked really crazy
Speaker 3: how that kind of works out. And like ever since,
Speaker 3: like we went on like if we hung out a
Speaker 3: few times, and I was like, well, I haven't felt
Speaker 3: this way about a person in a very very long time.
Speaker 3: And I'm just like unfortunately, I have the leaves and
Speaker 3: go back to school and I'll be back in a year.
Speaker 3: Like so yeah, like I'm just I don't know. For me,
Speaker 3: it's like it sucks about how that happened, but like
Speaker 3: that's such a crazy like thing for life to happen
Speaker 3: that way as well.
Speaker 4: Hmmm.
Speaker 2: Hmmm, for life to happen in what way.
Speaker 3: Like it's I don't know, like more so just like
Speaker 3: you know, we've known about each other for so long
Speaker 3: and then like we never talked until recently when we're
Speaker 3: like adults. It felt like, I don't know, it's like
Speaker 3: a weird thing that like I might be just playing
Speaker 3: it up too much in my head, but I don't know.
Speaker 3: I felt like it's I felt like it was such
Speaker 3: like a romantic thing, like kind of low key like
Speaker 3: movie scirits. Don't want to sound corny about or anything.
Speaker 2: Where do you live currently.
Speaker 3: Right now? I live in North Carolina?
Speaker 2: Okay, well with city in North Carolina. Uh.
Speaker 3: I live in the like Raleigh Durham area.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, So how are you biding your time between
Speaker 2: now and when you go back to New York.
Speaker 3: Honestly, I've I've just been kind of chilling, just hanging
Speaker 3: out with my friends. Really, Like I've like since I
Speaker 3: have like a job offer after the grad program, I
Speaker 3: like don't really have to do too much anymore since
Speaker 3: last year is mostly dedicated to trying to find a job.
Speaker 3: So right now, I've just been kind of like chilling
Speaker 3: and like I really put a big emphasis on like
Speaker 3: enjoying them now because, like like I said, like the
Speaker 3: past couple of years, my life's been dedicated trying to
Speaker 3: get to New York and try and just like looking
Speaker 3: forward to that. But now that that's done and I've
Speaker 3: like achieved that, I just need to like I like
Speaker 3: kind of remember reminding myself and it's like I'm in
Speaker 3: grad school right now that like this is a very
Speaker 3: unique position that like I'm probably never going to go
Speaker 3: back to schools for this, So I need to enjoy
Speaker 3: being in college. I need to be joy or into
Speaker 3: like in a college town being surrounded by like my
Speaker 3: friends are like within like such a close distance, because
Speaker 3: I know after this, it's not going to be like
Speaker 3: this ever again.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, Yeah, that's the weird I mean, that's the
Speaker 2: weird thing about life is that it's very transient, and
Speaker 2: you try to make sure that you can enjoy things
Speaker 2: while you can. But also how do I say this, Like, uh,
Speaker 2: whether you enjoy it or you don't enjoy it, it passes anyway,
Speaker 2: so I guess might as well enjoy it. Yeah, can
Speaker 2: You can never you can never hold on to anything.
Speaker 2: It always escapes your grip.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's I started to realize that pretty off,
Speaker 3: like relatively often when I was like being abroad and
Speaker 3: I realized, like Wow, this is a great moment, but
Speaker 3: it's you know, obviously it's not gonna last forever. I
Speaker 3: need to like just enjoy it and not worry about
Speaker 3: it at all.
Speaker 2: What do you say your name was, sir?
Speaker 3: I don't remember what I put when I first called in,
Speaker 3: but we'll just go with Jared.
Speaker 2: Jared, Jared, was there anything else that you wanted to
Speaker 2: talk about today before we go?
Speaker 3: No, Man, I honestly really appreciate your time. I mean,
Speaker 3: I've been listening to you since like I don't know,
Speaker 3: very like twenty twenty one, so it's been pretty surreal.
Speaker 3: I actually finally got on and like, I really enjoyed
Speaker 3: talking to you. It was great and like such a
Speaker 3: cool experience.
Speaker 2: Thanks brother. Hopefully, you know, I don't know what the
Speaker 2: future is like for me and my live stuff, but
Speaker 2: you know, hopefully i'll get something going next year in
Speaker 2: New York and you can come through. It'll be fun.
Speaker 3: Hell yeah, I would love that. I will be there
Speaker 3: if you do something in New York.
Speaker 2: Beautiful, beautiful, take care, Jared, Good luck, Man.
Speaker 3: Thank you, gex I'll see you.
Speaker 2: See you.
Speaker 3: Man goes on the line. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Just teaching you an expert