00:00:04
All right, Mia, we're here. Welcome to
00:00:05
the Exhomeschoolers Club. Hi. Thank you
00:00:08
for having me. Uh, it is it is a
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pleasure to have you. Oh my gosh, it has
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been we were talking before we hit
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record. It has been a number of years
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since I've seen you. You for for
00:00:18
audience members who don't know, you are
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the younger sister of Derry, who was
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like my third interview on this or my
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third episode on this podcast and like
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my best friend growing up. Um, and then
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your mom has also been on the podcast
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and uh, and now I get to talk to you and
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I'm so stoked because I we haven't
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talked in like a decade. So, I'm I'm
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pumped to get your experience.
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Yeah, it's super cool to be here. I love
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it's really cool to see the like very
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very varied experiences from people
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where I'm like I thought I had a pretty
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similar experience to certain people but
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then I hear their point of view and I'm
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like oh we had an entirely different
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like experience with this. Yeah. No,
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that's been the coolest part about this
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show is like getting to chat with all of
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you and and learning about all these
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like behind the-scen things that were
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happening and how they shape like
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whether you think of it as like good or
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bad or like just overall your
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experience. So, so with that, I'm going
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to turn it over to you for a few minutes
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and kind of walk me through like a day
00:01:19
in the life of Beia Brooks growing up in
00:01:22
the Brooks household of like what was a
00:01:24
day in the life of homeschool looking
00:01:26
like? Well, I feel like for if you asked
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any of my other siblings, like each of
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us would have a very different telling
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of it, I think, because most we're I
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think about each
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like two or to three years apart. So,
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kind of each of us had a different like
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era of parenting. Yeah. Um definitely my
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older siblings experiences were very
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different from mine. Um, but our
00:01:54
homeschooling was a little bit less
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structured than a lot of the people in
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our like homeschooling community that I
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knew. Um, I know a lot of kids had like
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certain programs or like a certain
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curriculum that they like did everything
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from one. I know my mom talked about
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that a little bit already.
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Um, but we kind of switched between
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stuff a lot and so my older siblings had
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certain curriculums that like by the
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time it got to me where I was taking
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that subject, it was like we're not
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using that anymore. Yeah. Um, it but it
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was very
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um self-paced. I think because I'm the
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youngest, I kind of got kind of the less
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structured like the we're almost done.
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we just got to finish with this last
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kid. Kind of a little bit less
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structured stuff. Um which I think kind
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of worked to my advantage. I was very um
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kind of just like show me how to do
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something and I'm going to get it done
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so I can be done with it. Yeah, exactly.
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It's kind of that whole like mentality.
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I just interviewed someone earlier this
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week who was talking about they did a
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semester in high school back in like a
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private or public school and they were
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talking about how they were like it was
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it wasn't that the teaching was bad but
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the the waste of time they're like I
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could have done everything that I needed
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to do for the day in two to three hours
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and so I felt just like trapped in this
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space and I wanted to like go play
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sports and I wanted to go do other stuff
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and I think that can it can be one of
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the strengths of homeschooling is that
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ability right to kind of be like, I set
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my own pace. Yeah. So, yeah, mom and dad
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hand over the textbooks and boom, I'm
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like, I'm off to the races. Let's go. I
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know. That was like that was a really
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crazy thing as a kid seeing like my
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public school friends. It basically is
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like having a full-time job as a kid.
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Yes. Like, it's really takes so much of
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your time for something that is so
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like I don't know. I feel like learning
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really isn't something where you can be
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like, "Okay, we're going to be in this
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building and learn for eight hours." I'm
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like I think most people, obviously this
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is coming from me not having a great
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attention span, but like I think for a
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lot of people after a few hours there's
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like a certain cap where it's like it's
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probably not beneficial that we're still
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trying to like cram more information in
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our brains where it just I don't know.
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It's so crazy like seeing that because
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that was so opposite from what I had.
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No, I I 100% agree with you. It's it's
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one of those things that's interesting
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even like working for myself because
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it's like homechool in a lot of ways
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where like I get to set the hours there.
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There's there's good and bads to it
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where it's like I set the hours for like
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what when I get to do stuff and when I
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work on projects and whatever, but I can
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if I'm feeling motivated to do it at
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midnight, I'll do it at midnight, you
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know? Um, but yeah, but we hit that
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slump like you were talking about that
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like kind of like you look at something
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for so long and then you're just like I
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even if your brain is like I don't want
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to say wired normally, but like that
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like if you don't have a neurode
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divergent brain, you like you you still
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after a couple hours are like I'm
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burning out of this thing, you know? Um,
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I need like a break kind of a thing. So,
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I do want to kind of touch on cuz
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like you obviously like thrived to some
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degree like having that
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unstructured feeling, work at my own
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pace because by 14 you were already like
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going to college level classes and doing
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that. So, talk to me about that and talk
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to me about like how that kind of came
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to be of like, okay, like mom and dad
00:05:34
are ready to not ship me off to college,
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but like I'm going to community college.
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I'm going to start taking higher level
00:05:39
education classes. Like what did that
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look like?
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Well, a few of my older siblings had
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done some they didn't do as much um like
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while they were still in high school,
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but all of my siblings had gone to BC.
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Um and so I
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already I already knew of people doing
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it. I don't I don't I'm like trying to
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remember now if it was even my like it
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wasn't really my mom. She didn't really
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have that as the plan for me to do that.
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I think it just kind of came about that
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I happened to. Um, the first class I
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took was like one of
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the combined classes where it was like
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two semesters in one. So, it was like a
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longer class and I think it was like
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three days a week or something. Um, but
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it was I think algebra 1 and algebra 2
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together.
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Um, and at the time, which of course
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they change all the requirements of
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stuff at community college as soon as
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you leave. So like now it's not a
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prerequisite, but back then it was a
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prerequisite. Like you had to take it no
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matter what if you were going to take
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any other advanced math. So Calie was
00:06:52
taking at the time for her like she was
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already out of high school. She was like
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actually doing it for her college
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degree. Um, and that was like about the
00:07:02
time I would have been taking algebra 1
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and two anyways. So, I did that class
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with her and that was a semester and it
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definitely was
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very I don't know, it definitely was
00:07:13
hard because it was an advanced class.
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Um, it was definitely helpful being in
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the class with a sibling, but honestly,
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my reaction at the time going into
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community college was just
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like everyone was so
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immature where I was like, this is like
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not serious at all. Like the teachers at
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in my classes took stuff way less
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seriously than like some of the teachers
00:07:43
at Group Solutions did who like most
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most of them weren't even actual
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teachers. Right. There
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there was a I don't know. It was
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interesting because I had obviously had
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like the social dynamics of a classroom
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before, but only with other
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homeschoolers,
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right? Which like
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we're a bunch of weird to Yeah. To a
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certain degree it is a lot of strange
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people. So, like you kind of don't have
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to be you're not as aware of being
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different or being weird or anything
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when you are used to being around a lot
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of weird people, but um it was
00:08:28
definitely very interesting. I thought I
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was going to
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feel very like young and like be able to
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kind of not keep up or that. But I
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really had like the opposite experience
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where I was like a lot of these college
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age students that I'm interacting with
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are
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like really not even in the same phase
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of life as me when they're like full
00:08:53
adults already. The the college thing is
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so interesting because I immediate I
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didn't ever do classes at VC. I just
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immediately went to college, like
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four-year university.
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And so it was it was interesting, but my
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sister did community college and and
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things like that. And so, but it was
00:09:10
interesting to compare notes with her on
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like the difference in the way
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classrooms are run because like
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four-year universities 10 or at least
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the one I went to, everyone who was in
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the classroom was like 18 to 22ish.
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There was a few master students who
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would have been older and there was a
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few people who were coming back and
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getting their degrees as like 30 year
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old adults and things like that, but for
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the majority of the students, it was all
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like that 18 to 22 year range. Um, and
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then my sister would talk about going to
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college and she would be like, "Oh yeah,
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we've got people from the age of 16 all
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the way into like their 50s because
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community college obviously is a lot
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more accessible to more people." Um, but
00:09:53
even for someone who like like she would
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work with people in their 50s, but right
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who were like, I never got a degree.
00:10:00
It's just something I've always wanted
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to do. I'm going back and getting it
00:10:03
now. Right. And so you've got that weird
00:10:05
it is a very wide mix of people who are
00:10:08
on all different walks of life. But to
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your point, you kind of are all in the
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same place to some degree because you're
00:10:14
like, I got to do algebra 1 or, you
00:10:16
know, whatever this class is. like I
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need this information to get, you know,
00:10:20
the next step in my career. Um it's just
00:10:24
an it's so wild to me how community
00:10:26
college operates and like looking at it
00:10:29
and like especially you being 14 being
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in the classroom. If I was 18 going to
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I'd be like what this kid is a genius.
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I know. I like I think at the time I
00:10:41
really I know it's a definitely a common
00:10:44
experience for a lot of like neurody
00:10:45
divergent kids where you kind of feel
00:10:48
older than you are at a young age
00:10:51
because you're kind of sensing the
00:10:53
differences in yourself. Um but really
00:10:57
it's not necessarily a sign of maturity
00:10:59
because I I really don't think I was
00:11:01
much more mature than my peers. I think
00:11:04
maybe I just had a certain understanding
00:11:06
of being different from people and
00:11:10
usually that doesn't come till you're
00:11:11
older, I guess. I don't know. Um, but
00:11:15
like I look back and I remember at the
00:11:17
time being like, "Yeah, these guys
00:11:19
sitting next to me probably think that
00:11:20
I'm 18 and I'm the same age as them."
00:11:23
But then I like look I look at pictures
00:11:25
of myself when I was 14. I was like, "Oh
00:11:27
my word." Like I was a little kid very
00:11:31
obviously. And I'm very grateful that
00:11:33
like for the most part people did like
00:11:36
notice that I was young and they like
00:11:38
didn't talk to me because they didn't
00:11:40
want to seem weird which honestly I was
00:11:42
grateful for but there was you know
00:11:44
there was other high school students
00:11:46
too. So did you do uh VC classes all
00:11:50
through I guess I mean 14 to 18 would be
00:11:53
your high school years but were you
00:11:55
doing VC classes that entire time? Yeah,
00:11:57
I started with just the one the first
00:11:59
semester I just did that one. Um, and
00:12:02
then the next year I did maybe like one
00:12:06
or two, but then like the last two years
00:12:08
of high school I pretty much was only
00:12:11
doing BC because it was counting for my
00:12:16
like towards my high school diploma and
00:12:18
towards like my associates
00:12:20
um at the same time. So I pretty much
00:12:23
was only and at that point I was the
00:12:25
youngest kid. So, it was kind of like
00:12:28
all of my other siblings were already
00:12:31
graduated. My mom like I don't know. It
00:12:35
just seems kind of like I'm already
00:12:36
doing classes. I might as well just
00:12:39
finish. So, I did Yeah. The last two
00:12:42
years I basically was mainly doing that.
00:12:46
Um, and I took like about like three
00:12:49
classes a semester, I think. And then I
00:12:52
ended up only having one more semester
00:12:54
after I gradu after I graduated.
00:12:57
to uh finish my associates. Okay. Well,
00:13:01
that's kind of nice. Done it like 18, 19
00:13:05
years old. That's like kind of nice. Did
00:13:07
you
00:13:08
have Associates degrees are kind of a um
00:13:12
an enigma to me to some degree because
00:13:14
like obviously like with a a bachelor's
00:13:16
like you have a very like you have an I
00:13:18
have a bachelor's I have a I have a
00:13:20
bachelor of science in music in music
00:13:22
business which so I I tell people I have
00:13:24
a BS degree.
00:13:26
Um, but like is are AA degrees kind of
00:13:30
similar where you set an emphasis of
00:13:32
like, hey, I'm going I'm focusing on
00:13:33
this area or are they more
00:13:36
um I don't want to say generic, but like
00:13:39
I know a lot of people use them to then
00:13:40
go on to do like a four a bachelor's
00:13:42
degree program. Um, mine so it's kind of
00:13:47
either it's just kind of whatever what
00:13:49
you want. Um, okay. Like you totally can
00:13:53
do like a specific major where you are
00:13:57
mainly doing classes in that and then
00:13:58
that's like your major and it your
00:14:00
degree will actually mean something kind
00:14:02
of mine is just um associates of arts
00:14:06
and science or arts and humanities which
00:14:08
basically just means I have no clue why
00:14:11
it's called that because I took two art
00:14:14
classes in the entire time and it was
00:14:17
because I was interested in it not even
00:14:18
because I necessarily had to take
00:14:21
And I don't think I took a single
00:14:22
humanities class, so I'm not sure why
00:14:25
it's called that, but
00:14:28
uh yeah, associates of arts and
00:14:30
humanities. I it basically was just all
00:14:32
of the classes that I needed to graduate
00:14:35
high school, and it's like all of the
00:14:38
general ed that you need to like do any
00:14:40
degree basically. So, I have like my
00:14:42
AAT, which is like the associates and
00:14:45
the stuff that you need to be able to
00:14:46
transfer to a 4-year, which I never did,
00:14:49
but I have it. Yeah, it's ready. It's
00:14:53
locked and loaded if you if you choose
00:14:55
to go that path, which is kind of nice.
00:14:57
Um yeah,
00:14:59
I it's so interesting because um in high
00:15:04
school, I want to say I was 14 or
00:15:06
whatever where I first started to learn
00:15:08
about like the dual credit kind of thing
00:15:11
like you're talking about, right? It's
00:15:12
like counts for high school, but it also
00:15:14
can go count towards your college, which
00:15:16
like made a lot of sense to me cuz I'm
00:15:17
like why take a class twice if I can if
00:15:20
I can only take it once and be done with
00:15:22
it kind of a deal. But I never, like I
00:15:24
said, I never took community college
00:15:25
classes. I but I tested out of a lot of
00:15:27
stuff and so I did um club exams and
00:15:32
that was super helpful when I got to
00:15:33
college because I ended up only needing
00:15:35
to do three years of college because I
00:15:36
just I was like I did a couple club
00:15:38
exams. I worked all through the summer
00:15:40
on school stuff like I I was just like I
00:15:43
as soon as I got there I was like I want
00:15:45
out of this. I don't school right I
00:15:48
thrive in that environment but I also
00:15:49
was just like I don't want to do this
00:15:51
anymore. Like I I want a job. I want to
00:15:53
like go make money. That kind of a
00:15:54
thing. But
00:15:56
Um, yeah. So, anyway, not to not to harp
00:16:00
too much on me because the show is not
00:16:01
about me, it's about you. Um, but so,
00:16:05
okay, so we're talk So, you graduate
00:16:08
you're 18ish, 18, 19. You've got your I
00:16:12
actually,
00:16:14
sorry, I actually was I graduated a year
00:16:17
early technically for my like age. Um, I
00:16:21
skipped a grade at some point. I don't
00:16:24
know what grade it was, but it was like
00:16:26
somewhere in the like second, third
00:16:28
grade, I think. And I just like whatever
00:16:31
the testing was at the time that you
00:16:33
like could do to test out of a grade or,
00:16:36
you know, skip a grade or whatever. Um,
00:16:38
I skipped a grade. So, I was a year
00:16:40
younger than like the class that I was
00:16:43
in. So, I was 16 and a half or Oh my
00:16:47
gosh. Yeah. or Yeah. Yeah. I was almost
00:16:49
17 when I graduated or or I turned 17
00:16:53
right after I graduated and then I had
00:16:55
the one semester after. So I really was
00:16:59
only almost 18 when I was done with high
00:17:02
school and college. Yeah. So what was So
00:17:07
at that point I mean okay so you're 17
00:17:10
you're kind of like you said you're kind
00:17:12
of done. What what is going through your
00:17:14
brain of like you know were you thinking
00:17:16
about okay now I I want to go do a
00:17:19
bigger degree or I want to get a job or
00:17:21
I want to like pursue creative passion
00:17:23
like what was what was that what was
00:17:25
going through your brain at that point
00:17:27
in love man I don't know I
00:17:31
like I think for a lot of
00:17:34
my schooling like both in college and
00:17:38
homeschooling I was
00:17:41
always very aware of like I got to
00:17:44
choose the thing that I want to do for
00:17:46
the rest of my life. Um, and I never
00:17:48
really like had a specific thing that
00:17:51
was very jobreated that I was interested
00:17:54
in. Um, right. I'd always been
00:17:56
interested in music. Um, but even at
00:18:00
that point, I still was
00:18:01
like I had done some stuff with music,
00:18:05
but hadn't really
00:18:07
like I didn't I didn't unlock it in my
00:18:10
brain as thinking it was like a real
00:18:12
option, I guess, at the time. Yeah. So,
00:18:16
I think I was pretty confused, honestly.
00:18:19
Um, and also like having the experience
00:18:22
of only being homeschooled and then
00:18:24
going
00:18:24
to college where it was just such a like
00:18:28
big difference. I kind of was like
00:18:30
experiencing what most kids experience
00:18:32
from a super young age for the first
00:18:34
time as right like almost an adult.
00:18:39
Um, so I think it was like I don't know.
00:18:43
I something I was thinking about a lot
00:18:46
recently is like I always felt like I
00:18:49
was very ahead as a kid. And I think
00:18:52
it's almost like kind of the mindset
00:18:54
that a lot of homeschoolers have almost
00:18:56
like a little god complex of like we're
00:18:59
so much better than the public
00:19:01
schoolers. we're going to be so ahead so
00:19:03
we can do all these things and blah blah
00:19:04
blah where it's like which you know is
00:19:07
great because you should be proud of
00:19:09
yourself but I think
00:19:11
I didn't have a very
00:19:14
accurate picture of the
00:19:17
world because I really hadn't existed in
00:19:20
society as it actually is. And it's very
00:19:24
interesting because
00:19:26
I all of the things that I really
00:19:29
value about homeschooling like kind of
00:19:33
are the things that made me unprepared
00:19:36
which is like having a lot of
00:19:37
flexibility and a lot of time to be able
00:19:39
to figure things out yourself and you
00:19:42
know so much stuff of like what I think
00:19:44
life should be but isn't really
00:19:47
realistic to how the world is set up
00:19:50
and yeah it's It's just kind of crazy. I
00:19:53
always felt very ahead, but now as an
00:19:54
adult or really at the time when I was
00:19:57
like turning 18, I kind of was like
00:20:02
first existing actually, you know. Yeah.
00:20:06
Yeah. So, it was kind of like the first
00:20:08
time I had to actually gauge what I
00:20:11
would want out of a job or a career, you
00:20:14
know, all of that.
00:20:16
I I think you make a great point there
00:20:18
of like that kind
00:20:20
of it it it's like a bubble. It's like
00:20:24
growing up in a bubble whether our
00:20:25
parents intended that or not. Right.
00:20:27
Yeah. Um I had I had a friend on Adam
00:20:30
Gaus. He was on the show. Him and I went
00:20:31
to college together. He was also
00:20:32
homeschooled and him and I talked about
00:20:36
the Christian bubble existing where like
00:20:39
youth group was a big role in in our
00:20:41
lives. I know your family, my family, we
00:20:43
all went to the same church at one point
00:20:45
like and so church was big and then like
00:20:48
him and I chose a college that was a
00:20:50
continuation of that bubble and while we
00:20:53
were in that bubble it started to burst
00:20:55
um and we started to see the real world
00:20:57
but it wasn't even until we got out of
00:20:58
it. So, we're 20. I graduated at 20, but
00:21:01
like 20 20 21ish, that bubble is like
00:21:05
bursting for us where we're like, to
00:21:07
your point, starting to see the world as
00:21:08
like, oh, there's like so much else out
00:21:11
here. There's like the differing of
00:21:13
opinions and the like this is how jobs
00:21:16
operate and this is, you know, all these
00:21:18
things that we maybe had some
00:21:20
preparation for, but it just was it was
00:21:22
a shaking. And I I think I don't know
00:21:25
that that's exclusively like a
00:21:26
homeschool thing where like we get out
00:21:28
in the world and like I don't know maybe
00:21:30
public school kids feel that way too but
00:21:33
it is such a dramatic shift to go from
00:21:36
like that
00:21:37
unstructured structure in a way like
00:21:39
this is how the world operates inside of
00:21:41
that bubble to like oh wow the the world
00:21:44
is just so vastly different than what I
00:21:47
anticipated and I don't know how I don't
00:21:50
know if parents can even prepare you for
00:21:53
Yeah. Right. Does that make sense? Yeah.
00:21:55
It's kind of like do you want to shelter
00:21:58
your kid by teaching them these like
00:22:00
good
00:22:01
principles and then later they have to
00:22:04
have that earth shattered or do you want
00:22:06
to shatter their earth when they're
00:22:07
young and potentially traumatized them
00:22:10
more? It's like I don't know. There's
00:22:12
like
00:22:14
it's such a balance
00:22:17
and I'm like that's why I didn't
00:22:23
I Yeah, that's such a weird thing to
00:22:25
think about of like how do you balance
00:22:27
that as a parent? Like not even just a
00:22:28
homeschool parent, but like how do you
00:22:30
balance that as a parent of like giving
00:22:32
your kids
00:22:34
the exposure to the outside world and
00:22:36
how it operates and how it looks and
00:22:38
like you know some people would argue
00:22:40
like the world is a cruel cruel place,
00:22:43
right? And it's, you know, there's all
00:22:44
this stuff and it's like it's I don't
00:22:46
know. Like it's
00:22:48
uh man, you got you put me in a thinker
00:22:52
there for sure. I do want to kind of
00:22:56
like bounce to something else that you
00:22:59
had brought up in like a chatting before
00:23:01
the interview and that was and you even
00:23:03
brought it you had alluded to it a few
00:23:04
times while we've been chatting too is
00:23:06
like being neurode divergent and so your
00:23:10
brain being just wired differently than
00:23:12
others
00:23:14
and when did that kind of start to play
00:23:17
I mean that's probably played a role in
00:23:19
your life your entire life but like when
00:23:20
did that really start to be like okay
00:23:22
like something is different about me
00:23:25
more than just like I was raised a
00:23:27
homeschool kid. So, I didn't I honestly
00:23:32
had never thought about ADHD as
00:23:36
like something that could pertain to me
00:23:38
at all. Like, I really didn't know
00:23:40
anything about it growing up. Um, also
00:23:45
it's like a very interesting subset of
00:23:48
people. the homeschoolers, not all of
00:23:51
them, but a lot of the homeschoolers I
00:23:53
was raised around were very
00:23:56
um homeopathic to the point where it was
00:23:59
kind of in denial of like mental health
00:24:04
and differences existing.
00:24:06
So there were a lot of like I grew up
00:24:08
with a lot of autistic kids who were not
00:24:11
diagnosed or they were diagnosed but
00:24:13
their parents were in denial or trying
00:24:15
to cure them somehow or you know so I
00:24:19
was I I really didn't have any exposure
00:24:21
to knowing what it was.
00:24:25
Um, so I basically how I found out, um,
00:24:30
I started seeing this therapist
00:24:33
in I think
00:24:36
2021 and I was seeing her for about a
00:24:39
year and it was honestly after like
00:24:41
almost an entire year of going to her.
00:24:44
She was like, "Okay, I'm just going to
00:24:46
say this and I just want you to like
00:24:49
hear me non-judgmentally. And I'm not
00:24:51
saying anything negative about you, but
00:24:54
like from what I
00:24:55
have witnessed basically being your
00:24:59
therapist, you seem to have like a lot
00:25:01
of these traits. Um, and it would make a
00:25:05
lot of sense if that were the case. And
00:25:08
I'm not diagnosing you or saying that,
00:25:10
but if you're interested in that, we
00:25:12
could talk about it and you can get
00:25:14
tested or whatever. Um, and so we talked
00:25:16
about it a lot and it was very it was
00:25:20
pretty not earthshattering in a bad way,
00:25:23
but pretty
00:25:24
like just it was something where I had
00:25:26
never even thought about it. But then
00:25:28
once I thought about it and she kind of
00:25:31
described it to
00:25:33
me how I was appearing, you know, I was
00:25:36
like, "Oh, that makes a lot of sense."
00:25:40
Um, so then I ended up doing like the
00:25:44
official testing and I did I got
00:25:48
diagnosed.
00:25:49
Um, but yeah, it definitely was
00:25:53
like
00:25:55
very very eye opening for me.
00:25:58
[Music]
00:25:59
Um cuz there was there was just so many
00:26:02
things that I was like how did I
00:26:04
not
00:26:05
see that this was like obviously
00:26:08
something was different. I guess I like
00:26:13
I definitely like felt that I was
00:26:16
different from a young age.
00:26:19
Um, but especially like as a girl, it's
00:26:23
very common for people to kind of just
00:26:25
see any kind of like bad behavior or
00:26:29
differences as just like because you're
00:26:32
a girl and you're emotional or because
00:26:34
you're a kid even. Um, where it's just
00:26:37
not taken very
00:26:40
seriously, which, you know, to a certain
00:26:42
degree it's like kids are going to be
00:26:44
all over the place. Um, but there really
00:26:46
was a lot that once I got diagnosed I
00:26:48
was like, "Okay, this was pretty
00:26:50
obvious."
00:26:51
Well, it's someone as someone who grew
00:26:53
up with a neuro neurode divergent
00:26:55
person, it was so interesting because
00:26:58
like I think my mom realized pretty
00:27:01
early on like my kids operate
00:27:04
differently and like I could I could
00:27:07
read a book and just retain all of the
00:27:09
information and my sister that was not
00:27:12
the way she learned and my mom was very
00:27:14
confused by that because my mom and I
00:27:15
are very we're we're very similar in the
00:27:18
way we think and the way we act and and
00:27:19
just the way our brains work is very
00:27:21
very similar and the way my dad and my
00:27:24
sister operate, they're very similar.
00:27:26
And so we started to piece together
00:27:28
these puzzle pieces of like, okay, like
00:27:32
you know, my my sister can't can't
00:27:35
remember something unless like she's
00:27:37
doing jumping jacks and you tell her and
00:27:39
then she's got it's locked in, right?
00:27:41
And so I'm thankful that my parents like
00:27:44
were like, "Okay, we're going to like do
00:27:46
testing. We're going to figure out what
00:27:47
the what what's the learning difference
00:27:48
here? what what are we doing wrong? How
00:27:50
do we get, you know, cuz my mom was very
00:27:52
dedicated to like, you know, I want my
00:27:54
kids to to have the best. Um, I think
00:27:57
most parents are. Um, like to your
00:27:59
point, I think some of them exist in
00:28:01
denial um over certain things, but
00:28:04
um it was a challenge. It was like an
00:28:06
interesting kind of like puzzle to work
00:28:08
out and and grow up with somebody like
00:28:10
that because
00:28:12
there's so and everybody is uniquely
00:28:15
different, right? Of like like my sister
00:28:17
has to jump on a a you know trampoline
00:28:19
in order to like retain information in a
00:28:21
certain way, you know? That's not
00:28:23
everybody who's neurody divergent.
00:28:24
That's just her. That's the way her
00:28:25
brain operates. Mhm. And so, um, so I
00:28:29
can imagine like getting diagnosed as an
00:28:32
adult like and starting to realize that
00:28:34
and especially you you brought up too
00:28:36
the the like the stigma around like that
00:28:39
either not
00:28:40
being, you know, true or it's, hey, it's
00:28:44
just like a kid thing, you know, she'll
00:28:45
grow out of it, you know, whatever. Like
00:28:48
that that also plays kind of a role in
00:28:51
that like how do you approach the next
00:28:53
steps of like, okay, now I have this
00:28:55
information. What do I do with this now?
00:28:57
Mhm. Now that you know, right? Now that
00:29:00
you have an understanding of how your
00:29:01
brain operates, like what did what like
00:29:05
what did educating yourself about it
00:29:07
like? How did that look for you? Like
00:29:09
what I don't know, did you dive into
00:29:10
books, podcasts, videos? Like how did
00:29:13
you learn? Because I don't want to call
00:29:14
them coping mechanisms, but I know that
00:29:16
that's like something that you kind of
00:29:19
have to figure out how to to work in
00:29:21
life. And did you see like oh I've
00:29:23
already I'm already kind of doing these
00:29:24
things to operate on this level like I'm
00:29:27
already implementing things. I don't
00:29:28
know. That's there's a lot in that
00:29:30
question there, so I don't want to
00:29:31
overwhelm you, but yeah. No, I I think
00:29:37
honestly the biggest thing has just been
00:29:40
like a lot of reflection and seeing kind
00:29:44
of being able to like think about a
00:29:46
memory and seeing it through a whole
00:29:47
different lens now where you're like
00:29:50
understanding behaviors. Um, I was
00:29:53
always
00:29:56
very very emotional as a kid. Like my
00:30:00
entire life I've always
00:30:03
been like what other people I think
00:30:05
would describe as dramatic and
00:30:07
definitely my siblings did describe as
00:30:10
dramatic. We had this home video of I'm
00:30:14
like 2 years old or three or something
00:30:17
and Derry is like recording. My mom is
00:30:20
not even in the house. She's She was
00:30:23
tiling like this. There's like a little
00:30:26
bit of floor in our garage and she was
00:30:28
tiling it or something. I don't know. Mo
00:30:31
my brother was recording and I'm like
00:30:34
with my head in the cabinet in the like
00:30:37
sitting on the counter like trying to
00:30:39
hide and I'm just like screaming into
00:30:41
the cabinet because Derry is singing to
00:30:45
the tune of like We Will Rock You by
00:30:48
Queen. just Mia Mia's cranky over and
00:30:53
over and like which is just like classic
00:30:56
tormenting your siblings but um I
00:31:00
definitely was very emotional and
00:31:03
dramatic as a child where I
00:31:07
didn't I like really never understood
00:31:10
why because I could see that my emotions
00:31:13
were a lot more intense than the people
00:31:16
around me would be in the same
00:31:17
situation.
00:31:19
Um, but it was so confusing cuz a lot of
00:31:22
the time it was like
00:31:24
very shortlived kind of like I had a lot
00:31:28
of big emotions but I could get over it
00:31:31
pretty quickly and then be fine again
00:31:33
and Yeah. Yeah. Um, so it definitely
00:31:37
just put a lot of things in perspective
00:31:39
where I was like, "Okay, that makes a
00:31:41
lot of sense." Um, I honestly have not
00:31:44
read too much. I have like a long list
00:31:46
of books I want to read. Um, but
00:31:49
honestly, just a lot of like internet
00:31:52
stuff, honestly, YouTubers and just
00:31:55
random people online. Um, and then also
00:31:59
I'm like seeing a different therapist
00:32:01
now cuz this was a few years back, but
00:32:04
um also like definitely therapy and kind
00:32:09
of being able to have someone who has a
00:32:12
similar well who has the same my
00:32:15
therapist also has ADHD. So kind of, you
00:32:18
know, having a sounding board who
00:32:23
understands not just like that you're
00:32:26
struggling, but
00:32:27
understands how it feels, you know? I
00:32:30
agree with you that it it's important to
00:32:32
find those people who have that same
00:32:35
thing because I think some of the the
00:32:38
stigma
00:32:40
around neurode diverency, ADHD,
00:32:43
dyslexia, like all of the autism, right?
00:32:46
It's like all of that stuff kind of I
00:32:48
think tends to get lumped together
00:32:51
unfortunately. Um,
00:32:54
and like I think a lot of the stigma
00:32:57
around it is that like the the people
00:33:00
who are in the families with those
00:33:02
people, they don't understand it and
00:33:04
they don't take the time to understand
00:33:05
it and then so that person is an
00:33:07
outsider and then they just can continue
00:33:09
to be an outsider. But it's like once
00:33:11
you start to put people who are the same
00:33:15
around each other, like they realize
00:33:16
like, oh, I'm not so different after
00:33:18
all, right? It's like I I am different,
00:33:21
but like, you know, somebody else gets
00:33:23
it, right? Somebody else cuz the way you
00:33:26
maybe describe the world to me probably
00:33:28
won't make sense to me, right? It it
00:33:30
just is like the way my sister describes
00:33:32
the way she like visualizes learning is
00:33:34
like it makes no sense to me. It's just
00:33:36
it's a completely different language.
00:33:38
Mhm.
00:33:39
Um, but what's cool is like when you can
00:33:42
find those people, like I said, those
00:33:43
people that are like in the same boat as
00:33:45
you, they can give you the tools, the
00:33:47
tips, the whatever, so you guys can
00:33:49
learn to like operate. And then for
00:33:51
those people who don't have it, I think
00:33:54
it really comes down to learning how to
00:33:55
be patient and also learning to try to
00:33:57
like try to understand as best as you
00:34:00
can. we will never fully understand. But
00:34:02
for for those of us who are not,
00:34:04
patience has been the number one thing
00:34:06
that is very hard for me. But like I I I
00:34:09
exist around a lot of people who are who
00:34:11
think very differently than me. And so
00:34:13
just being able to take a breath and be
00:34:15
like, "Okay, let me just ask questions."
00:34:18
And when when we're hitting walls and we
00:34:19
can't like I don't know. I I don't know
00:34:21
if you've ever had this experience of
00:34:23
like you feel like you're talking past
00:34:25
somebody like does that make sense what
00:34:28
I'm saying of of ju just that like I'm
00:34:32
saying something to you and you're like
00:34:34
your brain can't comprehend it but your
00:34:36
response to it my brain can't comprehend
00:34:38
it. Right. Right. Yeah. What I what I've
00:34:42
learned is like I'm like I I have to
00:34:45
take a breath and I have to rethink
00:34:47
instead of just asking the same question
00:34:49
over and over. I have to rethink the way
00:34:51
I'm asking the question and be like,
00:34:52
"Okay, let's just like can we refocus
00:34:54
this on a different topic or whatever
00:34:57
and we'll get there eventually, but
00:35:00
that's a whole that's a whole thing in
00:35:02
and of itself." Um definitely probably
00:35:04
not as stressful as being neurody
00:35:06
divergent, but
00:35:08
um how did
00:35:12
like you've obviously
00:35:15
learned I hate using the word cope, but
00:35:18
like you've learned to operate inside of
00:35:21
that and like No, it is coping. Adam.
00:35:24
Okay.
00:35:25
I don't know why I view co I think I
00:35:27
view coping as like oh such a negative
00:35:29
word and maybe it's maybe I should
00:35:30
rethink that and maybe it's not a
00:35:32
negative word in a lot of instances but
00:35:36
like how have you changed now that you
00:35:38
like okay I've got this information
00:35:40
about myself. I've I'm learning these
00:35:41
tools. I know how to cope with it now.
00:35:43
Like how has that changed you as a
00:35:46
person? Has it made you more self-
00:35:48
assured and like uh confident in
00:35:50
yourself or I don't know has anything
00:35:52
changed for you? It's I It's
00:35:55
interesting. There's a lot of things
00:35:57
that I've kind of like
00:35:59
learned to like accommodate
00:36:02
myself, but I already knew how to do
00:36:05
them. I just hadn't like made the
00:36:08
connection in my brain that there was a
00:36:10
reason I was like doing those things.
00:36:12
So, there's like a lot of different
00:36:14
Yeah. a lot of different things going on
00:36:16
in my brain. I don't know. There's a lot
00:36:18
of different I have a lot of different
00:36:19
like sensory things that bother me and
00:36:22
I've like known my entire life that they
00:36:24
bothered me, but I didn't like I just
00:36:28
couldn't connect that it was because of
00:36:30
something. So, I kind of was viewing it
00:36:33
beforehand as like, oh, this thing
00:36:35
bothers me so much. Why can't it just
00:36:37
not bother me? And now I'm like, oh,
00:36:39
this thing bothers me because of this,
00:36:41
like this reason. Like, this is the
00:36:42
reason this is bothering me. So, I'm
00:36:44
just gonna like not do it or like, you
00:36:47
know, find a different way to do things.
00:36:50
Um, like I think one of
00:36:54
the things that was kind of hard for me
00:36:56
as a kid with homeschooling before I
00:37:00
like was doing like before high school,
00:37:02
so more like elementary school was I
00:37:06
think I appeared
00:37:08
really like I was doing really well and
00:37:11
definitely like an overachiever
00:37:14
um like to my family and to like the
00:37:18
people in our community
00:37:20
um where I definitely like took the
00:37:25
flexibility to my advantage where I
00:37:27
would like work really ahead in a
00:37:29
subject or something so that I could not
00:37:32
have to do math the next day or like
00:37:34
that sort of thing where I would kind of
00:37:36
just like cram all of my focus into this
00:37:39
much time so that I could not have to
00:37:41
focus on anything for a long time. And I
00:37:43
think it kind of
00:37:45
like my parents viewed that as like, oh,
00:37:48
she's so efficient. She's like so good
00:37:50
at doing her school, blah, blah, blah.
00:37:52
But really, it was like because I had
00:37:55
such a poor attention span. It was like,
00:37:58
I cannot think about doing math for the
00:38:01
next 3 days, so I'm going to do it all
00:38:04
today so that I don't have to do it the
00:38:06
next two days. where it was like I was a
00:38:09
I was making it work and it did but I
00:38:13
think I really experienced a lot of
00:38:16
burnout once I was an adult and I
00:38:20
realized like I really wasn't
00:38:22
flourishing I was just working way
00:38:25
harder um and
00:38:28
something I
00:38:31
um am on a medication now but like about
00:38:35
a year or two year and a half ago ago.
00:38:38
Um when I was like in the process of
00:38:40
trying to get on medication, I met with
00:38:42
uh this psychiatrist before the previous
00:38:45
one that I am like working with now. Um
00:38:49
because you can't like just get
00:38:50
medication from a therapist. You have to
00:38:52
like actually do a whole, you know, the
00:38:54
law and stuff, whatever. I met with this
00:38:57
guy and it was not a good experience.
00:38:59
Um, but he like was asking me about my
00:39:03
schooling and he was like, "So, you had
00:39:05
like a I think it's I had like a 3.85
00:39:08
GPA or something for high school." Um,
00:39:12
and he was like, this was when I was
00:39:14
already diagnosed, by the way. He was
00:39:16
like, "So, how do you have ADHD
00:39:19
then if you had a 3.8?" And I was like,
00:39:22
right, the thing I realized is like I
00:39:26
really was not performing at that high
00:39:28
of a level because I'm like so it's so
00:39:31
effortless and so easy for me. It's
00:39:33
because I was like working twice as hard
00:39:37
as a lot of the people around me or at
00:39:39
least from my perception how hard it
00:39:41
seemed like they were working. Um, so
00:39:44
like I did really well in school, but it
00:39:47
really was
00:39:48
not. It was enjoyable for me in a lot of
00:39:51
ways, but it was very stressful. Yeah.
00:39:54
And so, honestly, just now seeing
00:39:57
like I I think I'm a I'm kind of at the
00:40:01
point where I'm getting past the burnout
00:40:03
now, but I definitely was very burnt out
00:40:06
um after graduating and finishing
00:40:08
college and kind of just being like
00:40:12
I think there was a certain expectation
00:40:14
to overachieve as a homeschooler and I
00:40:18
kind of had you know a little bit what I
00:40:20
was saying earlier already but kind of
00:40:23
like oh I really didn't overachieve that
00:40:26
much if now all the effort it took for
00:40:30
me to like get to this point now I don't
00:40:32
have energy to like go to a four-year
00:40:35
college and get a like highpaying job or
00:40:38
something like that where a lot of my
00:40:39
peers who had a very similar path as me
00:40:43
did that. The way you framed that is
00:40:46
really interesting because like
00:40:50
the the whole idea of like cramming
00:40:52
everything really quickly to be like
00:40:54
okay I just need this to be done so that
00:40:56
I don't have to think about it because
00:40:58
you just knew that that's like that's
00:40:59
how my brain operates. I just need this
00:41:01
to be done otherwise
00:41:04
I'm going to be thinking about it or I
00:41:05
can't perform at the level I need to or
00:41:07
you know whatever. are also like you
00:41:08
have that expectation in your brain of
00:41:10
like you know I need to be smarter, I
00:41:12
need to be whatever. It's kind of
00:41:14
interesting because yeah, that does lead
00:41:16
to the burnout. I I I know that feeling
00:41:20
as an entrepreneur. I know that feeling
00:41:21
very very well. I'm coming out of that
00:41:23
season myself um of just that like I'm
00:41:26
just it's too much. I'm just like I I I
00:41:30
lit the candle at both ends, right? And
00:41:31
now I'm just done.
00:41:33
Um, and that's a hard thing to come back
00:41:35
from and it could take a long time, take
00:41:37
years sometimes for people to come back
00:41:38
from that. But as you've now started to
00:41:42
like
00:41:42
unpack, oh, this is how I was thinking,
00:41:45
are you able to communicate that now to
00:41:47
like your family and your friends a lot
00:41:50
better of like, hey, like this is why I
00:41:52
am the way I am. And
00:41:56
like I I'm trying to think what my
00:41:58
question is here, but like get them to
00:42:01
an understanding point of like, hey,
00:42:03
like when you see this, these are maybe
00:42:05
signs that like I'm not doing so hot or
00:42:08
I am do or I'm or I am thriving, right?
00:42:10
You see me act like this, like I'm doing
00:42:12
really well, right? And like um but has
00:42:15
it become easier to kind of I don't
00:42:16
know, educate people, I guess, in in in
00:42:19
your life? That's a good question.
00:42:22
I I think in a small way, yes, I like
00:42:28
have obviously talked to my family about
00:42:30
it. I didn't I actually like full
00:42:32
through the full process of getting
00:42:34
diagnosed, I didn't tell my parents that
00:42:36
I was doing it or any of my family that
00:42:38
I was doing it at first just cuz I kind
00:42:40
of was like, what if it what if I do all
00:42:42
the testing and then they're like, you
00:42:44
don't have ADHD. And then I'm
00:42:46
like all embarrassed, right? You're
00:42:48
like, yeah. So, I didn't I didn't um
00:42:52
tell them at first, but no, once I did
00:42:55
get diagnosed, I um talked to them about
00:42:58
it. And I think I'm still
00:43:01
um still learning how
00:43:05
to communicate a lot of that. Um it's
00:43:09
kind of an interesting experience.
00:43:12
Like, this kind of relates to how I feel
00:43:14
about homeschooling as well.
00:43:17
I feel like as a kid I
00:43:20
like I was able
00:43:23
to do a really good job without the
00:43:26
structure, but it like wasn't because I
00:43:28
didn't need structure. And it was kind
00:43:31
of like a self-p protection thing of
00:43:33
like, oh, okay, I have to get this done
00:43:37
myself, so I'm going to learn how to do
00:43:40
that. Like, but it wasn't necessarily
00:43:42
like a healthy way for me to
00:43:44
be pushing myself. I guess. And so kind
00:43:48
of with the same way that I relate to
00:43:52
like my difficulties,
00:43:56
like I kind of had to for a long time
00:44:00
learn how to take care of myself and
00:44:03
learn how to
00:44:06
like try and thrive even though there
00:44:08
was all of these things that felt like
00:44:10
they were holding me back. So, kind of
00:44:12
now I'm at the point where I'm like,
00:44:14
okay, I can see what these things are.
00:44:18
Um, it's like quite a process to get out
00:44:21
of the mindset of like this is a part of
00:44:24
me and I can like accept that
00:44:28
and expect people to be understanding
00:44:31
about it, you know? I feel like I kind
00:44:33
of have had a mindset for a long time of
00:44:35
like shame about having struggles, you
00:44:40
know, and I think that's
00:44:43
like a pretty common experience of a lot
00:44:46
of kids raised in
00:44:50
honestly just in general like
00:44:52
evangelical circles is just kind of
00:44:55
having like a lot of shame for the
00:44:57
things that you struggle with regardless
00:45:00
of if it's related to like a disability
00:45:02
or or just like anything, you know,
00:45:06
where you kind of just like it takes a
00:45:08
while to get to the point from like
00:45:10
realizing that there's these things
00:45:12
about yourself that you can feel okay
00:45:14
about it and actually getting to the
00:45:15
point where you're like, I can expect
00:45:17
other people to be okay with it, too.
00:45:19
You know, you Yeah, you are preacher to
00:45:21
the choir. Um, shame is a very powerful
00:45:25
thing inside of like the evangelical
00:45:27
circles. Big very powerful thing inside
00:45:28
of like our homeschool community as well
00:45:30
because that was
00:45:32
very religious as well. Um, and yeah, it
00:45:37
it's Hey, like I'm I'm in the same boat
00:45:39
as you. I'm 28. I'm still dealing with
00:45:41
like shame and that like has been
00:45:44
bubbling under the surface. So, I
00:45:46
definitely I I feel you on that. And
00:45:50
it's a it's an interesting one to kind
00:45:53
of like work through that process of
00:45:55
like I don't this is who I am. This is
00:45:57
me as a person, right? And like there is
00:46:00
no shame in that. I am who I am.
00:46:03
I think as
00:46:06
we know I like to ask people a little
00:46:09
bit about
00:46:11
like their homeschool experience like
00:46:15
you know I don't want to say good bad
00:46:16
like but like based on your homeschool
00:46:19
experience when people come to you if
00:46:21
people come to you and they're like hey
00:46:23
like I'm thinking about homeschooling my
00:46:24
kids
00:46:26
right what do you tell them or what do
00:46:28
you encourage people to kind of like
00:46:30
look at and go okay like these are maybe
00:46:33
the good things. Here's the bad
00:46:35
that like we got to address this over
00:46:37
here and like focus in on this a little
00:46:39
bit because like you know um I don't
00:46:42
know. I I I'm trying to think what my
00:46:44
question is here. But like when when
00:46:45
people come to you and they're asking
00:46:46
you about you know I want to homeschool
00:46:49
my kids, what are you what are you
00:46:51
telling them? Are you telling them gay
00:46:52
nay think about these things? You know
00:46:54
what what are you thinking? Honestly, I
00:46:57
think it the biggest thing I
00:47:01
would think in the first place is just
00:47:04
like what are your intentions? Like what
00:47:06
is the reasoning? like what's the
00:47:08
reasoning behind wanting to because I
00:47:11
think it um there's a lot of overlap
00:47:14
with homeschoolers and
00:47:17
like sometimes the parents intentions
00:47:20
are like I don't want my kid to learn
00:47:23
that gay people exist so I'm going to
00:47:25
homeschool them so that they don't learn
00:47:27
about it at public school. Um, and I
00:47:30
feel like if you're coming from a place
00:47:31
of like wanting to shelter your kid from
00:47:34
finding things
00:47:35
out, it's not going to work cuz they're
00:47:39
just going to find out anyways or
00:47:40
they're going to find out later. I don't
00:47:43
know. I think I would just
00:47:46
say it could be a really great thing and
00:47:52
I really really like it in the sense of
00:47:55
I don't think any kid really should be
00:47:57
at school for that long. Um but the way
00:48:01
our society is set up, it basically
00:48:04
forces parents to send their kids to
00:48:06
school.
00:48:08
Um, like I was very lucky to be able to
00:48:10
be homeschooled because my mom like my
00:48:13
parents could afford my mom staying home
00:48:16
and just my dad working and yeah,
00:48:19
there's a lot of kids especially now.
00:48:21
Um, that like their parents can't afford
00:48:25
one of the parents to stay home. Um, so
00:48:28
like in a perfect world I I do think it
00:48:34
is a great option. I would just say like
00:48:38
accept help from other people. Don't try
00:48:40
to be like the sole source of education
00:48:43
for your kids. So, I feel like doing
00:48:46
like a lot of community stuff and being
00:48:48
in like co-ops and that kind of stuff is
00:48:51
definitely a good thing. Um, and also
00:48:54
just like h letting your
00:48:57
kids trying to get them some normal
00:49:01
experiences in there, you know, uh, and
00:49:04
make sure they're socializing and, you
00:49:07
know, all that. I I like what you said
00:49:10
about intentions. I think the intentions
00:49:13
are everything. I've said on this
00:49:15
podcast before, like in my op in my
00:49:17
opinion, religion is not a good enough
00:49:19
intention to homeschool your kid. Yeah.
00:49:22
And and like and you said it too, the
00:49:24
sheltering is not a you know protecting
00:49:26
my kid from this that and the other.
00:49:28
They're going to learn about it
00:49:29
eventually, right? And so it's like, you
00:49:31
know, I would rather see parents take a
00:49:35
role in like I want to help. I obviously
00:49:38
I think parents should should play a
00:49:39
role in like what their kids learn and
00:49:41
things like that. But I think you can do
00:49:42
it in a controlled environment where you
00:49:44
are able to address and have open
00:49:46
communication about those
00:49:48
things in a safe environment in in an at
00:49:51
home environment and and you know expose
00:49:53
them to whether it's LGBT or whether
00:49:57
it's you know uh whether it's like
00:49:59
learning about ADHD and dyslexia and
00:50:03
autism and things like that or you know
00:50:04
or other world religions whatever it is
00:50:06
like you know you still have control
00:50:08
over that but it's definitely like It's
00:50:11
a it's a necessary thing for people to
00:50:13
learn because they're going to learn it
00:50:15
eventually. Um to your point.
00:50:18
So with that, I I guess I haven't we
00:50:21
haven't touched on this yet, but like
00:50:23
what are you doing now, right? Like I
00:50:25
know I I I see your music stuff pop up
00:50:28
for me, but like what are you doing now?
00:50:30
What are you pursuing? What are you
00:50:31
enjoying? Like if you've got music out
00:50:33
that you want to share with the
00:50:34
audience, like you know, I'd love to
00:50:36
push people that way. Yeah. Um, I'm just
00:50:40
working and kind of trying to make the
00:50:44
music stuff take off to be able to
00:50:46
hopefully do that, you know, and
00:50:48
actually make some money from it. Um,
00:50:53
right. I know. I uh recorded and like
00:50:56
produced an or well not just me I
00:50:58
produced it with um this guy Derek Ted
00:51:02
um an album last year and then I put it
00:51:05
out in November of last year and yeah
00:51:08
I've been kind of like this is kind of
00:51:11
like the after period of like kind of
00:51:12
taking a break a little bit but I've
00:51:15
been writing a lot and hopefully we'll
00:51:18
be releasing new stuff soon but yeah if
00:51:21
people want to check it out it's Um,
00:51:24
baby with an IBA
00:51:26
manity on wherever you want to listen to
00:51:30
music or just Instagram if you don't
00:51:32
want to listen and you just want to
00:51:34
stalk me. Hey, you got any I I don't
00:51:36
know like are you are you doing live
00:51:38
shows at all or like do you have
00:51:39
anything on the books for for those of
00:51:41
those folks who maybe are in uh Ventura
00:51:43
County want to come support? I don't
00:51:45
have anything planned right now but
00:51:49
hopefully soon. And if you're
00:51:50
interested, you know, you should look at
00:51:52
my Instagram. Hopefully, it will be
00:51:54
there. Yeah. I've listened to a couple
00:51:55
of your songs and they're they're
00:51:57
amazing. I I love them. They're they
00:51:59
they sound great. Um yeah, for people
00:52:02
like what kind of is there a particular
00:52:04
style you go for or is there like um are
00:52:08
you flexible? I know some artists are
00:52:10
like, I'm pretty I'm pretty locked into
00:52:12
like I do this. Uh where other people
00:52:14
are like no, it's like anything that
00:52:16
comes out of my brain. Let's let's make
00:52:17
it. It could be anything from rap to
00:52:19
hard rock to country music to whatever.
00:52:23
I feel like I always just tell people
00:52:25
that I make like indie music because I
00:52:28
feel like at this point that kind of
00:52:30
just encapsulates like anything that
00:52:35
is not too rock but not too folk. I
00:52:40
don't know. Okay. Um it's that mix. It's
00:52:42
that healthy mix in between. It's a mix
00:52:44
of stuff. Yeah. And we'll see. I don't
00:52:46
think like I I'm sure my the music I
00:52:50
will be making this year will be
00:52:51
different from what I have out and
00:52:54
hopefully that will keep continuing
00:52:55
forever. Hey, no, keep at it. I think
00:52:58
the creativity thing
00:53:00
is it's so important. I lost my
00:53:02
creativity for a while and I'm getting
00:53:04
it back. And like it's so much fun to
00:53:08
watch people like make stuff and like
00:53:12
and that's why I tell people like put it
00:53:15
out just like put it out to the world
00:53:17
cuz like you don't know who it's going
00:53:19
to resonate with. It might resonate with
00:53:21
nobody. This podcast is example of that.
00:53:23
When I started this, I was like, I'm
00:53:25
going to have 10 people listen to this
00:53:26
thing. And here we are. And like
00:53:28
thousands of people have listened to
00:53:30
this podcast at this point. And that's
00:53:32
like it it blows my mind sometimes how
00:53:36
like when you do the creative act and
00:53:39
you actually have some kind of like
00:53:41
passion behind it and it's evident in
00:53:42
your in your
00:53:44
creativity, people will show up for it,
00:53:47
you know? It's crazy. I don't know. It's
00:53:48
just I don't know. It's fun. No, I
00:53:51
really resonate with that. Don't let
00:53:53
like the embarrassment stop you from
00:53:56
stuff cuz there's lots of even like some
00:53:58
of the older music I have released I'm
00:54:01
like embarrassed of and I cringe a
00:54:02
little bit at it but there's people who
00:54:06
like have messaged me and they're like I
00:54:07
love this song so much it like makes me
00:54:09
feel so sane where it's like even if
00:54:12
it's something that you're not going to
00:54:13
like look at and be like that represents
00:54:16
me currently it's like it's going to
00:54:18
resonate with someone and you know yeah
00:54:21
that's the same thing you're with
00:54:23
podcast and everything. Yeah, it's a
00:54:25
process, too. And I think what's cool is
00:54:28
like hopefully um you know in a decade
00:54:32
from now we can look back and we can go
00:54:34
like we can look at the first song or
00:54:36
the first podcast we put out, right? And
00:54:37
we can go and we can cringe a little
00:54:39
about it because we just like ah but I
00:54:41
you've learned so much. So to go from
00:54:43
that to whatever you're then currently
00:54:45
putting out at even a year later, two
00:54:48
years later, 10 years later, right? like
00:54:50
you you look at it and you go, "Oh my
00:54:52
gosh, like I've gotten so much better."
00:54:54
And I think that's the great thing about
00:54:56
the creative journey is that like it's
00:54:59
just that. And when you document it, you
00:55:02
have the entire journey that you can
00:55:04
share with people. I went from this and
00:55:06
not knowing how to do this to like look
00:55:08
at me now, you know? It's it's a very
00:55:11
And it's like a a time capsule
00:55:14
exactly of where you were at that point
00:55:16
regardless of if it's good or bad.
00:55:19
Yeah, exactly. It could get worse. Who
00:55:22
knows? Yeah, true. It could always be
00:55:26
worse. It could always be worse. Yeah,
00:55:28
but Mia, I really do I appreciate you
00:55:31
coming on the show. This has been a lot
00:55:32
of fun. It's been a lot of fun catching
00:55:33
up, getting to know you as the person
00:55:35
you are today and not, you know, I knew
00:55:38
you as a kid. I knew you as as a little
00:55:40
kid and Yeah, exactly.
00:55:42
Um, and so it it's fun to like actually
00:55:46
like see who you are today and get to
00:55:48
know that person and that version of
00:55:49
you. And so, thank you for coming on and
00:55:51
and sharing your story and being
00:55:53
vulnerable with us, which is it's
00:55:55
awesome. I appreciate it. Yeah, thank
00:55:56
you. It was really fun. And uh, for all
00:55:58
the listeners, like like we said, go go
00:56:01
stream, listen to Mia's album, follow
00:56:03
her on Instagram, do all the things. All
00:56:05
that's going to be in the show notes
00:56:06
below. And uh if you made it this far,
00:56:10
leave a like, leave a subscribe, do all
00:56:11
of the things that you know, make the
00:56:13
algorithm happy. We appreciate it. Um
00:56:16
and go get on my newsletter because and
00:56:18
I'm just going to keep pushing that cuz
00:56:19
that's that's the place to be right now.
00:56:21
So newsletter link is in the
00:56:23
description. Sign up. It's free. It
00:56:25
costs you nothing. Um and uh yeah, until
00:56:28
next week. All right. Peace.
00:56:36
[Music]
00:56:42
[Music]
