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all right all right all right welcome back to the ex homeschoolers Club I am your host Jak Gooden and today I'm here
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with one of my really good friends Nick Burgess we have known each other for a very long time
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yes we've known each other for a very very long time uh we've been buddies for
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oh my God how long has it been we met during the production and play the Mitchells did of the uh Beauty and the
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Beast that's right because you were initially friends with Carly first and so she's like oh I got to introduce you
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to my friend Jacob I was like oh cool and I remember you played you were playing one of the wolves and I remember
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like meeting you and I oh this guy's cool so how long it's been since then oh
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my oh my gosh yeah so yeah so just so people know so our friends the Mitchells they would host every summer they had
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these backyard plays and it was like theater in the round style their their uh driveway was like a circle driveway
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with a grass spot in the middle and they would build these sets and we would do these these theater Productions every
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summer but yeah I knew your sister because uh we took a writing class together and then yeah I do remember
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that I remember during that show yeah uh after she introduced us and then what's
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so funny is like we became really good friends and then our dads became really good friends and uh yeah it's it's just
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so funny and our dads are still like best friends to this day which is um hilarious I feel like I hear more about
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your dad than than about yeah um yeah I hear about I hear about your dad and then through that I hear about you um
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just in talking to my dad but dude that's crazy that's been that has been a
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long time um that we've known each other but yeah we grew up pretty much in the same homes School
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group I mean you like I I guess tell me like your homeschool Journey like did you have you always been a homeschool
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kid did you go to public school or private school or anything yeah so uh growing up my parents opted to
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homeschool us uh like from you know preschool all the way through high school um so yeah I was one of those
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kids that was homeschooled my entire life um my I have a couple older siblings that were able to go to uh high
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school for a couple years so like my older brother Justin he really wanted to do Sports and so since we were
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homeschooled and in a Homeschool Group there wasn't really much for him to do
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Sports and so they opted to let him join a local high school so that he could play sports and then my oldest sister
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she did I think the last two years of high school at an actual public school um but then like me my uh sister who's
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just you know Carly Just older than I am and then my younger brother Ben we were
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all homeschooled through high school all the way yeah I didn't I didn't know that
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I didn't yeah I didn't even think about that but yeah no cuz cuz yeah there
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wasn't any sports I mean there was a couple Community leagues for soccer and
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stuff like that but there wasn't like a whole lot of I mean there is no Sports I mean you my
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I convinced my parents that Airsoft became our Sport and so they funded my my airsoft stuff and then we would play
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frequently uh both at derry's house and then also I know your grandpa had his
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his has his Ranch in ohigh um that we would go play and gosh we had so many airsoft guns was insane it was gnarly I
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think at one time I had like seven but like the majority they were all they were all like spring so it's like you
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know you're having to pull the slide back every time you needed to fire but I
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was going to ask you do you remember so we have this photo I'm going to I'm
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going to have to see if I can find it but I know we did like a photo shoot at one point we laid out everybody's guns
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and uh we just had like a ton of them and then you guys like made bags of flour to look like cocaine and we like
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and taped it up and we had like these bricks of Coca it was totally not like okay but we play like games like protect
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the president we we do like you know recreate all kinds of stuff right I can remember cuz yeah we did that picture I
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think that was on my grandparents driveway I think I remember we did that picture in the driveway but yeah I
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remember like playing protect the president like you know you'd have the Americans the CIA groups and then you'd
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have like the terrorists and I can remember yeah can remember like our dads would basically be the terrorists and
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you'd hear them over on the other side of the field just like screaming we go you know what was great
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about your grandpa's H playing at your grandpa's house too was like he also had
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all of like the Gators and the quads and all that stuff too so like not only were
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we running around but some of the times we were driving those things around shooting each other off of like and
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stuff yeah yes the go-karts Gator yeah exactly so oh my gosh I can't yeah it's
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so funny but yeah I I always tell people I'm like that was my sport in high school like I had my league and we were
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the airsoft League and we would go play uh you know every it felt like every weekend but it was definitely a lot it
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was at least once twice a month yeah I wouldn't say that much yeah do you remember that TI you you you walked
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right by a rattlesnake you remember that oh dude that was that was terrifying yeah I walked right past it and I was
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wearing shorts I mean I had sneakers on but you know it still could have gotten me but yeah that thing was long too it
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was a massive yeah it was a good like three three and a2t snake he was just like stretched out just walked right
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past him I was like Jacob watch out yeah I think I'm thankful that yeah he was he was stretched out he wasn't
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coiled up so I think that also played in my favor because he was just kind of chilling and he wasn't really in in uh
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attack yeah he wasn't in like defense mode he was just kind of like what the
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heck's going on there's like people walking next to me oh my gosh that was
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so good I mean I I recently had der on and we were talking about playing in his backyard and his dad was part of the
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police department and so they would you know every now and then police officers would show up and they were always
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surprised by cuz our airsoft guns looked like real guns aside from the orange tips but like I mean we had AK-47s and
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g36s and m4s and you know we had all kinds of like 911s and like we we had so much stuff and some of it was like metal
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and like felt real I mean you would never know that it was not a real gun if you had just taken the orange tip off
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like there's no there's unless you're like really holding it and like looking
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at it if you were just to the UN Trend eye you'd be able to be like oh that looks like a real gun to me yeah exactly
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it's kind of wild to think that our parents like let us play with that kind of stuff
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um but I mean we did kind of grow up in the country so yeah you know there there
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is that we also played with well I say we played with we responsibly shot guns regularly yes and and owned guns um so
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you know we but I know a lot of us went through gun training and stuff like that
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like we understood that this is not a toy the way I was taught is like this is a tool that you know initially our first
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ancestors were like you know they use it as a tool um yeah but you know now it's
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used for recreational use and whatnot which is great but yeah know we were taught like you do not you know you do
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not point this at anybody like your finger is only on the trigger when you're ready to fire you always keep the
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barrel Le the point is straight at the ground or up in the air that kind of stuff but yeah exactly all that safety
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stuff yeah my grandfather played into like being really safe uh like he would have us shoot a tin can with a BB gun
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and we had to hit it 10 times in a row before he let us actually go out with like a real gun to like you know shoot
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squirrels or rabbits or anything like do he whated to make sure that we could like hit it and not let us suffer or
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anything like that that's so cool too that you had somebody who was willing to
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like teach you the proper stuff like I went and did classes at a shooting range and stuff like that but um and then I
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learned a lot from you guys as well but just on how to handle things and how to take care of things and stuff like that
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so even when I got my first shotgun I was like okay like here's here's what I
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need to do and um you know and all that kind of stuff but anyway going back to the school stuff so you were
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homeschooled all the way through I know that one of the things we were talking about was the for a good chunk of it it
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was just kind of like you at home with your siblings all day every day um and it wasn't until later that you guys
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joined uh The Homeschool communities that we have like achieve and group Solutions which so achieve was kind of
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like it was the association of Christian Home Educators of inter County which kind of provided things like extra like
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um what am I looking about field trips school dances um graduation that kind of stuff
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and then group Solutions was kind of a it was like a classes kind of a thing so parents tght classes at this thing and
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it was kind of a it was almost like going to real school for yeah it was it was like a
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right right so around what time did you guys join that kind of stuff I think we started doing
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that uh was probably in probably seventh or eighth grade okay maybe or maybe just into High School it
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probably was the beginning of high school is when we joined group Solutions okay what what was like the big shift or
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what was like I don't know what was kind of I maybe you don't know cuz I mean it
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was your parents this decision but was there like a big um moment that was like okay we're going to go from like we're
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at home all the time doing school to like now we're going to go be around people and and do that was there what
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was that change obviously we were part of achieve and then my uh my I don't know how but my mother got turned onto
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the idea of doing her pain or attending group Solutions um uh so I think we just
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had like a discussion about it she just kind of laid it out like hey like do you
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guys want to want to do this do we want to go and do this um and I remember being all about it because uh it just
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got me out of the house and I was able to like hang out with more of my buddies uh because I know like you your your
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sister and like I remember bunch of the other families that were able to you know put their kids in the
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same in classes one us so I remember it just being like I was super excited it's
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like I get to go to public school like that was something that I really uh really liked about being part of achie
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was being able to be around other kids and socialize um because before then it was just you know yeah we were just at
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home it was just our siblings which I mean I love my siblings I'm still close
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with all my siblings um and so you know it was fun and then you know you'd have
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the aspects of like you know recess was in your own room you could do whatever you want um and then you know my mom was
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really good at teaching us and you know helping us out with our schoolwork and homework and all that stuff when she was
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you know in good enough shape to do so obviously from her uh some of her medical conditions ten of would put a
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damper on some days and so we'd be kind of like doing it ourselves whatnot which
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we we made we made by and it was fine and uh but then yeah being able to join achieve and group Solutions was huge for
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for me yeah I mean I remember you guys kind of coming into the group and starting to get to know you guys more
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and and it felt very much like cuz a lot of us had known each other from like I mean some of some of these people have
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known each other from like kindergarten I knew a lot of these people I started being homeschooled at second grade
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second grade so um and I didn't even join groups I think until third or fourth grade and so you know so some of
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these people as I had known for a little bit and then yeah and then you guys coming in at like seventh e8th grade
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kind of level I remember kind of being like who is this family like where did they come from from and then you guys
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knew like you guys had obviously been in the ohigh valley um and I was like where
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where did these people come from it was like it was just so mysterious to me and
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uh yeah and I remember I remember some of the moms were like cuz cuz I had my I had my buddies my buddies were Darry and
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Ben and we were like the Three Musketeers and uh and one of the moms was like started being like oh you
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should invite Nick to come do this stuff and we're like no but we're like we're
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like the best buds like we are the guys the three the three musketeers exactly we we yeah and I was like but but I'm so
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thankful that they pushed us to like really have you and Ben kind of come in because first of all you guys are just
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awesome but uh but I'm so thankful that we were not stubborn about like no like
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I have my friends and I don't want anymore kind of a thing um because I would have missed out on a great
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friendship uh that way I was going to ask because yeah I remember your mom kind of being sick
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sometimes and things like that and so was were your older siblings kind of like taking over like teaching you at
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that point or like how what did that look like cuz I know it wasn't until later that my parents kind of would just
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start handing me textbooks and say hey like here's your textbook like read through it you know and take these tests
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or whatever you know were you guys doing that already at a younger age or or did
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you have like your older siblings kind of put helping you know teach you guys so we kind of had like that kind of
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stuff at a at a younger age basically like like like writing assignments and writing books and stuff like that so we
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would kind of be able to just like you know my mom would step the stuff in front of us and we'd be able to just
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kind of like go through it um and she would be there obviously to help us teach or to help teach us um and go
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through those uh situations but then yeah on days when she you know wasn't you know sick or uh either was working
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or something like that then mainly it would be like my oldest sister she would sometimes help out with that kind of
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stuff um and then I remember uh she just remembered this um we had some really close family friends of my parents that
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also uh was doing like home schooling with their children and so we would go over to their
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house I want to say like every Friday every Thursday or maybe it was every other Friday and she would basically
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help teach us you know different subjects uh usually that was on days when my mom was working the same day
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that my dad would be working so that way we weren just home alone because we were
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too young to be home alone so like either we go up to my grandparents house um which was a thing we did every week
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for years or uh we would go over to this you know really close family friends and
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she would help teach us and whatnot uh but then yeah my I don't really remember
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Justus doing any of that it was all on Britney Britney was like Mom number two kind of yeah yeah she was like Mom Mom
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number two for sure I was going to ask you too like was your dad always super involved with with you guys as like
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homeschool kids like and what I mean by that is like my dad was he was always the principal but he was like for the
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first couple years of us being homeschooled he wasn't like super involved like my mom chose all the
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curriculum she did all the teaching and he was really just there for like discipline you know we got out of line
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he was there for that and it wasn't until I don't know maybe sixth grade it
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might have been a little sooner than that but where he really bought into the whole home school thing and then he was
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like oh no I want to have like some say in like what educa you know what curriculum we're using and like also
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like if you need help with math if you need you know whatever he started to kind of also become a teacher granted he
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would go to work all day but you know when he got home he was there to tutor us was your dad kind of like involved
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like that or did he have a period where he was like no that's like that's your
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mom's thing and then like when I you know I'm the principal kind of a thing
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to my knowledge and like looking back it was mainly just my mom who like picked all that stuff uh because my dad would
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be working all day um and the days that he was off we would either uh like do yard work with him I think that was
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probably what like his contribution to like the H school thing was like bringing us alongside and having us H
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with yard work or you know doing little repairs around the house you know home project uh I think that's kind of what
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he would help out with and yeah he would definitely help out with discipline um but my mom also was like on top of
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being like you know the principal as well so they kind of like shared that role um obviously if we were like super
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out of line then you know like in the moment my mom would like take care of it immediately um but like you know lighter
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lighter Duty stuff she'd be like hey just wait till you're you know when your
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dad comes home like no you're G to get disciplined or what not you get spanking
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or something like that and I just remember being like Oh that's no no please you know what's so funny your mom
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is like one of the sweetest people I know and she always like she sends me the sweetest messages and stuff all the
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time but um I I have seen her a few times kind of get to that I don't want to say it's a breaking point but I've
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seen her get the the stern face like the you know you need to listen to what I'm
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saying and uh and I'm always like I'm always like oh my gosh uh christe's uh
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christe's getting serious okay let's uh let's listen and like I'm 27 now like
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I'm like I'm My Own adult but if your mom got that face be like yes yes ma'am
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yep yes she has she has that fiery Spirit we also had friends who you know before we joined groups like we'd go to
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somebody's house or whatever and kind of you know do school on a day where my Mom
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needed to run errands or my mom needed to do something else you know but that's
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you know it's good it see and that's what's cool about The Homeschool
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Community is that once you start to get plugged in with it they're there for you
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for whatever you need right yeah but uh so so group Solutions I know that was also a big part for you in like the
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socialization aspect so like one of the biggest things that people say all the time about homeschoolers is that we're
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antisocial weirdos we do not know how to interact with people I've met a couple
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of those kids I have been that kid where it's like you know I can't look you in
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the eye I don't give a good handshake um you know when I talk to you I mumble
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under my breath kind of a thing but you know what would you say that like go starting to go to group was like a big
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Catalyst for you to kind of become more of a a people person and like gain some of those social skills or what do you
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think was a part of The Homeschool experience that kind of got you to that place of like you know being quote
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unquote not a homeschool kid right not a homeschool weirdo in the social sense I
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think for me it was good because I was able to and like you know act like myself I wish my
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parents were you know super encouraging like just you know be yourself don't like like you
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don't need to conform to like the people around you to do stuff or to act a certain way or whatever so I was like
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raised to just totally be okay with being myself um and so going to group Solutions and just being myself was a
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really cool way to just see uh like how other people would react to you know my behaviors or you know my humors or
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whatever and something stuff like that um which also allowed me to just kind of see like okay maybe I should shouldn't
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act this way or like okay you know it was a good learning good learning curve for me to like get feedback from people
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that weren't my immediate family yeah well I think the thing with when you're
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at home with your family all the time and it's just like in my case it was like three to four of us you know you at
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least had a a few more people than that but like yeah picking up on social cues is different than from like you don't
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pick up on social cues from your your family quite as much as you do from other people right like
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um like I think about the fact that it's like when I'm pushing my sister's
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buttons I'm pushing her buttons and I'm I'm avoid I'm ignoring all of the things
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that if I was talking to you and I noticed that you started to get agitated you know that's a social cue for me to
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kind of like okay it's time to reel it back a little bit you know and so I think things like group Solutions were
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super helpful for for both of us to kind of be like like you said it's like be
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yourself and see how people react to it but then you start to learn those social
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cues of like okay hey this person wants to out of a ation they you know or they're uncomfortable or it's very
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obvious they need to go do something else okay like learning how to dial that in I think for me it was good to learn
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like because yeah I would be just with my family members and then I would like go to group solutions to be able to see
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like you Derry and Ben and all them and I just be like want to just spend all my
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time with you and then yeah learning those cues of like okay yeah like it's time for like you to go do your own
00:20:51
thing and you to go do my own thing uh which I think took a little while for me to kind of figure out um there were
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certainly times where like I it was hard for me to pick up on social cues uh partially
00:21:04
because of my you know disabilities like you know since a really young age I've
00:21:10
I've struggled with like dyslexia and stuff like that um haven't like been properly diagnosed
00:21:16
by a doctor but from you know growing up and you know certain certain things and
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like not picking up certain social cues that it's kind of parent that like okay
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I struggled with you know slight dyslexia or whatnot um and so like I can remember just like certain you know
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saying certain things and like not understanding what I'm saying and then seeing how people react and they're like
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whoa like what I'm like what do you mean what and then you know I can remember um
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like just like an older friend groups just kind of picking on me a little bit because I was a little different um uh
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and so like you know I was super close with certain certain people here in the valley and then uh I don't know it just
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felt like as I was getting older there were times where I'd get kind of picked
00:22:04
on but then uh just kind of moved away from like hanging out with some of those people and then like going with group
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Solutions everybody was like so much nicer and sweeter yeah and you know the moms and dads that were there were
00:22:19
really good about correcting us like in a loving way and not like scolding or whatnot um yeah I think for me it was
00:22:25
learning those social cues um and just kind of like knowing when to allow myself to be like super Goofy
00:22:34
and silly and hilarious and then like when to hone it in and be serious and you know get my work done and do stuff
00:22:40
like that hey that's SK that's skills I still learn to this day you know yeah
00:22:45
yeah you never stopped learning them exactly exactly no but yeah I'm with you
00:22:50
because like I totally and everybody's different right you know it's like you
00:22:53
just got to learn to like to roll with the punches right and roll with the waves and and kind of experience
00:22:59
everybody and I think that's one of the things that public school you know in talking with my
00:23:05
friends who went to public school a lot of them talk about yeah like the getting
00:23:08
picked on or the you know getting made fun of because of a certain thing you say or whatever and that certainly
00:23:14
happened inside of the homes School group um I don't want to say less than it kind of felt like less than but you
00:23:23
almost kind of need that to help get you to certain places in your life because you cuz you got to you have to be able
00:23:29
to understand like okay well why are they picking on me you know and why why why do they feel the need to right and
00:23:35
some people are just bullies but like you know is it you know is it really something is it nothing you know all
00:23:41
those kinds of things and you start to you start to get like stretch of spiral exactly exactly and you know I
00:23:50
mean it's one of those things where again it's a learning process and like I
00:23:54
remember when I got to school my my biggest goal when when I first got to college was the fact that I was like I
00:24:01
don't want anybody to know I was a homeschool kid so when people would ask I would say oh I went to private school
00:24:06
um because that wasn't a lie I did go to a private school it was a private school
00:24:09
of two um and it happened in my living room kind of a thing but I for the longest time I didn't want anybody to
00:24:16
know about it and so I kind of tried to reinvent myself and it I think I overdid
00:24:24
it a little bit too much and I lacked some of those social cues that were needed to kind of be like okay I need to
00:24:29
exit or I just need to shut up in this moment or you know any of the the normal stuff right and I had a professor sit me
00:24:35
down and was just like hey like you got to learn to just like be cool like be cool in the situation and like don't you
00:24:43
know don't do this kind of a thing and I was so appreciative of that because she
00:24:47
came from a place of like it wasn't from she wasn't trying to hurt me she was
00:24:51
trying to help me right and she was just kind of being like you're doing a you
00:24:55
you're a little extra right now you know and and you just need to kind of like
00:24:59
let's just cool it down just a little bit um and so once it started once I started to feel more comfortable and
00:25:04
started to tell people like oh I was a hes school kid and like all this stuff you know I think one of the worst things
00:25:09
you can hear from somebody I don't know I hate this is when someone goes ah that
00:25:13
makes sense when you tell them you're a homeschool kid and they go ah that makes
00:25:15
sense it's like something's wrong with you and I'm like no I would rather when
00:25:19
people hear that they go oh that's super cool like tell me more about that you
00:25:22
know like why does that make sense what what do you mean yeah exactly like oh I knew I was being weird or I knew I was
00:25:30
acting strange but dang yeah anyway so I wanted to touch on also like post homeschool you know uh
00:25:41
we took very different paths um I went to a four-year university did a bachelor's degree and then um I know you
00:25:50
have G gone into like the trades which like totally makes sense for you cuz the for the entire time I've known you
00:25:55
you've always like worked on engines and just been like obsessed with taking
00:25:58
things apart and putting them back together exactly kind of thing I remember you calling me one day and
00:26:02
being like hey dude I need to like switch the uh gas tank out in my Bronco like can you come help me and showing up
00:26:08
been like yeah we we like totally switched out of gas tank and I was like dude I totally forgot about that dude
00:26:15
that was awesome I ah yeah it was you it was you me and my dad I think so yeah so
00:26:23
just to give a little bit more context too so like Nick's grandpa has a ranch
00:26:27
up in Ohio where we grew up and he's got big property but he's also got like a big
00:26:33
barn with I mean every tool Under the Sun practically and he's got a lift a car lift in there and so yeah we I mean
00:26:42
you guys would always tell me about like oh yeah we fixed this on the car we did
00:26:46
that and yeah you texted me one day and you were just like hey I need to do this
00:26:48
like you want to come help out and I was like sure and yeah we took we took the gas tank out and totally replaced it yes
00:26:56
that was the most mechanic I've ever felt in my entire life life well I'm glad I was able to provide
00:27:01
that for you man so tell me a little bit about like CU you're a mechanic now
00:27:05
you're deell engine mechanic I am and but like what is that what did that process look like kind of like is it a
00:27:11
certificate is it a degree like what does that look like and then like how long did that take and and what kind of
00:27:16
jobs can you do with that yeah so uh obvious the route I ended up choosing was you know I grew up doing so much
00:27:24
work with my grandpa and his farm equipment um and I uh you know book learning and like you know school was
00:27:34
never easy for me because of just like the learning disabilities that I had um but I found that I was very much a like
00:27:41
visual learner and Hands-On learner and so by like helping my grandfather work on his farm equipment I got really into
00:27:49
it and it became like something that I love doing uh and it came really easy to me and I was able to just like you know
00:27:57
my the way my brain works it's very much like my grandpa's I'm able to like look
00:28:00
at something and I can basically deduct like oh yeah that's how that works or
00:28:03
like I'll take something apart be like oh okay that totally makes sense um and
00:28:07
like a lot of times he could explain something once to me and because he was able to explain it in a way that like
00:28:14
really like you know sat well with me I was like oh yeah that makes total sense and I never you know he never had to re
00:28:20
explain it to me ever again I remember I was probably 12 we took a tractor and like split it in half to put a new
00:28:29
collection it and put it back together and till this day I know the guy who ended up buying it for my grandpa and it
00:28:35
still runs like a champ and so then from that point on After High School it took
00:28:42
me it took me a good couple years to really figure out what I wanted to do and how I wanted
00:28:49
to do it um at the time I was working so uh my parents were super supportive with
00:28:56
me taking my time um as as long as I was working they're the way they saw it it's
00:29:00
like you're you're either working at a job or you're going to school um so
00:29:06
since I had a job they were they were very much like hey man like we're not going to force you to do anything that
00:29:12
you don't want to do especially if it ends up not working out we're not going
00:29:15
to force you to pick a college and you know study something that you're probably never going to use or whatnot
00:29:22
um and they knew that I was very mechanically inclined um and so they had talked about
00:29:27
like you know have you ever thought about like taking a trade like being a woodworker or a uh you know Electrical
00:29:35
Plumbing whatever you know and obviously they thought hey like you could become a
00:29:39
mechanic like there's you know there's universities that specialize in being
00:29:42
able to just become a c a mechanic and so I thought about that and you know looked into it here and there and
00:29:50
then I eventually saw or found out that ventur college opened up or reopened their diesel technician program so I was
00:30:00
looking into that and it was the classes were cheap um and it would ended up being a two-year program and so I had
00:30:06
signed up for classes and uh it ended up being like really really fun I remember being like super anxious
00:30:17
my first day getting down there um and just like not knowing what to expect uh not knowing like oh what's my instructor
00:30:26
going to be like what my classmates going to be like like uh but you know first day I was there probably 45
00:30:34
minutes before the class started and then I continued doing that through the entire time that I was taking classes it
00:30:40
was usually me and two other guys that would get there like Wicked early and we would just hang out in the Parky long
00:30:46
chat uh but then my instructor like he was super funny and he made learning real
00:30:54
easy he was a technician himself he worked for Caterpillar for for years worked on buses for years um and so he
00:31:01
just made learning fun and it was he was able to like cater it to my mind in a way like it was really easy for me to
00:31:09
pick up on you know how things work and going into these classes I already knew quite a lot um and he was really
00:31:17
impressed he would like talk to me on several occasions he's like dude like like how you haven't you know you
00:31:23
didn't start this sooner man like you could be like in the industry like at this like if you started blah blah blah
00:31:28
blah blah he's like dude you got so much potential I was like thanks man I just
00:31:32
you know this is you know I grew up doing this stuff and he's like dude you're like way ahead of the game um and
00:31:38
so you know I ended up doing really well in all the classes that I picked the one
00:31:44
class I was the most concerned about was uh electrical like electrical wiring and
00:31:50
different electrical components cuz like that was just really foreign to me and I always struggled with electrical
00:31:57
issues on my own ours um and so I was like oh man this class is going to just suck I would have probably do really
00:32:02
terrible um but I ended up doing I ended up thriving in that class and like was able to understand it and was able to
00:32:09
apply it to like working on my own stuff and I ended up getting you know a and all those classes and whatnot um and so
00:32:16
yeah you can uh when you take the course um you can take just the classes related
00:32:22
to that course and get a certificate like a certificate of completion that you took the course but then if you want
00:32:28
you could do General Ed along with that and you would get like a degree uh but I
00:32:34
didn't necessarily want to do you know General Ed I felt like I didn't have to
00:32:38
and so I ended up you know opting to just take the classes um and thankfully the job I worked at my boss was super
00:32:45
super supportive of me taking these classes so like she was able to work with my schedule and uh you know it
00:32:52
wasn't like oh you're gonna be here only two days a week well sorry I gotta let
00:32:54
you go it's like oh you're gonna only be here two days a week totally fine like
00:32:58
know hey I'm going to give you a raise so that way you're you know still making
00:33:02
hopefully enough money to you know get by yeah and I ended up making some really good friends in that class and I
00:33:08
end up doing I did really well in that class um a lot of the guys like I just you know I was kind of like the class
00:33:16
clown I was always coming up with just like on liners and Dad puns and like everybody was just like dude what the
00:33:23
heck like where all these dad jokes coming from you're not even a dad like what the heck
00:33:28
and so like I was just like you know it was really hilarious I just was able to get the whole class to laugh at times
00:33:34
and whatnot and U couple of guys that I got really close with uh I like oh yeah you know I'm homeschooled like oh what
00:33:41
no way you were homeschooled like yeah like oh was like wasn't like and so um
00:33:47
and you know at that time I didn't really have much an issue telling people I was homeschooled and like you know
00:33:53
getting their you know oh what that makes sense oh no wonder you're so weird
00:33:57
I'm like oh that's just how I that that's that's you know that's how I am
00:34:02
that's where I came from that's that's just who you are yeah that's who I am
00:34:05
and so I was I just I was able to just embrace it and no matter what any people said you know I didn't get any negative
00:34:12
reviews or anything like that I was never teased because we were all adults um but yeah it was a really
00:34:20
really cool program um unfortunately the last couple classes I had to take was right when Co started and so it uh it
00:34:32
got really difficult because we had to then go to zoom meetings for the class and because of covid the lab
00:34:40
portion had to be like really strict uh because we would have class in person at
00:34:47
college and then later in the day we would have the lab which was at like a trucking Center so they had like all
00:34:51
these trucks for us to work on they had these big engines on these engine stands
00:34:54
that we would learn how to do Stu with um and usually we just have the whole class there we were able to work on with
00:35:00
teams and whatnot and get things done but then with Co happening it was like okay like your lab time was cut in half
00:35:08
and like the class was cut in half so like the first class first section of the class would up and then after
00:35:12
they're done second section of the class so it ended up it was tough it was really tough and
00:35:20
I barely made it through those classes but I was able to graduate and you know get that certificate and then because
00:35:27
that that certificate and taking those classes it apply uh it accounted for not accounted it uh
00:35:35
basically the two years of classes uh equaled one year of experience at you know at like a shop or
00:35:43
something like that so when I went bu to different places I was able to say hey I
00:35:47
took these classes you know this is what I learned this is how I learned it and then they were able to kind of figure
00:35:52
things out and then I went and applied at the place that I obviously started working at and uh they ended up hiring
00:35:58
me and now I'm I'm I'm still with those people and I'm still working with a lot
00:36:01
of the same uh co-workers which has been really cool it's so cool too because I
00:36:08
mean I didn't think about doing a trade until I was already in college um and I
00:36:13
was like hating my life doing general education so I don't blame you for skipping those classes cuz they felt
00:36:19
like a waste of time yeah to be quite honest but but what um but I never really pursued it because I mean I was
00:36:26
already there and then by the time I did one year I was like okay I'll go back
00:36:30
and do a second and then by the time I was done with my second year I had figured out that I could do school in
00:36:34
three years so I was like well I'm already halfway done I would be dumb not to just like suck it up and go do the
00:36:40
third year and then if I do decide to do a trade I mean then I bonus I also have
00:36:45
this higher education right and I have a I have a business degree so then down the line I could own my own business and
00:36:51
kind of have done you know kind of prepped for that also kind of a thing and uh but then once I got out I was
00:36:58
like I don't I don't really want to do a trade I mean I still think about it but
00:37:02
you know it is something that looking back on I'm like man I really wish that
00:37:06
I would have at least just looked into it more because I think there's some really cool programs also like you said
00:37:10
it's like two years you get you walk away with a year of experience to put on
00:37:14
your resume um and you know I mean the trades are slept on hard right everyone's going to college and the
00:37:21
trades are suffering because nobody knows how to do them anymore it took me probably two or three years before I
00:37:27
like made the jump to go and actually start applying places um mostly because like the place where I was working right
00:37:35
when I graduated I told my boss hey I want to give you some time to like find somebody to replace me um and then that
00:37:40
ended up turning to like three years mostly because I was like you know I was comfortable where I was at um and I was
00:37:45
afraid you know at the time I was like afraid of change and it was like oh you know was really
00:37:51
daunting um so that kind of played into not wanting to start applying places and
00:37:55
so like you know again my parents were really patient um but they were always you know they were good to remind me
00:38:02
like hey like when are you going to start applying and I was like oh you know they were they were really patient
00:38:06
very kind and loving um but then my I remember one day I my instructor reached out to me he's like hey this company you
00:38:14
know giing equipment they're looking to hire an eex man they called me asking
00:38:18
for guys that I think would be good for the job and you were the first person that came to mind so I think you'd be a
00:38:24
great candidate and I think you should really go down and and apply see that the way things work at this point now is
00:38:29
like it's all about who you know you know that's that's been my business too
00:38:33
is like once I started to get tied into the podcasting industry and meeting these people it's all about oh I know
00:38:42
these people and lucky lucky I kind of lucked into I work my first show that I ever got was like the guys that ran that
00:38:50
show they're well known in the podcast space and so they are connected and they're master networkers so they know
00:38:56
everybody and and so even when we split up originally and now I'm back with one
00:39:02
of them uh kind of redoing the the same show that we used to do but it it was so
00:39:09
cool cuz now when they let me go they were like oh like we're definitely we can't pay you anymore because of just
00:39:15
where the business is but like who do you want to be connected with like we got you kind of a thing and so I said
00:39:20
you know I sent them a list I said hey can you help me get connected with all these people and lo and behold boom it
00:39:27
just like started happening I got a job pretty quickly after that making kind of
00:39:32
is about to say money maybe a little bit less but like it is really a networking
00:39:36
thing so to have a professor who vouches for you to get into a job it just feels
00:39:41
nice right when someone's kind of like oh I got the guy for you you know exactly um it it just feels nice and you
00:39:47
know and you're also that kind of guy too where it's like I know that down the
00:39:51
line when you guys are looking to hire or you know somebody you hear about some job you're going to be like oh yeah I
00:39:57
know this guy who you know he's a great mechanic or he's a great you know
00:40:01
whatever you should check him out you know and you know and the thing is Nick you are like such a trustworthy
00:40:09
person it you know I know that you wouldn't purposefully give someone a bad suggestion and I think most people know
00:40:15
that uh most people who know you know that uh about you and so you know your word is your bond right yeah yes and uh
00:40:24
that's super cool though well and it's cool because before we started recording
00:40:28
we were talking about you know you worked up from like the base level of like basically just dealing with rental
00:40:34
equipment when it came back and like very minor stuff to now you're like you're kind of running the show well not
00:40:40
running the show but like you are is your job title like mechanic or my job title is shop mechanic whereas
00:40:48
before it was just rental inspector that was the job title gave me um but yeah now that I'm actually shop mechanic
00:40:57
like different responsibilities you get to play on engines and stuff all day yes
00:41:01
I get to I get to work on a large amount then like what's cool is working for
00:41:07
like equipment rental company rather than just like a you know if I were to go work for Caterpillar or John Deere um
00:41:13
like working for Caterpillar I'm just going to be working on caterpillar specific equipment so obviously like
00:41:19
they send you away to get brain to work on their stuff um or you know they have specific kinds of materials that you use
00:41:28
um but what's cool with working with an equipment rental company is the like
00:41:33
vast variety of different kinds of equipment different brands uh like it's like nothing's ever the same like you
00:41:42
know I'll work on anything from scissor lifts that are having some sort of electrical issue to you know huge
00:41:48
excavators that need you know new hydraulic cylinder seals or you know you know this excavator needs new tracks or
00:41:57
hey you know this engine needs new injectors or you know just like hey something's
00:42:03
going on with this thing go you know figure it out see what you you know see if you can fix it um or see if you can
00:42:08
you know diagnose it and then order the parts and then fix it and so it's it's
00:42:11
been super super fun and uh like the guy that I work with that they hired the company hired from like another part of
00:42:21
the country he has worked in the industry for like 10 years and so he has you know he knows a lot of people he's
00:42:28
worked with tons of different kinds of people and so when we started working together he saw a lot of potential in me
00:42:34
and was constantly just encouraging me and like telling me like dude like don't
00:42:37
you worry like it's gonna happen you're G to get that job title sooner rather
00:42:40
than later so he was always really encouraging and he was like dude you have like you have what it takes to be
00:42:46
game whereas the other guy that I had worked with he didn't have what it what
00:42:52
it took um and obviously he was let go and then I was able to fill his position yeah and not make mistakes based on for
00:43:02
for someone who's coming out of high school right and they're thinking about
00:43:06
maybe doing a trade they're considering college that kind of thing what would
00:43:10
you say like was you know where what should what should they be looking for I mean what you know what
00:43:18
kind of program should they be looking for you know to get into a trade and like you know what what type of person I
00:43:24
guess does it take to really want to do that I guess yeah that's a great question so I for me
00:43:35
uh it's you know as simple as like are you good with being on time are you trustworthy are you teachable for
00:43:44
somebody who's just come out of high school and is like thinking you know big
00:43:49
colleges are not for me I would much rather just pick one thing and use that like you know going into a trade I would
00:43:56
say like you know if you're coming out of high school and you're like oh I really
00:44:00
want to get into you know framework or carpentry I would just start going around to different places like you know
00:44:10
any kind of companies that specialize in carpentry or I mean go in and just talk
00:44:14
to those people and like say hey you guys have like you know a not a mentorship uh an internship yeah an apprenticeship
00:44:24
yeah apprenticeship programs are huge and a lot of times an apprenticeship program they take you on as apprentice
00:44:31
but they will also still pay you um like I know one kid who's in high school uh
00:44:36
at the church that I go to he is taking one of those Apprentice ships and yet they're they're paying him but they're
00:44:41
teaching at the same time and so like if that's the route that you want to go
00:44:46
apprenti ships are huge and I would strongly look into those and and suggest that um but also look around to see what
00:44:53
is offered in terms of the specific kind of trade you want to look into like check
00:44:59
out your your your local community colleges and see what they have like you know go to their job fairs and like find
00:45:06
those kinds of booths that offer trades and just talk to those people and just uh right walk into businesses just say
00:45:13
hey what do you guys do like how would I go about getting hired here what would you look for in somebody and then also
00:45:20
just like being on time like showing up you know early in fact a lot of places will hire you keep you um like if you're
00:45:29
on time if you are well dressed and you know even somewhat well manicured and well-mannered
00:45:36
and um just hum like for me I'm really humble at work like I I don't hold
00:45:42
myself I like in Mighty I'm like okay yeah like I know a lot but I know there's still a lot that I don't know
00:45:50
and I am totally willing and ready to learn from any mistakes that I make um and owning up to those mistakes if I
00:45:57
make one and just moving forward and hoping I don't make a big enough mistake
00:46:01
where they Cann me yeah but yeah just like being willing to learn not being afraid to not being afraid to fail
00:46:10
because failing is another way of learning um and just like taking the initiative and really being finding
00:46:17
something you're passionate about and then just pursuing that passion um that
00:46:21
was how it was for me like I'm very passionate about working on stuff I love
00:46:25
seeing something that's broken and being able to fix it I love fixing things I
00:46:29
love the feeling and the pride that I take in like yeah you know this machine wasn't running I was able to get it
00:46:37
running like I it's like this feeling of accomplishment I was talking with my mom
00:46:41
the other week and my mom is part of a Master Gardener program and they have a community garden in ohigh and they had
00:46:49
some kind of equ some kind of piece of equipment that was like busted and not running
00:46:54
properly and yeah and called you and was like Hey like could you recommend somebody to fix this or you know and you
00:47:00
were just like oh let me like come take a look at it and uh and you know she was
00:47:05
like I felt so bad cuz like we couldn't pay him and like we gave him like tomatoes or you know they gave you
00:47:10
something um and and um but you just came and you fixed it and you are now like the hero of that group of people
00:47:17
because you fixed this thing that none of them knew how to do and it's amazing
00:47:21
because that's what I've realized is that it goes back to that networking
00:47:25
thing and like you said being willing to go into companies and ask questions you
00:47:28
never know who you're going to meet right exactly I have met people that have resulted in huge deals for me and
00:47:37
that and I've met people that I know at some point it's going to come back uh in
00:47:41
my favor you know because I did something good for them and that's just the thing if you can show up and be
00:47:46
consistent and be trustworthy and loyal and on time and give value right um and sometimes you do have to expect a little
00:47:54
in return right we everybody's got to get paid some point you know if you do
00:47:58
if you do nice things for people it will always come back it's it's kind of that
00:48:03
Karma uh mentality right you put good out in the world good comes back to you and uh but yeah I really liked what you
00:48:09
had to say about just like go take the initiative to ask questions of people because a lot of times people are
00:48:15
totally down to talk about what they do especially if they're passionate about
00:48:18
it right um they can go for hours on you know for me it's podcasting you get me
00:48:23
started on podcasting stuff oh my God I could geek out for hours um and just go down the rabbit hole of microphones and
00:48:29
and uh interfaces and show titles and all kinds of stuff like I can just go down that rabbit hole exctly the other
00:48:36
thing that I wanted to kind of jump back to that I think you didn't gloss over it
00:48:40
it was important but you said how your parents have supported you all along the way and given you like the time and the
00:48:47
space you needed to kind of like decide what it is that like you wanted to do um
00:48:52
and and just giving you like a safe environment to kind of like pursue that right there was a you know there was
00:48:57
obviously like you have to be working a job or you have to be in school or things like that but it's so cool to
00:49:02
have parents like that my parents were kind of the same way they were like okay when you turn 18 you got two options you
00:49:07
go to school you get a job that's it you know and uh as long as you can show that
00:49:12
you're doing one of those like you know you can hang around and um if you need
00:49:16
to stay at the house for a while you can do that too and things like that but it
00:49:20
was it was motivating to have someone on my side who was kind of being like well
00:49:25
what do you want to do and after college I moved home for a year and they were there they were like I mean my dad gave
00:49:31
me a year I moved in and he was like okay you got one year to kind of figure this out and after a year we're either
00:49:37
going to start charging you rent or we're going to kick you out like you know so kind of they lit enough of a
00:49:43
fire under my butt to get me moving but they were always there for if you know if things weren't going my way or I
00:49:50
needed to Pivot like they were just there to support and your parents I will say have been some of the most
00:49:56
supportive people in my life um as far as like it was an unpopular opinion in my well in my opinion it was unpopular
00:50:05
of me to want to move across the country to go to college a lot of people told me
00:50:09
don't do it it's a waste of my time it's a waste of money um your family was not
00:50:13
one of those people who told me that they just always were like we're super proud of you and whatever you go to we
00:50:19
know you're going to like be a rockar at it and I always appreciated that and
00:50:24
because you know that's what you need to hear in life I mean granted you sometimes got to get kicked in the butt
00:50:29
a couple times but you know you need to have some some people on your side that are encouraging you to go after the
00:50:34
things that you really want and when you make those decisions to really like push
00:50:38
you to say yeah that's the that's the thing it's obvious no for sure they were
00:50:43
always really supportive of me taking my time and I think they that stemmed from
00:50:49
a place like when I was really really young I was very opinionated on what I did and didn't do
00:50:57
and like if I didn't want to do something I just wouldn't do it or you know like I can remember like for
00:51:03
example my my mom when I was a little kid she had signed me up for peeee soccer and I
00:51:11
wasn't really much of a sports person and until this day I'm not really into
00:51:14
sports at all except for maybe like rock climbing yeah not the tradition Stu like
00:51:19
the traditional Sports yeah yeah so she had signed me up for peeee soccer and we
00:51:24
were only like halfway through the first practice this and I decided this wasn't
00:51:28
for me so I just went over and sat down next to my mom on the sidelines was like
00:51:31
I'm done and she's like all right well uh this wasn't for you and then later on
00:51:39
she had signed me up for basketball because she worked at the recreation department and so she was able to get
00:51:44
really good deals for you know us kids to like we want to do basketball or soccer or baseball or softball she was
00:51:52
able to like make that happen for us for like little to no money and so uh she had signed me for basketball at one
00:51:58
point and like every one of my other siblings played basketball or like flag football or something like that and so
00:52:04
she's like oh honey I I signed you for basketball I was like h no no I'm good
00:52:10
I'm good she's like no but honey I I I already signed you up so you have to and
00:52:14
I was like well unsign me um but she I was just like very much like no I don't
00:52:19
I don't want to that's not for me I'm not going to do that and so I think my
00:52:22
parents my parents like okay yeah um we're not going to force him to do anything because if it's something he
00:52:28
doesn't want to do he's not going to do it and you know that's how it was they
00:52:32
gotta they had to wait till you came to them and said hey Mom I want to play uh basketball yeah or like hey I wna you
00:52:39
know I want to get into rock climbing or I want to get into whatever they were they were super like you know when I
00:52:46
made a decision to do something they were all about it and all for it yeah which is just kind of funny like
00:52:52
remembering those situations or like having my mom tell me those stories of like oh my gosh that makes so much sense
00:52:58
that's hilarious I love mid practice just walking off the field and being like I'm done that's that's hilarious
00:53:04
isn't for me and it wasn't like I was pissed or anything like that I was just
00:53:06
like yeah no like I uh and like the the like the coach was really adamant about stuff like that and so I was just like I
00:53:16
don't like this guy I'm done um I remember it was like that I took tenis
00:53:22
lessons too but that was something that I wanted to do I was like Hey I want to try tennis and so my parents are like
00:53:27
okay yeah this is great yeah so like me Ben Carly and I remember doing it was like the Mitchells and uh like the lamos
00:53:34
and stuff like that but I remember like I just was so uncoordinated with sport like I did not
00:53:42
do well in that sport I either was hitting the ball out of the court or I was like hitting it like not near hard
00:53:49
enough or whatever and I remember the the instructor just was constantly getting like frustrated with me because
00:53:54
I just wasn't either like listening or I didn't know how to do what he was
00:53:58
teaching it was just really really funny at the time you couldn't track you couldn't track with it that's so that's
00:54:04
so funny but like so when it came to like sports I never really was into sports because I wasn't really much of a
00:54:10
competitive person I didn't really like being competitive because I would sometimes get way too competitive and I
00:54:17
didn't like how I got when I got competitive um but then like you know if my buddies were like Hey we're going to
00:54:21
go do disc golf or we're going to play we're just going to go to the tennis
00:54:24
courts and whack the ball around I was like oh dude I'm slow down let's do it
00:54:27
and so it's like you know if I'm not playing like if I know I'm not playing
00:54:32
to like win I'm just playing to have fun then I can totally enjoy it and have fun
00:54:36
with it um so I've been able to do that with buddies like you know dis golfing
00:54:40
or Ultimate Frisbee or going and just hitting the tennis ball around with some friends you know that kind of stuff I
00:54:46
could really I could get behind it I enjoy doing but when it came to like playing
00:54:50
competitively it's so funny because there's such a difference in you and I
00:54:54
I'm the firstborn kid you're number four out of five um and it's just funny the
00:55:01
because like the way my brain works is like my mom also signed me up for tennis and and
00:55:08
I enjoyed playing but it wasn't I'm kind of with you I I felt so behind from
00:55:12
other kids and I just there's certain things I just couldn't pick up and so I
00:55:16
got frustrated and ended up quitting but like but I had to like see that season through right whatever was paid for I
00:55:24
was like had to see it through and so um and that's just partly like the way I my
00:55:29
brain works it's just that firstborn people pleaser kind of a person and that's my own issue that I got to work
00:55:36
on but it's just so funny to hear you be like oh yeah I just like walked off I
00:55:39
was just done you know and it's like I could I could never right I could just I
00:55:43
could never um picture doing that so that's that's so hilarious I was going
00:55:48
to ask you um and kind of like kind of coming to an end here but like so with all of your experience at this point
00:55:57
both now homeschooled not you know being almost a decade out of homeschool you know if you were to have kids or you
00:56:08
know if someone came up to you tomorrow and their young family and they're like
00:56:11
hey we're thinking about homeschooling would you recommend homeschooling or would you homeschool your own kids or do
00:56:16
you think You' put them in a public school system or private school what do you have any thoughts on that I me from
00:56:23
the home school you know part I would certainly recommend it um especially with you know how public
00:56:33
schools are you know nowadays and just like some of the things and some of the values that they're taking away um that
00:56:40
I would want my kids to know um just some of you know schools these days are policies and whatnot I
00:56:48
just don't really agree with and so I would opt more towards homeschooling uh
00:56:53
my own kids too um but there's also so part of me that would almost want to put
00:56:59
my kids in public school just so that way there's hopefully more kids like me
00:57:06
or like more kids like you that are out in the public school system fighting for
00:57:10
uh you know the things that I had when I was in public school um you know for me
00:57:16
being a Christian just like having kids my kids uh growing up with the same kinds of the
00:57:24
same views as me you know having their own their own spin on their views you know I don't want my kids to be perfect
00:57:30
cookie cut cut cookie cutter cutouts of myself they are totally entitled to be able to believe what they want but
00:57:36
hopefully like I'm able to raise them in a way where you know they have their own
00:57:41
relationships with Christ and they're able to like you know share that with the kids around them if they were to go
00:57:48
to public school um to be able to be that light in a place that's like going
00:57:52
very dark um so like that would be the reason for me to put them in public school but
00:57:58
then there's a part of it that's like I would want my kids to be protected and
00:58:02
so that's why I would mainly want to have them homeschooled but then there's
00:58:04
a part of me that's like but I don't want them to turn out like the sheltered
00:58:08
kids that are like oh hi my name's Jeremiah yeah that kind of stuff you know I would want them to be in the
00:58:16
world but not of the world you know yeah so I mean that goes back to like the whole our whole conversation about group
00:58:24
solution so and I always tell people this too I mean you got to figure out what works for your kid first of all but
00:58:30
one having parents that are super involved in your education I think is always important you know learning never
00:58:35
stops that was something that my mom always told me was like learning never stops you will continue to learn the
00:58:41
rest of your life as long as you're willing to and so she learned stuff along the way my dad learned stuff along
00:58:47
the way and you know so I I I just always tell parents I'm like you know be willing to have that learning Spirit
00:58:54
whether you put your kid in public education private education whether you choose to homeschool them and then I
00:58:59
always tell people if you choose to homeschool your kid finding that group of people who is going to be your
00:59:05
community is like absolutely key you know we talked a lot about you know the socialization aspect of that but also
00:59:12
just like you know having it takes a village to raise a kid right and so you know but also
00:59:20
like our lives were so much happier when we had friends when we had you know when
00:59:25
we had Community around us yeah you know I look back at high school and I'm like
00:59:30
those were some of the best years of my life right because those were my closest
00:59:34
friends I had people around me all the time um that I loved and adored and I mean I love where I'm at now but it's
00:59:40
just some of my Fondest Memories come from that time period of like I had lots of friends but you know and then I also
00:59:48
had a great education you know and so I yeah I definitely I value your your input on on you know wanting
00:59:56
it is a it is a debacle like you said it's like you don't really know till you
01:00:00
have kids but um you know you got to figure it out with them but um but no I value that that input you had of like
01:00:08
you know I don't know there's a part of me that says yes and there's a part of
01:00:10
me that says no and you know you just got to figure it out I guess yeah just got to see what what comes of it when
01:00:18
you start when you start having kids you know but um I guess in closing you know
01:00:23
is there anything else any cringy stories anything that you're just like oh my gosh in reminiscing this came to
01:00:28
my mind or any last words you want to leave the people when you're when you talked about like cringy stories I can
01:00:34
just it just takes you back to um like the dances the achieve dances that we used to go to you the
01:00:42
yeah uh I can just remember some of those some of those dances were they were super fun but like
01:00:51
me I was not a dancer I did not like the idea I mean like mostly it stemmed from
01:00:58
like you know I didn't really know how to dance and so it's like oh I don't
01:01:02
want to have to ask somebody to dance and then just like you know do some boring dance or
01:01:07
whatever thing but I can just remember like nights when they would do they would do like s
01:01:15
Hawkins and like me my little brother or like Ben little my little brother Ben and like Nathan Gibbons we would just
01:01:22
beine it to the bathroom because we didn't want to get asked to to dance by anybody we're like no we're we don't
01:01:28
want to dance so we just book it to the bathroom and just weighed it out for a couple minutes and then come back out
01:01:33
the dance would be over we're like oh okay cool thank God so school dances for
01:01:37
us were very different from public school because we it was like swing dance and Ballroom were the main exactly
01:01:42
so so it was not like there was not like DJ and we were bumping and grinding and
01:01:48
just like shaking it on the dance floor like it was like there were steps and there were you know there was there was
01:01:53
dress code there was rules exactly gosh and uh yeah and then STI Hawkins dance for anyone who's not familiar is it's
01:02:01
revers so instead of guys asking the girls to dance it's the girls ask the guys to dance and uh yeah I do remember
01:02:06
that I mean I was very much a dancer like at 12 my mom put me in dance classes and I just kind of fell in love
01:02:12
with it so but I definitely understand the first couple times I went to a dance I was like I would hide in the bathroom
01:02:18
and I would you know just sit in the corner I I was like I don't want to be any part of this but uh but yeah that's
01:02:24
so funny that you guys would be like later we're like later it's our time to
01:02:29
our time to go but yeah I the other the dress codes I remember showing up one night for one dance and it was like
01:02:36
button-up shirts so we were wearing button-up shirts we were wearing jeans and I remember that did not qualify for
01:02:43
the dress code and they like Turned us away and I remember being like that is bull crap what the heck um but this was
01:02:50
up when it was at the point St Pavilion and so I remember we just ran down the street to David Worth's house and we
01:02:58
were able to borrow some of his slack for the night and we were able to come back and actually go into the dance and
01:03:03
actually you know have a good time and enjoy it U but yeah I remember like totally being like that's so dumb like
01:03:10
what the heck like we should be able to just come and hang out and have a good time I was talking with um some of the
01:03:15
girls from growing up and like because for the girls it was a lot worse than the guys because they also in addition
01:03:20
to having dress code they had like their skirts had to be certain length they usually like wear shorts underneath
01:03:26
certain amount of cleavage had to be covered straps had to be a certain size like it was like exactly intense um and
01:03:31
girls got turned away a lot more than guys did because for us it was easy you just wear like you said but up shirt and
01:03:37
most of the times jeans was acceptable those few that it wasn't it was slacks
01:03:42
which most people had in their closet it was easy I mean we really didn't it
01:03:47
wasn't that tough um you know I I also showed up to a couple dances in jeans or
01:03:52
something trying to you know like black jeans trying to like pass them off his slacks and be like you know some parent
01:03:57
like those aren't those aren't slacks being like well I'm already in here so
01:04:01
yeah you're like what are you going to kick me out huh yeah exactly I'm already
01:04:04
dancing I already paid like I don't know what you want to do um also my parents
01:04:08
were on the board of achieve so I mean you know nepple baby over here uh but uh yeah it's crazy it's funny to
01:04:18
think about some of those yeah those cringey things like that like just weird rules around you know also like
01:04:26
you know we had growing up in like that Christian environment too I remember youth group it was just like you know
01:04:31
guys are blue and girls are red and together they make purple purple yeah exactly no purple and it was kind of
01:04:38
like that at the dances too where it was like you guys were allowed to dance together but I had multiple times where
01:04:43
dads came up to me and they were like oh your hand was too low or like I didn't
01:04:47
like the way you danced with my daughter or whatever and I'm like I don't I don't
01:04:52
know what you're talking about like I mean I didn't ever feel like I was a
01:04:56
pervy person and I definitely wasn't like I wasn't trying to grab booty or
01:05:01
anything but it was just one of those things where every now and then I was like but I'm just doing like I took so
01:05:06
many dance classes I was like I'm just doing what I was told to do or to do just the parents just didn't like it and
01:05:12
it's just like well they come and they talk to you you're like okay man like
01:05:17
whatever I guess okay sure but yeah but that's the kind of side of homeschooling
01:05:23
that I think hopefully it's easy up a little bit I mean obviously I understand
01:05:27
wanting to protect your kids and you know make sure they have a great safe environment to be in but I get that you
01:05:33
know it's it's also like one of those things where yeah some of those rules
01:05:36
were just they were just dumb for no reason you know and uh a little dated so hopefully things have turned around a
01:05:42
little bit you know we're 2024 at this point um it it be interesting to see if
01:05:48
they're even offering to do like call score reunions would achieve I know I know a couple groups have gotten
01:05:57
together over the years I was going to try to get together my graduating class one of the things I've talked about with
01:06:02
Carrie FR was putting together just kind of a big reunion in general and just for
01:06:06
everybody and just saying hey you know if you kind of a a range like if you graduated from this time to this time
01:06:13
you know we're going to meet you know this year at Sono bar or you know son so's house or whatever and uh and just
01:06:21
you know hang up hang out and catch up and stuff like that but um but yeah it it's kind of hard I'm in Tennessee you
01:06:29
guys are all in Cal a lot of you guys are in California there other people who live across the states and stuff but you
01:06:34
know it is tough to get everybody kind of like back together so maybe this podcast will make it happen you know yes
01:06:40
who knows maybe it's like it's like the like B back together and it just like AR
01:06:45
right exactly exactly well Nick I appreciate you coming on so much and catching up and all the cringe stories
01:06:53
and like I love talking to you about like your career and that whole transition so thank you for being open
01:06:59
and and sharing with us and yeah I mean any last words I mean I kind of already asked you that but oh yeah I
01:07:08
just uh dude like thank you for reaching out and asking me this has been super fun just being able to like get to hang
01:07:14
out and just like chat with you it's just been Super Rad because yeah it's
01:07:17
been several years and I know we get to kind of you know we'll message each other every now and then on on Instagram
01:07:23
or something like that but it's just been really cool to be able to just talk
01:07:26
with you and also be part of a podcast this is cool I've never been able to I've never been on a podcast before so
01:07:33
it's like new territory um you be over here how how you know where am I putting
01:07:38
my weirdness dial you know in my mind like you know but it it's been really fun I've been I've really enjoyed it and
01:07:45
uh it's just been cool to go over you know the homeschooling perspective with somebody
01:07:52
else who's been homeschooled we just talk about it it's been really R well
01:07:56
dude I appreciate you so much and uh for those of you who are still listening uh
01:08:01
you know tune in next week I'm going to have another great guest I don't know
01:08:04
who it is going to be yet but uh they'll be there for sure and uh thank you so
01:08:08
much like if it's your first time like follow subscribe leave a review all the
01:08:14
things you got to do and uh until next time we'll see you yes we will [Music]
01:08:32
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