Starting Over: A Single Mom's Courageous Choice

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Hello, beautiful humans.

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Welcome to the Midlife Revolution.

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I'm your host, Megan Conner.

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Thank you so much for being here tonight.

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I'm so glad to be back with you again.

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Thank you so much for being

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patient with me.

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we're going to talk

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about a big announcement

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that I have for going forward.

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But first, I have a story to tell you.

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I

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We're going to get in our

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magic time machine and

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we're going to go back to,

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Let's go back to 2006.

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In 2006,

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I started my master's degree at

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Texas State University in

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vocal performance with the

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goal of singing opera as a career.

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And when I first started at Texas state,

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there were people in the area who were

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looking for voice teachers.

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And I don't know how many of

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you know about how things are in Texas,

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but in Texas,

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we do everything more than anybody else.

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For some reason,

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everything's bigger in Texas.

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everything's a

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competition anyway.

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so in 2006,

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I was getting my master's

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degree at Texas state

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university and people in the area,

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high school teachers in the

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area were looking for voice

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teachers to help their

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students prepare for competitions.

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And I decided to call up the

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high school that was just

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very close to my house and

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find out if they needed a voice teacher.

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Now the high school that's

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close to my house was built in 1978.

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And for almost 30 years,

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they had one choir director

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the entire time.

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And I called this gentleman

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and asked him if they were

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looking for a voice teacher

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to help their students

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prepare for competition.

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And he said, yes, they were.

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And so he interviewed me and

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I decided to come in and

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start teaching voice

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lessons to high school students.

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And I really enjoyed it.

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I loved it so much.

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When I graduated from Texas

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State with my master's degree,

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I taught voice lessons all

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the way through those couple of years.

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And I also taught voice

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lessons at the middle

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school where the middle

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school students would leave

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that middle school and go

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to the high school.

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And so I was teaching sixth,

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seventh and eighth graders

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that were then gonna go to

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the high school that I was

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teaching nine through 12.

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And so a lot of those students

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came to me in sixth grade

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and stayed with me all the

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way through high school,

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and it was really wonderful.

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It was one of my favorite jobs ever.

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I really loved connecting

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individually with students

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and teaching voice lessons,

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and that was such a fun part of my life.

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After I graduated with my master's degree,

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I went on to a couple of

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opera apprenticeship programs,

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and I sang professionally

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for a couple of years.

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And when I started doing

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auditions for opera

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companies that were a

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little farther away from home,

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things started to get more

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and more tense between me

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and my spouse at the time

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who didn't want me to be

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away from home because we

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had at the time five young

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children and managing them

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was really difficult, understandably.

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He wanted me to be home all the time,

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but if I wanted to further

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my opera career,

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I needed to be away from home sometimes.

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Three or four times a year,

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I would need to be away for

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a week or two or three

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weekends while I did performing.

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But it wasn't super

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conducive to my home life

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and to my marriage.

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end,

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after the end of a couple of seasons,

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I made the difficult

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decision to stop performing

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professionally and get my

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teaching certification instead.

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and I went to teach high school choir.

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So in 2009,

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I went to one of the inner city

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schools here in San Antonio

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and I taught choir for the first time.

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And it was wonderful and

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also kind of terrible

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because it was an inner

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city Title I school and the

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students there had a lot of struggles

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that were not related to school.

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And I didn't really feel

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comfortable teaching kids

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to sing when they were

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worried about whether or

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not they were going to have

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dinner when they got home

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or when they were worried

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about the family dynamics

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being abusive or when they

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were worried about having a

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relationship with a

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boyfriend that was abusive.

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So what I like to say about

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that time is that I taught

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life skills and then

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occasionally we also got to sing.

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It was a really interesting time,

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but I really enjoyed

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connecting with the students.

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And that was one of the

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things that I loved and cherish the most.

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Fast forward a little while,

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and

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I went to a different school.

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And then I decided to go

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back to the original high

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school that I was at and

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teach voice lessons.

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And while I was there,

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they had hired another voice teacher,

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whose name was Samuel.

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And

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I asked him if he would be

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willing to teach voice lessons to my son,

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who is a freshman at the

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school at the time.

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So that was the first time

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that I met my partner, Samuel.

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We were both married at the time.

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but what I loved about

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him was that he was a really,

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really excellent influence

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on my oldest son.

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He connected so well with the students.

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And I really loved and

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agreed with all of the ways

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that he taught students.

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singing because he taught it

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as a comprehensive thing.

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You know,

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when you teach somebody to play

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the piano or the bassoon or

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the flute or the violin or

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something like that,

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you have an instrument

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that's separate from you.

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But when you are teaching voice lessons,

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your body is your instrument.

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And so it's really important

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to connect with the

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students in a way that

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makes them feel comfortable

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enough to be vulnerable enough

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to use their body as an instrument.

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And it's a really

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interesting thing to do

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that on the high school

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level when kids are just

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learning to understand how

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to manage all of those things.

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So I met Samuel that year.

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We were both teaching voice lessons.

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And then the next year,

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the choir director at that high school,

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which was the original high

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school from 1978,

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where there was only one choir director.

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They got a new choir

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director the first year

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that I taught voice lessons there.

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And then at this time,

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the school decided to add

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an assistant director position.

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And I got hired to be the

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assistant director.

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So it was the head director and then me,

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And then Samuel was teaching

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voice lessons with us there.

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And so I was the assistant

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director for about three years.

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And then the head director

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got promoted to the central

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office and I got promoted

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to be the head director and

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they asked me to hire an

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assistant director.

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And when I had that opportunity,

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there was only one person that I wanted.

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It was Samuel.

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I loved how he connected

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with the students.

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I loved the way that he

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taught voice lessons and he

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and I had an excellent

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synergy where when I was having a bad day,

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he would show up with extra

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energy and vice versa.

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And we did really well in

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the classroom together.

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during this time,

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when I was the head

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director and Samuel was my

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assistant director,

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we had a booster club.

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It was a group of parents

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who just wanted to donate

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their time and energy to

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the choir program because

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their children were part of

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the program and they loved

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the program,

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they wanted to do everything

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they could to support it.

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So once a month I would meet

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with this group of parents.

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And they would basically

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just ask me what I needed

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and I would tell them what

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I needed and they would get it for me,

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whether it was volunteers

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or fundraising or

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chaperones or whatever it was,

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they were totally committed

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to making sure that I had

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everything that I needed to

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be successful in the program.

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And I loved it so much.

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I became really close with

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that group of booster moms.

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And it just so happened that

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all of their students were

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seniors the year that

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Samuel and I were teaching together.

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And we just sort of bonded

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over the course of that year.

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Every time we had a concert,

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the booster parents and Samuel and I,

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we would meet for dinner

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afterwards and the students

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would also meet for dinner,

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but it would be the parents

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on one side of the pizza restaurant,

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the students on the other side,

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and we would just get

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together and hang out.

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So that was, you know,

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several times a year,

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every time there was a

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concert or a competition

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and we got to be really,

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really good friends.

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And at the end of that year, actually,

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we went to the choir

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competition that year and

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Samuel and I collaborated

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so well and the students

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were so receptive to what

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we were doing that we

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brought home more trophies

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than the school had ever

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seen at that competition.

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And it was like this amazing high.

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We had worked so hard to get

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all of that done and the

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students were so excited.

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And the very next day,

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the principal told us that

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Samuel's position was being eliminated,

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that I was no longer going

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to have an assistant director.

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And it was so hard to go

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from that euphoric high of

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all of that hard work being

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rewarded to going to the

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extreme low of knowing that

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Samuel would not be part of

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the team the coming year.

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And not only that,

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but I wouldn't have an

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assistant director anymore.

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So all of the responsibility

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of the entire program was

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now going to fall to me.

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you know,

00:09:00.416 --> 00:09:01.377

that's just the way it goes

00:09:01.437 --> 00:09:02.378

in education when they

00:09:02.398 --> 00:09:03.598

eliminate a position and

00:09:03.638 --> 00:09:04.659

someone else takes over the

00:09:04.699 --> 00:09:05.459

responsibilities,

00:09:05.499 --> 00:09:06.640

there's no pay increase.

00:09:07.087 --> 00:09:08.328

you have to give more hours

00:09:08.388 --> 00:09:09.989

and more time to keep the

00:09:10.029 --> 00:09:11.490

program the same for the students.

00:09:12.790 --> 00:09:13.691

I could have cut.

00:09:13.794 --> 00:09:15.407

programs, social activities,

00:09:15.527 --> 00:09:16.848

competitions, and things like that.

00:09:16.888 --> 00:09:17.769

But I just didn't feel like

00:09:17.809 --> 00:09:19.030

that was fair to the students.

00:09:19.570 --> 00:09:20.851

And at the time I was still

00:09:20.991 --> 00:09:22.753

very much in people pleaser mode.

00:09:23.313 --> 00:09:24.274

And so I said, sure,

00:09:24.374 --> 00:09:25.315

I'll take on that extra

00:09:25.355 --> 00:09:27.337

responsibility because it's

00:09:27.377 --> 00:09:28.478

what's best for the students.

00:09:28.778 --> 00:09:29.538

Nevermind me.

00:09:29.619 --> 00:09:30.399

Don't worry about me.

00:09:30.459 --> 00:09:31.160

I'll figure it out.

00:09:31.556 --> 00:09:32.416

I would do things very

00:09:32.476 --> 00:09:33.977

differently now if it was

00:09:34.317 --> 00:09:35.277

the same situation.

00:09:35.977 --> 00:09:36.677

But I digress.

00:09:37.337 --> 00:09:39.238

Anyway, Samuel was excellent.

00:09:39.398 --> 00:09:41.318

And he decided instead of

00:09:41.398 --> 00:09:42.598

taking a position somewhere

00:09:42.658 --> 00:09:44.959

else in the district as a choir teacher,

00:09:45.559 --> 00:09:47.659

he decided to stay on as a voice teacher.

00:09:48.780 --> 00:09:49.820

And because he loved those

00:09:49.860 --> 00:09:50.820

kids and he wanted to

00:09:50.880 --> 00:09:51.940

continue to stay with them.

00:09:52.365 --> 00:09:53.405

That was a really excellent

00:09:53.425 --> 00:09:54.326

decision that he made.

00:09:54.406 --> 00:09:55.166

And by this time,

00:09:55.282 --> 00:09:56.228

I had six children.

00:09:56.228 --> 00:09:57.994

also that was the year

00:09:58.234 --> 00:10:00.055

that my husband and I separated.

00:10:00.996 --> 00:10:04.217

So it was a difficult time for everybody.

00:10:04.780 --> 00:10:07.561

there was a lot going on and to have

00:10:07.621 --> 00:10:10.002

that blow of having the

00:10:10.262 --> 00:10:11.963

assistant director taken away, um, at,

00:10:12.581 --> 00:10:14.992

at such a critical time in my life when,

00:10:14.994 --> 00:10:17.035

I separated from my husband in

00:10:17.655 --> 00:10:18.896

February of that year.

00:10:19.896 --> 00:10:21.637

And almost immediately after

00:10:21.697 --> 00:10:22.577

our separation,

00:10:23.838 --> 00:10:25.178

Samuel and I took the

00:10:25.198 --> 00:10:27.359

students on a trip to New

00:10:27.399 --> 00:10:29.620

York city was planned way in advance.

00:10:30.370 --> 00:10:32.491

And my former spouse had

00:10:32.531 --> 00:10:33.472

already planned to come.

00:10:33.592 --> 00:10:35.112

His ticket was bought, all of that stuff.

00:10:35.132 --> 00:10:36.573

So he came on that trip with us,

00:10:36.874 --> 00:10:37.916

weeks separated.

00:10:38.596 --> 00:10:39.777

And so that was super awkward.

00:10:39.817 --> 00:10:41.277

But it was just part of life.

00:10:41.337 --> 00:10:42.818

It was what was going on at the time.

00:10:42.838 --> 00:10:44.039

And it was just a difficult

00:10:44.079 --> 00:10:44.819

time for everybody.

00:10:44.899 --> 00:10:45.346

So

00:10:45.546 --> 00:10:46.526

What I wanted to come back

00:10:46.586 --> 00:10:48.927

to is that the group of

00:10:48.987 --> 00:10:50.828

booster parents and Samuel

00:10:50.848 --> 00:10:52.808

and his wife and I just all

00:10:52.848 --> 00:10:53.608

remained friends.

00:10:53.809 --> 00:10:55.129

And we continued to get

00:10:55.169 --> 00:10:56.349

together every couple of

00:10:56.369 --> 00:10:57.468

months and have dinner

00:10:57.543 --> 00:10:58.644

talk about their kids and

00:10:58.684 --> 00:10:59.964

their experience in the program.

00:11:00.004 --> 00:11:01.044

And we just became really,

00:11:01.084 --> 00:11:01.805

really good friends.

00:11:02.265 --> 00:11:03.125

We were very close.

00:11:03.319 --> 00:11:04.640

Samuel continued to teach voice

00:11:04.680 --> 00:11:07.467

lessons until pretty

00:11:07.507 --> 00:11:08.608

close to the fall of 2019,

00:11:08.608 --> 00:11:10.730

right before the pandemic started.

00:11:11.651 --> 00:11:12.872

And I was starting to become

00:11:12.933 --> 00:11:14.314

pretty disillusioned with

00:11:14.334 --> 00:11:16.416

the way things were going school-wise.

00:11:17.337 --> 00:11:19.580

With all of the extra demands on my time,

00:11:20.185 --> 00:11:21.246

and not being able to really

00:11:21.286 --> 00:11:23.008

show up for my kids the way I wanted to,

00:11:23.028 --> 00:11:24.630

and also being a single mom

00:11:25.191 --> 00:11:27.634

and recognizing that my

00:11:28.074 --> 00:11:29.756

children were going without

00:11:30.277 --> 00:11:31.178

because I wasn't getting

00:11:31.218 --> 00:11:32.639

paid very much as a teacher.

00:11:33.821 --> 00:11:35.082

All of these things sort of

00:11:35.122 --> 00:11:36.844

started to mix together in my mind and

00:11:37.733 --> 00:11:39.214

add to that school shootings

00:11:39.394 --> 00:11:40.775

and add to that additional

00:11:40.835 --> 00:11:42.956

training that we had to undergo.

00:11:43.276 --> 00:11:44.517

And I was feeling really,

00:11:44.557 --> 00:11:45.718

really pressured with all

00:11:45.738 --> 00:11:47.059

of this additional time.

00:11:47.079 --> 00:11:49.960

And I started the 2019 school year.

00:11:50.661 --> 00:11:51.601

One of the very first

00:11:51.661 --> 00:11:52.682

meetings that I had when I

00:11:52.722 --> 00:11:53.923

came back from summer break

00:11:53.983 --> 00:11:55.129

that year

00:11:55.340 --> 00:11:56.260

they were implementing a

00:11:56.300 --> 00:11:57.261

new tutoring program

00:11:58.272 --> 00:12:00.474

that required us as teachers

00:12:00.914 --> 00:12:02.315

to flag any students who

00:12:02.375 --> 00:12:03.316

are failing our class.

00:12:04.237 --> 00:12:06.138

And there was an extra time

00:12:06.198 --> 00:12:07.679

period that took a little

00:12:07.699 --> 00:12:08.900

bit of time away from lunch

00:12:09.060 --> 00:12:10.081

and a little bit of time

00:12:10.141 --> 00:12:10.982

away from all of the

00:12:11.062 --> 00:12:12.883

afternoon classes so that

00:12:12.923 --> 00:12:13.984

if a student was failing

00:12:14.024 --> 00:12:14.824

and they got flagged,

00:12:14.884 --> 00:12:15.565

they could go to the

00:12:15.625 --> 00:12:16.706

teacher who flagged them

00:12:16.806 --> 00:12:18.507

and get extra help to try

00:12:18.547 --> 00:12:19.528

and make up for the failing.

00:12:20.012 --> 00:12:22.753

Now, that seems like a great option.

00:12:22.793 --> 00:12:24.013

It seems like a great idea

00:12:24.073 --> 00:12:25.594

to help students who are failing.

00:12:26.434 --> 00:12:27.475

But what really ended up

00:12:27.535 --> 00:12:30.416

happening is that we had to

00:12:30.456 --> 00:12:31.656

spend a lot of extra time

00:12:31.836 --> 00:12:33.337

monitoring students' grades

00:12:34.037 --> 00:12:35.517

and taking the time to go

00:12:35.577 --> 00:12:36.818

into the system and flag

00:12:36.858 --> 00:12:37.978

them on the appropriate day

00:12:37.998 --> 00:12:39.979

because it wasn't just every day.

00:12:40.039 --> 00:12:41.479

It was just only on Tuesday

00:12:41.499 --> 00:12:43.380

and Thursday and then

00:12:43.560 --> 00:12:44.640

sometimes on Friday.

00:12:46.545 --> 00:12:47.545

then the teachers who are

00:12:47.605 --> 00:12:48.766

having to do interventions

00:12:48.826 --> 00:12:50.186

with the students had to

00:12:50.246 --> 00:12:51.866

prepare extra material for

00:12:51.906 --> 00:12:53.147

those intervention times so

00:12:53.187 --> 00:12:54.827

that they could catch up on

00:12:54.867 --> 00:12:56.108

whatever was happening with them.

00:12:57.108 --> 00:12:58.568

And so it ended up being a

00:12:58.668 --> 00:13:00.329

huge extra burden on the

00:13:00.369 --> 00:13:01.629

teachers in a drain of time.

00:13:02.249 --> 00:13:03.750

And I remember when they

00:13:03.790 --> 00:13:05.210

first introduced this program,

00:13:06.286 --> 00:13:07.307

there was kind of an open

00:13:07.347 --> 00:13:08.908

Q&A where the teachers got

00:13:08.948 --> 00:13:09.769

to ask questions.

00:13:09.829 --> 00:13:10.909

And I remember one teacher

00:13:10.969 --> 00:13:12.210

raised his hand and he said,

00:13:12.597 --> 00:13:13.738

so this is going to take

00:13:13.778 --> 00:13:14.859

away from my lunchtime.

00:13:15.400 --> 00:13:16.480

And also I'm going to have

00:13:16.520 --> 00:13:17.661

to do an additional

00:13:17.741 --> 00:13:19.723

preparation for tutoring time.

00:13:21.904 --> 00:13:24.706

And so I'm just wondering if

00:13:24.746 --> 00:13:25.327

there's going to be

00:13:25.367 --> 00:13:26.888

additional compensation for

00:13:26.928 --> 00:13:28.249

this flex time that we're

00:13:28.269 --> 00:13:29.890

going to use to intervene

00:13:29.930 --> 00:13:30.991

with students who are failing.

00:13:32.568 --> 00:13:34.288

And there was an audible

00:13:34.368 --> 00:13:35.769

hush that fell over the

00:13:35.829 --> 00:13:37.149

auditorium where all of us

00:13:37.269 --> 00:13:38.149

teachers were sitting

00:13:38.189 --> 00:13:39.149

together and all of the

00:13:39.169 --> 00:13:40.189

administrators were

00:13:40.309 --> 00:13:41.570

standing up near the stage

00:13:42.290 --> 00:13:43.710

and the principal had the microphone.

00:13:44.410 --> 00:13:45.110

And he said,

00:13:45.130 --> 00:13:48.091

I don't know what to tell you.

00:13:48.651 --> 00:13:50.391

If you're not willing to

00:13:50.831 --> 00:13:52.652

make this sacrifice for the students,

00:13:52.972 --> 00:13:54.492

then maybe you shouldn't be a teacher.

00:13:56.672 --> 00:13:59.313

And to me, it really echoed.

00:14:00.723 --> 00:14:02.264

over all of the times that I

00:14:02.324 --> 00:14:03.865

had been asked to give and

00:14:03.905 --> 00:14:05.426

give and give and give and

00:14:05.486 --> 00:14:06.906

sacrifice of my personal

00:14:06.946 --> 00:14:09.227

time to give more to the students.

00:14:09.868 --> 00:14:10.968

And every time that I got

00:14:11.108 --> 00:14:13.609

shamed for not making those

00:14:13.649 --> 00:14:15.510

sacrifices and for not

00:14:15.570 --> 00:14:16.991

being willing to do more

00:14:17.431 --> 00:14:19.752

and more and more and to

00:14:19.812 --> 00:14:22.214

just give without question,

00:14:22.694 --> 00:14:23.894

without compensation,

00:14:23.994 --> 00:14:24.955

without recognition.

00:14:26.882 --> 00:14:31.305

And it really just sat very badly with me.

00:14:31.565 --> 00:14:32.445

I did not like it.

00:14:33.826 --> 00:14:35.848

I thought, you know,

00:14:35.908 --> 00:14:37.228

here I am as a teacher who

00:14:37.288 --> 00:14:41.491

came into this position as two teachers.

00:14:43.132 --> 00:14:44.673

And I sort of referenced this before,

00:14:44.733 --> 00:14:47.114

but in Texas, we do everything crazy.

00:14:48.115 --> 00:14:50.336

Not better, just bigger and crazy.

00:14:50.977 --> 00:14:52.838

So as a choir teacher,

00:14:52.978 --> 00:14:54.519

I was also technically the

00:14:54.559 --> 00:14:56.440

sponsor of the choir club.

00:14:56.862 --> 00:14:59.123

which had competitions and

00:14:59.183 --> 00:15:00.704

fundraisers and all those things.

00:15:01.144 --> 00:15:04.426

And so we were preparing for

00:15:04.486 --> 00:15:06.667

competition almost the

00:15:06.707 --> 00:15:08.868

entire fall and a lot of the spring.

00:15:09.788 --> 00:15:11.669

And the competition in the

00:15:11.709 --> 00:15:13.470

fall was an individual competition.

00:15:13.490 --> 00:15:14.571

It was voluntary,

00:15:15.171 --> 00:15:16.291

but the administrators

00:15:16.371 --> 00:15:17.792

expected us to send kids to

00:15:17.812 --> 00:15:18.573

this competition.

00:15:18.613 --> 00:15:19.653

They expected us to have

00:15:19.693 --> 00:15:21.454

kids do well at this competition because

00:15:22.181 --> 00:15:23.702

Our job performance was

00:15:24.583 --> 00:15:26.144

based largely on the number

00:15:26.224 --> 00:15:27.586

of kids that we got into

00:15:27.606 --> 00:15:28.726

the special choir that they

00:15:28.767 --> 00:15:29.647

were auditioning for.

00:15:30.308 --> 00:15:34.051

So every day after school on

00:15:34.231 --> 00:15:35.192

all of the days of the week

00:15:35.232 --> 00:15:36.353

that we could during the

00:15:36.413 --> 00:15:38.154

entire month of August and September,

00:15:38.855 --> 00:15:40.276

we were tutoring kids for a

00:15:40.536 --> 00:15:42.218

competition that would happen in October.

00:15:42.358 --> 00:15:44.880

And then in October, every single Saturday,

00:15:45.380 --> 00:15:46.021

we were judging

00:15:46.081 --> 00:15:47.222

competitions and running

00:15:47.282 --> 00:15:48.403

competitions and getting

00:15:48.443 --> 00:15:49.924

our kids ready for competitions.

00:15:50.596 --> 00:15:51.457

And then in November,

00:15:51.477 --> 00:15:53.458

the Honor Choir performed.

00:15:53.638 --> 00:15:54.399

And so there were two

00:15:54.439 --> 00:15:55.519

Saturdays in November that

00:15:55.560 --> 00:15:56.680

we were required to be there.

00:15:57.301 --> 00:15:58.522

We didn't get any extra

00:15:58.562 --> 00:15:59.943

compensation for any of

00:15:59.983 --> 00:16:01.644

those Saturdays with the extra time.

00:16:01.804 --> 00:16:03.325

It was just assumed that we

00:16:03.345 --> 00:16:04.126

were going to do that to

00:16:04.166 --> 00:16:04.966

have a good program.

00:16:05.426 --> 00:16:06.307

The same thing happened in

00:16:06.327 --> 00:16:07.168

the spring when the whole

00:16:07.228 --> 00:16:08.389

choir would get together

00:16:08.449 --> 00:16:09.309

for a competition.

00:16:09.649 --> 00:16:11.491

We would do extra rehearsals afterwards.

00:16:12.531 --> 00:16:14.393

My mixed choir, men and women,

00:16:14.573 --> 00:16:16.274

didn't get to meet during the school day.

00:16:16.334 --> 00:16:17.615

So every single Tuesday

00:16:17.655 --> 00:16:18.476

night during the school

00:16:18.496 --> 00:16:20.317

year from August until June,

00:16:21.043 --> 00:16:22.264

We met every Tuesday night

00:16:22.304 --> 00:16:23.565

for two hours to rehearse.

00:16:23.985 --> 00:16:25.227

So there was a lot of extra

00:16:25.267 --> 00:16:27.368

time that we didn't get compensated for.

00:16:27.388 --> 00:16:30.871

In addition, I had to run fundraisers,

00:16:31.452 --> 00:16:33.113

which meant that I had to count money,

00:16:33.353 --> 00:16:34.374

which meant that I had to

00:16:34.414 --> 00:16:35.635

do extra accounting.

00:16:35.747 --> 00:16:37.188

I had an account for my sheet music.

00:16:37.308 --> 00:16:38.950

I had an account for my piano tuners.

00:16:39.430 --> 00:16:40.971

I had an account for my accompanists.

00:16:41.472 --> 00:16:42.913

I had an account for uniforms.

00:16:43.353 --> 00:16:44.434

And I had to keep track of

00:16:44.494 --> 00:16:45.615

all those extra accounts.

00:16:45.675 --> 00:16:47.056

And that's not something

00:16:47.117 --> 00:16:48.818

that falls within the job

00:16:48.838 --> 00:16:50.159

description of a regular teacher.

00:16:50.179 --> 00:16:51.240

It was something that I also

00:16:51.300 --> 00:16:52.161

had to do on the side.

00:16:53.562 --> 00:16:55.992

All of that to say that I

00:16:56.072 --> 00:16:57.613

spent a lot of time doing a

00:16:57.674 --> 00:16:59.195

lot of tasks for which I

00:16:59.235 --> 00:17:00.576

was not compensated.

00:17:01.613 --> 00:17:04.275

And I did it because I loved the job.

00:17:04.575 --> 00:17:06.137

I loved connecting with the students.

00:17:06.337 --> 00:17:07.618

I loved being a positive

00:17:07.698 --> 00:17:09.179

influence in students' lives.

00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:11.781

I paid attention when our

00:17:12.001 --> 00:17:13.462

school counselors did

00:17:13.522 --> 00:17:14.783

training at the beginning of the year,

00:17:15.284 --> 00:17:18.186

and they told us that LGBTQ

00:17:18.226 --> 00:17:19.908

students who had even one

00:17:20.068 --> 00:17:21.709

adult in their lives who

00:17:21.729 --> 00:17:22.750

was validating and

00:17:22.810 --> 00:17:24.571

supportive reduced the

00:17:24.611 --> 00:17:25.472

suicide rate by 50%.

00:17:25.472 --> 00:17:25.912

I paid attention.

00:17:28.518 --> 00:17:29.659

when those same counselors

00:17:29.719 --> 00:17:30.900

said that children who are

00:17:30.940 --> 00:17:31.940

abused in their homes,

00:17:32.501 --> 00:17:33.742

if they have one supportive

00:17:33.782 --> 00:17:35.083

adult outside of their home,

00:17:35.863 --> 00:17:37.484

they are more successful

00:17:37.484 --> 00:17:39.786

80% of the time over the

00:17:39.926 --> 00:17:40.987

students who don't have a

00:17:41.027 --> 00:17:42.568

supportive adult outside of the home.

00:17:42.608 --> 00:17:45.810

So I knew that sometimes I

00:17:45.850 --> 00:17:47.592

was the only adult in those

00:17:47.652 --> 00:17:49.133

students' lives who treated

00:17:49.173 --> 00:17:50.394

them with kindness and respect.

00:17:50.474 --> 00:17:52.295

And I took that very, very seriously.

00:17:54.165 --> 00:17:55.886

I made my classroom a safe

00:17:55.946 --> 00:17:57.607

place for my students and I

00:17:57.747 --> 00:17:59.327

invested in them and I

00:17:59.687 --> 00:18:02.028

taught them not just about singing,

00:18:02.649 --> 00:18:04.269

but about the poetry that

00:18:04.329 --> 00:18:05.650

went with the songs and

00:18:05.830 --> 00:18:07.471

about the history of the

00:18:07.531 --> 00:18:09.501

Bible verses and the

00:18:09.541 --> 00:18:11.822

slavery movement where the

00:18:12.002 --> 00:18:13.163

only hope that they had to

00:18:13.223 --> 00:18:14.623

hang on to was those gospel

00:18:14.664 --> 00:18:15.604

songs that they sang.

00:18:16.104 --> 00:18:17.765

And I taught them that the

00:18:17.785 --> 00:18:19.806

gospel songs were not just about Jesus,

00:18:19.846 --> 00:18:20.406

they were about

00:18:21.258 --> 00:18:22.319

leaving their master.

00:18:22.419 --> 00:18:23.780

They were about hope for a

00:18:23.820 --> 00:18:25.681

better world after slavery ended.

00:18:26.461 --> 00:18:28.522

I taught them a lot that had

00:18:28.582 --> 00:18:29.583

nothing to do with choir.

00:18:29.843 --> 00:18:31.544

And I took that job very seriously.

00:18:32.185 --> 00:18:33.785

And I think very fondly

00:18:33.846 --> 00:18:35.366

about the time that I had

00:18:35.426 --> 00:18:36.187

to connect with those

00:18:36.207 --> 00:18:37.508

students and to be a

00:18:37.548 --> 00:18:38.949

positive influence in their lives.

00:18:39.549 --> 00:18:40.850

I loved it so much.

00:18:42.471 --> 00:18:43.751

But it became harder and

00:18:43.891 --> 00:18:45.632

harder to weigh that love

00:18:45.673 --> 00:18:47.293

of students against what I

00:18:47.333 --> 00:18:48.834

was experiencing on the

00:18:48.874 --> 00:18:49.795

administrative side.

00:18:50.493 --> 00:18:51.514

and on the side where I was

00:18:51.554 --> 00:18:53.256

being asked to sacrifice my

00:18:53.316 --> 00:18:54.318

time with my children

00:18:54.838 --> 00:18:56.580

because I had jobs to do

00:18:56.760 --> 00:18:58.162

and I was a single mom at the time.

00:18:58.783 --> 00:18:59.864

So I started becoming

00:18:59.904 --> 00:19:01.866

disillusioned with the

00:19:01.886 --> 00:19:02.827

teaching profession in

00:19:02.887 --> 00:19:05.490

general and I started

00:19:05.530 --> 00:19:07.072

looking around for other solutions.

00:19:07.793 --> 00:19:08.013

Now,

00:19:08.093 --> 00:19:09.875

going back to our Booster Club parents,

00:19:10.692 --> 00:19:12.233

That group of parents became

00:19:12.273 --> 00:19:13.715

known as the Rhinos.

00:19:14.115 --> 00:19:15.876

And it's kind of a silly story-wise,

00:19:15.916 --> 00:19:17.097

so I won't get into it right now.

00:19:17.137 --> 00:19:18.579

But I'll just say that the

00:19:18.619 --> 00:19:20.420

booster moms whose students

00:19:20.460 --> 00:19:21.521

were all seniors in that

00:19:21.561 --> 00:19:22.462

year that Samuel and I

00:19:22.502 --> 00:19:24.544

taught together and their husbands,

00:19:25.604 --> 00:19:26.665

we all got together every

00:19:26.705 --> 00:19:27.846

couple of months and had dinner.

00:19:28.006 --> 00:19:29.348

And we talked and we

00:19:29.388 --> 00:19:31.029

commiserated and we just

00:19:31.309 --> 00:19:32.110

supported each other.

00:19:33.231 --> 00:19:34.372

One of those booster parents

00:19:34.412 --> 00:19:35.793

happened to own a business.

00:19:36.403 --> 00:19:37.805

And at one point when I was

00:19:37.905 --> 00:19:39.547

sort of commiserating about

00:19:39.567 --> 00:19:41.609

the teaching experience, he said,

00:19:41.649 --> 00:19:41.950

you know,

00:19:41.970 --> 00:19:44.092

I might have some consulting

00:19:44.112 --> 00:19:44.713

that you could do.

00:19:45.874 --> 00:19:47.196

And I said, sign me up.

00:19:47.476 --> 00:19:48.437

I'd be happy to do it.

00:19:49.498 --> 00:19:50.840

When I was an undergraduate,

00:19:51.320 --> 00:19:54.103

I did a lot of marketing.

00:19:54.804 --> 00:19:56.306

I actually took

00:19:56.306 --> 00:19:58.149

60 hours of business courses

00:19:58.229 --> 00:19:59.590

as part of my undergraduate degree.

00:20:00.031 --> 00:20:00.691

I've always been

00:20:00.731 --> 00:20:02.573

entrepreneurial and I have

00:20:02.613 --> 00:20:04.114

a lot of skills in that area.

00:20:04.314 --> 00:20:05.675

And so I thought that it

00:20:05.715 --> 00:20:06.816

would be a great fit for me

00:20:07.257 --> 00:20:08.137

when he said that he had a

00:20:08.197 --> 00:20:09.358

software program that he

00:20:09.398 --> 00:20:10.299

wanted to market.

00:20:11.480 --> 00:20:14.322

And so he owned a property tax business.

00:20:14.682 --> 00:20:16.184

And so he hired me as a

00:20:16.224 --> 00:20:18.846

consultant in the spring of COVID year,

00:20:19.266 --> 00:20:21.208

when we were spending a lot

00:20:21.248 --> 00:20:22.909

less time with competitions and things,

00:20:22.929 --> 00:20:24.090

because we couldn't be in person.

00:20:24.836 --> 00:20:26.457

And so I had a lot of hours

00:20:26.497 --> 00:20:27.537

that normally were taken up

00:20:27.577 --> 00:20:28.477

with school business,

00:20:28.958 --> 00:20:30.398

which I can now use for other things.

00:20:30.558 --> 00:20:32.099

And so I did some consulting for him.

00:20:32.119 --> 00:20:33.139

I really enjoyed it.

00:20:33.719 --> 00:20:35.380

He was very generous with paying me.

00:20:36.160 --> 00:20:38.041

And at the end of that assignment, I said,

00:20:38.081 --> 00:20:39.702

if you ever have something open up,

00:20:39.902 --> 00:20:41.002

I would be open to leaving

00:20:41.042 --> 00:20:42.743

teaching and coming to work with you.

00:20:43.743 --> 00:20:45.004

And he sort of hedged and

00:20:45.044 --> 00:20:45.764

hemmed and hawed.

00:20:45.804 --> 00:20:46.184

And he said,

00:20:46.224 --> 00:20:48.185

I'm not really sure if I have

00:20:48.245 --> 00:20:49.045

something permanent,

00:20:49.085 --> 00:20:50.366

but I'll let you know if I do.

00:20:51.546 --> 00:20:54.047

And he had some hangups about it.

00:20:55.282 --> 00:20:57.486

So COVID happened.

00:20:58.007 --> 00:20:59.509

Choir was terrible during COVID.

00:20:59.729 --> 00:21:00.531

We couldn't sing.

00:21:00.691 --> 00:21:01.773

We couldn't meet in person.

00:21:01.793 --> 00:21:03.315

It was a really terrible

00:21:03.355 --> 00:21:04.898

situation for everybody involved.

00:21:05.669 --> 00:21:06.309

In addition,

00:21:07.270 --> 00:21:09.171

my administrators were telling

00:21:09.251 --> 00:21:11.733

us that when we come back in the fall,

00:21:12.394 --> 00:21:14.335

there's no guarantee that

00:21:14.475 --> 00:21:15.295

you'll be able to get a

00:21:15.335 --> 00:21:16.776

waiver if you care for

00:21:16.836 --> 00:21:18.718

people who are in a risk category.

00:21:19.198 --> 00:21:19.298

Now,

00:21:19.338 --> 00:21:21.640

this is rewinding a lot to COVID stuff

00:21:21.660 --> 00:21:23.481

that we have learned a lot

00:21:23.541 --> 00:21:24.702

since then about COVID,

00:21:25.122 --> 00:21:26.423

about what it is and what it isn't.

00:21:26.603 --> 00:21:27.303

But at the time,

00:21:27.464 --> 00:21:29.005

we did not know what we didn't know.

00:21:29.945 --> 00:21:32.606

And I had two kids at home

00:21:32.686 --> 00:21:33.927

who were in risk categories,

00:21:34.107 --> 00:21:36.168

one type one diabetic and

00:21:36.308 --> 00:21:37.168

one with asthma.

00:21:37.808 --> 00:21:38.949

And I was being asked to go

00:21:39.169 --> 00:21:40.509

into the classroom with not

00:21:40.529 --> 00:21:42.390

very much protection, with no vaccine,

00:21:42.910 --> 00:21:44.131

not knowing if I was going

00:21:44.151 --> 00:21:45.071

to get exposed in the

00:21:45.111 --> 00:21:46.111

classroom and then bring

00:21:46.131 --> 00:21:48.212

COVID home to my two at risk children.

00:21:49.072 --> 00:21:50.473

And I finally just made the

00:21:50.513 --> 00:21:51.613

decision that my kids were

00:21:51.673 --> 00:21:52.494

more important than

00:21:52.654 --> 00:21:53.474

anything that I was going

00:21:53.494 --> 00:21:54.234

to do in the school.

00:21:54.374 --> 00:21:56.155

And I decided to jump.

00:21:57.196 --> 00:21:58.376

I decided to quit teaching.

00:21:59.187 --> 00:22:00.348

It was one of the hardest

00:22:00.388 --> 00:22:01.449

decisions I've ever made.

00:22:02.430 --> 00:22:03.771

I hated leaving my students.

00:22:04.371 --> 00:22:05.772

There were lots of tears on

00:22:05.812 --> 00:22:08.274

both sides and it was just

00:22:08.355 --> 00:22:09.135

really difficult.

00:22:10.396 --> 00:22:12.198

And I did this crazy thing

00:22:12.218 --> 00:22:13.439

that I've advised all of my

00:22:13.479 --> 00:22:14.339

children never to do.

00:22:14.560 --> 00:22:16.061

I quit my job at teaching

00:22:16.101 --> 00:22:18.162

before I had another place to land.

00:22:19.824 --> 00:22:21.345

And part of that was I had a

00:22:21.385 --> 00:22:22.306

little bit of money set

00:22:22.346 --> 00:22:24.287

aside and in my particular

00:22:24.348 --> 00:22:25.829

school district, they paid us

00:22:27.301 --> 00:22:28.542

They only paid us for the 10

00:22:28.542 --> 00:22:29.403

months that we taught,

00:22:29.443 --> 00:22:30.444

but they broke that 10

00:22:30.444 --> 00:22:32.766

months of pay into 12 payments,

00:22:33.046 --> 00:22:33.807

if that makes sense.

00:22:33.847 --> 00:22:34.908

So we got paid the same

00:22:34.948 --> 00:22:35.728

amount every month.

00:22:35.788 --> 00:22:36.549

I guess they didn't want

00:22:36.589 --> 00:22:37.350

teachers claiming

00:22:37.410 --> 00:22:38.250

unemployment over the

00:22:38.290 --> 00:22:40.252

summer or budgeting poorly

00:22:40.292 --> 00:22:41.193

and running into trouble.

00:22:41.974 --> 00:22:44.676

And so I knew that I had a

00:22:44.716 --> 00:22:45.937

couple of months of pay left.

00:22:46.157 --> 00:22:47.078

I didn't want to leave my

00:22:47.138 --> 00:22:49.060

position at the end of the summer

00:22:49.850 --> 00:22:51.392

Because by the end of the summer,

00:22:51.632 --> 00:22:52.873

all the good teachers have

00:22:52.973 --> 00:22:54.174

chosen jobs already.

00:22:54.755 --> 00:22:55.856

And I sort of had somebody

00:22:55.896 --> 00:22:57.077

in mind that would be great

00:22:57.137 --> 00:22:57.918

for taking over.

00:22:57.938 --> 00:23:00.160

And I wanted to leave my

00:23:00.300 --> 00:23:01.921

program in the best

00:23:02.022 --> 00:23:03.703

possible place that I could.

00:23:04.344 --> 00:23:06.125

So I contacted my friend who

00:23:06.185 --> 00:23:07.367

I thought would want to take over.

00:23:08.027 --> 00:23:09.248

And then I contacted the

00:23:09.288 --> 00:23:10.890

principal who was a brand

00:23:10.930 --> 00:23:12.071

new principal coming into

00:23:12.091 --> 00:23:13.874

the fall of 2020.

00:23:13.874 --> 00:23:14.954

And I'd never met him before.

00:23:14.974 --> 00:23:17.135

And I just sent him an email and I said,

00:23:17.215 --> 00:23:19.196

I'm really sorry that we've never met,

00:23:19.256 --> 00:23:20.696

but I'm resigning my position.

00:23:20.716 --> 00:23:22.237

I think this person would be

00:23:22.257 --> 00:23:23.377

great to take over if you'd

00:23:23.417 --> 00:23:24.337

like to interview them.

00:23:24.357 --> 00:23:25.978

I wanted to give you enough

00:23:26.038 --> 00:23:26.858

time to get somebody

00:23:26.918 --> 00:23:28.239

wonderful into this program

00:23:28.899 --> 00:23:32.700

before the fall started and

00:23:32.740 --> 00:23:34.140

all the good teachers were taken.

00:23:35.641 --> 00:23:38.102

So I made that tough decision to leave,

00:23:38.242 --> 00:23:39.762

not knowing what I was going to do.

00:23:39.862 --> 00:23:41.423

I just completely jumped out

00:23:41.543 --> 00:23:42.343

into the unknown.

00:23:43.352 --> 00:23:45.474

And I remember my daughter

00:23:45.514 --> 00:23:47.915

sent me a tweet and I'm not

00:23:48.236 --> 00:23:49.617

on Twitter or X. I wasn't

00:23:49.677 --> 00:23:50.437

at the time either.

00:23:50.477 --> 00:23:51.598

But my one of my daughters

00:23:51.638 --> 00:23:53.680

sent me a tweet that said, hey, teachers,

00:23:54.160 --> 00:23:56.562

go form a pod school and

00:23:56.642 --> 00:23:58.143

charge X amount of dollars.

00:23:58.603 --> 00:23:59.924

You just tripled your income.

00:24:00.004 --> 00:24:00.505

You're welcome.

00:24:01.385 --> 00:24:02.246

And I thought that was a

00:24:02.286 --> 00:24:04.007

really intriguing idea because I thought,

00:24:04.127 --> 00:24:04.468

you know,

00:24:04.748 --> 00:24:06.149

if there's a group of families

00:24:06.249 --> 00:24:06.950

who are together,

00:24:06.970 --> 00:24:08.431

they're sort of sheltering together.

00:24:08.451 --> 00:24:10.192

They're not going out into public.

00:24:10.212 --> 00:24:11.353

They're still distancing.

00:24:11.953 --> 00:24:13.174

They're just around each other.

00:24:13.835 --> 00:24:14.936

Wouldn't it be great if

00:24:15.036 --> 00:24:16.477

those few kids could do

00:24:16.537 --> 00:24:17.938

school together while the

00:24:17.978 --> 00:24:18.899

parents go to work?

00:24:19.139 --> 00:24:21.200

And if I could be a pod school teacher,

00:24:21.340 --> 00:24:22.501

I could help those kids get

00:24:22.561 --> 00:24:23.942

onto their devices and make

00:24:24.002 --> 00:24:24.743

sure that they were doing

00:24:24.763 --> 00:24:25.964

their assignments and all of that.

00:24:26.673 --> 00:24:27.373

I don't know if you guys

00:24:27.413 --> 00:24:29.014

remember how challenging it

00:24:29.054 --> 00:24:31.035

was to try and work from

00:24:31.095 --> 00:24:33.016

home and also help your

00:24:33.056 --> 00:24:34.816

kids do online school at the same time.

00:24:34.976 --> 00:24:36.257

It was a crazy, crazy time.

00:24:36.317 --> 00:24:37.297

I hope we never have to

00:24:37.357 --> 00:24:38.658

repeat anything like that again.

00:24:39.478 --> 00:24:41.059

But I thought it was an interesting idea.

00:24:41.259 --> 00:24:42.740

And so I started putting out

00:24:42.840 --> 00:24:44.821

onto my personal social media, hey,

00:24:44.921 --> 00:24:46.021

I'm interested in doing a

00:24:46.061 --> 00:24:47.162

pod school in the fall.

00:24:47.962 --> 00:24:49.062

If there are any families

00:24:49.102 --> 00:24:50.183

who are interested in sort

00:24:50.203 --> 00:24:51.263

of sheltering together and

00:24:51.283 --> 00:24:52.064

doing a pod school,

00:24:52.084 --> 00:24:52.884

I would love to help you.

00:24:54.369 --> 00:24:54.609

Well,

00:24:54.789 --> 00:24:56.350

one of the coaches at my CrossFit gym

00:24:56.390 --> 00:24:58.611

got back to me and she said, you know,

00:24:59.251 --> 00:25:00.671

I don't know of any families,

00:25:00.971 --> 00:25:02.412

but this guy that you

00:25:02.512 --> 00:25:03.753

already know at the gym who

00:25:03.773 --> 00:25:05.033

you already work out with,

00:25:05.653 --> 00:25:06.554

he's the president of a

00:25:06.594 --> 00:25:07.834

corporation and he wants

00:25:07.914 --> 00:25:09.315

his employees back in the

00:25:09.495 --> 00:25:10.475

workplace in the fall.

00:25:10.955 --> 00:25:11.956

But he knows they all have

00:25:12.016 --> 00:25:14.437

kids who are doing remote school.

00:25:15.217 --> 00:25:17.358

And so he wants somebody to

00:25:17.418 --> 00:25:18.958

come in and run a remote

00:25:19.018 --> 00:25:20.759

school in his office so his

00:25:20.879 --> 00:25:22.019

office workers can be there

00:25:22.139 --> 00:25:23.720

and the kids can still do online school.

00:25:24.907 --> 00:25:26.968

So I met with this guy, his name is Leo.

00:25:27.028 --> 00:25:27.988

He's a wonderful guy.

00:25:28.008 --> 00:25:29.209

He's somebody that I worked

00:25:29.269 --> 00:25:30.109

out with at the gym for a

00:25:30.149 --> 00:25:31.129

couple of years and had no

00:25:31.209 --> 00:25:32.750

idea what he did for a living, but he's,

00:25:32.930 --> 00:25:34.690

he was the president of this corporation.

00:25:34.881 --> 00:25:35.413

it's,

00:25:36.054 --> 00:25:37.134

it's kind of funny to note

00:25:37.754 --> 00:25:39.235

when I was working as a teacher,

00:25:39.415 --> 00:25:40.595

I had two lunch periods

00:25:40.655 --> 00:25:41.596

right in a row because I

00:25:41.616 --> 00:25:43.136

did a class that was before school.

00:25:43.196 --> 00:25:44.417

So in order to make up for

00:25:44.437 --> 00:25:46.257

me having that extra class before school,

00:25:46.277 --> 00:25:47.118

they gave me two lunch

00:25:47.158 --> 00:25:48.378

periods right next to each other.

00:25:48.914 --> 00:25:49.895

which was perfect because it

00:25:49.915 --> 00:25:52.096

meant that I could leave, go to the gym,

00:25:52.336 --> 00:25:56.118

work out, throw on some other clothes,

00:25:56.658 --> 00:25:57.699

put my hair in a ponytail

00:25:57.739 --> 00:25:58.620

and come back and teach my

00:25:58.660 --> 00:25:59.480

afternoon classes.

00:26:00.321 --> 00:26:01.741

So Leo was at that noon

00:26:01.781 --> 00:26:03.642

class for a year and a half.

00:26:03.883 --> 00:26:05.463

I knew this guy, we worked out together,

00:26:05.503 --> 00:26:06.404

but I had no idea what he

00:26:06.424 --> 00:26:07.064

did for a living.

00:26:07.705 --> 00:26:08.665

Found out that he was the

00:26:08.705 --> 00:26:09.746

president of a corporation.

00:26:10.990 --> 00:26:13.532

And so I got all dressed up

00:26:14.112 --> 00:26:15.473

and went to make this

00:26:15.553 --> 00:26:17.655

proposal for the pod school.

00:26:17.715 --> 00:26:18.695

Like I figured out all the

00:26:18.755 --> 00:26:20.036

financials and all of the

00:26:20.076 --> 00:26:21.798

logistics of how this was going to work.

00:26:22.318 --> 00:26:23.339

And I came up with this big,

00:26:23.379 --> 00:26:24.399

huge proposal that I was

00:26:24.439 --> 00:26:25.140

going to show to him.

00:26:25.160 --> 00:26:28.442

And I got to his office and

00:26:28.502 --> 00:26:30.523

he showed up exactly as I

00:26:30.564 --> 00:26:31.985

had always seen him at the gym.

00:26:32.345 --> 00:26:33.466

He was wearing shorts and a

00:26:33.506 --> 00:26:34.646

t-shirt and flip-flops,

00:26:35.207 --> 00:26:36.688

president of the company, right?

00:26:38.496 --> 00:26:40.278

And he said, well,

00:26:40.298 --> 00:26:41.398

I see you got all dressed up.

00:26:41.418 --> 00:26:43.400

I mean, I was wearing my nicest clothes.

00:26:43.880 --> 00:26:45.802

I, you know, had jewelry on.

00:26:45.862 --> 00:26:47.583

I was like wearing pearls and whatever.

00:26:47.643 --> 00:26:49.245

I was trying to put on a good impression.

00:26:49.365 --> 00:26:50.366

Turned out I could have just

00:26:50.386 --> 00:26:51.326

shown up in gym clothes.

00:26:51.366 --> 00:26:52.027

I would have been fine.

00:26:52.687 --> 00:26:53.488

So I went and made this

00:26:53.528 --> 00:26:54.789

proposal to him and we

00:26:54.869 --> 00:26:56.711

agreed this is what was going to happen.

00:26:57.311 --> 00:26:58.232

And he kept saying to me,

00:26:59.212 --> 00:27:01.033

I don't know if they're going to, you know,

00:27:01.133 --> 00:27:02.253

they being like the board

00:27:02.273 --> 00:27:03.433

of directors of his company

00:27:03.473 --> 00:27:04.433

was going to be mad at him

00:27:04.453 --> 00:27:05.874

for spending money on a pod school.

00:27:05.894 --> 00:27:06.874

But he was like, I don't care.

00:27:06.894 --> 00:27:08.314

I want my employees in the office.

00:27:08.354 --> 00:27:09.214

This is what we're going to do.

00:27:10.115 --> 00:27:12.715

So I found a couple of rooms

00:27:12.995 --> 00:27:13.696

in the corporate

00:27:13.736 --> 00:27:15.076

headquarters that were going to work.

00:27:15.556 --> 00:27:16.796

I ordered all this furniture,

00:27:16.896 --> 00:27:17.937

all this technology.

00:27:17.957 --> 00:27:20.477

I set up this huge spreadsheet.

00:27:20.677 --> 00:27:22.057

I had 12 students who were

00:27:22.258 --> 00:27:23.738

all at different schools.

00:27:24.838 --> 00:27:25.879

And they all had different

00:27:25.979 --> 00:27:27.081

online school schedules.

00:27:27.181 --> 00:27:28.102

And I just kept track of

00:27:28.142 --> 00:27:29.023

which classes that they

00:27:29.043 --> 00:27:29.864

were going to go to.

00:27:30.024 --> 00:27:30.825

And I made sure that they

00:27:30.865 --> 00:27:32.126

did their assignments outside.

00:27:32.627 --> 00:27:34.008

I hired a PE teacher to come

00:27:34.048 --> 00:27:34.969

in three times a week.

00:27:35.430 --> 00:27:36.471

I hired an art teacher to

00:27:36.511 --> 00:27:37.912

come in twice a week so

00:27:37.952 --> 00:27:38.853

that these kids would have

00:27:39.254 --> 00:27:41.316

as close to normal a school

00:27:41.356 --> 00:27:42.818

experience as they possibly can.

00:27:43.378 --> 00:27:44.720

And it ended up being really cool.

00:27:46.892 --> 00:27:47.652

In October,

00:27:47.672 --> 00:27:49.233

a lot of schools started

00:27:49.353 --> 00:27:51.374

opening up to let kids come

00:27:51.414 --> 00:27:52.134

back in person.

00:27:52.614 --> 00:27:54.635

And so several of my students,

00:27:54.695 --> 00:27:56.716

including the president's children,

00:27:57.296 --> 00:27:58.337

left the pod school and

00:27:58.377 --> 00:27:59.177

went back to school.

00:27:59.837 --> 00:28:01.438

So it was pretty clear that

00:28:01.558 --> 00:28:02.799

when December came around,

00:28:02.879 --> 00:28:03.599

I was not going to have

00:28:03.619 --> 00:28:05.060

this pod school job anymore

00:28:05.520 --> 00:28:06.620

because most people were

00:28:06.640 --> 00:28:07.421

going to just go back to

00:28:07.481 --> 00:28:08.281

in-person school.

00:28:09.001 --> 00:28:11.882

And so I started contacting, again,

00:28:11.902 --> 00:28:12.823

my parents.

00:28:13.899 --> 00:28:17.021

booster club parent who had a business.

00:28:17.602 --> 00:28:18.663

I had done some consulting

00:28:18.703 --> 00:28:20.444

for him and I said, hey,

00:28:20.584 --> 00:28:22.265

has anything opened up in your company?

00:28:22.305 --> 00:28:23.466

I would really love to come over.

00:28:24.667 --> 00:28:24.847

Well,

00:28:24.907 --> 00:28:26.789

it turned out that one division of

00:28:26.829 --> 00:28:27.489

his company,

00:28:27.729 --> 00:28:29.611

which was handling property

00:28:29.651 --> 00:28:31.432

taxes for bankrupt businesses,

00:28:32.493 --> 00:28:34.374

they were looking for something,

00:28:35.835 --> 00:28:38.177

someone to come in and sort of

00:28:41.237 --> 00:28:42.318

figure out how their

00:28:42.358 --> 00:28:43.817

division could operate more efficiently.

00:28:44.074 --> 00:28:45.816

so I interviewed with the person

00:28:45.856 --> 00:28:46.736

who was the head of the

00:28:47.157 --> 00:28:48.958

bankruptcy property tax division.

00:28:49.279 --> 00:28:50.580

And the only experience that

00:28:50.620 --> 00:28:52.382

I had was that one little

00:28:52.422 --> 00:28:53.763

consulting thing that I had done

00:28:54.719 --> 00:28:56.640

But they liked what I had to

00:28:56.680 --> 00:28:57.440

bring to the table.

00:28:57.520 --> 00:29:00.181

And so they hired me to start in January.

00:29:00.340 --> 00:29:03.018

I was supposed to start on January 3rd,

00:29:03.318 --> 00:29:04.418

which I believe was a Monday.

00:29:04.719 --> 00:29:06.079

I could be wrong with these dates.

00:29:06.619 --> 00:29:07.379

It's a little fuzzy.

00:29:09.360 --> 00:29:11.441

So I called in and I said, hey,

00:29:11.461 --> 00:29:13.862

I'm just making sure that

00:29:13.882 --> 00:29:14.702

I'm going to show up on

00:29:14.742 --> 00:29:16.462

Monday and that I'm going

00:29:16.763 --> 00:29:18.363

to be working with this

00:29:18.583 --> 00:29:19.443

bankruptcy division.

00:29:20.204 --> 00:29:20.884

And they said, well,

00:29:22.335 --> 00:29:23.516

the person who is going to

00:29:23.556 --> 00:29:27.059

be over you has COVID and

00:29:27.900 --> 00:29:29.121

they're not gonna be in for

00:29:29.301 --> 00:29:30.281

at least six weeks.

00:29:31.062 --> 00:29:32.203

And there's nobody else who

00:29:32.243 --> 00:29:33.384

can really teach you what

00:29:33.504 --> 00:29:35.205

your job responsibilities are gonna be.

00:29:36.546 --> 00:29:39.489

And so why don't you come in anyway,

00:29:39.569 --> 00:29:41.090

we'll get you onboarded and

00:29:41.130 --> 00:29:42.992

we'll figure out what you're gonna do.

00:29:44.033 --> 00:29:46.454

So I came in that day and

00:29:46.475 --> 00:29:48.716

the parent who was the

00:29:48.736 --> 00:29:50.538

Booster Club parent was the

00:29:50.598 --> 00:29:51.479

head of the whole company.

00:29:52.393 --> 00:29:54.275

And he was one office away

00:29:54.535 --> 00:29:55.435

from the person I was

00:29:55.456 --> 00:29:56.456

supposed to be working for.

00:29:57.477 --> 00:29:58.858

And so what they ended up saying is,

00:29:59.118 --> 00:29:59.318

you know,

00:29:59.379 --> 00:30:01.000

why don't you go sit in with the

00:30:01.040 --> 00:30:02.021

president of the company?

00:30:02.141 --> 00:30:02.761

Who's your buddy?

00:30:02.781 --> 00:30:03.922

You know him.

00:30:03.962 --> 00:30:05.103

You guys have hung out forever.

00:30:06.104 --> 00:30:07.225

And you can just hang out

00:30:07.245 --> 00:30:08.486

with him and help him out

00:30:08.546 --> 00:30:09.887

however you can until this

00:30:09.947 --> 00:30:10.787

other guy gets back.

00:30:11.888 --> 00:30:13.629

Well, long story short,

00:30:13.790 --> 00:30:15.351

I never did end up going to

00:30:15.391 --> 00:30:16.632

work for the bankruptcy

00:30:16.672 --> 00:30:19.154

section of the property tax system.

00:30:20.313 --> 00:30:23.274

I sat in the office of my

00:30:23.314 --> 00:30:26.394

friend the first day and I

00:30:26.474 --> 00:30:28.735

had no idea that besides

00:30:28.835 --> 00:30:30.195

the property tax business

00:30:30.415 --> 00:30:32.635

and the bankruptcy property tax business,

00:30:33.195 --> 00:30:34.356

he was also running a

00:30:34.396 --> 00:30:38.116

business shipping fuel to

00:30:38.176 --> 00:30:40.317

Mexico via rail car.

00:30:42.677 --> 00:30:44.198

And I went into his office

00:30:44.618 --> 00:30:46.198

and I sat down and he said,

00:30:47.148 --> 00:30:48.791

I'm working on lots of different projects.

00:30:48.911 --> 00:30:50.253

You'll get to know about all of them.

00:30:50.794 --> 00:30:51.094

For now,

00:30:51.155 --> 00:30:52.316

I just want you to listen to every

00:30:52.357 --> 00:30:52.897

phone call.

00:30:53.098 --> 00:30:54.159

You can sit in on every

00:30:54.200 --> 00:30:56.403

meeting and just figure out

00:30:56.443 --> 00:30:57.625

if there's something that you want to do.

00:30:58.459 --> 00:30:58.959

And so I did.

00:30:59.659 --> 00:31:01.000

I sat in on every phone call

00:31:01.280 --> 00:31:02.400

and I sat in on every

00:31:02.420 --> 00:31:03.960

meeting and I took copious

00:31:04.020 --> 00:31:04.920

notes and I Googled

00:31:05.140 --> 00:31:06.461

everything that I didn't understand,

00:31:06.601 --> 00:31:08.321

which was probably 80% of

00:31:08.361 --> 00:31:09.141

what was being said.

00:31:10.101 --> 00:31:12.862

I had no idea what it was

00:31:12.922 --> 00:31:15.182

like to try and load rail

00:31:15.222 --> 00:31:16.723

cars with fuel on the Gulf

00:31:16.763 --> 00:31:18.403

Coast and ship them across

00:31:18.443 --> 00:31:19.483

the border to Mexico and

00:31:20.343 --> 00:31:22.084

track them and get the cars

00:31:22.144 --> 00:31:23.384

back and load them again.

00:31:23.624 --> 00:31:25.444

It was just this crazy process.

00:31:25.965 --> 00:31:27.085

And he often said to me in

00:31:27.125 --> 00:31:27.985

those first few days,

00:31:28.661 --> 00:31:31.003

It takes 19 things to get a

00:31:31.063 --> 00:31:32.424

rail car across the border.

00:31:32.805 --> 00:31:34.866

And if you don't have one of them,

00:31:35.607 --> 00:31:36.468

it's never going to work.

00:31:37.228 --> 00:31:38.169

And I remember after the

00:31:38.209 --> 00:31:39.430

first couple of days, I said, OK,

00:31:39.450 --> 00:31:40.311

you keep saying this.

00:31:41.012 --> 00:31:42.112

What are the 19 things?

00:31:42.413 --> 00:31:43.253

I was like, I'm ready.

00:31:43.674 --> 00:31:44.755

I'm going to write them down right now.

00:31:44.975 --> 00:31:45.395

Number one.

00:31:45.856 --> 00:31:46.756

And he was like, well,

00:31:46.997 --> 00:31:48.258

I just sort of say that.

00:31:49.474 --> 00:31:51.076

it's not really 19 things.

00:31:51.156 --> 00:31:54.079

It's probably more like 25 things.

00:31:55.460 --> 00:31:56.821

And so he started to explain

00:31:56.861 --> 00:31:57.502

to me all of the

00:31:57.542 --> 00:31:58.944

difficulties of exporting

00:31:58.984 --> 00:32:00.045

fuel into Mexico.

00:32:00.125 --> 00:32:01.306

And I learned a lot about

00:32:01.726 --> 00:32:02.907

the Mexican government and

00:32:02.988 --> 00:32:04.249

how they operate.

00:32:04.549 --> 00:32:05.610

And also the fact that

00:32:05.650 --> 00:32:06.831

bribery is just a part of

00:32:06.871 --> 00:32:10.115

their culture and you have nothing to do

00:32:11.215 --> 00:32:13.657

in Mexico if there's not bribery involved.

00:32:13.917 --> 00:32:15.638

And also you have nothing to

00:32:15.678 --> 00:32:17.359

do in Mexico if the special

00:32:17.419 --> 00:32:19.320

club is not involved whose

00:32:19.360 --> 00:32:20.521

name I won't say because

00:32:20.541 --> 00:32:21.541

the YouTube police.

00:32:22.962 --> 00:32:24.023

And so it just was,

00:32:24.323 --> 00:32:26.324

it was totally a baptism by fire.

00:32:26.404 --> 00:32:27.965

I had no idea what I was doing,

00:32:28.566 --> 00:32:30.006

but I learned, I learned very,

00:32:30.066 --> 00:32:30.647

very quickly.

00:32:30.833 --> 00:32:31.839

it was pretty crazy.

00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:35.302

I learned about rail car

00:32:35.322 --> 00:32:36.563

logistics and I learned

00:32:36.583 --> 00:32:37.644

about what kinds of rail

00:32:37.684 --> 00:32:38.865

cars were the right kinds.

00:32:38.945 --> 00:32:40.286

And I learned about loading

00:32:40.366 --> 00:32:41.968

fuel at Gulf Coast

00:32:42.028 --> 00:32:43.028

refineries and I learned

00:32:43.048 --> 00:32:44.149

about the pricing and all

00:32:44.169 --> 00:32:44.990

of the different places

00:32:45.050 --> 00:32:45.891

along the Gulf Coast.

00:32:46.583 --> 00:32:47.423

And I learned to track the

00:32:47.463 --> 00:32:49.444

prices and I learned to quote the prices.

00:32:49.584 --> 00:32:50.684

And eventually I became a

00:32:50.724 --> 00:32:52.565

project manager where I was

00:32:52.625 --> 00:32:53.645

in charge of making sure

00:32:53.665 --> 00:32:56.767

that our customers got in a fuel request.

00:32:56.907 --> 00:32:58.007

I would give them a quote

00:32:58.307 --> 00:33:00.168

and then they would send us money.

00:33:00.308 --> 00:33:01.848

We would send money to the refinery.

00:33:01.968 --> 00:33:02.709

We would schedule the

00:33:02.749 --> 00:33:03.769

loading of their rail cars.

00:33:03.829 --> 00:33:04.949

We would track the rail cars

00:33:05.069 --> 00:33:06.690

all the way down to their spur in Mexico.

00:33:07.290 --> 00:33:08.271

And then all the way back

00:33:08.291 --> 00:33:09.171

where they would load again.

00:33:09.191 --> 00:33:11.373

And it was just this crazy

00:33:11.593 --> 00:33:12.994

world that I never thought

00:33:13.014 --> 00:33:13.854

I would be a part of.

00:33:14.314 --> 00:33:15.475

And I will never forget the

00:33:15.515 --> 00:33:17.874

very first day that

00:33:18.142 --> 00:33:19.342

helped the accounting team

00:33:19.943 --> 00:33:21.844

create an invoice for our first customer.

00:33:22.584 --> 00:33:22.804

Now,

00:33:23.905 --> 00:33:25.386

rewind just a little bit because my

00:33:25.426 --> 00:33:27.167

husband had his own business.

00:33:27.988 --> 00:33:30.930

And he was working in the

00:33:30.990 --> 00:33:32.311

internet field and he was

00:33:32.351 --> 00:33:34.052

doing remote IT and things like that.

00:33:34.552 --> 00:33:35.633

And I helped him with the

00:33:35.673 --> 00:33:35.965

bookkeeping

00:33:36.110 --> 00:33:38.311

And I remember making some

00:33:38.371 --> 00:33:41.093

invoices for him that were, you know,

00:33:41.113 --> 00:33:43.354

around in the like $1,200

00:33:43.354 --> 00:33:44.074

to $1,500 range.

00:33:44.114 --> 00:33:45.595

And I remember thinking that

00:33:45.635 --> 00:33:46.596

was such a huge amount of

00:33:46.656 --> 00:33:48.217

money to bill one person

00:33:48.657 --> 00:33:49.978

for their computer expenses.

00:33:50.920 --> 00:33:52.322

And the very first invoice

00:33:53.143 --> 00:33:54.084

that I created for a

00:33:54.124 --> 00:33:55.345

customer in this business

00:33:55.445 --> 00:33:57.467

was over $1.5 million.

00:33:58.949 --> 00:34:01.692

And it completely blew my

00:34:01.752 --> 00:34:04.115

mind in the best way.

00:34:05.477 --> 00:34:06.978

in the way that I started to

00:34:07.038 --> 00:34:09.018

think about money in a very

00:34:09.078 --> 00:34:09.679

different way.

00:34:09.699 --> 00:34:11.699

I started to think about

00:34:12.439 --> 00:34:14.020

invoicing and financing

00:34:14.560 --> 00:34:16.401

literally millions of dollars of fuel,

00:34:16.521 --> 00:34:18.181

whereas before I had only

00:34:18.262 --> 00:34:19.562

really had a concept of a

00:34:19.622 --> 00:34:21.543

few thousand at a time and

00:34:21.563 --> 00:34:23.063

it completely changed my mind.

00:34:24.464 --> 00:34:25.004

In addition,

00:34:26.464 --> 00:34:29.465

my boss was also working with

00:34:30.506 --> 00:34:33.167

some other people trying to

00:34:34.942 --> 00:34:36.823

let's call it flip crude oil,

00:34:37.003 --> 00:34:37.303

Okay.

00:34:37.343 --> 00:34:38.583

So let's say that the oil

00:34:38.623 --> 00:34:40.604

price right now for crude

00:34:40.684 --> 00:34:42.385

oil is $80 a barrel.

00:34:43.446 --> 00:34:44.726

They would arrange to buy

00:34:44.787 --> 00:34:47.948

the crude oil at $79 a barrel,

00:34:48.628 --> 00:34:49.709

and then they wanted to

00:34:49.809 --> 00:34:51.950

sell it to somebody for $81 a barrel.

00:34:52.090 --> 00:34:52.170

And

00:34:54.124 --> 00:34:55.245

they wanted to capture the

00:34:55.345 --> 00:34:56.326

arbitrage in between.

00:34:56.346 --> 00:34:57.607

So a couple bucks a barrel.

00:34:57.747 --> 00:34:57.907

Well,

00:34:57.927 --> 00:34:59.108

when you're talking about half a

00:34:59.148 --> 00:35:00.929

million barrels of oil,

00:35:00.949 --> 00:35:02.350

it's a lot of money.

00:35:03.431 --> 00:35:05.132

The problem is that doesn't work.

00:35:05.212 --> 00:35:06.513

You can't really stand in the middle.

00:35:06.713 --> 00:35:08.875

If you don't have the oil, own the oil,

00:35:09.335 --> 00:35:10.956

or you don't have the money,

00:35:11.837 --> 00:35:12.878

you can't really stand in

00:35:12.898 --> 00:35:15.259

the middle and collect that arbitrage.

00:35:16.260 --> 00:35:20.043

But somehow this person that

00:35:20.063 --> 00:35:21.104

my boss is working with

00:35:21.803 --> 00:35:22.923

thought that that was possible.

00:35:23.163 --> 00:35:25.124

Now he turned out to be a fraudster,

00:35:25.384 --> 00:35:27.005

which is a story for another time.

00:35:27.745 --> 00:35:29.345

I could probably write an

00:35:29.405 --> 00:35:30.686

entire book about this

00:35:30.986 --> 00:35:32.006

whole experience and it

00:35:32.046 --> 00:35:33.266

would just be crazy and wild.

00:35:33.326 --> 00:35:34.927

In fact, I might actually do that.

00:35:36.407 --> 00:35:37.948

But the problem is that my

00:35:38.008 --> 00:35:39.668

boss clung onto that idea

00:35:39.868 --> 00:35:41.009

and thought it was a great idea.

00:35:41.589 --> 00:35:42.049

He thought,

00:35:42.509 --> 00:35:44.590

if I can't use other people's money,

00:35:45.924 --> 00:35:47.505

to stand in the middle

00:35:48.186 --> 00:35:49.006

somebody else is going to

00:35:49.046 --> 00:35:50.007

pay for it and i'm just

00:35:50.027 --> 00:35:51.148

going to stand here and be

00:35:51.188 --> 00:35:53.069

a pay master and collect

00:35:53.109 --> 00:35:54.890

some money sounds like a

00:35:54.930 --> 00:35:56.972

great plan the problem is

00:35:56.992 --> 00:35:58.513

that never works and you

00:35:58.533 --> 00:35:59.454

have to be the one with the

00:35:59.494 --> 00:36:00.715

money in order to make it

00:36:00.755 --> 00:36:02.356

work and you have to be the

00:36:02.396 --> 00:36:03.477

one who owns the fuel to

00:36:03.517 --> 00:36:04.457

make it work for lots of

00:36:04.517 --> 00:36:05.418

reasons that i won't get

00:36:05.458 --> 00:36:07.960

into right now but once we

00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:09.161

found out that person was a

00:36:09.201 --> 00:36:13.744

fraudster the problem is that we did not

00:36:16.115 --> 00:36:17.176

get rid of that business

00:36:17.216 --> 00:36:19.598

model we continue to try

00:36:19.778 --> 00:36:20.639

and make that business

00:36:20.679 --> 00:36:22.861

model work for a long time

00:36:23.241 --> 00:36:24.943

afterwards and what i

00:36:25.023 --> 00:36:27.605

quickly found is that in

00:36:27.665 --> 00:36:29.307

the secondary fuel market

00:36:30.888 --> 00:36:31.809

where you're not buying

00:36:31.849 --> 00:36:32.990

from a refinery but you're

00:36:33.010 --> 00:36:35.232

buying from a reseller and

00:36:35.252 --> 00:36:37.494

you're not selling to an

00:36:37.614 --> 00:36:39.236

end burner who's actually

00:36:39.376 --> 00:36:40.317

using the fuel but you're

00:36:41.476 --> 00:36:43.398

reselling to a reseller and

00:36:43.438 --> 00:36:44.299

you're trying to capture

00:36:44.319 --> 00:36:45.380

that profit in between,

00:36:46.061 --> 00:36:48.864

there is a ton of fraud.

00:36:50.005 --> 00:36:52.728

Like 90% of the deals that I

00:36:52.788 --> 00:36:54.130

saw over the course of

00:36:54.190 --> 00:36:55.872

three and a half years were fraudulent.

00:36:56.552 --> 00:36:59.476

And I got really good at detecting fraud.

00:37:00.176 --> 00:37:01.137

And the reason why there's

00:37:01.157 --> 00:37:02.058

so much fraud is because

00:37:02.078 --> 00:37:03.440

there's so much money to be made.

00:37:04.002 --> 00:37:05.744

One of the typical scams is

00:37:06.285 --> 00:37:07.327

someone would come and say,

00:37:07.647 --> 00:37:09.549

I've got a million barrels of jet fuel.

00:37:10.210 --> 00:37:11.752

All you have to do is use my

00:37:11.792 --> 00:37:14.356

tank farm to store the jet fuel.

00:37:14.900 --> 00:37:15.820

and then you can sell it.

00:37:16.380 --> 00:37:17.481

And you would send money to

00:37:17.521 --> 00:37:19.801

this tank farm and they would disappear.

00:37:21.561 --> 00:37:22.682

So they would collect tank

00:37:22.742 --> 00:37:25.102

fees and they would never

00:37:25.202 --> 00:37:26.162

actually own any fuels.

00:37:26.222 --> 00:37:26.562

In fact,

00:37:26.682 --> 00:37:27.823

most of the time there wasn't even

00:37:27.863 --> 00:37:28.203

a tank.

00:37:28.423 --> 00:37:30.483

It was just all fake and fraudulent.

00:37:30.563 --> 00:37:31.703

And so many people have

00:37:31.743 --> 00:37:32.764

caught onto it because it

00:37:32.804 --> 00:37:33.904

was so profitable,

00:37:34.744 --> 00:37:36.244

but there's always a way to

00:37:36.304 --> 00:37:37.465

scam people out of money.

00:37:37.725 --> 00:37:39.425

And you're talking about people with

00:37:39.991 --> 00:37:41.092

sometimes more money than

00:37:41.172 --> 00:37:42.233

cents and they get involved

00:37:42.253 --> 00:37:43.194

in these fraudulent deals

00:37:43.234 --> 00:37:44.195

because the dollar signs

00:37:44.255 --> 00:37:46.577

are so big and so

00:37:46.617 --> 00:37:49.799

attractive and all you got

00:37:49.819 --> 00:37:51.160

to do is send me some money

00:37:51.180 --> 00:37:52.742

and you're going to make 10