Exhorter Podcast

43 - Back to School: Advice for Letting Lights Shine

Clovis Church of Christ Season 2 Episode 43

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Have you ever felt the pressure of fitting in while trying to maintain your faith in school? We're taking you on a journey back to our school days, exploring the trials and triumphs of navigating peer pressure, fitting in, and upholding faith. We delve into the importance of recognizing influences, the challenges in explaining our beliefs, and the balance required to maintain a healthy relationship between our faith and school.

Imagine being a high schooler, trying to find your place in a society that struggles to fully accept those who are different. In this episode, we reflect on this reality and discuss strategies for building self-confidence and serving others. We highlight the significance of friends and parents in shaping a positive environment, and how establishing relationships within the church community can provide a meaningful support system.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Exordr podcast, where it is our aim to stir up love and good works through bite-size biblical discussion Nate. What are we talking about?

Speaker 2:

Well, kyle, you and I went to coffee earlier this week, or, I guess, last week.

Speaker 1:

We did. I had a cortado, it was delicious.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, sipping with your pinky up weirdo. We talked about stories about high school and some of those stories we probably won't share on the podcast, but in any case, I was just thinking. You know it's mid-August, some students have already gone back to school, some are going back very shortly or we'll have gone back by the time this airs. And I can remember, as a young Christian, school was very challenging for my faith, and so I just wanted to talk about some things today that I would have liked to hear as a Christian in high school going back to school. So let's start with the question what was the intersection of your faith and school, like in middle or high school?

Speaker 3:

I was fortunate that the school I went to had a large I'm saying probably like 30%, which is pretty large for one demographic large population of Mormon folk and I was friends with a lot of them.

Speaker 3:

So I had a lot of good influences and I was around good kids.

Speaker 3:

So I think I was fortunate in the sense that I did naturally find, through some of the activities and some of the groups I was with, a lot of good influences and so that was a good thing. I think that that's one of those things is who you surround yourself with, I mean, and around in high school makes all the difference on the type of pressure put on you, the type of language that comes out of your mouth, the type of things that you, the decisions you'll make, or whether you'll talk about your faith at all. And I think that I was fortunate to be around a lot of people who would talk about their faith a lot, because they're kind of like groomed that way. But I think that if I hadn't had that, I knew what junior high was like. I knew I didn't talk to anyone about my faith in earlier times and so I think it was important for me to have that and it was really good for me to have that influence when you have your tribe right, you have your people.

Speaker 3:

What you end up doing is you think I have this safety or security place where I can be myself and that's good. It's not good if that tribe is not good, not good. Yeah, because that's what we do we blend in, we blend into our surroundings as much as we can. So we don't get especially when you are five foot, maybe a four foot eight or something Red hair, red hair glasses.

Speaker 2:

Ginger.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, ginger, if you don't find your way into a tribe, you'll find your way into a trash can. So that's you just got to. I was really worried about that as a freshman going into high school. I was so worried I was just going to get bullied and picked on.

Speaker 2:

so much so can you title this episode?

Speaker 3:

find your tribe or find a trash can. Yeah, we're putting a trash can.

Speaker 2:

Kyle, what about you, man?

Speaker 1:

Well, I had a similar experience as John, being a ban geek, having a lot of Mormon friends, and morally I didn't encounter a lot of serious temptation. There was some. My friends used different, more colorful language than I did, but they quickly figured out that I wasn't about that and I became more of a thermostat, not a thermometer that they cleaned up their language around me rather than me adjusting to them. So I didn't face any major drugs, alcohol, sex, things like that the big three you worry about with kids in public school. I didn't really encounter much of that, but for me I think it was.

Speaker 1:

The genuineness of my faith was made evident at times that with my Mormon friends, obviously morally we're pretty much on the same page, but doctrinally and our understanding of Jesus and concepts of God and his nature and the church, we're going to have some pretty significant differences there and about the Bible and inspiration and what is authoritative, what books are not, and there were times where topics like that came up and I felt like I was revealed to be a fraud. I knew the truth, I knew the answers and I knew I was right. Sure, sure, sure. I didn't know how to explain that.

Speaker 3:

You learned so much more principle than you did book chapter verse on things that you had conviction without any proof.

Speaker 1:

The rapture came up and I was like that's not going to happen. Jesus comes back on the last day and all the dead rise and if you're alive, you go up, and then there's judgment and that's it. There's no rapture. Well, yeah, there is. It's right there in Matthew 24. And I was like, but that's not what it means. Well, your pastor just didn't teach you about it yet. And I was like, but that's not right. But how do I explain that? I don't know how to explain it.

Speaker 3:

This is probably not really helpful for the direction you're going with.

Speaker 1:

Thank, you for yeah.

Speaker 2:

Because you can stop talking about having like positive influences.

Speaker 3:

But the problem with those influences too is letting your guard down around those influences and being influenced by them. So a lot of times if kids gravitate to other kids that are quote, quote Christians, you can also be kind of pulled away by false doctrine and those things as well. Having good moral people and people around you is good, but also you still have to have your defenses up.

Speaker 3:

You still have to know when they're trying to recruit you or when they're trying to kind of win you over and where you're standing, I felt like I get hit with all three of those big three as soon as I got into the workplace. Like it happened a little later on with me, where everyone was coming at you with you know, influences for sex, drugs and rock and roll or whatever.

Speaker 1:

The point I was trying to make, though, is that you asked how school impacted my faith. Yeah, that's how it impacted me. It was a wake up call. Yeah, it was a catalyst for me. Failure can be a major catalyst. And I failed big time in Bible conversations. I failed to represent Christ and the truth that I knew was correct and accurate, and that failure motivated me. It was the catalyst for me to study harder than I ever had up to that point in my faith.

Speaker 2:

I love your attitude towards failure. It's not a fail if you learn something. And obviously we don't want to come into it thinking like, oh well, I'm going to epically fail at this, but if we do, because it's going to happen, let's learn from it. I really appreciate it. Your guys' experiences with school is so much better than mine. I'm like, oh wow, they're the good kids. Because when I went to school even though I went to church every Sunday and every Wednesday and I did not want my friends to know that I was a Christian and I did not influence them I let them influence me and it was just not a pretty picture. So when you said, you know, you guys were influenced by sex, drugs and rock and roll later and like, well that you're in the workplace John that it was just introduced.

Speaker 2:

For me it was like freshman, sophomore year maybe, where that became just part of what we talked about within the group, not even that. It was like seventh or eighth grade. That became what we talked about in the group all the time, or at least relatively regularly. And so looking back and you guys already touched on it, looking back I see that that was totally related to the people that I hung out with and I remember one of the passages that has just stuck with me is 1 Corinthians 1533. And basically, bad company corrupts good morals. The people that you spend your time with are going to influence you, for good or for evil.

Speaker 3:

It's not like those things didn't come up in conversations. I just think it was a little easier to stay away from them, or to stay true or to my thinking, by having good, moral people around me that I could lean on, or I spent most of my time with but so when those conversations came up, was that with your Mormon friends or your morally upright friends, or was that just with some acquaintances that you knew Well?

Speaker 3:

I mean the thing is, every class you have, you try to get two or three friends right. Whoever you're sitting around with that you can stand or it can stand you. So you end up developing a few friends in every class and those aren't usually all your friends and so more acquaintances or those kind of people around, and so, if I remember back, I mean you can't pick and choose that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

That happens to you, and so that's what you get, and so it's gonna happen. You can't avoid it. Obviously, kids now even more so. You can't avoid these kinds of conversations.

Speaker 2:

You can't avoid the kind of imagery you can't avoid. Any of those things.

Speaker 1:

It's gonna come up.

Speaker 3:

It doesn't matter if you have a good tribe or good group of friends. It's just one of the reasons why we moved to have my kids with go to school in the school track with other Christians from our church, because they were isolated all by themselves in another school and I wanted them to grow up in the next five, six years to high school having some people they knew were like anchors, right when they could go and they had like faith and they could go hang out with it if they needed to, or reach out or could watch over them and hold them accountable.

Speaker 3:

That's the thing is having people that can hold you accountable and back and forth, especially through a high school world, is super necessary because, your parents are around there all the time. They can only see the symptoms of what's happening, the reactions of whatever has happened at school. They get that, but they can't see what's happening in the situation scenarios you're in.

Speaker 2:

John, you bring up a great point. When Jesus sent out his disciples to go preach and teach, he didn't send them out one by one, he sent them out two by two. There's something really valuable about having other positive influence and not just positive influences but morally, upright and Christian influences with us and around us frequently.

Speaker 3:

The apostles did that too right. They called out each other.

Speaker 2:

Oh well.

Speaker 3:

Paul did to Peter Right when they were not doing right, and that's honestly you need that. We need that more in high school Kids who have like friends and faith and people that can also hold them accountable and then teach them to not be angry at that. How do you take criticism? Well, how do you get called out on those things? These things are important.

Speaker 2:

So another thing I know that I struggled with in high school well, I already alluded to it which was that I was really afraid to stand up and say that I was a Christian. I did not want to.

Speaker 3:

It hasn't gotten any easier. Dude Kids in school now. Oh, do I think it gets? Yeah, I know, I would kind of assume the climate for kids now versus 10, 15, 20 years ago. On saying I'm a Christian.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3:

It's a lot more volatile just because of the political climate and the naming kind of trashed.

Speaker 2:

So I thought of that passage in Matthew, chapter 10, versus 32 and 33. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my father is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my father, who is in heaven, and I know for me. I was deathly afraid of acknowledging Jesus in front of my friends in high school. So I wanted to ask you guys did you struggle with being afraid to talk about your faith with your friends in middle or high school I didn't bring up conversations because I was afraid that they would do more than me about my own relationships.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

I mean, I think I kind of avoided that.

Speaker 1:

I wasn't so afraid when it was superficial but, like I shared earlier, a meaningful conversation or a deep conversation where you needed to know the scripture solidly. I shied away from those moments and I think that's again a big motivation in the years my later years in high school and after high school to study and have better answers and be more confident in that. But in a superficial sense a lot of my friends went to church and so I felt comfortable. What do you think?

Speaker 2:

would have helped you be more comfortable in those conversations or willing to address those topics that maybe you didn't feel as comfortable talking about because you felt like you didn't know it. But what would have helped you do that?

Speaker 3:

I mean perspective on how short high school is. I mean, that's the thing it's like a lot of times you're just worried about ever, either there and then now and 10.

Speaker 2:

Four years seems like it's gonna be forever.

Speaker 3:

It seems like it's gonna be forever and you're worried about what people are gonna think of you. You don't wanna stand out. Stand out, you're picked on. You're picked on. It sticks with you for years. No one wants that. It feels like right now. We live in a society that ending in schools and everything there. The whole point is to have all this empathy and acknowledgement for those who are different and those who stand out, but it's not changed.

Speaker 2:

It's still the same.

Speaker 3:

I mean, you're gonna be picked on, you're gonna get called out for any reason whatsoever, but at the end of the day it's such a drop in the bucket of time.

Speaker 1:

And it goes away.

Speaker 3:

It goes by and you never. I don't hang out with anyone from high school.

Speaker 2:

I talk to maybe two people from high school.

Speaker 3:

Maybe Facebook friends, acquaintances barely, I mean, and that's been the case for like, even since college. Maybe, there's one or two people I went to college with. From high school my brother called me in my sophomore year from college. He was at Florida College and said just take your GD and get out.

Speaker 3:

Because he was just basically saying like you know, and I enjoyed my high school time, but I do remember thinking that you know this is it. You know this is the most important thing in life and the relationships that you made. It was so important to be cool and to not stand out and to be accepted by people, and that sense of acceptance is a huge part of conformity and a huge part of adolescence Forgetting who they are.

Speaker 2:

You know, I like that when people put that up on the threshold right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, don't forget who you are, Don't forget who you are, because you can easily forget who you are as soon as you see someone next to you getting picked on for something that you are as well Like. You're just like oh, I'm gonna be quiet, I'm not gonna tell them.

Speaker 2:

I'm not gonna tell them.

Speaker 3:

Because it's suck. There's always things that are gonna be mean, but it is. It's only a short time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it's gone.

Speaker 2:

What would you tell a student now who's gonna step into the classroom this coming week or just did recently? If they feel afraid to stand up for being a Christian, what would you tell them?

Speaker 3:

Get your GED and get out. Yeah, now, confidence is key, right, and people always say that. But it's true If you know who you are the people who go through life and have a strong sense of self and confidence in who they are they'll get picked on, but not for very long. A lot of people will tend to respect those people who are very assured at who they are and who aren't flip-flopping on the things that they find acceptable or not.

Speaker 2:

So then, how do you develop that? Like, can we just tell someone, well, just be confident in who you are. I mean, does that happen? Because you listen to one podcast episode. I mean this is a pretty good podcast. So maybe how do you develop that sense of confidence in who you are? I don't think, I don't think you can do it on your own.

Speaker 3:

You need to have people who advocate for you and who will help sharpen you as iron and your friends. That are good morals and I think, as parents, it's my job to make sure my kid develops a character. Yeah, and fortunately you know, like we can't do that until they're out there testing it. But I think it's on the parents' job a lot of times to help cultivate the environment for that to happen. But you gotta be tested and I think you need to have those good influences around you. Oh, really know any other way other than trial by fire?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, go in there. Well, I like what you said about Proverbs 2717, iron sharpens iron. You referenced that passage and developed that confidence by a, by having someone to hold you accountable. And don't think that I'm afraid to stand up for this today so I'm terrible. It's more like, well, I have this fear so I need to work on it and it's gonna be a process to grow out of that. And the second thing is there are times when I now feel that fear of, if I share that I'm a Christian, I'm going to get chastised, or I perceive that I'm going to get chastised, so you just do it anyways, even in the face of that feeling.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you know, when you watch the kids in VBS you see these kids kind of, over a week time they grow stronger together, they become more comfortable with each other and their discussions get better and more supportive, and I think that that's the kind of mentality. So if I were to tell someone right now you're going into school, like when you have a bad day or you're tempted or you fail that challenge, you know of defending your faith and everything call a friend up from church that is in the same place and I guarantee you you'll have something to talk about like share with them. That's your place, to share with them the struggles that you have.

Speaker 2:

ask them for strength, support, pray about it, pray for their God's strength, which gets back to kind of the first passage that we referenced, 1 Corinthians 1533, like bad company corrupts good morals. Well, the opposite of that is true too. Good company builds those morals up, and so it's so important to people that you choose to build relationships with. So build relationships, john, like you're saying, build relationships with people at church, so that when you are tempted and tested by the world, by friends at school, that you have a friendship or relationship that you can look to for some help.

Speaker 1:

I think it'd be important to emphasize to high schoolers today. Teenagers in public schools also consider not just what you might benefit from a friendship. Look around your classroom, look around the school and look for someone that is on the periphery, someone that is alone, someone that, for whatever reason, is an outcast and you go and be their friend. Think about what friendships. Can I have something to offer them? It's nice to think about friendships where I benefit other Christians positive influence, the keeping an eye on each other, kind of mentality or accountability but I think it's important to look and see where can I be of service to someone else and make their life better or make their experience better. Excellent.

Speaker 2:

Go ahead, John.

Speaker 3:

I would love for kids to have that kind of confidence and that kind of self-assuredness. That's man, that's key. When you see a kid like that, who knows who they are and has so much confidence themselves and their life, you just know that they're gonna be okay. For those who aren't or don't have those peers I mean, like Kyle said, you're gonna have to go out and find those good peers. But I was thinking of things that, nate, you've talked about in the past, like journaling and prayer and things like this too.

Speaker 3:

Maybe you don't have that friend yet and it's hard Gotta get out there the first week or two and start making those friends as everyone, then buddies up. But just take those thoughts and feelings you have journal, pray, talk to your parents, talk to people, Don't just bottle it up. There's a lot of kids will just kind of bottle it up, say I'm fine, I'm good and fester, and the low self-image and self-esteem just drops and it just gets worse over time.

Speaker 3:

So I would love if I could give every kid something. It's just that confidence and the self-assuredness that they're gonna be okay. They're there to learn some stuff, have a good time, meet some friends, have some good times, learn how to be real human beings.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, kyle, I wanna touch on what you mentioned that you'd love for kids to have the attitude of. This is an opportunity to serve, because that was the next thing I wanted to talk about. In Ephesians two, verses eight through 10, for by grace you've been saved through faith, and this isn't your own doing. It's the gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them, and I wanna focus on that part of it that says that we were created for good works. Instead of thinking about school as like don't do this, don't pick the wrong friends, don't use the wrong language, don't be afraid to stand up for your faith, what are some things that students going back to school can focus on positively with their faith in school?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we don't wanna make the mistake of the church in Ephesus that we talked about in the previous episode, where we define ourselves by what we're not all important things. But if that's, all we are is just I'm not this, I'm not that, I resist that. Well, we need to define what we stand for and what our important objectives are, and that service I think it's important to emphasize to teenagers. You have something to offer. You are not a zero talent servant. You might only be a one talent servant, but you might not even realize you have more to offer than just that. But you're not a zero talent servant. You have something abilities and skills and time and you are able to do something in the church or just in service to others that will glorify God. You have a use and a function in the body already.

Speaker 2:

Amen. Well, and the influence that you have good or bad can, and often does, stick with people years into the future. I was talking to one of my former students I'm a teacher and I think this will be my eighth year teaching and I was talking to one of my former students just the other day and he was telling me from four or five years ago, one of his friends in class. What that student had done four or five years ago in class had impacted my other student for several years after, and so it's recognizing, like you said, kyle, that you have an impact and you have an influence. Whether it's good or bad is gonna be up to you, so use it for good.

Speaker 1:

Well, learning too that putting your faith into action is important and that works of service are your faith. That is your faith. My dad would take me to help people move. We would do projects for people fixing up parts of their house. We had a guy at church that was deployed two or three different times in a short span of time to Iraq shortly after 9-11 and needed a new driveway. So my dad organized a bunch of people from church and I was there scooping up gravel and helping to set formations and the forms and the ground forms and helping out with that, and he would involve me in that stuff.

Speaker 1:

I think he was trying to teach me that works of service. That is your faith in action, and it might not seem like there's a direct connection to mowing somebody's lawn or helping them move or unpack, to being a Christian, but that's your faith in action and it says there that we were created for good works, and you know, when a tool is used properly, that tool will last a long time and it will function well.

Speaker 2:

So if we are made for good works and we do good works, we're gonna function well, and Jesus knows how we were made. He made us, and if he says we need to go out there and do good works, well, then that's what's gonna be best for us too. So, looking back on your time in school, what would you have done differently?

Speaker 3:

I mean, I probably would have taken advantage of the little resistance that I had against my faith by having such great, you know, moral people around me and try to evangelize a little bit more or try to influence others, versus just kind of I kind of wrote it, you know, going through the motions and I think I had little resistance and so I enjoyed the little resistance versus using that as a good opportunity and grounds for growing stronger in my faith earlier in my life, because I do think of some people that I had really good relationships with and I never had a relationship or friendships with them after school.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I felt that contentment that I wasn't necessarily challenged in my faith and that created a lack of effort. That comfort didn't cause me to work very hard at trying to teach others about the Bible, and I do think often about the missed opportunities as a teenager.

Speaker 2:

So let's pretend that our kids are going to school this week. What would you tell your kids before going back to school?

Speaker 1:

Don't talk back to your grandma, Don't oh?

Speaker 2:

that's because your kids are homeschooled.

Speaker 3:

I saw this guy on social media and he was talking about he tells his kids every day, and I wrote down to remind myself, to say what I don't always do, but as a parent, I love this. He tells his kid every day. I love you, I'm proud of you, I think you're terrific and I'm glad that you're mine. And I think the effort of doing that on such a continual basis is doing. What we were talking about is giving kids this grounding and this understanding that they have security and they have safety at home and they have support from those who love them and that they are not in this on their own.

Speaker 3:

And I think I want them to be strong in who they are and build a strong character, a godly character, and I also want them to understand and know that I am here and always will be here, and I'm proud of them and I love them, even when they do wrong, and I'm here to forgive them. And it's our goal to show them what God is like and to emulate that for them in their lives at such a young age. So that's why I would just tell them is stick through it. Every day is a new day. You're gonna have bad days, you're gonna have bad days and just gotta shake them off. That reflection of what was good, what was bad. Always go through that and realize that there's always gonna be good too.

Speaker 2:

God, what would you tell your kids? We're assuming let's just pretend for a moment that they're going to ever went to school, yeah.

Speaker 1:

I'm a fan of keep it simple, keep it short. If you start giving too much messaging, it's you don't remember it all, so I like simple pointed. I would say something to the effect of remember who you are, yeah, and or let your light shine, that's something along those lines Let your light shine, do the good works, remember who you are, do what you're supposed to do, and remember God's watching and, yeah, you want his approval more than anyone else's.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. What do you think parents should hear? What do you think parents need to hear right now?

Speaker 3:

Schools, schools, hard yeah we forget about how hard it is. As soon as we leave it as we're, we're out. Yeah but school is difficult on kids. The idea of pressure.

Speaker 3:

Yeah from peers is is not easy, and so we need to give them not a long rope. Not by any chance of imagination Do we need to like back off too much, but try to be a help me, you know, beneficial. Talk to them every day when they come home. Yeah, talk to them about how their day was, how they felt, why they feel that way. We know what can make it a better day.

Speaker 3:

They kind of think spend that time and effort to develop those habits with their kids because sometimes I think you know bad grades or they, they act up or they get in trouble Right, come down so hard and just solidifies them and their that bad behavior as who they are sometimes and I.

Speaker 3:

I don't think you really want to do that. You want to encourage them and Remind them and buff it them that they are good and they can do good and they need to make those choices. And as soon as they make those choices there They'll be heading down the right path. So just give them love and encouragement that you're there for them. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I think parents should be reminded of one of the main messages from Ecclesiastes that there is nothing new under the Sun. It's always been challenging to raise children in the nurturing admonition of the Lord, and it's tempting to look at my Circumstances today and the climate and environment I am trying to raise my children in and think that the deck is stacked against you more than any other generation before you, and no, it's not.

Speaker 2:

yeah, like Joe, what was me?

Speaker 3:

Oh, it's a save this to shall pass, you know. Yeah, that was just the daily thing sunrise tomorrow.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, your grandparents faced maybe different Sets of challenges, but it was not easy for them to raise godly children. Your great, great, great grandparents had challenges. I mean you look at even the patriarchs and how many, how poorly the oldest eight, nine, ten children of Israel Acted towards their own brothers.

Speaker 1:

So, even in the family there was negative influences. Reuben, clearly, was not the best example as the oldest brother, and Simeon and Levi. They all made some mistakes and they thought it was a good idea to sell their brother as a slave. So even in the homeschooling environment, yeah, it's not like it's gonna be easy to raise God-fearing children. So just remind yourself of that, that the challenges you're facing are not insurmountable. Yeah, it is possible to raise godly children even today, in the climate and environment we live in.

Speaker 2:

I love that advice. There's nothing new under the Sun. Well, fellas, I think that's all that I had on on back to school. Pick your people Well. Choose your friends wisely. Stand up for your faith. Don't be afraid to to be a Christian and then use school as an Opportunity to do good. Go sit with the kid who maybe is a little bit lonely and be generous to the person who Needs something and care about the people around you.

Speaker 3:

Thanks, nate, for what a great topic this is, and hopefully we'll get this one out here before school starts, so you can be mindfully thinking about this, and that's what I would encourage everyone to do take a moment and think to yourself Are you prepared for school coming up and have you prepared your kids? Have you prepared them to be thinking about these kinds of things and what we're talked about today as far as who are they gonna be? What kind of character were they gonna be? Every year is a great time to push the reset button and kind of get stoked up for the next year, and so hopefully you'll take that time to do so, and we thank you for tuning in and we hope that you'll listen to more and, if you find it valuable, share with your friends and we'll see you in the next episode. Thank you.

Speaker 1:

You know, from time to time I think about going back to school, and then that thought passes pretty quick and I remember I don't ever want to go back to school again. And so for those headed back to school this next month, enjoy.

Speaker 2:

So for me, like I really enjoyed high school, like I don't know, I did. Yeah, you did.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you did yeah but, I enjoyed high school too, because I skipped more classes than I attended, so I that's right, that's good. Public school in the state of Oregon is pretty laughable, so I actually had a pretty easy time skipping classes but still graduating on the honor roll. So California is way better.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I was going to California. So much better. Yeah, you know, I don't know. I liked it. I was good at it, I think. Just tell me what to do.

Speaker 3:

It took me a couple years.

Speaker 2:

After my third time through freshman year.

Speaker 3:

I started to click, I started to really understand what this is about.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, oh, I was a big deal in the band In the band.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well, I know.

Speaker 2:

Mr Next episode humility, mr State.

Speaker 3:

Tubeman, how are you?

Speaker 2:

I played football. Guess what position.

Speaker 3:

Wargway For reals. Guess what position.

Speaker 2:

I would guess linebacker. Okay, yes, outside linebacker, but that was not my primary, because you'll never guess my primary you were a runner, so I would think Were you a kicker. No.

Speaker 3:

I didn't think so. War receiver.

Speaker 2:

No, no, guess again. There's only 11 positions on any one side of the ball.

Speaker 3:

Right guard. Did you play both ways?

Speaker 2:

No right next to the right guard.

Speaker 1:

Okay, tackle. No, I don't know what the positions?

Speaker 3:

are? You were not center. The guy who hikes the ball? You were not center. I was center. How were you center I?

Speaker 2:

was center. I was front and center.

Speaker 3:

Dude, were you like?

Speaker 2:

400 pounds. Yeah, I would have weighed 160 baby Kyle. What would you tell your kids?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'd tell them. I'd tell them every morning you're a disappointment to me.

Speaker 3:

And then that would motivate them To be better, to earn my approval Honestly, to earn your approval at all times, they would have to work harder to earn my approval. That's motivation.

Speaker 2:

You know a little struggle is good for kids. There was a radio I don't even know what to call it radio spot where they were making fun of Father's Day and it said in honor of Father's Day, management wants everyone to know how disappointed we are in you.

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