Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
Personally with Usman, Well, you guys seem to love these episodes,
so I decided to run it back for summertime, and
I am answering some of y'all's questions that you submitted
on Instagram, and they range from all kinds of topics.
We're going to talk about jobs and work, boyfriend and
dating my dog Remy and everything to do with Remy,
(00:37):
and then some random questions thrown in there about friendships
and misconceptions and moving to a state where you know nobody.
We're going to kick this off starting with jobs, because
that seems to be a pretty hot topic right now.
So first question coming in, how do you know if
it's time to move on from a job? I would
like bigger career opportunities. This one is a tricky one
for me to get started off and answer because I
(01:00):
have been in a career that I've kind of moved
up in throughout my whole big girl adult jobs. When
I was working as a teenager at Buffalo Wild Wings,
I was also kind of doing the same thing where
I was just moving up the ranks, and so I've
never really left a job to chase a different type
of career. Now I will say, I've always had these
(01:21):
inner conversations with myself where I've recognized that if I'm
ever in a position where I feel like I'm not growing,
I will then look at the job that I currently
have and say, is that because of me? Or is
that because of the job that I'm in? Am I
the one who's stunted my growth? Have I not taken
different opportunities to try different things? Have I expressed to
(01:44):
my manager or boss that I would like to do X,
Y and z. If you've exhausted every single thing that
you think you can do in the job that you're
currently in, then yeah, you should always explore other opportunities
because the biggest thing that humans want is growth. You
want to grow, you want to do better, you want
to change, and if you're not gonna keep trying to
(02:07):
do that in the job that you have, then it's
probably time to look at something else. Now. I think
there's also another conversation to be had here, where do
you love what you're doing? Is it the job you've
always wanted or are you wanting to chase something else
because this isn't what it turned out to be like?
You need to have an inner conversation with yourself on
(02:27):
what things you're expecting out of your life and what
that potentially looks like. I say that lightly because getting
a job right now seems to be pretty difficult. If
you're looking career wise. If you're just looking for a
job to do, you know, every day, hourly, whatever, that
may look like it might be a little bit easier,
but even that seems to be proving pretty difficult. So
(02:48):
I wouldn't jump ship unless you have a plan in place.
It's something I personally wouldn't do. I wouldn't leave a
job just to say, oh, I don't have a job,
but I'll figure it out. I like to have plans
in place because it protects me. It makes me feel
comfortable to make kind of a risky move, and that
way it doesn't feel as risky. But you should always
(03:09):
be wanting to grow. So if that's the bottom line
of all of this, and you don't feel like you're
getting bigger opportunities with the job that you're at, then
I think you know that it's time. But ultimately the
only one who's going to be able to make that
decision is you and the innerversion of yourself. I've always
wanted to work in social media? What do you recommend
to get started? The beauty of social media right now
(03:31):
is that anybody can work in it, and anybody can
get started today. You could have some job and start
working on social media. It will feel like you have
two jobs. Let me make this picture. Social media and
content creation is a full time job within itself. As
someone who not only has a job as a digital
director running social media, but as somebody who also is
(03:55):
building her own personal brand and a podcast and creating content,
it feels every day like I have three or four
different jobs. It's a lot of work. I know it
can look easy and it feels like everybody can do it,
but true social media and content creation is a drive,
whether you want to be in front of the camera
(04:16):
or behind it. It takes a lot of effort to
put out quality content and take the time to do
editing and invest in your craft. So I think it
feels like everybody can do social media and is there
an avenue for everyone in social media? Yeah, I think
anybody could do this and find a niche or find
(04:38):
a way that they can break through the crowd. But
I also believe that it's not meant for everyone because
it's not easy in the bigger scope of things. Sometimes
it's not even easy just to sit here and talk
in front of a camera. That's not meant for everyone.
But even just being behind a camera and creating content
isn't for everybody. So one the first step I would
(04:58):
say to get started is just start creating content for yourself.
See how you feel about it, What do you like,
what it feels like to do. Do you like this
work or is it like, hmm, seemed really fun, bright shiny,
but it's not so cool after all. And then start
to kind of move in different directions to pursue that opportunity.
And when I say that, I mean start making connections,
(05:19):
start looking into jobs and marketing and PR and digital
marketing because so much of that involves social media when
it comes to bigger companies. If you're looking to be
on an other side, kind of like my job that
I do with the Bobby Bonchow as the digital director.
But if you want to just start, start today, start
creating content and try to see what you can do
(05:42):
within social media and content creation and see what you like,
because there is a lot of different jobs that exist
within social media across the board that you may like
one but not the other. All that to say anything
that you need to spend a lot of time doing,
and you should love it and you should be so
passionate about it because I promise it's going to feel
(06:02):
like a whole lot and there's gonna be days where
you want to quit. You don't want to do it,
so you need to love it. If this is something
that you're considering pursuing full time, are you able to
take vacation outside of when The Bobby Bone Show does
So if anybody here listens to this podcast, but maybe
not Bobby Bone Show, maybe you found me from a
different way. I work on a show called The Bobby
(06:22):
Bone Show and it's a radio show. And no, we
all take vacation together. That's kind of how it works.
We're a team. If one takes vacation, we all do. Now,
there's opportunities for when I went home for my sister's
baby shower, or if something comes up emergency wise, you
have a funeral, you have a wedding, there's some leniency
in that, But as far as a full vacation, no,
(06:45):
we only take them all together. Do you get annoyed
with your dating history being constantly judged on The Bobby
Bone Show. I think this is interesting because I don't
think there's an annoyance for me because I chose to
share my personal life with people. That was a choice
that I made. Now do I get annoyed with how
(07:07):
people insert opinions and try and make things exaggerated and
you know, change the narrative. Absolutely. That's part of the game, though,
So you either get with it and be okay with it,
or you just stop talking about it altogether. That's kind
of the two options. And I feel like my dating
(07:28):
life has been a very cool moment for me on
being part of the show, because I've gotten to connect
with so many listeners over that There's a lot of
people who have reached out and followed me simply because
we were going through similar things across different times in
my life. And had I not done that, I don't
feel like I would have the connection that I do
(07:49):
with a lot of the listeners. And I think the
hardest part for me in general sharing anything personal on
the show is that there's a whole lot of people
out there that are strangers who feel rather it be
inclined or just the all knowing of everything that happens
in my life. People are very quick to judge. Strangers
(08:12):
across the board love to think that they know everything
about me and everything that's going on in my life.
Or heck, you even have people from fifteen years ago
who've met me one time or went with me in
high school and be like, I know everything about this person.
But the reality is you don't unless somebody was a
close friend of mine at one point or another. That's
(08:33):
the only way you've truly ever known my entire life.
And I think that happens all over on social media.
I think we're quick to judge. I think we're quick
to share our opinions when we don't have the whole story.
You wouldn't do that in person, but in digital world,
it's like people forget that people are humans on there.
(08:55):
Just technology has made it so much easier. So that
would be the one annoyance that I have with in
general sharing personal information about my life. Besides that, I've
enjoyed all of it, and it's really easy to roll
my eyes at the guys on the show because they
feel like my brothers. And speaking of my dating life,
there were a lot of questions about my new boo
(09:15):
that I had hard launched on Instagram, so one of
the tap questions is he the one? Now? This is tricky,
and I don't think I've ever in my life on
the show been like, this is the person for me,
I'm gonna marry them, mostly because I'm hesitant. I have
been hurt so much in relationships. I have had four
(09:40):
serious relationships in my adult life, and three of those
were very painful for me, and a lot of that
comes from one I love completely. I just give my
all when I'm in something, whether it be a friendship, relationship, work,
You're gonna get every part of me. I don't half ask.
(10:00):
That's not who I am. So even when I love,
I love Folly two. I don't date just to date.
That's what casual dating is for. That's why I go
on so many dates when I'm single, Because i'm dating.
You're supposed to meet people. You're supposed to explore and
figure out what you like and don't like. When I
am with somebody and in a relationship with someone, I
(10:21):
see a potential for a future. I'm not dating. I'm
just to date them. That's never been who I am.
So the relationships over the course of time have always
felt like they were going to be something. Now, in
this relationship that I'm in right now, I can confidently
say that it is different than anything I have ever
(10:43):
been in. It feels safe, it's consistent, it's kind and warm,
and I don't feel threatened. I don't feel a lack
of confidence. I don't feel a lack of loyalty. There's
so much security in this current relationship that I've never
felt before. And it was funny. I was talking to
(11:05):
my boyfriend we were on a walk the other day,
and he was like, you know, talking about the invisible
string theory, because that's kind of how our relationship came
to be. We had a lot of kind of missing
strings that were like invisible, and it was possible we
could have run into each other, and there's possibilities for
people to set us up. But for some reason, we
were supposed to meet in the bard at night with
(11:26):
the friends that I had, and we were just talking
about all the fate around it. But I also was
thinking and talking to him out at the same time
as I was thinking, because I do that often where
I said, you know, I look back and of course
I could have wished that I met you sooner. But
(11:46):
I think I had to date my ex before you
because he was the first time that a relationship felt
safe for me. He was the first person to teach
me that I could be treated well without having chaos,
or without being yelled at, or without this looming darkness.
And I think had I met my current boyfriend before
(12:09):
my ex, then I don't know how it would have
ended up. I think the timeline of how that all
happened in the way that it did was necessary for
me to be the person that I am right now
in this moment, to be the partner that I could
be for my current boyfriend. And I think that's so
(12:29):
cool to be able to maturely look at my life
and be like, there was a reason for all of this.
And it's funny because people always tell you, especially as
a single person, and I refuse to ever say this
to a single person, but everything works out how it's
supposed to, or there's a reason for everything, or you'll
find someone when you stop looking. And while all of
those things are likely true, I would never say them
(12:53):
to somebody because when you're going through it dating in
today's world, or struggling and trying to find someone while
everybody else is in love. It's the last things you
want to hear, but it is kind of true. In
the situation that I have with my current boyfriend, I
did find him in a bar. Well, my friends found
him in a bar for me, and I wasn't looking.
And that night I specifically said to my friends, Hey,
(13:14):
this is a girl's weekend, and that's what I'm focused on.
And I wish that I could kind of bottle up
who I am in this moment and like pass it
on to people, because I feel like this version of
me has just learned so many lessons from so many
difficult experiences to be prepared for this relationship. And I
(13:40):
hope on everything that this is the one. I feel
like it's a possibility that it is, and I also
think there's a nervousness in me to truly say out loud, yes,
it is the one, because I'm still scared of being hurt.
He knows this. We have these conversations often where he's like,
I'm not going to a new this is where I am,
(14:00):
this is where I want to be or who I
want to be with. But there's this girl inside of
me who is like, no, you're gonna leave everybody's left before,
and you know something's gonna happen and we're gonna break up.
I just have so much looming fear that couldn't be
healed before he came along. It could only be healed
(14:22):
when I entered into this relationship. He was and is
the safe place for me to finally heal parts of
myself that I couldn't heal without a partner. And I
needed somebody like him to show up to be able
to do that. And I think that alone is special
in itself, and beyond that, who we are matches each
(14:48):
other's energy so beautifully. We have so much in common.
We have so many of the same shared beliefs, shared
ideals on every level, and I think that's in We've
had all the important conversations where we agree on literally
to a tea on the same things. So there is
a huge part of me that believes this could possibly
(15:10):
be it, while also recognizing that there's a huge part
of me that's really scared to admit that. And that's
just kind of where we are right now. And I'm
not anymore in the place with our relationship where I'm
waiting for the other shoe to drop, because that's kind
of a thing for me too, with the past relationships.
But I am afraid to like say out loud this
(15:33):
is it and fully like be like, yeah, okay, when
I know that I'm afraid of him leaving and it
has absolutely nothing to do with him, and I don't
take it out on him. It's not his responsibility. And
it's kind of like the same, you know, like he's
not the dad you had, but he's the dad that
(15:54):
stepped up. It's kind of like that he is. He
is not the man that showed up originally, but he's
the man who stepped up now in my life to
heal all the broken hearts and broken pieces of me.
And we're doing that for each other. You know, I'm
talking about myself because I can only share personally and
firsthand my experience. But he's been doing that for me,
(16:17):
and I think that's so special and I really really
believe this is something good. And that's what I feel
like I can confidently say in this moment. Does your
boyfriend listen to you on the Bobby Bone Show? And
how does he feel about you talking about us? He
(16:38):
could not be more unbothered by anything in my life.
He is so incredibly supportive of everything that I do.
He's set in on a few podcast interviews and just
loves to be in the room and watching it all happen.
And when I share things for prep, he's like, oh yeah, whatever, okay, cool.
There's not a single part of this man who is
(17:00):
the least bit angry or concerned. He trusts me and
trusts that I'm going to do right by him just
as I would because I want to. He deserves that.
So he's quite literally unbothered in all of the aspects,
and he gets a lot of good laughs. He doesn't listen,
(17:22):
but he'll watch social videos because he supports me, Like
he subscribed to the to the show's YouTube page, and
he will always get updates. He's like, look what came
up on my phone today, and he just thinks half
of it is hilarious. Have you and your boyfriend talked
about moving in together yet? It's definitely a topic of conversation.
We've talked about that, We've talked about kids, We've talked
(17:43):
about marriage and all the things and how we feel
on every topic. So it's definitely been a topic and
hopefully one that will come together in the coming future.
Favorite part of vacation with the boyfriend. We were just
talking about those the other day. Both of us really loved.
(18:04):
We were sitting on the beach and Graham Ray and
we were watching the sunrise. Mind you, this is after
I tried to pull him out of bed like three
different times so we could catch the northern lights because
they were technically supposed to hit where we were at,
and so I woke them up by like we went
to bed at eleven, we woke about one am, and
then woke up again for sunrise at like four thirty five.
(18:26):
And he was just the greatest sport during all of it.
And we went and sat on the beach and just
watched the sunrise meet him and Remy and I had
my little blanket and I was all snuggled up and
I felt so much peace and calmness that I have
never felt in my life. And that was a really
(18:47):
special moment for me also too, because I have traveled
with previous partners, but it's never been quite as smooth.
I've always been a pretty easy travel partner because I've
you know, I know my quarks, I know how to
take care of myself. But something about that trip was
very smooth. And we just had so much fun. So yeah,
(19:11):
all good stuff. But that sunrise I love. If you
have never done it in your life, catch a sunrise,
whether it's on a beach or a mountaintop or anywhere,
very scenic sunrises and sunsets are some of my favorite
things to witness, especially in a national park. How do
I date in this modern world? I haven't dated in
ten years, of there's gonna be a lot of changes
(19:33):
for you that you're gonna experience in the dating. I
honestly don't know that there is a how to date.
One of my favorite accounts on Instagram who I've actually
had her on this podcast. Her name is Erica, and
she's a dating coach. Her account is a little Nudge
and she's so just honest and blunt about everything, and
(19:54):
she kind of cuts through the bullshit and dating, and
so I think everybody should follow her when it comes
to setting up, especially if you're doing online dating and
setting up your profile and how to converse, because we've
kind of made dating all the more complicated, and I
think she can help you really cut through the noise
when it all comes down to it. Because I believe
(20:16):
that there are worthy people of dating. I've never truly
lost hope in dating. I always knew I was having
this conversation with somebody online because they had messaged me,
and they're like, I just don't see how this is
ever going to happen for me. And how do you
(20:36):
know that you're going to have love one day? And
I think it's with all things in life, you never
know that something's going to happen. But if you create
a life that you love, and you've created a place
where you love people like I have this beautiful life
for myself where I have friends, I have close relationships
(20:58):
with my family. I've created unities, I've volunteered, I have
found a job that I love pursuing. I had so
much love surrounding me despite the troubled dating woes that
I knew if all of those things could exist, love
was going to exist for me in the capacity of
(21:19):
a romantic relationship. I created the setting for it. I
created an environment that one day was going to be
open and welcoming to love. Now, if you create an
environment where you believe that love doesn't exist, or you
haven't nurtured friendships or family or a community for yourself, yeah,
(21:42):
you're going to have some lost hope there because you're
not going to believe it exists. But if you surround
yourself with love, then you're going to have a further
belief that it does exist and it can be possible
even when it gets frustrated and hard, because it does.
As with anything you're going to do in life, there's
going to be trials and tribulations and moments where you're like,
(22:03):
what the am I doing? But you will find people
that will make you happy. You will go on dates
that are gonna make you laugh, You're gonna go on
dates that probably make you cringe also, and all of
it is a cool story to share. I truly started
looking at my life probably in the last three years
(22:25):
of dating, where everything became I'm just doing it for
the plot. Now do that with safety measures. But I
would say yes to dates, or I'd say yes to
people asking me in public, just because it made sense.
It made sense to say yes more often than it
made sense to say no. And if you show up
in that way with this belief that love exists around
(22:48):
you and with this mindset of why don't I try
it one time? I think you'll succeed in whatever you
want to happen in your dating life, but if you
go at it with an approach, which trust me, I
had plenty of moments of this where I hated dating.
I hated the experience I was having, and I was complaining.
(23:09):
I was sitting on a floor and I was like,
why am I doing this? I'm never gonna meet anybody.
I had that plenty of times. But to learn from
my mistake, don't allow yourself to go there. Just know
that it will happen for you. And if you create
the environment that sets it up perfectly when the time
(23:30):
is there, then you have already done all the work
that you needed to do. So enjoy it and have
fun while you can. There's something I was even talking
to my boyfriend about this. My good girlfriend and I,
Julia Cole, went on a Europe trip over Christmas and
she was there. We had a little dinner where she
met him and it was so much fun. But I said,
(23:52):
I'm so happy that that trip happened because I got
to be single in Europe and live life with my
best friend. And if I had told twenty five year
old me that that I was single up thirty one
and I hadn't met anybody, she'd probably be pissed, but
thirty one year old Morgan can now look at that
(24:13):
moment and be like, I'm so happy I got to
have this Europe trip with my best friend where we
were both single, because that will never happen again once
both of us meet somebody. And as we're sitting at
dinner and recapping it, I'm sitting there with a boyfriend
who was so happy to share in that moment with
me and know that I got to live a full
life before I met him, And I think that's so
(24:36):
important for anybody who's dating, male or female. Stepping into
a healthy relationship and shaking your past. Yeah hah, working
on that, you guys kind of heard a little bit
about that earlier. I'm still working on this one myself,
and I think the easiest way to truly step into
a healthy relationship is when you have someone who is
(24:59):
safe and secure to allow you to feel the things
you need to feel to move through your past. Now,
don't get me wrong, there's absolutely healing and work that
needs to be done by yourself before you enter another relationship.
If you've had heartbreak or been an abusive relationship or
emotionally traumatizing relationship, whatever it may be, there's absolutely work
(25:22):
that needs to be done for you for yourself before
you enter one. But a lot of that work that
also needs to be done is when you enter that relationship,
which means you have to have a partner who feels
safe and you feel like you can heal with that
person or you're just going to keep repeating in the
same patterns. And I know that now because after two
(25:44):
very rough relationships, one of those being abusive and two
where they were much more healing and much more healthy,
I was in a safer space to start healing on that.
When I was in those two rough relationships, I was
never healing, not even after the abusive into the next one.
There was still stuff there and there was cheating, and
(26:06):
there was things going on that I never felt my body,
my nervous system, never felt safe to be in to
start to heal those parts of me. And it's kind
of ironic because I was talking to a girlfriend about
this that I feel like now in this new relationship
that I'm healing so much that my body is also
(26:29):
making a lot of health problems I had come forward
because my body was in so much fight or flight
that it never had time to truly like deal with
some of the health issues I was having, and that's crazy.
So talk about like healing in a relationship, but also
I'm like trying to heal my health at the same time.
(26:49):
And it's wild and I don't know if there's absolutely
any science behind that. There may be, there may not be,
but that's what I feel and that's what I'm experiencing.
So truthfully, the only way to shake your past is
to allow yourself one the grace to know that it's
going to be hard, and too to trust yourself that
(27:10):
you are continually growing and making better decisions. And you
have to trust that if you're entering a relationship that
this is someone that you can heal with. And if
you can't do those two things, and it's probably not
the right person for you if you're someone who's dealt
with shitty relationships, So choose your partner wisely. I think
I got a message the other day from a dude
(27:32):
who had told me, gosh, I don't know how many times,
and he said, you know, years ago, I told you
to lower your standards because you were never going to
find somebody, but you didn't and seem to work out
for you. And so I want to relay the message
of which I did many times on Instagram of my
single days, saying that I would never lower my standards
(27:55):
after the shit I had been through. You couldn't convince
me otherwise. If I had to lower my standards, I
just wasn't going to date or I wasn't gonna get married,
and that was going to be fine for me. And
so I'm glad I didn't, you know why, because I
found someone who was above and beyond my standard, which
was very high. And I'm so proud of myself for
(28:16):
sticking to that gun. So stick to it and keep
your standards high, and know that you deserve a healthy
relationship and keep repeating that to yourself. Internal conversations are
the most important thing you're ever going to do for
your own healing. That's where a lot of the work
is happening. Moving on to talk about miss remy girl,
as she's laying here like a little rug on top
(28:38):
of my rug. She is a therapy dog. If you
don't know, she's ten years old. We had her tenth
birthday in April and that was so special. So somebody
wants to know my gotcha story with Remy. So way
back when when I lived in Wichita with my parents
right out of college, I started volunteering at the Kansas
Human Society. I wanted to walk dogs and I wanted
(28:59):
to help because in college we had fostered gosh. I
want to say it was like twenty two dogs and
cats over the course of my last year at college
when I was living with four other girls, and that
really lit a fire under me to help rescues and
rescue work in shelters. So when I moved to Kansas,
(29:20):
I wanted to or when I moved from I shouldn't
say Kansas. When I moved from Manhattan back to Wichita,
I wanted to keep that fire. So I started volunteering
at Kansas Humane Society. And I think it was my
second week of walking dogs and Remy came in as
a stray and my parents were kind of talking about
(29:41):
getting another dog, and she was so little, and they
said she was a Maltese mix and we had a
Maltese at the time, and I was like, oh, we should,
we should get her. You guys want another dog, And
they ended up coming out to meet her on like
an off day. She wasn't even up for adoption yet
she had just come in. She was a puppy about
two and a half months old, hadn't been Spade, so
(30:02):
she wasn't even on the adoption floor yet. They came
out to meet her and we were in the playyard
and I took her out and we all kind of
sat down, and immediately she just ran to me and
my parents really, Morgan, we can take her, but she
wants you, like she's attached to you. And they felt
very strongly that she had imprinted on me in that moment,
(30:26):
and it kind of got me thinking. But I was
not employed at the time. I had just gotten out
of college. I was living with my parents. I was like,
this is not the time for me to be getting
a dog, to be like responsible, but I couldn't stop
thinking about her. So I think it was like a
day later. I called them and put a hold on her.
I put a deposit down essentially, and said I want her,
(30:48):
and they were like, well, she needs to get Spade.
So I put a hold on her, waiting to see
how Spade what. I was nervous for twenty four hours.
She's a freakin' puppy at that point, and she got
through the spade just fine. And that next day my
parents were like, had put some toys in my room
and a little like kind of kidnel thing, and they
(31:12):
were like, you can adopt her if you want to,
and I was like, oh my gosh. I started freaking out,
also freaking out because I'm like, how the freak am
I going to do any of this? And I went
that day, I picked her up and we've been best
friends ever since. It was kind of crazy though, because
I get her. I started a new job a month later,
which was working for iHeart and Wichita, and then ten
(31:33):
months into that job is when I was moving down
to Nashville and I got a job at the Nashville
iHeart radio offices, and so so much change was happening
in my life all the time while having a brand
new puppy and trying to train her, which we did
go through a lot of training when we lived in Wichita.
I went through I think eighteen weeks of training. We
(31:56):
did like puppy class, and then we did basic training,
then we did advanced training, and then at that point
we started to hear about therapy work and that's when
I was like, Okay, I feel like she'd be really
good at this. She was always a very big people person.
She loved people, and she was this fluffy, little teddy
bear ewok looking thing that would run up to you
and love you. And I felt really compelled that, like, okay,
(32:18):
she might be a therapy dog, but they had to
be about two years old to be able to do
that work. So I didn't attack that right away, but
she had a lot of training leading up to it.
She was a canine good citizen. She was actually my
emotional support animal for a while after and kind of
during my abusive relationship. She was really the thing that
helped me survive and after that whole ordeal, because I
(32:41):
was kind of the first year or so when I
was living in Nashville and I went into therapy and
I did a lot of work, and I said, you know,
now is the time for us to get into therapy works.
So I found an organization called Therapy Arc and that's
where we trained to become a therapy animal team. She
passed with flying colors and we became a team together
and started volunteering, and that healed a huge piece of
(33:02):
my heart with her taking her from what was want
a emotional support animal from me to being a therapy
dog for other people. Was kind of a beautiful fate
situation and I just love her. No, she's ten and
I don't even know where ten years went. And somebody
(33:23):
else followed up with getting a dog therapy certified finding
a place to volunteer. So, honestly, I just started googling
to get roomin a therapy team certified. I just went
on Google and I was searching different therapy organizations near me,
and that's how I stumbled upon Therapy ARC and they
(33:45):
really helped the entire process. They did a screening to
see if she was even a dog that seemed like
she was interested in therapy, because mind, you do not
train a dog to be a therapy dog if you're like, oh, well,
they don't really necessarily like people, like they're gonna be
around people all the time, So do not train a
dog to be a therapy dog if they're nervous around people.
So the screening helps some of that, so you don't
(34:06):
waste time or make sure that your dog kind of
has these inherent instincts to be a therapy dog. She
passed that. We did six weeks of training with them.
They prepared us all for the test and then we
go and you take this kind of long test and
it's a collaboration between you two, so you both have
to be prepared for it. And she passed that with
flying colors, and we've renewed twice now we're about to
(34:28):
renew again this year. So it's definitely an undertaking if
it's something you're interested in. But it was so important
for me to do because I love volunteering. I've always
been a big volunteer girl. Even in high school. I
was part of an organization called kas which all we
did was volunteer stuff with different nonprofits, and I was
(34:50):
the Kay's area president. So volunteering has been kind of
huge in my life ever since I was in middle school,
especially with leadership studies and doing different leadership classes. All
of that was interconnected, and then it felt like such
a natural fit when I got Remy. So I would
just Google, do some googling and find places near you,
and that's how you get certified. Favorite state to travel
(35:13):
with Remy. I want to travel with my dog for
the first time. I love traveling everywhere with her. Obviously,
the more outdoor activities, the more you can be out
on patios, is going to be the most enjoyable experience.
I loved going out west with her. I did a
road trip with my parents and their dog, and it
was Remy and I and we did a bunch of
national parks. Now, mind you, you can't bring dogs in
(35:34):
national parks on hikes, but they can ride in the
car with you, and if you get an airbnb or
a cabin, some of them allow you to keep them behind.
So just make sure you plan those things. And when
I had taken Remy on this recent trip, I got
so much questions and obviously grief, and people were getting
mad at me for bringing around my trip. But something
(35:55):
that I really have learned with planning a vacation with
your dog is to just make sure that it's stuff
that they also want to do. I think you can
bring a long a dog to trips that you planned
for you. But I have a trip coming up where
I'm going to Universal and Disney. I'm not bringing her.
That's not a trip for her. She would be miserable.
She'd be sitting in a hotel all day. So when
(36:16):
I do bring her, the trips that I bring her
on are hiking centric. They're very nature involved. I like
spending time on patios, finding unusual things that she might
be able to tag along with. Like on this trip,
she could go to different breweries and wineries, and we
had options for her that were very centric around nature,
which is also something I love to do anyways. I
(36:38):
love to hike, I love to sit on patios, so
none of that was unusual for me. So I made
it a trip for her and for me. It's the
best tip I can give whenever you want to go somewhere. Also,
if you just google dog friendly cities, you'll find a
bunch of them. I loved going to Chicago, it felt
super dog friendly. Nashville's very dog friendly. I know Austin
is too, Dinver is as well. You have a bunch
(37:00):
of us, Especially the mountain towns out there. You have
a lot of people that love to go on hikes
and stuff with their dogs. And if you can find
areas with a lot of state parks, those are perfect
because state parks do allow dogs besides a few kind
of special ones, but you can go hiking with them
and it gets a lot of activity. But if you're
going in the summer, make sure you have a dog shroller,
a dog pack back or something or booties. Because it
(37:22):
gets so hot on our little paws. You need to
protect them, which is something that I don't know if
a lot of people know. I see a lot of
people walking their dogs. I don't know about anywhere else,
but right now in Nashville it is so freaking hot
outside and during the heat of the day, I will
see people walking their dogs. Guys, if you can't hold
(37:43):
your hand on pavement for at least five seconds without
hurting your hand, your dog's feet should not be out there.
That means they are burning their feet. I know we
like to think that like, oh, dogs can do anything
and you need to treat them like a dog. But
I'm sorry, do you want your feet burned? If you
don't want to be walking barefoot on something, don't do
(38:03):
it to your dog. This is not something I feel
like a lot of people have been educated on. You
have to protect their pause. They can blister, they can
expose skin their paws or how they cool off, and
if their paws are so hot, they're literally gonna be overheating.
So take care of your pups. And that's a very
(38:23):
important thing to do. Anyways, travel with your animals. You should.
It is the coolest experience. Seeing the world through Rimy's
eyes is one of my favorite things to witness. She
loves everything. She's so excited just to see and smell
new things. And might I remind anybody who finds that
controversial that it's their first time living too, and also
(38:46):
again putting yourself in their shoes. I don't think you
just wanna live in one house your entire life and
see nothing but that house. So take them when you
can take trips without them, but also take trips for
them and with them. All Right, it's time we're getting
into the random questions. Now we're gonna do one misconception
(39:07):
of you. I think the easiest one off the top
of my head right nowt Even though I wrote it
down here, I did not prepare for it. I think
a lot of people think I'm happy all the time
and I am not, or that I'm put together all
the time, or that I have it really easy, et cetera,
et cetera. I would love to remind people that just
(39:29):
because you hear things on a show or you see
things on social media, does not mean you have the
whole picture. I'm somebody who struggles with depression, anxiety, the
last gosh three years. Really, I've dealt with long COVID
and my health has been struggling. I don't feel great
in my body right now. I struggle with body image
(39:50):
issues on the daily. I'm a vegetarian. Eating is hard
for me. I love to work out. I'm really hard
on myself when I don't work out, and I struggle
with finding balance in my job. I don't get through
my to do list every day, I'm up until meeting
(40:11):
my boyfriend, struggled with dating. I think it's really easy
for us to believe everybody else has it so good,
and I think it's easy to think that the people
you see online are just they don't have any struggles
or they don't have any hardship, And I don't think
that's true for anybody. I think more often than not,
your happiest people are the ones who are struggling the most. Now.
(40:33):
That is not the case with me. Right now, I
do feel very happy. I feel very loved and supported.
And while I'm still struggling with a lot of health stuff,
and while I'm really struggling with the body that I'm
in right now, it doesn't mean I'm not happy in
other areas, of my life. But all that to say,
(40:54):
let's stop believing everybody has it so good. Do I
have it as worse a sad? Some people absolutely not,
and I know that. But as one of my very
first episodes of this podcast taught us, two things can
be true. So let's stop believing that everything is easy
for everybody, or just because stuff is hard for you,
(41:16):
that it's not hard for somebody else. I think we
have to have more compassion and empathy for people. And
that's the biggest misconception that comes to my head. Do
the girls who bullied you in high school ever reach
out after hearing you talk about it on the show.
I have never had the two main ones ever reach out.
One of them has looked at a bunch of my
(41:36):
stuff on social media, which I've seen, and that's been interesting.
I've had the husband of one of them approach me
in a bar and say he doesn't understand the whole
situation and why any of that went down in high
school and anybody who's kind of been associated with it,
if you will, or what along with it, because you know,
(41:56):
we were all teen girls I've talked to and we've
made amends or were ammlicable and things are all good there,
so everything beyond that, those really main two who were
the ones who did the worst things, things are all
kind of settled there. But besides those who know, I've
never heard from them. I don't know that I ever will.
(42:17):
Will I ever move back to Kansas. I love Kansas.
Kansas will always be my home. It will always be
where I was born and raised. And my family is
amazing and I love getting to see them and I
wish I could see them so much more often. Now,
all that to say, I don't know that I ever will,
and I'm sure that'll make my parents sad to hear,
(42:39):
But I don't know that the life I've created for
myself could exist there. If my life takes a drastic
turn or something happens with one of my family members,
yeah I would be home or find a way to
be part of that whole experience and what I need
to do. But if none of that happens and it's
a to me, then no, I don't think I ever will.
(43:04):
Not because I don't love it, and not because it's
not home, but because the life I've created for myself
here is full of so much adventure and opportunities in
life that I think it would be drastically different if
I moved home. I think if I ever do move,
it'll be to a mountain town somewhere. That's my perfect
place is a mountain town or somewhere like a Grammar Ray,
(43:27):
or maybe not Grammaray, because I don't think I could
do that much snow in wintertime, but something that has
quite a lot of adventure, a lot of different scenic stuff.
I'm so big in nature. Things you do or your
closest friends do for you that protects quality of friendships,
something that is so important in the world of social
media today. Just because I see something on social media
(43:48):
a friend and I respond on social media, I won't
only respond that way. I'll reach out to them by
text or by a phone call or some other way,
because I think there is a loss and quality when
you're only speaking on social media. I think when you
communicate also on social media as well as texting and phone,
you're fine. But it's so important to me to check in,
(44:12):
send a text when I'm thinking of somebody, or do
something for someone when I see they're going through if
they've had a hard day. I'll venom on ten dollars
and say go get a drink on me, or I'll
send cookies if they're dealing with a loss, or I'll
show up for them with a care basket and say
what do you need from me? Or Hey, I'm doing
this for you. That's more likely, but sometimes they don't know,
(44:34):
and I'll say I'm just here when you do need
me or you just want to talk. Showing up is
so important, and I think that's truly the test of
most great relationships, friendships, family, anything to that matter, is
how much effort you put in. And my closest friendships
are all about effort, even if it's showing up with
(44:54):
a text message, a phone call, or showing up to
my door. They're all the same as long as you're
showing up in the good and the bad. Because if
you just show up in the bad, I'm probably gonna
start having questions. Maybe show up in the good to
celebrate exciting things that are happening, and show up when
it's hard, and then in the little moments between. That's
where quality is that somebody who you know is worth
(45:14):
investing your time in in both ways. So not only
do I require that same level of care and effort
in friendships, but I make sure that I'm doing that
for my friends because we don't deal with one sided
shit these day, and as people, Okay, we're not doing
this like I'm only doing the work. This is supposed
(45:34):
to be a team effort on all fronts. So I
think that's the most important thing when it comes to
any relationship is effort and showing up. I know it
can be hard when life is busy and when there's
so much happening, big life moments, but you have to
show up if you want quality friendships, you have to
(45:57):
show up for each other. And I don't know that
any of my friendships could have sustained the craziness of
adult life if we didn't know how to show up
for each other one way or another. Well, that is
all we have. There was more questions, but I think
I got to the majority of them, and I appreciate
you guys hanging out with me on this podcast every
(46:20):
week and listening and submitting questions and doing all this
fun stuff. I'm really excited because we have some fun
episodes coming up. We have one with Scottie Hasting. He's
talking about his music career and being a veteran. I've
got struggle, Jenny's who has an insane life story. He's
also an artist. And then we've got Nate and Holly.
(46:41):
If you've heard of twenty one Pineapples, he has a
disability and his mom and him post pictures and videos
all the time on social media and they've kind of
had a rise to fame that way. So really cool
interviews that are coming, and I can't wait for you
to hear. But sometimes I feel like it's good to
do some questions and just touch base with you guys
(47:02):
and have conversations about things that you want to hear.
So if you ever want to hear something that I'm
not touching on or I'm not bringing on, just shoot
me a message on the Instagram for the podcast at
take this personally and thank you. Thanks for supporting the podcast,
thanks for being here, thanks for loving me and not
trolling me all the time. Some of you guys are
(47:23):
incredible people who really know how to show love and
show up and I'm so appreciative of that. So thank you, guys,
and I will yap at you next week.