484 -- Do You See the Light? -- with Kevin Lowe

Here's your chance to find out what happens when the blind lead the deaf... and how you can be a better human without even trying.

Guest: Kevin Lowe, Grit, Grace and Inspiration

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Promo: Discover More
Disclaimer: Adam, Snyder's Return
Art: Erin Schwartz
Music: Jake Pierle -- https://jakepierle.bandcamp.com/

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Ignorance Was Bliss online: https://linktr.ee/iwbpodcast

Sponsor: Bath By Bex (code CBDkate for 25% off)
Sponsor: Komuso Design (code bliss15 for 15% off)
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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
If you're an independent thinker and feellike your unique interests and ideas leave you
feeling isolated, check out discover More. Discover More as a podcast designed by
independent thinkers for independent thinkers just likeyou, and it connects you with like
minded individuals providing practical insights from maintainingyour mental health. We cover topics such

(00:20):
as forensic psychology. Here's forensic psychologistKate Wallonga. You know, the fact
that we call it true crime isa genre of the fact that a shared
delusion among the populace, especially women, who think if they know enough about
it, then they'll be safe becauseall they gotta do is pick out the
thing to let them identify perpetrators orthe thing that victims do wrong. And

(00:42):
as long as I figure that out, I'll be fine. And I'm like,
that's not how it works. Tunein to Discover More and join the
community of independent thinkers today. DiscoverMore available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
or anywhere you get your podcasts.This podcast involves topics such as violence,

(01:03):
sex, and mental illness. Ifthis might disturb you all those around you,
please reconsider it's okay. Privacy andconfidentiality have been protected with a personal
information removed when possible. If youever feel unsafe or suicidal, please call
your local crisis center, emergency services, or National Heartline. In the US,

(01:30):
the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is eighthundred two seven three eight two five
five You Matter. Hey, thisis Kate. Once in a mile,
I talked to somebody with whom,on the surface, I arguably have nothing

(01:57):
in common, Like today's guest notonly identifies as a different gender and lives
in a different part of the countryand structures his belief systems in different ways
than I do. Like, there'sa lot of stuff that you could compare
one versus the other and be like, now, it's just not gonna work.

(02:20):
Sorry. Add to that, heand I have different senses that work
and don't work. So I'm deafand he's blind, and that makes for
some challenges when it comes to recordingsetups and conversation flow and that sort of

(02:42):
thing. But let me tell youworth it all worth it because I love
finding the commonalities and the shared beliefsand the things that sit closer to the
core, but they feel more important. So today's guest his name is Kevin

(03:06):
Lowe. His podcast is called Grit, Grace and Inspiration, and actually I
was on it very recently, soepisode one ninety seven of his podcast if
you want to look for that,and you can hear what I sound like
when I'm recently out of the hospitaland pretty unhinged in terms of inability to

(03:28):
focus. So sorry about that,Kevin, I tried. I'm pretty sure
he'll forgive me, because he's justone of these beautiful, graceful souls that
laughs uninhibitedly and shares the dark stuffwithout shame, and speaks openly about things

(03:53):
that a lot of us maybe arepretty sure would never happen to us.
And we know that we don't necessarilyget to dictate what's going to happen?
Right? Are you sure you reallywant to know? This is ignorance?
Was bliss? Well? What's happened? In? My name? Is Kevin

(04:45):
Low. I am the host ofa podcast called Great Grace and Inspiration,
as well as a transformational life andbusiness coach. But more than any of
that, I like to say thatI'm just a faith following, life loving,
good old Southern boy who loves tolaugh, hates to cry, but
still get suckered into watching the Notebookevery single time. And of course,

(05:09):
well there's that one little part aboutme that I'm also completely blind. Let's
start by describing your show, likehow long has it been going on?
And who wants to listen or whoshould listen? Or is it everybody?
Yeah? Absolutely? So the podcaststarted back when I think like everybody and
their mother started a podcast when wewere locked away in quarantine during the twenty

(05:33):
twenty pandemic, and so that's whenit started. That was May of twenty
twenty, is what I launched thepodcast. I had actually intended to start
a YouTube channel. I've been thinkingabout doing a YouTube channel for quite some
time now, locked away in quarantine, and I'm like, you know what,

(05:55):
this is my opportunity. So Istart ordering the equipment off the Amazon
and I'm like, I'll set upall geared away, like whoo next YouTube
sensation. And then all of asudden, one day it hit me and
I'm like, Kevin, what areyou doing? You can't do this yourself.
You're gonna have to have somebody whocan see, who's gonna film you,
who's gonna edit the video? AndI'm like, what have I done?

(06:19):
What have I done? In discouragement, despair, my dreams are crushed.
Until all of a sudden, mysister said, well, why don't
you do a podcast? And I'mlike, well, what is a podcast?
And she tells me, and I'mlike, well, that sounds like
I'll lay him alternative to a YouTubechannel. But I kept listening, and
so then I started, I'm like, okay, well I'll check him out.

(06:41):
So I started listening to podcasts abouthow to create a podcast, and
before you know it, I hada podcast. And the podcast started out
as a different name than it istoday. It's evolved as each of us
do. It started out it iscalled The Lowdown on Life and Travel.
The Lowdown a play on my lastname of low and Travel, because well,

(07:05):
I was a travel agent. Ihad been a travel agent for eight
years going into the pandemic, wasgoing to have my best year on record,
and then, of course, thepandemic ruined all of those plans,
and so the podcast was going tobe a way of me keeping the travel
dreams alive for my audience, talkingabout destinations, all of that. But

(07:28):
sometimes life has other plans, andpodcasting quickly kind of took over my life
and I realized quickly, you knowwhat recording a podcast is so much better
than canceling vacations. And so thepodcast has evolved into finally what it is
today of you know, the nameGrit Grayson Inspiration, which is all about

(07:54):
inspiring, empowering, motivating and encouragingpeople to get out there and take on
the day no matter what obstacles are, challenges stand in the way. So
when you talk about travel, wereyou able to do the travel or were
you just sort of sending people outinto the world and me and like good
luck, Bud. Yeah. Yeah, So I was a full blown travel

(08:18):
agent. So I opened a homebased travel agency in January of twenty thirteen.
It was called Better Days Travel,and um, you know, I
was the owner and operator of that, booking amazing vacations from honeymoons or I
would send clients to you know,different resorts in the Caribbean to putting together
complex itineraries for people wanting to travelliterally all over the globe. So I

(08:43):
was the person at home in theoffice putting together these amazing trips, you
know. And like I said,I did that up until twenty twenty.
So yeah, and and of courseit did come with some with some perks
of traveling you know, some myself, and so that was you know,
I mean, I had one ofthe most life changing trips ever, was

(09:03):
me going by myself with just anothertravel agent friend of mine to Jamaica where
we toured all these different resorts andit was the first time I had ever
traveled without family or friends and stuff, and um, you know, it
was really amazing. So I wasgonna ask about the Notebook because I've never

(09:28):
seen it. What about it?You've never seen the Notebook? I have
not. I so I am deafmostly and I stopped watching pretty much all
TV and movies about fifteen years ago. Okay, so let me ask you
this. Are you emotional cry anythinglike that? No, remotely, Okay,

(09:48):
So I would advise you to watchit because if you are emotional or
a big cry baby like myself,I would advise to stay away because it's
going to ruin your life. Itis the ultimate chick flick movie. That
is this amazing love story with atragic ending that if you're somebody who has

(10:09):
your emotions in check, maybe you'relike, oh wow, that was a
good movie. Meanwhile, emotional Babyis like myself. You're like a total
emotional wreck. By the end,So maybe you can handle it. I
cannot, and she yet you watchit all the time. God, I
understand. I do. Like I'mnot walking you. I get that sometimes

(10:31):
we just have to poke ourselves inthe eye a little bit. Well.
You know what though, The funnypart is is that I do love the
movie, but it's kind of becomea joke because my mom Um, she
will see it on TV and shewill deliberately put it on just because she
she loves the torture. Her andmy sister, they get great pleasure out

(10:54):
of watching me fall apart from fromthese these sad shows while they sit over
there like stone colds Steve Austen andI'm like, how do you guys not
have emotions? I'm like crying myeyes out. So that's too funny.
I think I've read it, Yes, Okay, I think I've read Nicholas
Sparks wrote it. Yeah, soI've read it. I just so the

(11:16):
problem with anything on TV or moviesis that, like I can't go to
the movie theater because it's a hassleto get captioning. Like they have these
little machines that show captioning, andit's a hassle to get them and sometimes
they work with them who's they don'tand it irritates me, and I don't

(11:39):
love being irritated. And then youknow, on TV, not so much
with movies, but with series.Let's say there's ten episodes of the series.
This is not an uncommon thing whereseven out of those ten, and
it's not necessarily the first seven arevery clearly and well captioned yes, and

(12:07):
the other three and so you're leftwith, well, I think I know
what happened here because I can readlips and I can I also can get
rage filled when they just don't botherand so raight like oddly I don't like
rage, Yeah right, it's weird, and so I just you know,

(12:33):
there's so many books out in theworld, and it's just easier for me,
you know, because I know thatI can get through a book,
whereas a TV show it's like,and some of the TV shows are really
enjoyed. Prior to Rage quitting,are were like singing competitions and dancing competitions

(12:58):
and that kind of thing things Icannot do. And I would irritate my
family because I'd had to listen atsuch an incredibly high volume. M and
so I was like, you knowwhat, or I could just not yes,
yes, And so that's that's whereI'm at with that. So,

(13:18):
Okay, were you born blind?I was not. I was not.
I did not go blind until Iwas seventeen. That's a that's a long
time to have vision and lose it. I was about sixteen when I lost
my hearing. So I'm on therewith you. So can you talk about
that? Yeah? Absolutely so.UM yeah, So seventeen years old,

(13:41):
in my junior year of high school, UM started my junior year. UM,
life was was going amazing. UM. I had when I turned sixteen
years old, I got my dreamtrack. Um it was a forest green
ninety six four to f one fiftyfour by four. Um, it was
absolutely beautiful, had big mud tires. You know, I lived down in

(14:05):
Florida. So me and my buddiesare out in the woods, mudding in
our trucks, having a good time. And so so I had my truck,
worked at public says a bad boy, and life. Life was going
great until all of a sudden itwasn't. And it wasn't. Came with
the news that I had a braintumor. Now the brain tumor, the

(14:28):
how we found out about the braintumor was basically my mom and my grandmother
finally deciding that they were tired ofthe pediatrician kind of blowing all my symptoms
off because here I was seventeen yearsold. I had never really hit huberty
in the way that I wasn't growing. I you know, I was still

(14:50):
I was only five foot three,basically still just this kid, and I
had my grain headaches every single dayof my life. I had eyeglasses that
I wore because my eyes kept thevision kept getting a little worse in my
eyes. And again, nobody putpieces together, and so finally it took
my mom and my grandmother where like, something is wrong, and we've got

(15:13):
to get Kevin to a new doctor. So fast forwarding, that new doctor
saw me just an ordinary family physician. He took one look at my chart
and was like, something's wrong.He told my mom out in the hallway.
He's like listen, He's like,we've got to get him to a
specialist right away. That would leadto me having an MRI, and the

(15:35):
MRI would show that I had acranio fam geoma that is a noncancerous brain
tumor. But it was large.They compared it to the size of a
plum, basically right in the centerof my head, so it was in
the crosshairs of my optic nerve.It had completely encased my tuitary land and

(16:02):
was pressing against my crowded artery.And so they said that if it was
not removed, I had it mostsix months to live. And so that
was the news, and so asdevastating as it was, as scary as
it was, we were assured bythe leading pediatric neursurgeon who lived literally an

(16:22):
hour from our home, that everythingwas gonna be okay. He's like,
I do these all the time.He's like, literally, will go in,
we'll remove the tumor. And he'slike, Kevin, you'll be back
to school in three to four weeks. Everything would be fine. The biggest
deal to me was that he toldme that I couldn't ride my new four
wheeler for six months, and andso for myself, I was like,

(16:47):
this is devastating, but you woulddeal with it now. What was cool
though for me was I'm like,whoo baby, see you later, suckers
to all my friends at school.I'm like, I'm out of here for
a month. I'm like, enjoytrigonometry, you know, and so so
we're geared up. Now. Mypersonality is one of super positive fun.

(17:11):
So I named my tumor. Mytumor was named Bob. Bob the tumor.
UM. I think that came outof back in the day, there
was a cartoon um that came aboutlike after I was a kid, but
it was called it Bob the Builder. So I named I named my tumor
Bob the Tumor, And so weliterally had a going away Bob party with

(17:32):
all of my family and stuff priorto surgery and um. Anyways, fast
forward, It's October twenty eight,two thousand and three, surgery day,
and I go into the operating roomand expecting all to be just fine.
Instead nothing went okay. Um.I came out of surgery, Um,

(17:53):
nothing went right. Um, Ihad all kinds of medical complications. Thing
is that no one had ever preparedmy family for. I don't remember any
of my time in the hospital,thank goodness, but I ended up being
in the hospital for two weeks andit was I believe on day three that

(18:14):
my mom is in the room andthe neurosurgeon was in their visiting and at
the time, I was very combativeand I kept apparently ripping off one of
those annoying little pulse socks things thatthey put on your finger or your toe.
Well, apparently I kept ripping itoff and said that. The doctor
he was like, listen, he'slike, Kevin, do you see this?

(18:37):
Do you see this? You don'ttouch this. And when he was
asking do I see it? Mymom is one who shares the story.
My mom says that I said,no, I don't see it. And
at that moment he looked at mymom. My mom looked at him,
and he walked over and he flippedflipped the light switch on and off,
and he's like, Kevin, doyou see this? Do you see the

(19:00):
light? And I said no,it's just black. And it was at
that moment that they found out thatI was left completely blind. So here
I am a boy with a lifethat revolved around the ability to see,
and I didn't even realize it becausethat beautiful truck, the four wheeler,
the every hope and dream for thefuture was all taken in an instant and

(19:25):
that was with my ability to see. And so that was in two thousand
and three. So incredibly enough,this October October of two thou twenty three.
It's gonna be my twentieth anniversary.Did you know that you couldn't see?
Um. I can't really answer thatbecause I have no memory of it.

(19:48):
Um My, my mom would tellyou that I never I never freaked
out, I never got upset.Um. They think it was because prior
to surgery, we had met withanother family who their son had had the
same type of brain tumor, andthe mom had told me to not be

(20:10):
scared. If I wake up andI can't see that the swelling will be
really bad where it will make itwhere I can't see. My mom thinks
that maybe that had part part todo with it, the fact that I
didn't freak out. But um,again, I had just had brain surgery.
I was completely kind of out ofmy mind for many reasons. And
um. And so my mom said, though for while in the hospital,

(20:36):
and I mean for a long time, she said, it killed them because
I would constantly ask for my eyeglassesand would just say, please just let
me have my glasses, Please justlet me have my glasses, and they
want to give them to me becausethey knew that I thought it was going
to make me be able to seeagain? Would you have the pursudure again
knowing the outcome simply simply because Imean I would have died. I would

(21:03):
have had six more months and thatwould have been it. But with that
said, my faith is a bigpart of my journey of my life.
And I am so grateful that Goddoesn't let us know, because how horrible
that would have been to gone intothat surgery knowing that. And I am
I am forever grateful that I hadno idea ignorance was bliss? Is that

(21:27):
what I'm hearing exactly? I meansee for me, my loss of hearing
was more gradual, and it's calledsensory neural, which means it's located in
the brain somewhere. It's not youknow, the physical mechanical pieces of the

(21:49):
ear, but it's somewhere in thebrain. And I didn't know what was
happening. Yep. It took mymother are noticing that I was listening to
the TV louder and louder and louder, and my mother's kind of an asshole,
like like that's that's the technical term, and so she refused to allow

(22:17):
me to learn sign oh wow,because I don't know because I don't.
I don't really know. I knowthat I tried and every time I signed
up for a class she would unsignme as it were, And so I
now know very basic sign but Ididn't learn it until the pandemic. And

(22:38):
more than anything, it's just toindicate to people high death. Yes,
you know, because masks make lipreading a challenge. Yeah, I get
him at it. And I mean, I've had people tell me that I
don't sound death. Well it's becauseI didn't lose my hearing until I was

(23:02):
in my teens. I've had peopletell me I don't look death, and
I don't know what that means.Like I don't know what looking death means.
But the moral is I have acertain pushback for people about like are
you really And I'm like, look, this is not like a fun game

(23:22):
I'm playing, Yes, you know, And would I wish it away?
I am not one for regrets.I don't live in a world where I
wish things away. I this iswhat my life is, yeah, exactly.
And it does limit my life inthe sense of, you know,

(23:45):
can't watch TV and you know,God forbid my children have to actually make
eye contact in order for me tohear them, you know, things like
that, but I don't I don'tsee it as a tragedy. Yeah,
it's just my life, you know. Yeah, and so you know,

(24:08):
it's hard to know, like Iget people. One of my favorite and
I don't know if this happens toyou, but one of my favorite responses
is if I point out to people, you know, I'm deaf. And
I'm very careful not to say I'msorry I'm deaf, because I'm not sorry.
It's just a thing. But oneof my favorite things is to tell
people I'm deaf and to have themsay, oh, it's okay, great,

(24:36):
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right, it's okay.
I uh, could I needed Ineeded your I needed your okay on that
your thumbs up. I feel somuch better now that you've told me it's
okay. You know. It's like, really, it's just this is just
my life. And and I've hadmajor medical things happen that are entirely unrelated,

(25:04):
and so I look at them like, look, on the scale of
zero to oh, no, deafnessbarely rates for me, Like it's frustrating
and yes, but it's more thananything that I want to speak up for

(25:25):
other deaf people. Yep. Butmy husband and my kids have learned how
to communicate with me, and soit's just it barely, it barely moves
the needle for me, Like thisis just my life. It's not a
big deal for me exactly. No, I totally understand and and I can

(25:45):
relate with people's reactions. Is isthere is the thing of its people when
when you first meet them in youyou learn a lot about people, and
you learn a lot about how poorlypeople will know how to communicate, and
you know how poorly people are equippedto just interact with people who are quote

(26:07):
unquote you know, different than themand have this quote unquote you know disability
and um, you know. Butwhat my biggest thing is is you know
when people they act like a certainway or they they you know, have
to do something. I'm like,you know, I've been dealing with this
for like almost twenty years now.It's just my life. Like, you
know, I act normal. Idon't act different because I'm blind. So

(26:32):
you don't have to either, youknow. Yeah, I don't need your
approval exactly because this is still goingto be my life. After you go
home and pat yourself on the backfor dealing with a deaf person exactly.
Yeah, it's wild. So withwith things like travel, though, what

(26:55):
would seeing people be surprised to learnabout travel? I think the bigest thaying
like travel is it was something thatI tried to do when I was a
travel agent, that I would tryto get through to my clients, the
ones who I really got to usemy creativity and really put together amazing vacations.

(27:15):
But now, even when I'm nota travel agent today and it's just
me, traveling is encouraging people torealize that there is so much more to
the world than what the eyes cansee. And I always joke now and
I say, I say, youlittle sided people get so stuck on your
eyes. I'm like, y'all forgetabout everything else in the world because it's

(27:37):
all about what your little eyes cansee. And I'm like, and I've
come to realize that so much becauseI we will be places and I will
point out things about, you know, where we just were, and it
will be somebody I'm with, likemy mom or sister who I do a
lot of my traveling with, andthey're like, oh, I didn't even
notice that, And I'm like,exactly because y'all have been focusing on what

(28:02):
your little eyes can see too much. You forgot about everything else. And
so I think that's the biggest thingwith traveling is to kind of open your
mind to what's around you and tostep out of the car and not just
look at the sites, but actuallyexperience them. And especially my favorite thing
when traveling, especially if you're talkingabout to you know, parts of the

(28:27):
country far different than yours, ormaybe even out of the country, is
getting to interact with people. Tome, that is the most amazing part
about traveling to me is getting tomeet new people, local people to where
you're traveling, and to me,like you know, that's what it's just
all about, is getting to experiencestuff, meet new people, open your

(28:48):
mind, and when we do that, you kind of take this world that
you know seems almost fictional because youknow, we see the globe on TV
or we see it in books,and it seems so big. But the
more you travel, the more peopleyou meet, you realize it's really not

(29:11):
that big and we're all not thatdifferent from one another. My experiences,
I've traveled overseas several times. Myhusband is from a Dutch family, and
I traveled a couple other places withpeople I'm trying not to name because I
don't want to give them credit,but that I actually have an easier time

(29:34):
than hearing people when it comes tointeracting in grocery stores or restaurants or hotels
or the like, because I'm usedto not hearing yes, I'm used to
not fully understanding, and so whenI don't, I'm more patient, which

(29:55):
patience is not one of my virtues, but I'm more patient and used to
not understanding yes, and so Ican wait a second, because often my
reaction is what wait, never mind, I got it, you know.
And and it's because it just takesmy brain a minute to process what it

(30:17):
is that's been said, and otherpeople hearing people kind of give up quicker.
Yes, yeah, that's interesting.And so it's just one of those
like you, you learn to relyon your other senses and you learn to
rely on your own brain in adifferent way. Yeah, yeah, I
love it. I love it.So on the flip side, are there

(30:44):
things like would you set aside blindnessfor a day in order to do a
thing? Um? Yeah, youmean like do you mean like what I
ever wish to not be blind.No, not forever, but for a
day or two. The excited partof me says, oh, heck,
yeah, of course I would loveto do that. But when I think

(31:08):
about things in the big picture,if it was just for a day or
two, no, because I wouldn'twant to have to lose it again.
Because I mean, I mean,losing my ability to see was I mean
the most traumatic, god awful,most horrible thing that I've ever dealt with
my entire life, and something thatto this day I would not wish on

(31:30):
my worst enemy, you know,I mean, it stole the ability to
see what my family looks like.That's probably the thing that tears me apart
the most, is the fact thatyou know, I don't know what my
mom, my dad, my sister, my grandparents really look like today.

(31:52):
Now. Of course they think it'spretty cool because I only remember them what
they looked like twenty years ago,and so they often joke and say,
Kevin, you would probably be reallydisappointed if you could see us. But
um, but you know, likelike that's the thing, and so you
know, the thoughts to get tohave it back only for a short time.

(32:13):
Now, I wouldn't do it.I don't know if like I similar
to me, like it sounds tome like not having sight is a,
for better or worse, fairly majorpart of your personality. And I share
that completely in the sense of deafnessis just part of my world. And

(32:39):
yeah, I sure it'd be great, But like, I'm not completely deaf,
so I know what my children's voicessound like. And if I lose
that eventually, which I probably will, I'll cope. I will miss podcasting
tremendously. Yes, yes, andyou know, And I think to what

(33:04):
you know you said is I thinkfor me being blind, it's not necessarily
probably part of who I am,but I believe it's made me who I
am because the blessing of it isit's given me an opportunity to kind of
become the man I am today.That I wonder sometimes would I still be

(33:27):
the guy that I am today ifthis hadn't happened. Would I still be
sure that I say I love youevery time I hang up the phone?
Would I still, you know,be best friends with my parents and my
grandparents? Would I still, youknow, pay attention to the little things
and love to meet people and getto know people's stories. I don't know

(33:51):
and the thought that maybe I wantit. It kind of makes me thankful
in a big picture way that itall happened the way it did. What
what were you when I grew up? Plans before you lost your site?
I didn't have it. So Kevinwas somebody who despised school with a passion.

(34:12):
UM. Now, ironically I wasreally good in school. I mean
I was in honors classes, didall the things. But I hated school
and UM, so going to college. I honestly I didn't have the big
plans um like a lot of peopledid who had big plans and going away
to universities or whatever. UM.I really wasn't sure what I was gonna

(34:32):
do. UM. It was.I was really big into drawing and I
loved I had taken architecture class andin school, and so that was one
route I had really thought about.UM. I had also thought about maybe
becoming a chiropractor, UM, somedifferent avenues like that, but I never
had anything like really dead set.UM. My only big aspiration, to

(35:00):
be honest with you, was wewould go down living in Florida, a
lot of our family vacations, wewould drive south to the tip of Florida,
down to the forty Keys, andwe would go camping and boating and
fishing and all the things down there. And I had come up with a
plan finally that I said, youknow what, instead of doing the whole

(35:24):
thing of graduating, going to college, then getting a career, then finally
retiring, I was like, youknow what, I think I'm gonna skip
it all and go straight into retirement. And my plan was to just live
down there in the forty Keys fishingall day. I'd sell the fish,
I'd have some fun. And thenthe key part of the puzzle was my

(35:49):
goal oriented, career minded five yearolder, five year older than me,
sister Tiffany, who she had plans. She was the one who did amazing
in school, went away to universities. Um, you know then you know,
became a you know, nurse,and so I knew. I'm like
and then tiff what you'll do isyou'll support your little baby brother by sending

(36:14):
me a check once a month.And that was that was my big plans
for for after college or after afterhigh school. Now maybe that would have
worked out minus the part about Tiffany'ssupporting my uh my early retirement. But
um, as I said, Ijust I didn't really have any big plans.

(36:35):
I really honestly wonder on it today, what what I what would I
have done? Um? You know, I had begun working with my dad,
Um the year before going blind,I had my dad had a construction
company, and so I had begunworking with him. I had quit my
job at Public's as a bag boyand went with him working out running heavy

(36:57):
machinery, clearing leon all that,and so I wonder if I would have,
you know, kind of worked withhim. I really don't know.
And to be honest, knowing nowwhat did happen? I'm so grateful that
God didn't give me big, definitedreams because for me, that was one

(37:17):
one last thing that I had tolose, which I hear you completely.
You know, my youngest sister hasmost good history free and I asked her
when she was entertains, would youwish it away? And she's like,
no, no, I can't.I can't imagine what life would be without

(37:39):
having this and this is who andhow I am, and I you know,
she she was born with it,and so yeah, for her,
she was like I never had theopportunity to build hopes and dreams that had
nothing to do with this, andI think that's you know, losing abilities

(38:04):
later in life I think is harderbecause yeah, people have to grieve in
a different way. Yep, exactlyexactly. So what's what's your like,
what's on your to do list?Oh? Wow, so to do list?
To be honest with you, Um, it's just kind of continuing to

(38:25):
live in the momentum. The wholepodcast thing. To be honest has been
the biggest blessing to me. Um. You know, I've I've come to
be a firm believer that, youknow, everything is always kind of working
out for a good even when wedon't realize it. And so when I

(38:45):
look back at twenty twenty and itwas gonna be my best year ever as
a travel agent, and then allof a sudden, March comes and inside
of seven days it all went away, and you know, I was kind
of left thinking what in the world. But the truth of the matter was
is that being a travel agent wasn'treally what I was meant to do.

(39:07):
Yeah, I enjoyed it, butit didn't light me up, it didn't
pull on my passions, it didn'tpull on who Kevin really is. And
so when I started the podcast andthe podcast quickly evolved and quickly kept getting
bigger and better, bigger, andI kept realizing as I would have these
interviews with people all over the world, and I said, I'm like,

(39:30):
if it wasn't for this podcast,I never even know that this person existed.
And yet now I get to sitdown with them one on one and
just talk to them and hear theirstory. And by hearing those stories,
it lights me up. It doesso much for me. And then that
you know, then you know again. Just this natural evolution led to me

(39:52):
getting into the realm of coaching andbecoming a transformational life and business coach.
And so I can take what Ido on the podcast and I can take
it one on one with somebody andreally work with them in their life.
And so when we talk about goalsmy to do list, it's really to

(40:13):
just keep seeing where this stream isgonna flow. I don't know where it's
going. I try to not thinkabout tomorrow. I learned in my life
back when I was seventeen years oldthat we never know what tomorrow will bring,
and I believe that taught me thegreatest lesson in life is that the

(40:34):
only thing that we should be focusingon worrying about is right now. It's
hard for me to choose just oneaspect of this conversation to be like,
hey, did you notice this?I really like this because I really liked

(40:54):
a lot of things that he talkedabout. You know how you learn a
lot about people when they interact withsomebody different. And there's a lot more
to the world than what the eyescan see. And I would add what
the ears can hear, and thathaving these things it isn't necessarily life ending

(41:21):
or miserable. It's just a thingthat we have. And that's the one
that I think I'm really landing onthe most. I think it has helped
me the most when I thought aboutthis episode, is that we all have
major events in our lives, sometimesmilestones we worked for and other times meteors
that fell on our heads, andwe delineate our lives between before that thing

(41:49):
happened and after, and sometimes it'sgood stuff, you know, before I
had this job or before I hadkids, versus after, before I was
able to travel, before we wonthe lottery, I don't know. And
then the meteorite type stuff that landson your head before I got sick versus

(42:14):
after it changes who I am,whether it's further better or worse, whether
it makes life easier or harder.Change the transition is always hard, and
at the end of it all,it doesn't really matter, I guess whether
it's fundamentally better or fundamentally worse,so long as you've absorbed it and adjusted

(42:38):
and evolved along with whatever it isthat landed in your lap. What I
didn't say in the episode, nordid Kevin, but I think he made
I don't know if if he disagreeswith me he can tell me he will,
is that the only sort of dangerousthing to do is to get too

(43:04):
caught up in the good old days, or make my life, my situation,
my country I don't know, makeit great again, or even everything
is so much better now than itused to be. Neither of those are

(43:25):
good if you spend all of yourtime measuring then now against what used to
be, Because the farther way youget from the event, the details get
a little blurry and fuzzy and faint, and you're gonna get them wrong.
You're just gonna and you're choosing notto evolve, You're choosing to be anchored

(43:51):
in the past instead of saying,Okay, that's a thing that happened,
now what So, Kevin, thankyou so much for hosting me on your
show and for coming to play onmine. Shout out to ben Wa for
introducing us. That's fantastic, AndKevin, I hope you come back on

(44:14):
the show sometime. I mean,we've proven we can talk for hours,
no problem, so we'll find thingsto chat about. Thank you guys for
listening. I hope that you're doingokay. I am doing pretty well actually

(44:35):
honestly right now today, and that'sall I'm taking is my horizon has pulled
in pretty tight and close because I'mnot good at predicting how will I be
in a week, But today I'mfeeling pretty good and so I'll take it,
and I hope you can say thesame. Because life's been a lot.

(44:55):
I've had to turn off social mediaseveral times just recently because I have
a policy wherein I won't keep scrollingif I see something that either irritates me
or I know the responses to itwill irritate me. And the Supreme Court
has convinced me to stay away fromsocial media pretty much all week. Thanks

(45:17):
y'all. So you know I focuson today, and I hope that you're
able to find something delightful for todayas well. You matter,