197. We Didn't Plan For This: The Art of Rebellious Success

What if resilience isn’t about bouncing back?

What if it’s about refusing to stay down?

In this episode of We Didn’t Plan for This, Adrienne and Nora sit down with Paralympic medalist, World Champion, Army veteran, and self-proclaimed rebel, Lia Coryell.

As one of eight children growing up in extreme poverty, Lia learned early that waiting for life to hand you an opportunity wasn’t a strategy. In kindergarten, Lia Coryell decided she wasn’t going to be the “leftover kid.” She was going to learn everything she possibly could.

That determination led her to the military, which she saw as her path out of poverty. Even after breaking her leg during basic training, she kept moving forward.

And that theme would continue throughout her life.

Throughout this conversation, one message rises above everything else: Be rebellious. But be rebellious successfully.

Lia reminds us that resilience isn’t something we’re born with. It’s something we build through curiosity, advocacy, hard work, and the willingness to keep showing up when life doesn’t go according to plan.

And in true We Didn’t Plan for This fashion, she leaves us with a choice we’ll never forget: You can become bitter. Or you can become better.

• Team USA Athlete Profile⁠
• Boys and Girls Club Lacrosse
• Salvation Army Lacrosse
• Paralyzed Veterans of America
• WEAU News
• Successful Rebel YouTube
• WXOW News 19
• Wikipedia Biography⁠

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The theme music for this episode, “Cenote Angelita”, was written and produced by Mar Abajo Rio AKA MAR Yoga Music. Dive deeper into this and other orig...

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to We Didn't Plan for This, a special series from how yoga changed my life. Normally on the podcast, we talk about practices like movement, breath work, and meditation, and how they've changed people's lives. But this series, it's different. It's about the moments that shift everything. The seasons you didn't see coming. And how we keep showing up anyway. And if something here resonates with you, follow our show. Share it with someone who might need it. Or send us a message. Because the truth is we didn't plan for this. But we're here. Welcome to another episode of We Didn't Plan for This. This is Adrian and Nora. And today we have a special guest, Leah.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Yes. Today's guest is someone who makes the word resilience feel almost too small. Leah is a Paralympic athlete, a world champion, an army veteran, and by every definition of the word, an absolute badass. When I hold dear to my heart as a special friend. What really drew us to Leah isn't the medals, the titles, or even the incredible things that she's accomplished. It's the story of underneath all of that. Because none of us really get to plan the life we end up living. Sometimes the paths change because of circumstances that are completely outside of our control. Sometimes the things that break us become the things that rebuild us. And sometimes resilience isn't about being fearless. It's about deciding to keep moving forward when you have every reason not to. Leah has taken the unexpected, the difficult, and the seemingly impossible and turned it into fuel, not just for herself, but as an advocate and an example for other people navigating their own unexpected chapters. I think that's exactly what we talk about on We Didn't Plan for This. That's exactly what this is about. Um, and it's about the moments that knock us off the path we thought we were on and what we choose to do next. So today we get to hear the story from someone who didn't just survive the detour. She learned how to win it. Leah, we're so incredibly happy to talk to you. Thank you for having me. Yeah. This is a fun space. It's absolutely laid back, and we're just chatting. So for those of you who don't know, um, I met Leah. I had the privilege and honor of working with Leah at the place that will not be named. Um she came to me as a client and we got to work together for a while. And um yeah, I think since then just found that we were kindred spirits, and she is now a very, very dear friend of mine. And now I'm excited for Adrian to get to meet you and to hear your story, and then also just to have a platform in which to share. Um, because I believe that your story is unique. There are not, well, there just aren't a lot of people like you. That's for sure. They're also not people that have the attitude that you have when the bullshit comes flying at you from every direction.

SPEAKER_03 3:10

So okay, so I am from Wisconsin, to a small town in Wisconsin. What town? Uh was born in Black River Falls, which is southern Wisconsin, and then at five, we moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin. I was born. Um, my mom and dad uh were married, but my dad was in prison when I was born. On my birth certificate, it says that he was a student in prison. A student? What? Yeah, well, you know, they gotta add something in there. Oh, he was not a good guy. No, he was not a good guy. He was extremely domestic violence, guns, knives, blood was a daily occurrence in my early childhood. He would get drunk and he would pull a gun and say he was gonna shoot us, or you know, he was gonna beat the shit out of us, or mostly my mom. Now, my mom grew up very, very poor. He came from a more affluent family, and I'll explain to you in a minute why I put two and two together. Very tiny. She's what four foot 10, 4'11, about 90 pounds, just a little sprite of a thing. But she grew up very poor. Her home, um, her dad uh committed suicide when she was 12, so she was raised by her mom, but there was no electricity, no running water. It was literally a tarp paper shackle. I remember being there, you know, no indoor water. So when she was 15 or 16, she decided she was just gonna see the world. See, so she was just a road bubble, and she went off to see the world in her scope of what she thought the world was and met him. Um, so I think she was like 20 when they got married, and he was 23, and she was already his third wife. Whoa, yes, so it was yes, and um my mom is not was not very educated. Um she was not a uh I don't want to in hindsight, I would say developmentally delayed. Yeah, but I didn't realize that till after she passed because she could barely read and write, and she was never more than like 12 or 13 in in my lifetime. I mean, I didn't put this together till after she passed, but she never had the maturity of more than like a 12-year-old mean girl.

unknown 5:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

So, you know, and then you got this asshole in the picture, but um, drinking, smoking, the only jobs they could get, um, my dad would work at uh they call them dirty bookstores, so I don't know what you would call them now.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Adult stores, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:48

Yeah, yeah, adult stores and or bartending, which is why we always lived above a bar. But my dad was a pedo, absolutely a pedto, but he didn't go to jail for messing with me and my sister, he went to jail for messing with my cousin because you know that mattered. So I learned really, really young that I didn't was not on the scope of most people. And the first thing that I remember was uh in kindergarten, um at the end of kindergarten, you have to know how to write your name and read your name. And I I knew that I didn't know how to do that. And in the kindergarten classroom, the aide said, Lisa, I'm gonna work with you today. And the teacher looked at her and said, Nah, no, no, work with somebody else. She's not even worth it. I know how this goes.

unknown 6:36

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 6:37

I'm like, bitch, yeah, are you freaking kidding me? I'm not worth it. So I decided that day, that day, I was gonna grow up and I was gonna know everything that my mom didn't. That I wasn't going to be the leftover kid, the one that wasn't worth people's time and effort at five. So um, my dad finally went away to prison and my mom remarried when I was 10. So there's four of us by my bio-dad, and then there's four of them by my stepdad. And things got better, better with my mom and stepdad together, but um, he's a Vietnam vet and he had a lot of PTSD issues. So, and you had eight kids and couldn't keep a job. Poverty doesn't even begin, does not even begin to talk about it. You know, if it weren't for the Salvation Army and the Boys and Girls Club and you know, welfare, I had, you know, there are many nights that, you know, one time we lived in the the service garage of a small town, you know, where they keep the dump trucks because we didn't have anywhere else to live. And nobody cared. We were the leftovers, you know. So I grew up thinking I was a leftover from, you know, another family, another school, another town, another foster home. You know, I was always the leftover. And it wasn't that I wanted to be the star, but I did want to be the leftover either. So I learned to advocate very young, very young, to be the, you know, I was the one filling out school forms, I was the one filling out job applications for them, you know, a rental applications. That's what I need to do. But when I got to senior in high school, they we started working, the four old, actually all of us, at like 14. Because if you wanted anything, you had to pay for it yourself. But you also, the girls had to pay rent. My brothers never did.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Wait, what?

SPEAKER_03 8:32

I did, yeah. Just it was very my mom. I would say my grandma was probably Mennonite, she was the kindest soul, the sweetest soul. And in her eyes, God loves everybody, He just wants you to be a good person. That was her outlook. But it was very like I never saw my grandma in pants.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

And I think that's the reason there was no electricity and no running water. Um, you know, in hindsight, I'm looking at that. So, like, I never was allowed to play sports, you know, you're not gonna run your ass off, people looking at you, all that kind of stuff. It was very, very different than everybody else. Um, so I started paying rent and buying groceries at like 13 and 14. And by the time I got to my senior year of high school, my mom wanted my sister had already dropped out um and was working and had a child. And my mom wanted me to drop out and help support the family. I'm like, that's not my job. She's like, then you're leaving. So my senior year, I rented a room because I was gonna graduate from high school because by then I knew that my future lies in my choices. I didn't choose that family, not that I wanted to abandon them, but I did I chose not to be them. And what people don't realize is success is not always celebrated in families that come from socioeconomic trauma.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 9:58

Because my successes, my mom stopped going to my parent teacher conferences when I was in fifth grade. I'm not gonna sit there and listen about how goddamn good you are.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Right.

SPEAKER_03 10:08

Oh, she's a sad not even listening. If they knew what an asshole you were, isn't that crazy? Isn't that crazy? It is crazy, but it's not just me. It is a phenomenon because it's showing off, it's trying to make them look bad, it's all these other things, and it that was a not factor, that was a thing throughout even my marriage. Success is not always celebrated, and people that don't come from that don't understand it. Yeah, yeah. So I think I learned early on that my success wasn't about me, it was setting up precedence for my siblings.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

For sure.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

So when I rented a room and decided to graduate, I knew I had to go in the military because that was my only way out. I knew I wouldn't, I didn't have money to go to college, but I also knew that I didn't have the skills at a college level. So I joined the military. And nine months in I fell and broke my leg and then got out, and I had to recycle into the AIT. And then what does that mean? We all got really sick. Uh so I had through basic and I went to school. I was supposed to be an MP, and they decided they thought that I was slow because I didn't the dual sergeants would go and I had no idea what that meant. So I just wait 10 seconds to see what everybody else did, and they thought I was dumb. So I said they literally changed my my MOS job. Yeah, her job in the R.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

She's not gonna she can't it's like in the Air Force reclassing. I don't know if that's the same. Is that to the U.S.?

SPEAKER_03 11:46

She's like, she can't be a cop, she's dumb as hell. So I they're like, you can be a cook or you can be a truck driver. I'm like, I've been cooking for people since I was six. No, yeah. So I'm in the truck driver school thing, and a bunch of us in the female barracks got sick, and they thought it was like a meningitis thing. And I never got all the feeling back in my leg from the leg surgery. So they I was medically retired at 19.

unknown 12:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 12:10

I didn't plan for that. I didn't plan for that to fall through, but it did.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

That was your yeah, the military was your plan. That was your high. That was your ticket out, and that was your career, and what was gonna help you pay for school, yeah, right, and all of that.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

So when I when I knew I was getting out, I could went anywhere in the United States. You know where I went right back to La Cruz. You know why?

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Because that's what's for me.

SPEAKER_03 12:34

Because I had siblings, no, because I had siblings there. Yeah, I had I had to be that for the them. I needed to go back to make sure that they had a chance because I was setting up precedence. But you know, when I left home in high school and even in the military, my mom wouldn't let any of my siblings talk to me. Nobody talked. I didn't talk to them for years. I wasn't allowed to. Oh my god. But I knew that my presence there. So, you know, like they have Christmas trees at Christmas time with four kids' names on ornaments and a couple of things that they want. It's called the giving tree. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I would until the youngest one was 18, I would go to that tree. We lived in Milwaukee, and I would go back to the tree and find my they have different names, older names, and find them and make sure they got Christmas. And they had they never knew until last year that it was me.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 13:29

It was me. But that's why I went back.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

Um, so what did you cross when you went back?

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Because you're 19.

SPEAKER_03 13:35

I went to college. Yeah, I went to college because I'm literally have been a disabled vet since I was 20. And then within within a year of being back at school, I got meningitis again, and they realized it's not meningitis. You have MS. Didn't plan for that either. What and I didn't really know much about MS. You know, kind of I knew I there was a girl in school whose mom had MS that was in a wheelchair, and she passed when we were in high school. That's all I knew about MS. But I had relapse remitting MS, and I was so grateful for that. I lived a lot of years very active.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

What does that mean?

SPEAKER_03 14:13

Uh so it's called relapse remitting. So when it remits, you know, I have a degree in FIED and recreation. You know, I swam, I windsurfed, I rock climbed, I taught whitewater rafting, I did environmental education, you know, I got married, um, lived in Milwaukee for 28 years. I became a teacher. And, you know, there were times where I would relapse. Usually it was vision, like I would lose my vision, like lose it. And then it would have to go in the hospital and and recycle it coming back or whatever you not recycle with the steroids. I can't think of what that's called. Oh IV steroids. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, like getting a chip. You know, they try it, yes, and they try all these MS drugs, and usually it would remit and I would be able to go forward. But I didn't have kids until I was in my 30s. And my son told somebody in an interview, which surprised me because neither of my kids like to do interviews. They said, So what's a what's it like having knowing that your mom is very sick with MS now? And he said, I've never known her, I don't think of her that way. I've never known my mom healthy, as you would say. He said, I don't think of her wheelchair. He said, I think of my mom. She's tough, she's resilient, she's strong, she's creative. I don't see what you're seeing. That isn't, he said, I don't even, my sister and I are like, Okay, cool, she wants to spare a lift. That's not who she is to us. She's this mom that had incredible strength and you know, fortitude and always thinking ahead and always finding a way to challenge people's perceptions, including ours. So they've always known when Joey joined the military, he became a combat medic with the 101st Airborne at 18.

unknown 15:58

Whoa.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

And went to Afghanistan. And people asked him in another interview after he got out, why did you become a medic? And he said, My mom is dying from a disease that she got in the military. I can't help her. But I can make sure my guys come back to their families. I can do that. So that's why that's why he became a medic.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

So badass breeding, badass over here. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 16:24

Yes, people didn't fall far from that.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 16:27

Well, I I taught both of my kids that um just because somebody says something doesn't mean it's true, especially if they're an adult.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_03 16:37

So, and it's okay, it's okay to act and be respectful, but say, um, tell me more about that, or I don't understand what you're talking about. Just because they say it doesn't mean it's true. Because so many adults in my life, when I was young, hurt me and got away with it because you know, authority.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:55

My kids, you can absolutely question and and say, I don't think I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna talk to my mom. So, did they both have trouble in school a little bit? Did I raise two two children with authority issues? Yes, I did. Go kids, yeah, go kids. They question everything. That's my kids, even in the military. Joey in the military, you know, he's like, Yeah, that didn't go over really well at first, and then they realized I was just seeking information.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

So tell me more. So, yeah, so we were in uh Milwaukee for 28 years. You know, I married a man that I met in high school. Uh I'm sorry, college. We moved to Milwaukee, and like I said, we had kids when we were in our 30s. And my son Joe was born. He sided out at six days old. I found him dead in his crib. And uh yet didn't plan on that either. Uh did the cardiac thump, got him in the hospital, he was in intensive care, he was on life support, and they they asked. Um, we're not sure how he's gonna come out of this. We don't know how long he was without oxygen. Um, so if you want to discontinue life support, and my husband's like, I can't, I can't, I cannot handle a child that has special needs. And I was like, What? I'm not are you fucking kidding me? You're a teacher, yeah. Yeah, their plasticity of their brain, he he's just a bubble anyway. He's six days old and he was 10 and a half pounds, which was what a surprise. So I knew that day because early on in my MS journey before we had kids, I had a really bad relapse, and the OT came to the house to see how she could help make it easier. And he said, You're not touching anything in my house, I'm not living with a cripple, she's gonna have to adapt. And I was like so afraid of being abandoned. I was like, Oh, okay, okay. So, like, he didn't want me to use a cane, he didn't want me. No, it's all about pictures. And when he said that about my son, I'm like, I'm out. Oh my god, I'm out. Oh my god, I can't either so we were we were we were divorced by the time Joe was two and Cassie was five. So I was a single mom. They don't have any memories of which is a blessing of us together. Like, remember when mom and dad, it's always been mom's house or dad's house. Yeah, so that's a blessing, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That isn't something I I never planned on my kids coming from I don't want to say a broken home, two homes.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Yeah, two homes, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

You know, mom's house, yeah, and dad's house, you know. Um, didn't plan on that either, but you know, and started Joe in therapy. And by the time he was in kindergarten, I mean, the kid graduated from high school with a 3.5. He's a was a paramedic before he even joined. He graduated from high school at 16. So did Cassidy. They were over the bullshit in high school. Both of them were like, this is dumb as shit.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 19:44

You know, these kids act like morons, and yeah, you know, the teachers are babysitting them. And why am I here? Both of them did.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 19:51

So Joey couldn't enlist, which he knew he wanted to do until he was older. And I'm like, Well, you're not your ass working at the bait shop. What are you gonna do? And he decided that he uh was gonna go to school, and so he was an EMT and a paramedic at 17 before he even left. So he killed it in the military.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

So you know he's your ex was gonna give up on him.

SPEAKER_03 20:13

Yes. Now, now I feel really bad for him because his guilt is Oh, I can imagine. Yeah, it has really and I made the mistake of telling Joey that. Yeah, and so he feels a little responsible for the end of our marriage, but it started way before.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

No, no, no, and you can't be res Joey's not responsible for anything that your husband or you did back in.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Anybody who was gonna abandon you because of an illness you have no control over. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

That's that's not till yes. No, that's all on that's no.

SPEAKER_03 20:42

I think Chris feels terrible to this day about that. That was a knee-jerk reaction for him, but I was done.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

Yeah, but the writing was on the wall. You knew fairly early on he wasn't strong enough to be your partner. It's like there were signs, right? But it's hard to recognize.

SPEAKER_03 21:00

That's nothing I ever planned on either, is being a divorced woman.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 21:04

You know, didn't plan on that.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Nope.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

So um when Joey was, I think a junior or a senior in high school, Cassidy was away at college, and um I got really, really sick, really sick. And I had been getting sicker and heavier, like obese heavier as the years creeped on. And I was working, um, I was working on my master's and PhD at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in uh cognition and learning and adult learning.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

That's where my daughter went to school for a semester. She went to University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Um, but it was we were down here and Brian was, you know, kind of near the end. So yeah, it was too expensive. But she we love we lived in Chicago for seven years, so we love it up there.

SPEAKER_03 21:45

Yeah, yeah. So that's where we lived in the Milwaukee area, and um I was working with the post 911 GI Bill kids coming back, trying to get them ready for the classroom. So, like one of the things we always did the first day of semester is we came up with a hundred words other than five. done for academic writing you know you what's another word in the fuck okay okay no like the heck or whatever it was hilarious so my god good group of kids so through them I was invited to an adaptive sports camp in California because I was now in a wheelchair pretty much full time and that was a new new thing for me and I'm like but they wouldn't go unless I went so I went and like they're like do you want to play wheelchair basketball? No I was like 46 years old and I'm very heavy I'm new to my chair no so we get to archery I'm like oh I can do this I've never shot a bow but it was fun and you know they kept encouraging me and but then after we got back do you want to come to an archery camp? Do you want to come to archery camp? Finally she said I think you're you're probably good enough now that you could start competing but we have to get you classified as a para athlete um which is where they evaluate your disabilities and your challenges and stuff and she said I think you're gonna be a W1 and I'm like well what does that mean and one of the other guys also a marine vet said you're the most fucked up Leah the most fucked up of the fucked up Leah yeah he said we look like the walking dead but you're bringing up the rear stop the walking dead you're bringing up the rear oh my god and I said oh hell no no I'm not your token broken lift your photo off I'm not doing it but my coach said to me her name is Randy Smith she said Leah this is why I think you need to do this this is your opportunity it's a platform for you to change the entire world because there's never been a female W1 which is a quad I learned uh quadruplegics somebody that has impairments in all four limbs in your core wow there's never been one in the Western hemisphere from Canada all the way down to South America there's never been a female that has been competitive because they think it can't be done I think you can prove them wrong and I think you can teach people around the world about assumptions and things like that. Yeah I think she knew I think she knew you yeah yay man she saw that yeah yay man so 2015 I had been shooting for a year I made the USA national team first W1 person ever or female uh so I made the national team the uh Pan American team and in 2016 I made the Paralympic team for Rio and competed for team USA for the first time where was it and in Rio it was in Rio Rio de Janeiro in 2016 yeah so my my first out of the gate my first world championships out of the gate which was before Rio came in fourth place and then I got to Rio you know and it's I'd only been shooting probably 15 months I also came in fourth place and then um after Rio I'm like well am I done no I've got more I've got more to do well what I found out at Rio is that uh so my friend Andre won the gold medal as as a para uh archer and the able bodied archer USA guy did too and the USA para or able bodied guy you know you get paid for that um I think he got thirty thousand dollars and Andre got seven and I'm like what what the hell why yeah and they're like well it's always I'm not how do I change this and they're like I guess you could be on the board of directors for the USOP which United States Olympic Paralympic committee sign me up you bet nice so shit by the time by the time we got to Kyo Sarah Herschland who is the CEO of the US OPC came up to me in the Olympic village and said you've changed history I said oh yeah how's that she said you know the that you're on the uh athlete advisory board for the US OPC you were elected by able bodied archers never anywhere in the entire world in international history Olympic or paralympic has has able bodied athletes elected a paraath to represent them in any sport ever. Wow and I didn't even I didn't even know that I'm like well you know why because I got nothing to lose what I'm gonna do that's right I got nothing to lose at this point that has kind of been my rebellious stance yeah why not me if not me who I got nothing to lose right yeah because usually when I get to these points in my life where I didn't plan that I got nothing to lose yeah so yes yes I'm going to do it so I also competed then in Tokyo also came in fourth place both Paralympics because halfway through I get in my head and it's called called imposter syndrome. Oh yes very well familiar with that one yes yes you know I screwed so I'm getting older I'm heavy and my illness is progressing so I knew that when I went I was I have been on four world championship teams I knew that if I was going to win anything it had to be the next world championship because I was not doing well so it was in Dubai hot as heck in 2022. Wow so when you compete they rank you from first based on a a best score ever is a 720 nobody even able bodied has ever got a 720 all the way down to the lowest I've always been in the bottom three because my best ever is a 603 that's the best thing I can do when you have to shoot seven actually it's almost a hundred arrows because you have warm-ups in heat and you know pressure that's not that I realized during COVID when I was practicing that that's not my game. Yeah but when you do elimination matches that's 15 arrows three at a time know yourself know yourself so that's what I trained for. So I was like second or third to last in Dubai like I've been in all the other international competitions before that. So the majority of the the women were like 640s easily 640s 630s and I've got a 604. So I'm last and I have to go against number one but I know I didn't even care what she was doing because I know this is my game's at the Mama's at the line now y'all yeah and I beat her yeah and then I beat the next one yeah and then I beat the next one not even my so when you shoot there is a 40 foot jumbo truck right behind right behind your bale. So you are looking at you looking at you oh my god yeah how terrible that's terrifying well it's it's it's bad for your it's bad for your yeah that's that's a mess with your game and then they play boom boom boom boom no your heart rate your you know what I didn't hear it I'm like girl when I was training for this you can ignore anything you've got eight brothers and sisters yeah exactly you can ignore anything yeah so I just shoot my bow and look back down so I actually can't load an arrow fast enough in competition so there's actually a coach that sits there that puts the arrow for a lot of W1s puts the arrow on so then you just have to shoot it just doing my thing and in my mind I'm just doing you know good timing good rhythm good focus good finish and there was a there's like a circus tent and all the media is right in front of me and there was a little mouse I just kept looking at the mouse in between ends while whoever was behind me was shooting. So I made it to the gold medal match to the ch and I knew it was the championships but people started losing ladies started losing to me because they were afraid of losing to the worst person. Wow not my problem no they got in their heads yeah they did they got in their head it's totally by number two it was in their head and they were in a stadium full of people at the world championships yeah all the pressures on yep not for me no I got nothing to lose you were in your zone yeah you were in the zone exactly focusing on your controllables so when I was in the gold medal match you know I'm just shooting my arrows and all of a sudden my coach starts wiggling he's so cute over here and he's like oh my god Lee I think you just won I think you're the world champion and I'm like no we have three more arrows to shoot he's like no no I think you won I'm like no I didn't Johnny sit back down he's like okay and then the head USA coach comes around and this is a video this is the most viral archery video ever if you ever want to look it up I want to find it you're totally gonna find it oh yeah and he comes around and he's like Leah you are the world champion and I go me oh we're done my god all done I I did that it's hysterically funny because I had no idea that I went you really thought you had one more round right I thought I had more thought you had counted and you were on your fourth and that you would have one more round right yeah I didn't even attention to what m my scores were necessarily because I knew they're I knew they were gonna go in the middle you think I'm gonna tell myself they're not right exactly right that's resilience they're gonna go in the middle correct that's right that's manifesting that shit right now absolutely the going in the middle that's right that was a going where I'm putting them that was a huge change with the psychologist was it she said if you wouldn't say it to your child or to somebody that you were coaching don't say it to yourself I became my best cheerleader after Tokyo that's so important that the the 10 year old me like girl we got this it's okay it's okay we got this nice job yeah literally that's how I talk to myself to this day in my head that's hard to that girl to that girl who thought she was leftovers yeah who wasn't worth it to all the kids like me yeah that's who I think of is is is me at that age look at us girl look at us we just won the world championship yeah won the gold medal least likely person ever wow so that was crazy and then I moved to Texas to work with a couple of nonprofits and I I kind of retired and I was like kind of thinking about my W1 male partner lives in Texas and he's like let's do Paris and then I had two strokes in Texas back to back and I'm like yeah this isn't plan for that also you didn't plan for yeah yeah yes I was working out I was doing good I was swimming I felt good I had started to lose a little weight and then I had two strokes were they back to back one day and then the next day yeah yeah yes and then um I had caregivers coming into my home in Texas and I loved them they're girls of mine but it wasn't what they wanted to do they just wanted to be my friend and my son Joey would fly in from Phoenix where he was like for a whole week once a month and he was like this isn't working yeah you've got mold in your refrigerator you know they come or they don't come or whatever no this is not work where no he said he and his wife are going to move to Tampa and he wanted me to move with him and I'm like I don't think that's a good idea because they're newlyweds and he's young and he said I'm a fucking medic. If anybody should be your caregiver it should be me because you took care of me let me do it he is my full-time caregiver to this day yeah it's amazing he you know he's in culinary school now but he is my full time full-time caregiver oh my god I didn't know he was in culinary what yes oh that's fantastic we moved to Tampa but before I moved to Tampa I don't even know if you knew this I fell in the locker room I got taken out by a naked two year old in the locker room of the place we shall not name name yep and that's my bicep that is not attached to anything can you see it whoa and shattered my shoulder which was weak anyway from archery for so many years and I couldn't get it fixed in Texas so we had to come had to do it here in Florida I was in the hospital for months months because I was one-handed and this is my most impaired hand I couldn't even wipe my booty oh my god and and Joey and I don't live together he lived in another that they sent my hospital he just lived close by yeah I didn't plan on that no and the depression was horrible yeah I was gonna say because you could well I felt like I'm not an archer I'm not a teacher I'm not an educator I I couldn't really do speaking and then I had it got home started to get better started to swim and I had a third freaking stroke here yeah didn't plan on that either and I was like am I just waiting to die literally is that what I'm waiting for and I Joe's the one is like we're going to the pool today and I'm like yeah and I was 230 pounds and I'm like I'm not going to pool blah blah blah we went to the pool yeah it was a blast I started swimming and that's my zen because I have headphones on that play music and I'm looking at the bottom of the pool and I'm just swimming just swimming my stroke doing my thing turn around come back come back don't have to use a snorkel anymore just swim um I have lost half my body weight wow I've lost 115 pounds all arms mind you because she's not yeah yeah it's all arms she's not kicking exactly because her legs aren't helping but she's given getting good drag so the arms are working nicely and your core decompression is I find I've I found a community there actually in the beginning with the young lifeguards. Oh that's awesome because of my tattoo it says it's a it's an Olympic tattoo it says Rio 2016 it should say Tokyo but like I said I don't want to get it done because then I can't swim. Yeah I know then you're out of the pool for like eight weeks or whatever they tell you right yeah and and I did a talk there for Olympic day about my story and and how you least expect people people the best athlete doesn't always win in fact they usually don't yeah yeah you're and kids are surprised by that I said no the most determined athlete wins because anything can go wrong and if you think you're gonna win and you don't have that rebellion inside you so the the the thing that I have done mind people say I'm resilient. I am not resilient I'm rebellious tell me I can't tell me I shouldn't tell me I won't yep tell me tell me all the things why I can't shouldn't won't and I'll tell you I can so it's I tell the kids be rebellious in what other people's bubbles they put you in. But you have to be a good rebel you have to be successful because if you're not successful you're not a good rebel only good rebels are successful. So does it lead to resilience? Absolutely yeah absolutely so it was doing really well I'm in a new apartment love it cat jo and Jill are doing great you know we've got the whole thing down killing it and I started to lose language and I started to you were saying it memory kind of fuzzy like yeah short term memory stuff so I it it falls under aphasia but it's not it it's language but I didn't understand at the time so I was in speech therapy and then my neurologist therapist said let's do some neurocognitive testing so three hours later I'm like I killed this I totally killed this no I didn't oh no I didn't no it was less than two percent and a lot of it so I can't do a dot to dot who the fuck needs to do a dot to dot yeah exactly and I guess you do yeah I was gonna say this entire conversation has been you speaking eloquently and beautifully I and I told this story a lot yeah if I were in a conversation that I didn't have said a lot it would have been harder but uh yeah I can't the other one is when people are talking I'm only it's like there's a glitch in the matrix it's like you're moving twice as fast but your voice is like five seconds behind so I'm it's like Charlie Brown's teacher. Yeah yeah yeah and even if I'm hearing you especially when there's more than like a bigger this is perfect because I've got headphones on and I can't always pull out what people are saying and its executive functions are very poor. So the diagnosis which I found on you know my little app was major neurocognitive disorder and I'm like oh I we knew I had it I knew it that's why I allowed it to happen and then I looked it up and it's dementia. I'm 61 my mom died of dementia and angry paranoid you know she had a lot of years after the kids were gone where we got along very very well she died three weeks before Tokyo and yeah and I can talk about that in a minute but um that is the last thing I ever wanted to be diagnosed with I I did I felt my body leave my my soul leave my body it used I used to dissociate like that when I was a little kid. I would watch what was happening from the room and I've talked to my Frank about it. I'm like am I like schizophrenic he said no if that's a trauma response that saved your life yeah it did yeah it I it took you out of the picture so you could see it and analyze it and use those functions yeah right no you're not and I'm like okay and use that information to protect yourself in the future yeah right yes exactly yes so yeah dementia I was blown away and then we had the meeting with the doctor and my son and my daughter both said yeah we've seen this I'm like what yes since Texas and I'm like okay so how long do I have and he's like well you're you're in the third stage how many what does that mean yeah exactly there's three stages are you fucking kidding me nope but here's here's the I didn't plan on that either right I was doing great Jesus I know but every time I fucking get going I slam into something so it was awful I did not know how to put my head around it so then I started to think like a rebel tangibly and he explained that MS dementia is different than like Alzheimer's or vascular or whatever in that with those you know your brain starts to like disintegrate and shrink and all that um with MS the information's there we just lose our ability to access it so it is a little slower moving than other ones but the outcome is the same they still can't treat it but I'm just gonna live my best life every single day and tell myself how grateful I am that I get to live in this awesome warm state and then when I can't remember that I'm not I won't even know it I'll still yeah I'm living my very best life happy to be here with Joey in Florida in the sun and in the water yes so last month Joe and I booked a trip to lacrosse my hometown I had three big shadow boxes big one for Rio one for Tokyo and one for world championships with my jerseys and all the memorabilia in them and I'm like and that stuff doesn't mean anything to my kids that's not who I am to them I'm mom yeah yeah I'm like and I have a gazillion nieces and nephews I'm like what do I do with them maybe the library in lacrosse that was my sanctuary was the library maybe they would like them so I called the library and they put me in touch with the historical society. I'm like I'm not that old they were over the moon your vintage over the moon so this is this was my take on that they said yes we would absolutely love to have them we know exactly who you are your hometown is we make history every day by the choices we make and the way we live our life especially if we're helping other people like you're doing if you have the ability to help someone else you are changing their history and your history just by sharing that. Yeah so history isn't just old people in stinky houses and maps yeah history is made every day for sure and sometimes it's made by the people that you least expect which would have been me because in you know so when we went there we shipped those they had a huge to-do about it like I think I did five interviews during the day and I gave a talk at the library at night and it was very successful and people are like I never really thought about it that way you can change history even that little girl that was left over and unworthy she changed history too because all the there's a lot of four kids in lacrosse but also around the world around the world um there are now 14 W one women in the Western hemisphere between Canada the US Central and South America there was I competed with the men for the first three years.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

Shit Leah that's only in the last four years yeah wow that's fantastic that I You were there first and now there are 14 that are competing.

SPEAKER_03 44:04

I don't gatekeep so if people if coaches get a hold of me and say, Leah, I have and I usually know who the W1 women are because I competed. Like, how did you do this? I don't gatekeep. I'm gonna tell you how this is how you do that. Yeah, but even when I was still competing, because I don't want to win because they're from a third world country and they don't understand.

SPEAKER_00 44:24

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 44:25

I want to win because you know what? It's not even about winning. Maybe it's about showing up and changing history.

SPEAKER_01 44:33

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 44:35

Because when I won the world championship, I was almost 60, I was 59. At least the next person was at least maybe 30. So I was old, overweight, very overweight. Um, yeah.

unknown 44:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 44:53

And you you all the things you don't plan on, you this is what I said this in in a thing that was taped for YouTube. You can be bitter or you can be better. When you I didn't plan on this, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna be bitter or are you gonna be better? I've tried bitter, it doesn't work well. And I don't just who I am doesn't stay there because people are watching, especially young people. And when I chose to put myself out there, people are watching. Am I gonna be bitter or am I gonna be better? So we went to lacrosse originally to do my end-of-life planning. Bought my grave. Paid for my funeral, got my head stoned. But I got to do it. I could be bitter or I could be better. Because my kids, that's not gonna fall on them like it falls on some people when somebody I know have always known that this day was gonna come. It just wasn't at my choosing, and maybe maybe it wasn't meant to be. So I chose everything, and Joey and I thought it would be, you know, in our dark military humor, it would be fun. Yeah, right. Because we took my mom and dad, my sister and I did to do their end of life planning before my mom was sick, and we had a ball. It was one of the best days I had with both of them. They were silly, they were funny, you know. We had to drive around the old family cemetery, which is in the middle of nowhere, where I never wanted to be buried.

SPEAKER_01 46:20

My dad's like, Oh, I don't want to be porn territory out there in Wisconsin. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 46:25

He said, He said, Oh, there's too many mosquitoes over there. I'm like, You're dead. What do you care? He's like, nobody can come see me if they get bit by mosquitoes. So then we go to the other side, and he's like, Too many pine trees, there's gonna be pine sap on my head. So I'm like, oh my god. So he finally picked the new row, first row. He's like, I I think Arlene, we should do this one. And I'm like, why? He said, because your crippled ass can't say you can't come see me. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 46:57

Oh god, I love that so much.

SPEAKER_03 46:59

We so there's 25 graves in a row. I have eight siblings. Every single one of us, when this started to happen with me, have a grave. And we bought up all of them.

unknown 47:11

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 47:12

So my mom is here, I'm on the opposite end. I'm like, please give me that space. She's give me the space next to her. I've already been she's one, I want to be we're okay when she passed, but I want to be 25. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 47:26

She can be one, I'll be 25.

SPEAKER_03 47:28

That's exactly it. So yeah, we all have them.

unknown 47:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 47:31

So yeah, and we took care of it. And you know, I just got a book that says, fuck, I'm dead. Now what? For my kids. You know, all my stuff is in there. You can't get life insurance when you get MASSET 19.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

Wow. Shit.

SPEAKER_03 47:46

So, but you know what I do have? I have deeds. I have deeds to the US Olympic Paralympic Museum of History. I have one to the Military Women's Hall of Fame, and I have one to the Lacrosse Historical Society. There are three deeds in there with mostly it's all archery thing. I mean, who would have thought archery would be the thing that would make me relevant? But you know, I could have just shot archery or I could have used it to change people's perception and to to let people know bitter or better.

SPEAKER_01 48:24

Yeah, which clearly you've done because now you've set the precedent. You showed it is possible. You can put your mind forward and do things and regardless of a lot of situations. And that's fantastic. I had no idea we had it 14. I knew that you opened that door and and created awareness. Um, but man, that's great. And two just four years. That's that's great. I mean, we're yeah, gonna have another Olympics. Yeah, so you know, that's fantastic. Yeah, well, like it's it's here in LA in 28. Right, yeah. Wow. So now we'll have to wait and see how many W1 females are competing. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_03 49:00

Yes, well, it in the US we have three, but in South America there's even more. But yeah, it's in worldwide. I uh yeah, I think very young I realized that there's power in rebellion, but you have to be successful and you have to use it in a way that promotes growth.

SPEAKER_01 49:18

Yes, yeah, and good, you know, yeah, yeah, and good.

SPEAKER_03 49:21

My daughter was a rebel for a while and it did not work out well for her at all. She's doing really, really, really well now, but it did not go well for her at all. But you have to harness that rebellion, that uprising, yeah, in a very positive way, in a thoughtful way. And so it I would have to say from early on, even in my archery career, my life has never really been about me. Yeah, and that's my grandma, that's grandma, because God just wants you to be a good person, He wants you to leave this earth, leave this earth better than when you came.

SPEAKER_01 49:55

Yeah, better than you found it.

SPEAKER_03 49:56

Like, yep, yes, that's exactly what she would say. And you know, people say, What religion are you? Salvation Army, that's what they believe too. Yeah, I don't know if that's a religion, but that's where I ever went to church my entire childhood was Salvation Army, and that's their belief. Everybody deserves to be loved. Yeah, leave the judging to God for sure, yep, and do your best to leave the world better, and that has always been my thing. And the fact that I'm leaving two incredibly compassionate, kind, stubborn children, I mean they're adults, uh they're changing the world too.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

I mean absolutely. I've had the privilege of meeting Joey, so I know what you yeah, I know what's going on there. He's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 50:37

My husband, when he passed, I was in his office and I found some of his personal development plan. And in there he said, like, be bold in life, get and give with ambition and care, be better at communicating, be impeccable with my word, listen, be meaningful and purposeful, don't waste time, do meaningful work, make things better than I found it.

SPEAKER_03 51:01

What is his name?

SPEAKER_00 51:02

Brian.

SPEAKER_03 51:03

I'm gonna look for him.

SPEAKER_00 51:05

Thanks.

SPEAKER_03 51:07

I'm like, dude, we need to we need to hang out for sure.

SPEAKER_01 51:13

I mean, you would match.

SPEAKER_03 51:15

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

I hope that wasn't out of it. Honestly, no, that's beautiful. And I really I was talking to my daughter last night about um just when people don't know what to say, you know, and they say, I'm sorry. And Campbell said, you know what? I don't want anybody to say that they're sorry. All they have to do is say, tell me about them.

SPEAKER_03 51:38

And I don't think people realize that. So like I said, when my mom passed, she actually came to me when I was in Tokyo, like the wall of the dorms in the Olympic Village were glass overlooking Tokyo.

unknown 51:54

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 51:55

And I felt somebody patting my leg in the middle of the night, and I thought it was uh there was a young, another American archer, real young, and I thought she was scared and she was patting my leg. And I looked up and it was my mom sitting on the end of the bed, and like like see-through, and I'm like, Hey mom, which I've kind of always had kind of had that vibe with me, and I'm like, So she said, Um, I never meant to hurt you, but there were things that you didn't know and you didn't need to know, and I'm so sorry. But in in my next life, please know that that would never happen. That would and I I never meant to hurt you, and it did because of things that happened with me. But I'm sorry, please forgive me. And I'm like, already, already done. Yeah, already you know, and the thing is, and Joey often says that she was a great grandma. Yeah, she was, yeah, she was not a good mom, yeah, yeah, you know, but uh I mean she started as a child.

SPEAKER_01 52:52

Yeah, exactly. Well then she was a child when she became a mother, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:57

Well, here's what she was always a child. Yeah, I didn't realize that until after that on the way home from Tokyo, and I'm thinking, why would have my dad, my biodad, been attracted to her? Because she was a child, yeah, and he was a pedo. Yeah, she was built like a child, she thought like a child, she was the emotional child.

SPEAKER_01 53:15

Yeah, literally could be manipulated like a child, yes.

SPEAKER_03 53:19

That's absolutely why. And then, you know, the fact that he was so abusive to her, a child always wants their parent to love them, for sure, yeah, for sure. That breaks my heart, yeah. That she it makes me see her in a different light, yeah. For sure. But when people would say to me about, oh, I'm sorry your mom died, I'm like, I'm not, I'm not, because she finally found peace. Yeah, exactly. She never had it on earth, yeah, yeah, never found peace, never felt safe, was always paranoid, angry, you know, thinking that people were trying to set her up to make her fail. Yeah, yeah. After seeing her in Tokyo, she was at peace. And I feel her, I still feel her, and I'm like, we got a good relationship now that she's gone.

SPEAKER_00 54:06

Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 54:07

Because I can see it not for the lens of a child, correct? My child. I see it as the woman that struggled way more than I ever had. Wait, because she didn't have the means, the intelligence, the means, the executive functions to find a way that worked. She actually, all of them always thought everything was luck, good luck or bad luck.

SPEAKER_00 54:31

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:32

And I knew really, really young that this has nothing to do with luck.

SPEAKER_00 54:36

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 54:38

Yeah, so so when people say, Oh, I'm sorry, no, I'm not. She would, you know, and I we also had another archer just pass. We spent the last six of months of her life tied to a bed in a nursing home because she had really, really bad some kind of dementia. And they were all, I'm so sad she passed. I'm like, I'm not, go tank.

SPEAKER_00 54:57

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 54:58

Go you, I am not afraid to die. Yeah, I am not, no, not at all. I am afraid of leaving things undone for my kids here.

SPEAKER_01 55:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:06

Because I am, I've been to heaven. I had a drug interaction, I did not breathe or have a heartbeat for six minutes.

SPEAKER_00 55:15

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_03 55:16

And I and I literally I didn't know what was going on, but I was like warm, cozy, and I'm like, this wow, like I'm like, where this is so cool. I've never felt more euphoric in my life. Wow, like so wanted, so valued, so welcome. I went to heaven, yeah. And then as I'm rising, I'm thinking, I can't do this because Joey's gonna be the one to find me. Yeah, he's the one that's gonna have to break in that door and find me. And I'm like, I can't, and I could just feel it's okay, it's okay. So I'm not afraid. Yeah, that wasn't it was not even it wasn't it's not about that, it's not about that, it's about getting things squared away here because that's my better.

SPEAKER_00 56:02

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, so at the end of the interview, we try to do like a couple of rapid fire questions, just like kind of first word that comes to your mind. It's not a quiz, it's not gonna, you know, it's not a test. There are no wrong answers. Exactly. Exactly. So Nora.

SPEAKER_01 56:26

Um, so it it finish the sentence, Leah. Um, what would you say is one of the funniest things that came out of something that you didn't plan for? Tell us something funny. Because this woman is hilarious. Well, I can already tell.

SPEAKER_00 56:42

I mean, seriously.

SPEAKER_01 56:45

You don't know, you don't you don't talk about how funny you are sometimes, but man. Well, I enjoy the the benefit of your hilarity on many occasions.

SPEAKER_03 56:54

You'll have to share the YouTube video with AJ because I didn't realize how funny I was either. I'm like, funny as fuck. You were um I would have to say. I would have to say, um gosh, I I think it's all funny now in hindsight.

SPEAKER_00 57:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:17

I I can't really think of one thing. Like, we laugh a lot. We do. We have always laughed a lot, and my kids and I have always laughed a lot.

SPEAKER_01 57:26

That's something that veterans um it we have a special brand of humor. Uh veterans, best responders, um, people that deal with traumatic situations. Yeah, you have to uh often yeah. Um yeah, and it's a healthy coping skill, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 57:42

You know what is funny though, speak this is funny as a result of my MS is when Joey went to his first duty station, which is Fort Campbell 101st, they don't want the young guys because they're the first to deploy to have cards. And he played the my mom's a cripple card, so he got to have one card.

SPEAKER_01 57:58

That hey, you use I was just telling Mallory today. I was like, I don't these are the cards you were given. You play what you have. Yeah, exactly. This is your hand. When you need that card, you absolutely use it. Exactly. Yeah, for sure. Then I'm like, Go Joe, might as well use it for something. Okay, what um what do you not waste time doing?

SPEAKER_03 58:21

I don't I try not to waste time being angry at other people because that's them, and and just kind of not stay I try not to be angry at other people and it I try not to preach and I try to lead by example.

SPEAKER_00 58:38

So you model the behavior.

SPEAKER_03 58:42

Yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah, that's I I want to be the person that I needed that wasn't there.

unknown 58:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:49

My entire life, all the way up till now. I don't know of anybody that has been through this shit except for y'all.

SPEAKER_02 58:55

Right.

SPEAKER_03 58:55

Like every freaking time. Yeah, every time I get rolling, there's a rod like now I could be really angry about that.

SPEAKER_00 59:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know.

SPEAKER_03 59:04

But it has just made me reach more people and say, you know what, it ain't over till you say it's over. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 59:09

Absolutely. What do you wish that people knew about you, about your experience, or anything that we talked about today?

SPEAKER_03 59:16

Or did I'm just a girl. That that I'm just a girl. People who you think are going to change the world are not who you think they are. You know, don't put people in a box, don't question everything. Yes, question everything, you know, and you know, be a successful rebel. Does it lead to resilience? Yes, but no, it's up to you.

SPEAKER_01 59:38

That successful rebel, I think, is the for a coined phrase for you. I think so. I've heard you say that and use that several times, and it's just such a great explanation of where you're coming from.

unknown 59:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:52

Well, well, you know, and all the things I've gone through, I think it has made me a really good advocate and a leader because I've got nothing to lose. That's the funny part. Yeah, my entire life, I've got nothing to lose. Because when I get into those spots, there's nothing else at that time that can go wrong. Because it just did.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:08

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:09

So what are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:10

You know? Absolutely, yeah.

unknown 1:00:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:13

Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:14

Thank you so much, Leah. Oh my god, this is I know we're coming right on time because I know you have a a a social engagement. Yeah, we'll call it. It's okay, don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:24

No, this was so amazing. Like, is there I just am so I'm so blown blown away by your strength and your courage. I mean, being a kindergartner and being able to say, like, no, I'm not left over. Like, you get fucking ready for me, bitches.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:38

Absolutely. That's that's what I was going to tell you. So I have two bachelor's degrees, two master's degrees, and I'm halfway through my PhD because I have a a degree in research and library science. You know why? Because I said I'm gonna grow up and know everything.

unknown 1:00:54

Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:55

So now I have a degree in it. So tell me, ask me a question. What painting is hanging in the Japanese embassy in Iran? I can look it up and tell you.

unknown 1:01:04

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:05

That's awesome. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:06

Does it mean anything? No, but it's a fulfillment to that little girl that I want to know everything. That's beautiful. You know, people are so afraid of this chat bot thing. Yeah, it's just another tool. Yeah, you know, I'm I'm in the era where in sixth grade we had calculators, and oh my god, my entire era of went of people weren't gonna be able to add and subtract because there was a calculator. It's the same thing. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:33

When your teachers use and tell you, what are you gonna have? You're gonna have a calculator in your pocket, you know, when you grow up. It's on my phone.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:41

Exactly. Yes, we do, bitch.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:43

And so is so is the encyclopedia, and so is you know, the dictionary. That just lets us use our power, our brain power for better things. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:54

Knowledge is power for sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:56

Knowledge is power, absolutely. Educate yourselves. That's why you told me. You know, in a year I might not even remember what I said, but it doesn't matter, it's already up there. That's right, and it's positive.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:06

Exactly. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:07

You can remind it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:08

Like, who are you? What are you doing here? That's right. We'll show you a video and we'll play the podcast and you can listen.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:14

I'm so grateful for you to take the time out to share your story with us. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:20

Thank you for having me. And Brian, I will remember that. I'm not kidding. I know.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:25

Yeah. Just go up there and say, Brian Smith, Brian Smith.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:29

Bye. We got work.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:32

Boy, come here.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:33

Yeah, we're gonna talk. We're gonna light it up.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:35

He's the best. You'll love him. You'll love him. He will give you the biggest hug. He's a great hugger.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:42

Sounds good. And you know what? I won't be in my chair, so I can actually stand up to my little five foot. I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:48

Yeah, he's 6'3, so he's a big boy.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:52

I'm tired of being this tall. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:57

There are all kinds of jokes that go along with that, but we'll have to end for the next time. Yes. Okay. What a trick. Thank you so much, Leah. I love you.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:06

Yes, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:07

Love you so much. Happy Sunday. Thank you too. Happy Sunday.