BIG SIS ENERGY
Big Sis Energy is a safe place for the girls! Each episode has ultimate slumber party vibes with real advice from your fav TikTok Big sisters, Makenzie and Malia. On Big Sis Energy the girls will talk about everything from relationship advice to toxic friendships, mental health, and how to be the best version of yourself.
If you are craving some sister tea time, tune in and chit-chat with Makenzie and Malia.
So sit back. Relax. Grab some popcorn and let's get this slumber party started!
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BIG SIS ENERGY
Taken out of high school at 14 and 15 years old (Story Time)
Y’all thought you knew what grounding was until you listen to this story! Our punishment of being taken out of public school and put into online school was a tough decision our parents made. What we didn’t realize was how this story would start our careers in social media. We discuss the harsh, yet enlightening lessons we learned from our high school experiences and how they've shaped our relationships, particularly with our parents. Join us as we look back, and laugh at our rebellious teenage years, and share how these experiences transformed us into the people we are today.
We ended up staying out to like five in the morning. But I remember we were walking back home, kenzie and I were like goofing off talking about the night, and then I was laughing and I was like, oh, wouldn't it be funny if you know dad was sitting right there. And then we walked closer that's hilarious, but not actually. And then, and then we got a little closer and I tapped Kenzie on the shoulder. I was like wait, I see a little shadow of my dad on the front porch. And I was like there's no way. So we walk up there and he's like good morning, like this is where we done goofed. We were so scared, I was so terrified, like in that, because we were a little little drunk at that point too. You're listening to Big Sis Energy. Woo, welcome back to Big Sis Energy. I'm your host, mackenzie, and I'm your other host, malia.
Speaker 1:Today is a very juicy episode, to say the least. I'm nervous, me too. I'm like, oh my gosh, where do we start? Okay, so we, today we're talking about how we got taken out of high school. We've mentioned this a few times on our TikTok, but we never really told y'all the T. Yeah, and I know we've like we keep mentioning it and I know you guys are curious. So this episode, we booked two hours for this because we knew we knew it was gonna be a long one, but yeah, we're, we're, we're gonna be going into detail on. Well, there's a lot of different stories that led up to us getting taken out of high school. Yes, so we're gonna go into that today. Ooh, okay. So I mean, I think where do we even begin?
Speaker 1:So, basically, we were homeschooled growing up, ever since kindergarten to sixth grade. We were homeschooled by our wonderful mother and we were actually homeschooled together. So we were in the same grade. Yeah, for a lot of you guys that are wondering like, how are you guys not twins but in the same grade? That's how that always confused people, because when you're actually in the same grade, it's like, okay, you guys are twins. We're like, no, we're not, we're actually, you're in a day apart, but our mom just combined us.
Speaker 1:So after sixth grade, we went to a charter school, very small charter school, I think. It was like 200 kids from K through eight. Yeah, like very small, small school, yeah. And then so we went to a different charter school in eighth grade, but still sixth through eighth grade, all very small charter schools. Right During eighth grade too, we were very innocent, like very sheltered Growing up too.
Speaker 1:We weren't allowed to do a lot of things, just because our parents were very strict and also we were the first. I mean, I'm technically the first born, but since Kenzie and I were so close in age, it's like we were treated as both the first born. Yeah, so obviously they have never parented kids before and we, you know, we're never teenagers before. Yeah, so we were all. It was all a new experience for everyone and I feel like, especially I'm sure a lot of you older siblings can relate, but your parents were probably stricter on you as the older sibling versus, like, your younger siblings.
Speaker 1:Max and Makayla are younger siblings. Makayla is almost 16 and Max is 17. They have two completely different parents than Molly and I do. Yeah, like the Molly and I did. It's cool to see, because obviously I mean, I don't know, but seeing them as parents like evolve and change how they parent and like, oh, you know, this didn't work, let's change this and do this better, you know, but it's crazy and I'm like you guys are so lucky you didn't get the super strict parents because yes, because I was crapping them for that Cause.
Speaker 1:I'm like, oh my gosh, like Kenzie and I had it. I mean we didn't have it rough, but we they were pretty strict. They were pretty strict. We weren't allowed to wear shorts that were shorter than our Finger tips, like our shorts had to go all the way down to our fingertips and Kenzie and our tall girls so like our fingertips basically were to our knees Knees, so Bermuda shorts, kenzie and I yeah, there was that. And then we were not allowed to really have sleepovers at other people's houses, which now, looking back on, is cool because there's a lot of weird people out there and especially if your parents don't know them, it's like it can be kind of weird.
Speaker 1:It's funny because I think back in when I was a kid, I thought mom and dad just hated us and they were like, oh my gosh, I want you to suffer, when in reality, your parents just want the best for you, at least in our case, like our parents really truly did want the best for us and they wanted to protect us, because there are crazy people out there and like you don't know. I mean, imagine, I think about this now, like when I'm a parent in 15, 10 years I'm gonna be like oh wait, do I want my kid going over to a stranger's house? Like this is my little baby, my pride and joy. Like now it's so different looking back. But in that moment you think your parents are just like I want you to have no fun at all. There was never any reasoning behind it either. It was like only because this was like what they'd say. They'd be like, oh, it's just because we love you guys and like we wanna protect you guys. I'm like okay, well, I wanna have fun, because obviously too, I remember that was like how I was thinking as a kid and you don't really think of their perspective.
Speaker 1:Obviously because you're young and immature, but going to school, seeing everyone else was allowed to, you know, have their friends. Like have phones. I think I got my first phone. I had to save up for myself, but I did have one for freshman year, but then I got it taken away. So we'll get into that. So let's go to eighth grade year. That's when I feel like we started being a little bit more rebellious, just slightly. Not anything crazy.
Speaker 1:We were allowed to have Snapchat, but we weren't allowed to have everybody on there, and keep in mind that took so much convincing, like I don't know if you guys can relate to this, but we would have to make PowerPoint presentations for our parents to let us do like certain things, like to have an app, instagram, even a phone. I was like these are the reasons why I need a phone, all of the pros and cons, and we had to do that for a lot of things that we wanted to have as kids, which was super funny. Thinking about it, that actually is hilarious. Oh, my gosh, I'm gonna make my kids do that. I need a PowerPoint present date, yeah, but yeah, pictures and everything.
Speaker 1:So I think it was we wanted to get Snapchat because all of our friends were on Snapchat and they're like, okay, well, after many talks, it was always like we would go into their room for like an hour and it would just be the four of us Me, malia, my mom and my dad and we're like can we have Snapchat? And they're like, no, you can't. But they finally gave it and they said that we could have Snapchat, but we could have four girlfriends that they chose and allowed and most of them are from church. So like people that they know, people that they're, that they knew that their parents were good people and stuff like that. So we were allowed to have four girlfriends on Snapchat and then I remember in eighth grade, we were like dang, like I wanna have all my friends on Snapchat. So we ended up having two accounts on Snapchat and we would just log in and out of them. So, like, one account would be with like for all of our friends and the other one would be just for, like, the four girls who were allowed, the four girls that we were allowed to have. Well, yeah, they never really found out about any of that until a little bit later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but they would constantly, every week, they would take our phones randomly. They'd be like, let me see your phone, and then they'd go through, like, all of our apps, all of our messages, and I remember it would be like a funny video our friend would send us and they're like this is highly inappropriate. I mean it wasn't appropriate, but I remember, like, hearing them in their room laughing about it. I'm like, see, so it is funny. Like it's funny. Yeah, I'm like, but it's probably something that, like you know, young girls shouldn't be like. I don't know, it was like. It was kind of like harmless though, in a way, because, like, they would just be like funny memes that our friends would send us and obviously like, are we really in the wrong for receiving funny memes? Like it was a meme, bro, like or like a vine. You know what I mean? Yeah, so it was just like little stuff like that. But then eighth grade ended, nothing. I mean, it was really just little stuff like that.
Speaker 1:And then we started to actually sneak out of our house eighth grade, summer, and nothing crazy either. Like we would literally go to Walmart with our friends and get snacks, but it was in the middle of the night. It was, yeah, so there was no reason to do that. But we were just like, let's sneak out and Go get chips from Walmart. Like, okay, for one, that is dangerous. Like you can't just walk around in the middle of nowhere, especially when we lived, because the street that you had to take to get to Walmart there was no street lights, so it was like super dark and I don't know. But we, I guess we wanted to go get chips in the middle of the night. Thanks for Walmart for having that 24 hours. I know, for some Walmart's don't do that, like the one by our house. Now I'm like, oh, you guys could have been at 24 hours, but you're not. But, yeah, so that was our parents. They never really found out about that and that was eighth grade summer and then going into our freshman year of high school.
Speaker 1:So it took a lot of asking and convincing for Boi and I to actually be able to go to public school, because in eighth grade summer our parents are like I don't know if you guys should go to public school. I feel like there's a lot of you know. I feel like it's more exposed, like obviously we were used to a charter school and being homeschooled our whole life, so we were very sheltered in that sense, like we didn't really know what the real world was like, Looked like, and I feel like going to public school for us was a culture shock because we weren't used to like so many different types of people, so many different things surrounded by you know everything. So that's a lot, especially when you aren't used to that Cause I think most charter schools are people with strict parents and then also kids who actually, like got taken out of public school. So I remember a lot of kids that were in our school either. Yeah, like you were saying, they were homeschooled and kind of sheltered like us, or they got kicked out of public school. They were that bad to where they only the charter schools would accept them. So there was no in between extremes and we were the ones that were very sheltered, very innocent, like we were very good kids, like we were always really good kids. And I think that our parents homeschooling us, they really built up our character Like we really respected authority, like we were very, I feel, like respectful kids, and that's something that I want to like instill in my kids too. Right, me too.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so going into ninth grade took a lot of convincing and our parents are like, okay, well, we need to pray about it. And they prayed for months, like, should we like let our kids go to public school? Yeah, and of course, like it doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but to us it really was and of course the result was not the best. I was going to public school. I mean, what they feared happened literally did happen. Yeah Well, I remember like having a conversation with mom years after high school. Like we left public school. Mom was like I just I never really thought you guys were that would do something that bad. Like she was like I didn't expect for you guys to do what you did. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:It's funny because I feel like you can't put anything past a kid. You know, because you get around your friends, you hang around people that you shouldn't be hanging around and then all of a sudden you're doing something that you shouldn't be doing and you're making bad decisions and I mean that's what we found ourselves doing. It was like I never thought that I would do. You know certain things and then all of a sudden I would hang around certain people and then you kind of feel like, oh, like you know, it's okay, like I can do it too. You start kind of bending your morals and then you're like, oh well, if they did it, it's cool if I do it too. And all of a sudden you're a completely different person and you don't see yourself the same. Yeah, you know, like it's. It's crazy how fast that that can happen. So that's why it's so important to surround yourself with good people. You know, oh for sure.
Speaker 1:And I think too, like a little disclaimer, like we are I don't want to say unnecessarily, I don't know I think for Malia and I, this was a very big learning curve in our life and maybe one of the biggest decisions, like our parents taking us out of school was probably the biggest, but also, like, the best decision, although it did suck for a little bit, like Malia and I were completely isolated and we'll get into that part, but we really had a change of heart and I think we A change of heart and it like, and it did change our life, like this is the beginning of how we got into social media, you know, and it completely started a different career path for us. And I think too, like, looking back, of course I'm a little hard on myself, like why did I do such stupid things? Right, but I was a young girl and a teenager and I didn't know, although I did think I was grown at the time. Of course I'm like 13, 14 year old Kenzie's like, oh, I know everything, but I, of course I didn't, and it bit me in the butt at the end, but, yeah, so I think that that's just like a little disclaimer that you know, obviously we don't condone any of the actions that we did at the time and I think we definitely like regret most of the things that we did. Yes, you know what's funny? I regret certain things that I did, but also I feel like that was kind of a cannon event for us, like that had to happen for us to really grow up and realize why it was wrong what we did. And like we really grew from that. Like getting taken out of school and looking back and be like, oh wow, like you can really just kind of like look back on yourself and be like dang, like we really did those things and like why did we do those things? And it was honestly a big realization, especially after I think it was sophomore or junior year. I remember sitting there and being like I'm a completely different person than I was a year ago and that change happened fast because we had to grow up a little bit quickly. You know being in online school and working a lot. You know we worked at a daycare and all these other things. So that's just a little disclaimer, but let's get into like what we actually done did.
Speaker 1:So freshman year Kenzie, malia we're going off. First day it was actually Young Kenzie, young Malia. Yeah, I remember the first day I wore an outfit, but I put another one over top of my actual outfit that I was wearing, because everything like that we wanted to wear wasn't like appropriate to our parents. So I would always have to like sneak wearing clothes. So I would wear like a big t-shirt over it and then, once I got to school, I'd take it off and put it in my backpack. Yeah, I did the same. That was like the first thing that I Literally first day of school, malia and I were walking into the bathroom to change our outfits. Like that's just not a good start. Yeah, not a good start. But I remember, okay, before the first day of school, we went to the freshman orientation. That's where it all began. So we went to freshman orientation.
Speaker 1:We did not know a single soul at this school Besides For our best friend, our childhood best friend, kind of like the three of us navigated it together. She was homeschooled, so we were all kind of like in a little sheltered bubble, yeah, and we're like, okay, we're gonna take this on together. It was nice to have each other, though, cause I feel like if it was just me, I would have been so scared Like, especially a big school. I feel like I probably would have stayed like in the small school where I do everybody. Yeah, cause I mean, there was what? 2,000 kids. It was a big jump from like a couple hundred kids to 2,000 kids Exactly. That was insane to me. It was very different.
Speaker 1:So this we're going into freshman orientation and somehow our people people knew, knew who we were Like we went to school, people were like oh my gosh, you guys are the light skin sisters or the light skin twins. We're like, okay, how, what kind of like name is that I know? Like, just off the bat, y'all are like Well, it was crazy too, because we were like probably I think there's maybe 20 kids that were not white, not white, yeah, so it was. There was really no ethnicity at the school, and so I think that that's how people were like oh, there's two girls that are not white. Then you know, like there's two mixed girls that are coming to school, and it was just very different, because the part of town that we were in was very like more country and just very, not diverse. So that was kind of like where we grew up in or not grew up in. We moved around a lot, but that's where we went to high school at. So, oh, yeah. So that's like probably gonna be a whole another episode about I know a lot of kids there were kind of racist too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, growing up around or being in high school around, that was tough, just kind of like navigating all of that, but yeah, but after freshman orientation, malia and I we went back home and then we went to school. This was probably a week before school started. So we're going into the school year, we're ready, we're excited, but I think we're also a little bit nervous because obviously we didn't have really any friends coming from like small charter schools. It was just Malia and I and our childhood best friends. So we're like okay, like I want to fit in and I want to be liked by people, right, and I think that that's such like a subconscious feeling that a lot of us have, and especially as a young teenage girl, that feeling of like, oh, I hope people like me, like I hope you know people don't think I'm weird or people don't think this about me. Well, you want to be accepted, like everywhere you go.
Speaker 1:And I feel like, especially going into high school, that's what I was feeling. I was just like dang, like what if no one likes me? Like yeah, and I know we had each other, but it was still like, oh, it would be nice to have friends and, like you know, obviously we're going to a new school, so it's like we don't know anybody and I'm like I want to be social, I want to have friends and I want to be liked by everyone. You know, yeah, and of course I feel like it's so funny because growing up that starts to kind of. I feel like once I got, once I became more secure in myself and more confident, that feeling of wanting everyone to like me kind of started to die down and I feel like that's a hard place to be in. But I feel like that's also like a transition into becoming like a grown up and a woman too is like stop starting to come into your confidence and not caring about what everyone thinks about you and being secure in yourself Like that's really what it comes down to.
Speaker 1:It's like, obviously, when you're a young teenage girl, I wasn't secure in myself and I wanted others to like me, and sometimes that would be me kind of not switching up but doing something that maybe I normally wouldn't do Right, and optimizing my morals Exactly, and I think that that was a big switch up for us. So once we were around all these people who were doing bad things. We're like, oh well, everyone else does it, so it's okay, yeah, and it's not, yeah. You know, looking back, obviously it's like, okay, well, we didn't have to go crazy, but okay, so getting into it, we were basically we were very innocent and I think it was.
Speaker 1:School started in August and for the first few months we started making friends, and obviously you don't really know people right off the bat, yeah, and we were like, oh my gosh, this is gonna be our bestie for life. But in reality we weren't even friends with them after you know, a couple months A couple months Not even the second semester Semester we had like a completely different friend group other than, like our childhood best friend, and that's something I told Mikaela too. Like, going into high school, I was like you are not gonna be friends with the people you were, or you're not gonna be friends with the girls and guys that you met the first semester of high school, Like even freshmen. You're like I think people have their little friends and then they end up kind of figuring out who they actually wanna hang out with, who they actually like, and you know, but that's so true too, like you do realize how people are, cause some people can be fake to you and, you know, wanna be friends with you for certain reasons, and then you kind of figure them out. You're like, okay, this person's not that good, like, let me just, you know, distance myself, exactly. But I think that that's hard as a kid, you don't really know, you wanna think the best of everybody, right? I feel like I was very naive in that way of like, oh my gosh, everyone is so nice and everyone wants the best for me and I want the best for everyone else, and that's like a very, I feel like, naive way to think about. And once you kind of start, you know, taking on life a little bit more, you start to realize that that might not be everyone's intentions and not everyone's like that Exactly.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so we had like a little group of friends, and I think it was. It was September, yeah, it was going into our birthdays. Our parents threw us a little party and they were super sweet and we kind of took advantage of that. But anyways, we went to the mall with our friends. They bought us cheesecake, we did all these fun things. We had a little sleepover party. Yeah, we had a little sleepover with all of our girlfriends and it was super fun. And then, us being us, we were like, oh you know, apparently that wasn't enough for us. So we were just like, let's, let's disrespect them no, I'm just kidding, no. But we were like, oh you know, let's go sneak out and like have more fun. When we could have just ended the night there. And it would have been amazing, it would have been great because it was already fun. And yeah, it's funny, because I was like, oh, my gosh, like our parents did so much. They literally like they bought us a cheesecake, like they drove all of our friends because none of us could drive either. So we all drove to the mall and all of that.
Speaker 1:But yeah, that night we decided to sneak out to one of our friends' house and went over to her house and there was I think there was guys there we were all just kind of like it was just kind of like a little like kickback. We were all hanging out, yeah. But I think we ended up like drinking, and that was our first time ever like actually drinking, like trying alcohol. I remember I didn't even like it. I was just like what the heck is this? And that's kind of like where we all where we started like trying different things. That was like the first instance of us like because we were again very sheltered and we had never really had an opportunity to try anything like that before. So we went over to our friend's house and we ended up like drinking and hanging out with like this little group of friends there was probably like six or seven of us Typical like sneaking out stuff, like we were doing ding dong ditching and all of that. But we ended up staying out to like five in the morning. But I remember we were walking back home and it was weird this like huge owl like swooped over our heads. I remember that it was so weird.
Speaker 1:And then I was like Kenzie and I were like goofing off, talking about the night. And then I was laughing and I was like, oh, wouldn't it be funny. If you know, dad was sitting right there. And then we were like closer yeah, that's hilarious, but not actually. And then it wasn't funny. And then we got a little closer and I tapped Kenzie on the shoulder. I was like wait, I see a little shadow of my dad on the front porch and I was like there's no way. So we walk up there. And he's like good morning. And we were like, oh, like, this is where we done goofed. We were so scared. I was so like terrified, like, because we were a little little little drunk at that point too, and also just scared because our dad is sitting there at five in the morning. Guys, our dog snitched on us. He barked at 11 o'clock when we went out that night and our parents heard it and they were waiting from 11 o'clock at night to five in the morning for us to come back home. That's insane.
Speaker 1:The crazy part is too is we got away with sneaking out like a few times before that. Yeah, so we thought we were fine and we would normally leave a little bit later than 11. But that night we were like, oh, let's just leave at 11. It's fine, of course. Of course we got that, but that bit is in the butt. I remember walking and seeing our dad. He goes good morning, write down the password to your phone, go to bed. We have church in the morning. That's all he said. Yeah, so we wrote down our passwords to our phone, gave them our phones and then we went to bed and I knew I was like there is some stuff on this phone that could get us in trouble, because we had recorded probably us drinking or whatever that night, and that's something that we always did too. We'd always have evidence of what we were doing. So if we got caught it was already filmed or something. So we were stupid in that way because we were just like, oh, it's fine, they won't see it Exactly, but remember how we said we weren't allowed to have Snapchat.
Speaker 1:We had that second account but I logged out of it. I'm like, ok, we'll be fine, we both did, we'll be fine. They are not going to actually see anything we recorded on that Snapchat account because we didn't have it. But also we ran, grabbed our home phone, called our best friend and was like, hey, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the night, because she wasn't even there, we were like, hey, we need your help. So she was a G and she literally logged into both of our Snapchat, deleted anything that any kind of evidence that could have been that they could have seen. And yeah, I can't believe she did that, but that was a reoccurring thing. We'd always call her up and be like, hey, you need to delete everything right now. Or we would just tell her like could you change our password? Because if she changed our password it would log us out of our account. So we got pretty good at being sneaky. We just got gradually better at it.
Speaker 1:The crazy thing is too I feel like that's one thing when your parents are super strict, it raises super sneaky kids. Kids, yeah, if they're wanting to rebel, you know Right. If they're just like because I think our siblings now they know not to act up because of what we went through. Well, they saw what would happen if they did. If they did. Guys, the funny thing is our parents told us if public school is not good for you guys and you guys start acting a fool, we're going to take you out of school. They told us before we went to school. We already knew the consequences. So that made me more sneaky and kind of more aware of what we were doing.
Speaker 1:So I'm like I remember telling Kenzie this, but at any time, like we wanted to do something. Kenzie was like, oh, let's just do it. And I'm like no, we can do it, but we need a plan. Like, if this goes wrong, we can do this. And if they find this like we have to do this, and Kenzie's like no, I don't care. Yeah, malia had like a methodical plan throughout everything that we ever wanted to do. That was bad, because I knew if one little slip up we were done, we were going to be taken out of school and for some reason I did not care. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I think there was a little part of me that was like a little bit mad at mom and dad, and I think it was almost subconscious of like how strict they were. Because when all of your friends are allowed to do whatever they want and then you're the only one that can't go over to the sleepover, you can't go over to your friend's house, you can't have a phone, you can't have social media, like it was all these things, and I was like, oh well, we can't do anything and we can't go anywhere. We can go to the mall with our friends. As a kid too, you feel left out, like you do. All your friends are allowed to do all these things and they're all hanging out together and then you're the odd one out. That's like, oh, I can't go, you can't go, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think that there was a little part of me that was like mad at mom and dad and I was like I don't care what the consequences are, I'm going to do whatever I want, because I've never done what I have wanted to do before. And that is terrible. Yeah, like that is such a. It's so funny because I'm so different now, like I'm very, I feel like, thoughtful about how my actions affect others. But being so selfish to the point where you don't care how your actions affect other people is terrible. Yeah, that's a terrible place to be at Because, for one, you're going to get yourself in trouble and you hurt the people that you genuinely care about in love. Like that that's awful, well, and Something that we didn't realize and we started to realize after the year was over. But your actions really do affect other people, whether it's your parents, your friends, yourself, and it can get you into trouble, it can get you into danger. Yeah, so that's something that we kind of found out, learn, but after.
Speaker 1:So, after we, our parents, got our phones, we were grounded from. Do you remember that morning? Oh, yeah, we get ready for church, or I get ready for church. Emily is like my stomach hurts, I don't want to go to church. My dad's like why does your stomach hurt? And I was like I don't know, I ate a lot of food. Last night You're like I had a lot of snacks and my dad goes mm-hmm, we're going to church, get ready. So obviously we go to church and we get ready, but that night when we come home they're like Malia and Mackenzie, you are grounded for the rest of the year. So we were grounded for the rest of the year. So we were grounded all the way up until January.
Speaker 1:I remember there was homecoming shortly after our birthdays and we couldn't even go. Yeah, our birthdays had just passed. Yeah, so it was like homecoming football games. We couldn't really go to anything because we done goofed. Yeah, I remember I think we maybe went to two football games and then we got grounded.
Speaker 1:So I think, malia, they took your phone, so we both didn't have phones anymore. Did I ever have a phone? I don't think I had a phone. I don't think you did, because I remember I saved up for a phone for a freshman year and then they paid for my service. That was the only time they actually paid for my service and then after that I had to pay for it, because I think they did think if you're going to a big school, it is a smart idea to have a way to contact us, which I think is true. Yeah, to be able to communicate with them. Yeah, so obviously we both didn't need phones, but Malia got one, yeah.
Speaker 1:So then us little grounded. So when we were grounded, that means no phones, no social media, no, nothing. And our parents were already strict, as is, with social media. So I thought, and we weren't allowed to hang out with friends at all, so like we weren't allowed to do anything but school and basketball. So we were playing basketball, yeah, and that was the first time that we were allowed to do basketball too, me too. But that was already a commitment that we had. So our parents were like, obviously you're going to do that, and then school, and then we come back home, that's it. We weren't allowed to do anything else. No social media.
Speaker 1:But since we couldn't do social media, I was like, oh, you know, let me get my little sister's Kindle. And I thought this was a great idea, because no one had used the Kindle, like it was literally like one of those tablets where no one used it, and McKayla didn't use it either. So I was like it was a Kindle for reading and like no one ever read on it. So it was literally like in the bottom of a drawer and I found it and I was like, oh, this will be great. So this will be great. Yeah, so I get on the Kindle and I downloaded Instagram. I didn't even know you could download Instagram on a Kindle. It was like a Kindle fire, like little tablet ones. But I downloaded Instagram, logged into my account and I just used it so I could like go on there and, just you know, have some kind of social media, because I was a fiend for it. You were addicted at that point. Yeah, I was addicted I still am, but yeah, so I used the tablet and I would just like hide it in my closet. And so one day I went to school. This is so funny. So one day I go to school and my dad went into our room and found the Kindle and he went onto it and saw that I had Instagram and I had Instagram on there too. Yeah, so he hacked our Instagram While we were in school, posted a selfie like this, with little like peace signs, with a duck face saying hashtag daddy's girl, I love my dad.
Speaker 1:Then he posted a second. The second picture was Kenzie and I at eighth grade graduation, looking treacherous, like we looked terrible, smiling with our dad, and the caption was also hashtag daddy's girl, I love my dad. So I didn't see this because I didn't have a phone, but I remember I was leaving my fourth period, going to lunch, and some random guy like in the distance I remember in the hallway it was like in junior year or something like we had no idea who he was. I remember this. But so I was coming out of my fourth period class and some random guy yells out hashtag daddy's girl and I was like what the heck is going on, what does that mean? And like a few people were looking at me weird and I was like what the heck? Like I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1:So I remember going to the lunch table and I was talking to my friend. I was like what's going on? Like everything's weird, and she was like did you not see your Instagram? I'm like what do you mean? Like I don't have my phone, so like how could I have seen my Instagram? So she pulls up her Instagram account and shows me my account and I see both the pictures of my dad and the hashtag daddy's girl, I love my dad and I was like he did what and that and right then and there I knew he hacked my account, obviously, and I was like, oh, we're screwed, yeah, cause when we get home, like what the heck is going to happen. We were done.
Speaker 1:Well, I thought it was like a little funny, like I thought it was just for a second, and then I was like, oh no, we're screwed. Yeah, no, this is not actually funny. But everyone else thought it was hilarious and I remember like all the comments were like hashtag. Daddy's girl, like everyone from school, was like getting their comments. I started commenting on it. I'm like, so this is funny for y'all. This is entertaining, yeah, but Dude, I just I'm looking back at it now. I'm like my dad's iconic for that. Like, if my kids ever did that, I'm like I'm so doing that. It's so funny.
Speaker 1:But so he changed the password. To this day we can't take down the account, yeah, cause. I remember as soon as he did that, I was like, oh, I asked for my friend's phone to try to like log in and try to like delete all the pictures, but he logged me out and changed the email so I couldn't even log into my own account and I tried so many times and I literally got both of us blocked out to where we couldn't go back in and like, take anything down. So that account's still there. It's a private account so y'all will never find it. Like good luck if you do, but you'll never find it. But, like our friends can still see the comments and still go through that account. Like that's crazy, that's actually wild. And he deleted all of our pictures. Do you remember that? Yeah, he deleted all of our like previous Instagram pictures and then cleared our feed and then our. The only thing on our Instagram accounts were two pictures the one of the three of us together and one of him with duck lips. So that was like it. That was the only thing on that account. Oh my gosh. But basically when we got home, when we got home, everything went down him.
Speaker 1:I remember my dad was so pissed Like I actually haven't seen him that mad ever, cause I'm usually more scared of mom Mm-hmm, no, no, no cause. When our mom's scared, it's like she has a valid reason. Well, I feel like when both of her parents were were scary, they did have a valid reason to be angry. Yeah, but mom was just like she fears, like you just felt like, even if you didn't know what was happening, like the whole house felt it. Yeah, but I remember my dad. I've never seen him that angry before in my life and he was so pissed at us. He was like, why do you need to go on the Kindle and download Instagram when you were grounded, like you guys are almost ungrounded, and now you just screwed it up for yourself and we were grounded for even longer. We extended our grounding, yeah, so I think that was in like November, because we were supposed to get ungrounded January 1st, so we had a month left. But no, no, we screwed it up again. We screwed it up again, so, yeah. So then we were grounded, I think for the rest of the school year, pretty much, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I remember our dad actually threatened us, like threatened to kick us out of the house. Oh, yeah, because we came home and he was like, since you guys want to act like adults, you guys can go Our adults, you guys are adults and you can go out and do whatever you want, but you're not going to be here. So he basically threatened to kick us out and we were like, oh, we'll just stay with one of our friends. No, so this is literally what happened. I remember word for word. He's like since y'all think you're adults, now go ahead and act like adults. And we took that pretty seriously. Yeah, we did. We're like OK, so he's like. He basically said he was like OK, what was it like? Not this isn't your home, but like well, yeah, he said if we wanted to be adults, then we had to leave. And so we were like OK, that's fine with us, we'll be adults and do whatever we want. That's what we thought.
Speaker 1:Emily and I were like let's get a game plan together. So we started scheming. We had one of our friends and he said we could stay at his house. And his mom said we could stay in his house and they were cool with it. So we're like, oh. So I told my dad I was like OK, well, we found a place to stay and then let's start packing up our things. And then, kenzie, I were like oh, there was actually. Was it homecoming or was it a football game? Yeah, it was a homecoming football game. And we're like oh, we can go to that, since we're ungrounded and we're adults and we can do what we want. Quote, unquote.
Speaker 1:So I remember McKenzie called our friend's mom and made sure that she could pick us up and everything. And then she said that she was like, oh, aren't you guys grounded? Yeah, ok. So basically what I did, I called my friend and I'm like, hey, we're ungrounded. Because she knew we were. Everyone knew we were grounded, we weren't allowed to do anything. Everyone knew we were grounded.
Speaker 1:So I'm like, hey, you want to go to the football game tonight? She's like, wait, you can go. And I'm like, yeah, we can go, we're ungrounded, our dad's actually kicking us out of the house, but anyways. So I'm like, yeah, is there any way? Like your mom could come pick us up? And she's like, oh, yeah, let me ask her really quick.
Speaker 1:Meanwhile we lived so close to the school we could have walked, like we could have walked to the football game. Anyways, that's beside the point, ok. So she's like, yeah, let me ask my mom, I'll call you back. She doesn't end up calling us back. Her mom calls our mom and then our mom's like why the heck do you guys think you're ungrounded, you're not going to the football game? And I'm like, well, dad said we're adults and that we can't live with you guys anymore, and so we're going to do what we want now, because we're adults and we found a place to stay and they're like, yeah, that's not actually happening. You're so maybe here I don't know what your father said, but you're still grounded You're still grounded.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, we were humbled. We were humbled a lot. I was very sad. I was like dang, we really thought we were going to go see a football game for real. So, yeah, we were grounded for pretty much the rest of the school year, and that was in November. So we were like that was so early on, like that was so unnecessary, yeah, so Like everything, oh my gosh, that's terrible. It's crazy too, because I'm surprised, we got away with a lot of things at school too, yeah, that our parents never really knew about, not until later. But our parents always found out the stuff that we did, but never the school. So we never got in trouble with the school, because I know a lot of our friends did Like they would get suspended for vaping in the bathrooms or having some type of substance that they shouldn't have had on them, and I remember like, ok, here's the thing, freaking vaping is an epidemic.
Speaker 1:I know that people talk about this for real, but like it is highly addictive, yeah, and I think one thing I'm very grateful for is like if we never got taken out of school, I don't think I ever would have quit. Yeah, like, honestly, it's hard. I remember during school that's kind of like when we started trying things and I couldn't stop on my own, like it wasn't even like that far into vaping, and I remember it was really hard to stop, yeah, and that stuff is really addicting, like more than anything else. I felt like, yeah, I was like I mean more than anything else. We didn't really do any other things other than like drinking, but like, yeah, yeah, or like smoking, yeah, that was it. But I mean I remember trying to quit by myself throughout the year.
Speaker 1:I was like this is not a good habit to be in and I kind of like realized that by myself that I was addicted to this thing, and I'm like, ok, well, I need to stop and I literally couldn't, because everyone around you, everyone has a vape. They're like, hey, you want to hit this in the bathroom? Hey, yeah. And Kent and I were fiends too. I feel like we were like 0 to 100.
Speaker 1:On everything, and we would always we'd be doing it all day, like we'd go to a room, close door, and just hit our vape, yeah, for the rest of the night, yeah, and I'm like that is terrible. So I'm glad that once we did get taken out of school, I just went cold turkey, yeah, and that's kind of hard to do, especially if you've been doing it. I mean, I think we were only doing it for like six months at that point. But imagine if you were like three years in or something vaping, and then you try to quit, like there are withdrawals. It's hard, yeah, so that's a terrible habit to be in.
Speaker 1:But yeah, like we never, like the school never really caught us doing anything like that, which I was surprised. I was like dang, like how do we not get suspended or anything like that, although we did have Saturday school for switching classes. Oh, that's a different story. I know some of you guys maybe know that story. But yeah, that was funny. Yeah, that was a funny little story. So then, basically, I mean the next, there were a few things that happened, but nothing that we really got in trouble for, right? I think the next thing that we got in trouble for was yeah, so this story, this is a tough one, not very proud of at all, but this was actually, I feel like I must have been ungrouted like recently, because we were allowed to hang out with friends, so we must have been ungrounded in April, so like we were probably ungrouted for a few months and then we had to go in and screw it up again.
Speaker 1:Of course, this was just kind of, you know, a constant theme in this story, but anyways, I remember a lot of my friends and people that I surround myself with would like constantly steal things, and I don't know why, because I remember we grew up in a very like People had money, people had money. It was a wealthier area, so a lot of people, their parents, would give them whatever they wanted and they would have money, and that was, you know, that was never the case for Kenzie and I like, we always had to work hard for what we had and I'm so grateful for that. But like I remember I was not like I didn't have money to spend on, you know, whatever Little things. Not that that makes this OK. Yeah, obviously that does not. This is just like a little backstory, but definitely does not make it OK, whatever circumstance you're in. But basically everyone at school would steal stuff all the time, and this is another thing too of just like the people you hang around. It's so important to surround yourself with good people, because I never thought I would do something like this, but this just goes to show you that because I surrounded myself with people like that, I was like, oh, it's OK, like, let me do it, let me try it. Everyone else does it, let me try it once. Everyone else is doing it.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, we were going to have a sleepover at my friend's house and we were going to watch a movie at the mall and my friend and I were like, oh, let's go and get snacks at Target. So we went to go get snacks from Target and, of course, I see a swimsuit that I need. And I was like I need a swimsuit right now and I didn't have any money for it. I only had money for maybe $10 worth of candy, but that obviously wasn't going to buy a swimsuit. So I thought I could steal the swimsuit and I did, and I put it in my sleepover bag and as we were walking out of the store, the Target security somehow cuts in front of me and he goes Target security, you're going to have to come with me. And I was like, oh no, because no one that I knew ever got caught. I was just like, oh, it's so easy. And all of a sudden he's telling me I have to go to the security room. And yeah, so I got caught stealing and they had to call my parents and everything.
Speaker 1:And this is a little bit of a backstory, but I remember our parents. They got the call and they probably thought that Malia, like something terrible happened to Malia. Because the officer is like hey, are you the parent of Malia? Blah, blah, blah, and he's like yes, is she? Like okay, like they probably thought that like you were in like a car accident, yeah, terrible happened to you. Like things like when you start making bad decisions, things can escalate quickly and things can Go really bad. So it's like even like messing around with things that you maybe don't think are a huge deal can start leading into like worse and worse things. Right, and it is progressive, you know.
Speaker 1:So that was scary for our parents. I'm sure Like, oh, my gosh, is my daughter like alive and well? Like what the heck is going on? So, yeah, they came to pick up Malia. I remember me and my two other friends are sitting in the target parking lot crying and praying. We're like, oh my gosh, is she OK?
Speaker 1:And and then, um, yeah, our parents took Malia and I home. Yeah, that was the most awkwardest, probably worst car ride I have ever experienced, because they brought our younger siblings. They brought our younger siblings, they were sitting in the back, while both my parents were like, what the heck were you thinking, like you know all this, grilling us and just asking me questions? Obviously they should. Because they were like, ok, what, why, why are you stealing? Yeah, that was the reason. And then I remember them asking to like, oh, like, whose idea was this? And I was like, oh, it was mine. Like, obviously I didn't want to get my friend into trouble either, but we both wanted to do it. So it was like, you know, but if anything, yeah, yeah, but yeah, that was that. And I was grounded for the rest of the school year actually.
Speaker 1:So I actually had to quit basketball, which we were in off season club training. Yeah, so we were like we were starting to get into off season. So we weren't actually in like the school season that had already passed, that had passed. But then there was the club basketball, which we actually did to scholar or we actually got scholarships for Because we couldn't afford basketball. It was like $200 for like a couple months of basketball and we're like we can't afford that, right. So we actually ended up qualifying for a scholarship through our coach, which was like the biggest blessing, yeah, but of course, us being screwed it up again. We screwed it up, yeah, but I remember my parents had told me that part of my punishment was to tell my coaches like what I did, and then I that I couldn't play for the rest of the season. And so I remember we went to Dunkin Donuts and met up with my coach, dude.
Speaker 1:I loved all of our coaches too. They were all so sweet and this was really hard for me to tell them, but I was like, honestly, I just have to do it because Falling your eyes out, yeah, but I did feel really bad and I told my coaches what happened and they were obviously like super disappointed in me. But I remember them to saying that like obviously everyone's, you know, goofs up and everything, but people make mistakes, and I think that, like that, we learned a lot. We learned a lot from this season in our life and if I could go back in time, I probably wouldn't do some things that I did. I'm going to be honest, like, yeah, I think I think the worst part of all of it is seeing people you love being disappointed in you, right, like the coaches, like our basketball coaches, like who we like really looked up to, like seeing their face when you told them like you did something terrible.
Speaker 1:They're like dang, like I never expected that out of you, and the fact that they gave us a scholarship to like that must have been even worse. You know, I mean, that was I already felt so bad just because of that and obviously, like I was very remorseful and sad that I did something like that. Yeah, but yeah, so I told my coaches couldn't play basketball anymore, which sucked because, kenzie, there was a tournament in Vegas and I couldn't go to that. So, like the whole team was going, it was going to be a fun trip and there's also, you know, games to play in Vegas and I couldn't go. And I remember begging my parents to go and they're like, nope, you're grounded, like you're not in basketball anymore, you already ruined this for yourself. And I was like, yeah, you're right, so I couldn't go.
Speaker 1:That was one thing about our parents, like if they said something. They stuck to it. Yeah, they stuck to it and we knew that, versus, like our other friends parents, they'd be like you're, grounded for a week and then the next day they'd be on their phone and they'd be able to hang out with friends. Yeah, and I'm like what the heck is the definition of grounding to y'all? Because to us, like we weren't allowed to do anything, yeah, it was like hibernation. So we were a good reason. Like I think we learned our lesson after being grounded time after time after time and again, like it took a while but we finally came around.
Speaker 1:So this is, this is the last little portion of of of the story. So Malia is grounded in April and I have a basketball tournament in Vegas. You know what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, supposedly, but that actually did not happen. That's not the case in this story. It came back to Arizona to haunt me. So, bro, my gosh. Okay. So me, malia obviously she was grounded, she didn't come on the Vegas trip.
Speaker 1:But me, my childhood best friend and her parents, they took us to Vegas because our parents, they, they had to work and they couldn't take time off. So a lot of the times it would be, you know us going on like if we had a basketball trip. I know our friend had a volleyball trip one time that we went with her and we'd go with her parents. Her parents were like a second family to us, yeah, like they really took care of us and were able to like take us to basketball practices, or you know they were, they were just always there. So they, they took us to this basketball tournament in Vegas and me and my friend end up bringing marijuana to smoke and I remember I think it was, I think we had already played one of our games, so we had. I think it was a two or three day tournament, so we might have been like one night into it and I remember we ended up smoking and I think we ordered like 40 chicken McNuggets on UberEat. Sorry, that's not funny, that's not funny. Okay, um, anyways, um, so basically we ended up playing in the basketball tournament.
Speaker 1:I just want to let y'all know I did terrible in that basketball tournament because basically it was like all the girls basketball team varsity included, and we were a freshman at the time everyone playing on the same team. So I basically got no minutes. But I remember I got in for one singular minute and this girl on varsity, like she's a senior, she passes me the ball and I'm like, wait, why would she pass me the ball? I don't do anything here. So I just turned my head and I think she's passing it to somebody else. She really ducked. Did you duck under the ball? I ducked under the ball. Like that is terrible, that's wild, that's like actually super embarrassing, because the one moment that someone had given me the ball, this could have been my moment to. You know, shoot it. You know, pass it to somebody else, do something. But no, I duck under the ball and my coach immediately takes me out of the game. He's like you're done as you should. As you should honestly Would have done the same thing. Yeah, that happens.
Speaker 1:Anyways, the trip ended and it was, all you know, fine and dandy until we get home. So I get home and y'all remember how I was grounded. You know reoccurring thing here I was always grounded and you didn't have a phone. I didn't have a phone and I wasn't allowed to have a phone. But my friend, my childhood best friend, had a burner phone because her parents were also pretty strict. So like she had this phone that she didn't use unless she was grounded, so she gave it to me. She was like hey, like I know you don't have a phone, so here's this burner phone. Me at 14, having a burner phone is a little crazy, yeah, anyways. So I have this phone, I have Instagram downloaded on it, snapchat downloaded on it, all this stuff. And again, we aren't allowed to have any type of social media. So just keep that in the back of your mind, because I go into the shower one day this might have been two days after I get back from Vegas.
Speaker 1:So this was in May, before you say this, when I think there was a car ride where we were. I think it was like close to the end of school. Oh, you're right, and Mackenzie was in the front seat. She has the burner phone in her pocket and somehow it falls out. And our dad sees it and he goes what the heck is that? And Mackenzie goes oh, it's my friend's phone. I was just holding it for her and my dad my dad knew he's like that's, that's BS, some things, obviously, some things up. I'm surprised he didn't snatch it right then and there I know, but he was waiting. Yeah, he was waiting for a good old moment. So this was the good old moment.
Speaker 1:I'm in the shower and after I get done with my shower, I'm charging my phone and it's in my room and I see my dad in my room when I come out of the shower and he's like what the heck is this? And I was like it's my friend's phone. And he's like give me the password to your friend's phone, if it's really your friend's phone. And I'm like I don't know the password. Mackenzie, what's the password to this phone? You have five minutes to figure it out. So I'm like, okay, so she's like stalling, calling, calling her friend. So I'm like, okay, I get the home phone and I call this childhood best friend. Right, she was always there for real. So I call her and I'm like, hey, what's the password to this phone? And I'm like the leader of everything on this phone. So, yeah, she ends up like um, logging out Of my Instagram account and my Snapchat account. So she changes the password. So I ended up telling my dad the password to the phone. He takes it, he goes through everything and it was hours.
Speaker 1:We are just sitting in our room and finally it gets to like seven o'clock at night and our parents are like we're going to interrogate both of you separately. That scared me so bad. Honestly. I was like, wait separately. Like Malia and I obviously do everything together. So we're like y'all aren't going to like they want to make sure we weren't in the room. They want to make sure we weren't lying, because obviously, if we're not telling the same story, then one of us is lying. Something's up, right.
Speaker 1:So this is like literally two days after I get back from Vegas and I was so nervous because I knew that that our friend had logged out of my Instagram and my Snapchat. So I'm like what could they have really like found, right? So I go into their room, of course I'm first, yeah, and then Dad looks at me and he's like so your friend was still logged in the first Snapchat in her Instagram. So I actually saw all of her stuff on the phone and I'm like like I knew that there was, you know, obviously, stuff that we did in Vegas on that phone, on her accounts. So it was actually an Instagram DM between her and a different basketball girl that said that we had smoked in Vegas. So that's how they knew that that happened.
Speaker 1:Even though we tried our best to hide it, the truth came out in the end. And so basically, he told me that and then I, in that moment, like there was literally a flip of a switch, like I just started bawling and I think it was because of how much we lied to mom and dad, like there was just so much built up emotions and like, honestly, like sadness for me, like we had lied to them for a whole year about, like everything we were doing and I felt bad about it. And once you start lying too, it's like you lie once and then you have to lie to cover up that lie, and then you lie to cover up that lie, and it's like a continual thing. And it was like Kenzie was saying we lied to them the entire year about where we were going, what we were doing, who we were with. And I think in that moment, once they started questioning me, I guess that wall that I had built up just like broke down and I was like I actually do feel bad about all this and like I love my parents and I have been acting crazy this whole year and not regarding anybody else but myself, and I just apparently didn't care about anybody else, literally but myself. And in that moment, when they started questioning me and like interrogating me. I just told them like pretty much everything, like I told them a lot of stuff that they would have probably never found out about. But I honestly like there was a true change of heart where I was like, okay, I've been lying to my parents this whole time Cause I knew I knew it was over, I knew that there was no coming back. Might as well, come clean. Might as well, just come clean. And I was like, okay, if I lie now, I'm never gonna end this cycle of lying. And that's what I knew in that moment. I was like, if I keep, if I'm trying to cover my booty right now, I'm gonna keep trying to cover my booty for the rest of my life, like we're never gonna break this If I just don't do it now. Because they had already found out a lot of stuff that we would have already. I knew they would have taken it out of school After, I think after the smoking thing. They were like, yeah, you're done.
Speaker 1:I remember Kenzie coming out. She was sobbing and I was waiting cause it was my turn to go in their room and she was like I told them everything and I look at her and I was like everything. She's like what the heck do you mean everything? And I'm sure you had a similar experience when you went in there, and even before that too, because I remember in high school too, I was like a little bit depressed, but also lying to my parents over and over again really got to me. It was it felt, I felt relieved after telling them everything, just cause it was a clean slate, yeah, and we could kind of start over with our parents.
Speaker 1:Obviously, it took a long time. It took so long because I remember even too, like after we had changed, obviously it takes a while to show that you have changed and it takes time. But, like I remember, our dad would always be like, oh, like we'd go to the gym and he'd be like, oh, are you guys like smoke weed at the gym and obviously, like who could blame him? Like we would literally, you know, do that stuff all the time and just lie to our parents. So it took them time to, obviously, you know, gain that trust back. But yeah, it was, yeah, it did. It took a while and I think when you break trust, to rebuild it takes double the amount of time, 10 times the amount of time it took you to break it. It's easy to break trust, but building it back up is really difficult and both parties have to be able and willing to do that.
Speaker 1:And I feel like we were very lucky too, because our parents, of course, they did know we were kids and I feel like, yes, it was a little harsh, like taking us out of school, but I think, at the same time, our parents didn't know what we would be doing if we were still going to public school, like, okay, yes, this is bad, but could it get worse? And I think it could have. Yeah, we could have stayed down the same road of like we could have kept rebelling, we could have kept lying, but the fact that we didn't was, they saw that eventually, yeah, like, down the road, they saw that we actually did have a change of heart. Also, our parents are very genuine and authentic people and they can spot BS from a mile away, right, I mean, I always knew when we were BSing. I was like, yeah, like they always knew and even if they didn't know, they somehow stumbled across it, like I remember my mom saying like she was never trying to like look for things and bad things that we were doing, but somehow she always found it. I was like, dang, we just must be terrible at I'm not trying to hide stuff, apparently, because we got caught every single time.
Speaker 1:But I remember too, our friends, parents were really kind of naive because we would get away with everything at our parents' house, and I don't know if it was just they didn't care or they just never like really noticed, but like we would get away with everything. And then we would be like, okay, well, we're not doing this at our house, but at your parents' house, maybe we could get away with some things. Right, you know? Because that's another reason why parents are like oh, maybe I don't want you having to sleep over at someone's house because you don't know the people's parents. You know what I mean. So, like, obviously it makes sense. It makes sense and I think now, as a 19 year old versus my 14 year old self five years ago, it's so funny because it feels like it was longer. I know it feels like a long time ago, like 14 years old was not that long ago.
Speaker 1:I remember the worst part about this whole thing was like telling my younger siblings, because I remember my brother and sister obviously saw that Kenzie and I were crying and we got in trouble we got in trouble so many times but also like they knew that we were getting taken out of school and they were like I remember that my brother asking he was like, oh, like, why'd you guys get taken out of school? And then I told him and he was like you guys did what? And I remember I was so sad because I was like dang, I'm the older sister, I'm supposed to be the one that sets an example for my younger siblings, and I didn't do that. And if anything too, I feel like I'm sure a lot of younger siblings might be able to relate. But they always kind of look up to their siblings, but they also they kind of take notes. They know what to do, what not to do, because they've seen you grow up in how our parents would parent us and they know now okay, I can get away with this, I can't get away with it. They learn quickly because we're kind of like the test dummies. You know when it's like, we don't know what we can and can or we can and can't get away with, and so we have to see what that looks like. But for our it's funny, because our younger siblings are so different than us, like I feel like also they our parents aren't as strict on them, but also they're really good kids and they don't do anything bad. So it's like, it's so like cool seeing their relationship, max and McKayla's, with our parents, because I'm like, oh my gosh, like this is almost what it would have been like if we never you know, if we never got into the trouble that we got into Because it did. So, yes, we were.
Speaker 1:We were kind of rebelling for, I feel like, a good year. It was a year in high school and then sophomore, junior and senior year we did online school. So that was our punishment. It was you're not going back to public school. Obviously, this is not a good environment for you and them. That was a really good realization, because it wasn't. It was not a good environment for us.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I feel like, for one, the people we were surrounded ourselves with were bad influences and also too like we weren't really progressing towards anything good in life and like, once we got taken out of school, we did a 180 switch. We started working. I remember we got our first job at a daycare. We were 14 and 15, or we were turning 15 and 16. 15 and 16, yeah, and we worked there for two years. We had a great job there. We made a really good impression, I feel like, on the staff there and we loved it there, and then we just like we got to focus on school too, and that's actually when we started social media.
Speaker 1:Like I feel like if we stayed in public school, I would have never done social media. I would have cared way too much about what my classmates think about me, and that's something that I don't think I would ever get into. I think that is such a big thing, though is like, when you care so much about what other people think about you, it really does affect your decisions. Yeah, we would have never started social media, or if we did, we wouldn't have posted the type of content that we posted, because people would be like, oh my gosh, tiktok is so cringy, blah, blah, blah. I think we were just scared of what other people thought about us and, too, once we left school, we stopped doing everything bad that we were doing. I didn't have any alcohol or any type. We didn't have the desire to do those things anymore. I felt like we had to grow up quickly, but in a good way. In a good way it was. We started working. We were really focusing on school, Like the gym, all of. Yeah, we would go to the gym like literally two hours a day. Also, too, we were grounded at the time, so we really had nothing else to do.
Speaker 1:I think that moment we had a good two years where we were completely isolated, like, yes, we did some bad things and we were learning our lesson, but us being alone for two years was very depressing. We weren't allowed to have friends. We were doing online school. We didn't see anybody our age for years. Depressing, but I think it was necessary at the same time. Yes, because we learned how to be alone and like be productive during those times because it was so lonely. I'm glad that I did have you. Yeah, if I was just by myself, that would be even harder, but I just remember it really did suck, because not being around kids your own age, not having any sort of social outlet, that's hard. It is. Yeah, that was one of the hardest things that we had to go through and learn, but I felt like it made me so independent now and that's not something that I necessarily need.
Speaker 1:And also, too, I think we realized that most of our friendships there weren't good, they weren't real friendships. They weren't real friendships. I mean the people there were not good influences, they weren't good people. We only had really two good best friends from school. We kept in contact with our good friends that we genuinely cared about and really loved. We kept in contact with them. Once we got ungrounded Senior year, junior year we were like, hey, you guys want to hang out and we didn't need to be in school to hang out with the people that we genuinely liked, like two people out of 2000 that we genuinely had a good relationship with, and our childhood best friend. Of course we're still friends with her to this day and I don't know.
Speaker 1:I think it's when you're taken out of that type of setting you start to realize that you're not really missing out and you can take notes and you can start learning what's really valuable in life what do I really want out of life, and you're not distracted by everything that people are telling you. You know what I mean. I feel like that can really get to your head, especially as a young girl. You're easily influenced. It's just what it is and I remember too, I did feel left out for a while and I remember we went back to I think it was sophomore year.
Speaker 1:We went to a football game. Oh, we were in county and our parents did let us go to a football game and no one said hi. I remember Kenz and I were like, oh my gosh, let's go say hi to all of our old friends and it was like we had never gone to the school ever. But no one said hi to us. Everyone was like what the heck? And then I remember seeing people two years later and we had started TikTok and everyone's like oh my gosh, hey guys, we were besties. The switch up was crazy. People were like, oh my gosh, we used to be best friends and I'm like, hold up a second, I can't trust none of y'all. I was like, hey, yeah, because really the only true friends that we had were those two ones. And they were real ones. They were always with us, no matter what. They were also very genuine and authentic people and they still are to this day and I feel like even now maybe we don't see them as much, but it's just those core childhood friends where you're like, dang, we went through life together and I really value that too, so dang, but that was pretty much the whole story.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's definitely more little stories in between that were unnecessary to talk about, but if you guys ever want an extra story like a bonus of this story, let us know, because we definitely have some interesting ones. If you guys have any questions, we're actually going to have a Google Forms link down below in the YouTube description. If you're on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, go to the YouTube video and we're going to have a Google Forms that you guys can ask us a ton of questions on, specifically about this topic. I think, for Malia and I too, we want to let you guys know that being yourself and being comfortable in your own skin is so important and it takes a while to get there, but once you do, you don't have to listen to other people's opinions and you don't have to be easily influenced by the people around you and you can be your genuine and authentic self, and if people don't like that, then that sucks for them. You've got to do you and what's best for you and your life.
Speaker 1:Like partying and all this random stuff in high school, it doesn't get you anywhere. Like, let's be honest, it really doesn't, and it didn't for us, and a big one, too, is surrounding yourself with good people, because, as you guys can see, when you're young and naive especially for me you can get influenced so easily. And I feel like when you surround yourself with people that are doing bad things and maybe don't have the best moral compass, you're eventually going to kind of go down the route that they are, or you're going to want to do those things, when maybe I remember in eighth grade, I told myself oh, I would never hit a vape, oh, I would never do this, I would never do that. And not even three, four months later I'm doing all the things I said I would never do. And it's like when you're around people and you're in those settings where you're surrounded by negative energy or bad things or bad people, whatever the case may be, it's easy to be influenced by people. It truly is, and things are OK, because I remember being around so many people and everyone's like, oh, this is OK, like I do this, I do that, and I'm like, oh well, if they do it, then it's fine for me to do it too. Or they do worse things. It's like, oh, they're doing that, I would never do that. But this is only a little step in that direction. So it's OK, yeah, you know. So it's like OK, that's not a good place to be at, and comparing yourself to other people, too, like that's never good, but it's hard.
Speaker 1:I feel like it's hard being a young teenager and also with your parents, knowing that they have the best intentions with you. I think that's a big thing. That I learned was my parents. They don't hate me. They don't want me to have a terrible time in high school. They don't want me to have a terrible relationship with my friends and not be able to do things that they're allowed to do. They just want to protect me from the terribleness in this world, because there are bad people out there.
Speaker 1:Genuinely, I feel like realizing that now, because I'm like OK, I can actually look back and be like those rules do make sense. Yes, and some of them may be a little extreme, but it was always coming from a good place. And I think, too, like our parents, it was their first time parenting two teenagers, two teenage girls. So it's like, of course, maybe they would change a few things, and they definitely changed their parenting strategy, I feel, with our younger siblings, maxim and Kayla, but I also think it's a cool transition to see me and you growing up having that realization that we don't need to be doing what everyone else is doing and people have different paths in life. And the cool thing too, I feel like what came out of this whole situation is that after we rebuilt our trust with our parents, our relationship is so much better now. It started from a really bad relationship to an even better one, honestly like a beautiful relationship, like it really blossomed, I feel like over the past few years and even us moving out now we still have such a good relationship with our parents and there is trust there and also it's like we both have respect for each other.
Speaker 1:I think that was one thing that I lacked was I didn't necessarily respect my parents, or authority in general, or authority or teachers, and looking back, it's just like dang, how can you not respect anybody else but yourself? Like that's ugh. Like if I could go back, it would be a character switch for sure. It would be like being that selfish just is not healthy and at the end of the day, you're going to shoot yourself in the foot because no one's going to want to be your friend if you only care about yourself. Right, like that's terrible, honestly. So I think those are some really big life lessons that maybe we learned a little bit young, but I'm so glad that we did, because I feel like we're, I feel more confident in myself now and I know that obviously I've learned so much from that season of life. Yeah, so, yeah, no, me too. It's crazy, because the fact that we have such a good relationship with mom and dad is so like I love it, like family is so important to me, and I felt like that brought us closer together too, like I feel like I can talk to my mom about pretty much anything, anything, yeah, and it's so cool that we have that now.
Speaker 1:And I think that wouldn't have happened if we didn't go through what we did. I agree, you know, yeah, even though that was really extreme sometimes, like that kind of needed to happen for us because, like you said, we did grow from that and a lot of our thinking and the way we did things changed. Well, I remember too I think it was going into senior year Mom and dad. They said, hey, we've seen that you guys have grown a lot. Do you want to go back to school? They gave us the option.
Speaker 1:Emily and I are like honestly, no, like I don't want to go back, because for one, I know that I was easily influenced and that could be a possibility again, so I don't want to put myself in that situation. And then, two, I think we realized that a lot of our friends weren't really our friends and no one really cared about us. Like I feel like it was really just our two main friends that we had, but everyone else I was like I don't care to go back. Yeah, and I think too, also, like I think our little sister she kind of deals with this now and we didn't really have to deal with it for that long, but only for the year we were there was like the racism. Yeah, I don't know how I would have put up with that all four years of high school. I got old of it after the first year, you know. Well, yeah, at any time that's terrible. So that was like another thing. I was like, yeah, I don't care to go back to a school where people don't actually like you, right, and we'll call you the n-word every day of your life. So, yeah, yeah, anyways, maybe we'll make another episode about that portion of it, because I feel like it's hard to navigate that as, like if you're the only person of color at your school or your environment, like how to go about that.
Speaker 1:Because I remember everyone would be like oh, it's a joke, like settle down, Like it's not that deep, it's actually just funny, like it's not freaking funny. Oh yeah, you're right, it is funny, and I'd be like huh, huh and then like walk away, like what the heck? But now obviously I'd be like you know, that's not appropriate. Like what the heck are you doing? And saying it's so hard, because we were in that situation and we couldn't leave. So it's like, do we want to be the people where we're? Like that's not a joke, that's not funny. But you're the only person who says that, because the other 18 kids that were minorities would just take it and we were kind of in the same boat of like, ok, I guess it's funny, but now obviously we just don't hang out with racist people. So it's like it's an easy solution. But if we were still in school and we had to like learn how to go about that, you know Like I don't know, I feel like that would be hard how to address it. Yeah, but that'll be a whole nother episode. A whole nother episode. We could go on for hours, but that's pretty much it for this episode.
Speaker 1:Guys, I hope you learned from our mistakes. Learn from our mistakes, because I know our little siblings did, and that's kind of why we wanted to tell this story, because we did learn a lot and we grew a lot from it too. And I think learning that, yes, you can make mistakes, but the learning process is so important. And not beating yourself up, because I think that season of us being alone a lot of the time I'd be like, oh my gosh, why did I do those things? Like I wish I never did that, and we all make mistakes as humans. No one's perfect and I think realizing that and wanting to be better once you do have that realization is so powerful. Honestly, it's the wanting to be better and wanting to be different and wanting to move on from your old self, because that's so important and that's what makes the change Right. Yeah, but that is it, guys.
Speaker 1:I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Make sure to follow us on Big Sis Energy with Two Wys on Instagram. You guys will be updated there for new episodes and things like that. Yes, comment down below your questions. Comments concerns all of that and we'll see you guys in the next Big Sis Energy podcast. Sweet Thank you guys. Peace spill.