102 - Sydney Chambers: Every Difficult Moment is Temporary

Join nursing student and Addison, Alabama native Honored Guest Sydney Chambers as she discusses the day in life she’d like to relive, the importance of family, her inspiration for nursing, her jarring entrance into adulthood, minor inconveniences, raising kids in nursing school, keeping the motor running, advice for single parents in nursing school, when grades need to take a back seat, how she overcomes challenges, and more!

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Transcript

0:01

Hello and welcome to today's episode of the Feeding Our Young podcast. Today I'm gonna warn you I might sound a little bit different, maybe a little sniffly, maybe a little congested, getting over a little something as has been going around in these parts, but I generally get sick once a year and this is usually the month in which I do it. And so I have, it's been great, but there ain't no cold that's gonna keep me from meeting with this amazing person because my gosh, have we got a treat in store for you. Without further ado, let's jump right into it and welcome to the studio, Sydney Chambers. Sydney, how the heck are you today? I am doing wonderful. I can't thank you enough for carving a little bit of time out of your incredibly busy schedule to make time to encourage nursing students. Well, I appreciate the opportunity. Mm-hmm. Well, let's not waste any time. Go ahead and tell everybody. I hear a little bit of an accent there, and it's an accent we might become a little familiar with from a couple of our previous honored guests. So if you don't mind introducing yourself, where you're from, and what your role in nursing is currently. My name is Sydney Chambers and I'm from a little town called Addison, Alabama. I'm in nursing school at Beville State Community College at the Summerton campus and I'm excited to tell you guys more about me. Now, would you describe yourself as a typical student? Which is also why I'm really excited to have you in studio. I don't care if you're typical, atypical, or somewhere in between. Is there an in between? I don't know. I'm just glad to have people in, and Sydney, you are no exception. Kind of knowing what we got coming down the pipe. I can't wait for you guys to hear her story. So, we'll start with the traditional questions. What are the three words you chose to describe nursing school? challenging, transformative, and rewarding. I love it. And what are three of your favorite songs in life right now? I'm go Kendrick Lamar, Not Like Us, because who doesn't love that right now? can't really think of any other two. I've just been listening to Kendrick Lamar a whole lot, Luther and 30 for 30. So strange, I wonder why you're listening to Kendrick Lamar so much. So, as a background, even though it takes a few months to get these episodes out, and we're trying to tighten that window here, I feel bad for my honored guests that I sat with last summer because some of them are finally just getting their episodes out right now as it stands. mid February 2025, and some of them have had to wait seven, eight, nine months, which is just, I mean. I'm neurotic, I get worried about like, oh my gosh, if I stop having honored guests, like this thing's gonna die on the vine. So I'm like, I don't wanna release them all, but then on the flip side, I'm like, man, you guys all have such incredible things to say and your stories are so inspirational. I'm like, I wanna release them at the exact time I record them. So I'm landing somewhere in between. And currently as we were speaking, we have a double release every week. So being mid February, just recently we had the Super Bowl ergo, Kendrick Lamar and him kinda. resurfacing to the public consciousness for better or for worse for those that didn't necessarily care for the the Halftime show my wife is one she was like man she enjoys the football she didn't enjoy it so much as a Chiefs fan but she was definitely looking forward to that Halftime Super Bowl show so that being said thank you for that answer and now the one you haven't prepped for I don't know how much longer I'm going to do this like I said I've done this for a few honored guests and I don't know people are gonna be like I am. And you are welcome to give rationale if you want. And if you don't know the answer to a question, if you can't pick an answer, you gotta pick a lane. So, you get to pick one one way or the other. I'm gonna start off with what seems to be one of the harder ones when people haven't heard this song. If you're ready. Is Wham's song Last Christmas actually a Christmas song? No, it's about love. I live on the lake, so breathe underwater. Team Pie or Team Cake? take all the way. I love it. Instantly learn a new language or instrument. Language, 100%. Wow, didn't even have to think about that one. And now you have a time machine. Congratulations. Are you gonna go back in time or are gonna go see the future? Hmm I don't think I want to say the future and I don't think there's I'm pretty happy with where I'm at I don't know go back in time if I had to if I had to she had to, she's going back in time. Otherwise, that thing's just collecting dust in the garage. Awesome. Well, the results are in. You, like everyone before you, are amazing. So congratulations. I don't know where I'm going with this. We might do different questions down the road. But thank you for answering those questions. It's kind of fun to see what you are. So enough with the fiddle faddle. Let's move on into the important things, right? Let's get to know Sydney. So Sydney. So this sounds really crazy and it sounds like an off-the-wall type of like what day would you like to relive but spring break of my first semester of nursing school we took a trip to Disney World. Me, my kids, my mom and dad and my kids dad. My son was five at the time, like he wasn't big enough to ride a whole lot of the roller coasters like my daughter was. But he was tall enough to ride one of them. Slinky dog. if anybody knows about Disney World, slinky dog is the ride to ride. So when we got on it, he was kind of scared at first, but like it was, Kenna and her dad, which is my daughter and her dad. Me and Branson and my parents were right behind us and when that roller coaster started it was like the world stopped spinning and We were in our own world and there was so much laughter and just pure enjoyment from all of us like nothing else mattered in the world other than the moment that we were in and I think we got off that ride and rode it about five more times that day But if I could go back and just relive that again, we talk about it all the time like, man, we wish we could just go ride a slinky dog right now. So that was a really, really fun day for all of us and something that we were all able to enjoy no matter the age or anything. Hmm, I mean that sounds magical, like transformative. Having a moment where you just, everything else melts away and you are in the moment, right? It was completely in the moment. And I know that's like such a cliche like Disney World, the magic, you know, but it really was a magical time for all of us. That's incredible. I mean, you obviously it sounds like we're off right off the bat with the fact that your family is super important to you. So what would you like to share about your family? you know, we live in a very small town, like one red light, two gas stations. Everybody knows everybody. Um, so like growing up, my family was always really important to me. Um, I grew up on a farm with like all of my extended family kind of living around me. My great, great grandmother was my next door neighbor. and where we live at now, it's actually like. My parents live right beside me, my grandmother lives right beside me, so we all get to enjoy life together and that's something that I do not take for granted whatsoever. I love the fact that I always have my family close to me and whether it's, we're cooking breakfast and we're out of eggs, do you happen to have some? Or just like, we're out of laundry detergent, do you have some laundry detergent? It's just nice to have them. close to us like that and my kids get to grow up and enjoy their family being so close. I'm almost envious there, because I mean, you I have siblings and some of my siblings have kids and but we're all scattered to the four winds. We don't really talk a lot. We don't see each other a lot. And so to hear that, you know what I mean? Like to have that kind of experience. And it sounds like you never take it for granted. And that's amazing. I really enjoy them. So any fur babies in that mix? I I have one golden doodle Mia and one little thing about her, she's only got three legs and she does not let it sew her down whatsoever. we have Marco, which is a labradoodle and Whiskey is our German short hair pointer lab mix. And they are the kids too. Aww. And so I'm guessing that if you travel, your hobbies, things of that nature, probably revolves a bit around family. Would you like to talk about that? Yes, so growing up and stuff, we took a lot of vacations and it wasn't just like the typical, you know, we're going to go to the beach or whatever. For every two years after my eighth grade year, we would not go on a vacation for two years and then we'd go on a big trip. We'd go to Alaska. So we would go, we'd fly to California and stay for about a week and then we would go to Vancouver, Canada and get on a boat and do the cruise to Alaska. And my senior year for my senior trip, actually, my whole family went. We all, we a huge family cruise for my senior trip and all went to Alaska. And I will never like, that was some of the best times we had, like in the memories of getting to like, I don't know. running to the airport together in LAX and all of us trying to get on a plane together. If you could just imagine all of us, know, 10, 15 people running through LAX together trying to get to the next stop. So yeah, growing up, it's always been surrounded around family and traveling, getting to go to different places. Like I said, Canada, Puerto Rico, my parents. Actually for my trip for graduation for nursing school they want to take me to Costa Rica. So that may be the next trip. my gosh. Okay, well I'm gonna be sneaking in some luggage there just so you know. No, that's incredible, that's outstanding. Keeping along with this theme, because again, just the run through everything you sent back to me. I'm like, there's family, there's family, there's family. So let's hit the next topic, which is who's your hero and why? Um, both of my parents, I, when I read that, when you sent that to me, I struggled really bad because I was like, I can't say one without the other because they both made huge sacrifices. they had me when they were very young and they never let that stop them. My mom actually went to nursing school when I was little and I can remember, my dad, I can remember staying up. she had night clinicals and we would stay up and wait for her to get home from clinicals. And you know, her graduating nursing school and my dad getting a different job, like they just always went above and beyond to make sure that me and my brother had everything that we needed. We were able to go on trips. Like they taught me about life and enjoying simpler things in life. You know, it doesn't always have to be huge and extravagant as long as you've got each other. I'll say this, there were times in life where like maybe we didn't have everything in the world. Like we might not have as much as the next person, but like looking back, and I've told my parents this, I don't know how many times, I never knew, I would have never imagined when I was little that we did not have everything in like the grasp of our hands. They never let us know that we didn't have everything we wanted to have or everything that we needed. That is so incredible. Like, I'm like, all right, well, can you go fetch your parents? Let's just get them on here too. Not that you're not inspiring, we'll just get all three of you. actually told me, they were like, is this love? Because we really want to charm into this. And I was like, absolutely not. it's not gosh darn at all. I get control of the narrative. Well, okay, so you mentioned your mom being a nurse and you remembering that it sounds like from a very young age. And so that leads into the natural wonderment of why nursing for you? that part of it? Where did that come into play? Why nursing for Sydney? Yeah, so my grandmother, my dad's mom is actually a nurse and she has, it's amazing how far she's, you know, getting like just her RN. She opened up a company, a bigger company. She's now higher up in another company like and it all come from just graduating from a little community college that she built her life around. And then my mom become a nurse when I was very little. She was actually my school nurse growing up. So that was super cool that, you know, she got to go to school with me and be the school nurse. But I also bet you didn't get away with anything, huh? No, actually remember one day I went in there and told her that I was sick and she told me to go ahead and go to P.E. and I think I got sick at P.E. and then she realized, oh she might have not have been playing. Yeah, so growing up and stuff I was around a lot of things medical. My mom was a nurse, my grandmother was a nurse, that was just something that was in our lives. and then I got pregnant at a young age and My daughter was born premature and about a year and a half later I had my son also premature so We kind of got through into this like NICU world medical like it was like I Was young I was a new mom and then all of a sudden You know on TV shows you see where somebody's standing in the middle of the street and like the world is just like passing them by and they're just standing there like looking around. That was kind of me at 19 years old. Like what is going on? What are they talking about? I was just thrown into it. And I got to learn a lot then and through the years I've got to learn a lot because with being a NICU parent a lot of the times you know you're your child is speech delayed or developmentally delayed or they need PT, OT. And that was something that we unfortunately had to deal with also. So I kind of took a lot in there and then in 2022, two people I was really close to was, they were in an ATV accident and unfortunately it was a very, very bad accident and I'll One of those people was my brother and the other one was my kid's dad. My parents were in Alaska when it happened and that was hard because I couldn't get a hold of them. I got a phone call that this had happened and me and my grandmother kind of had to handle it by ourselves until we could get a hold of my parents and they could get home. and that situation taught me a lot, a lot. And I can remember standing in UAB, which is our big hospital in Alabama, and kinda looking out the window and being like, this is it. This is what I wanna do. I advocate for people, I want to help, I want to make sure that no matter what, somebody has somebody on their side. Yeah. Had there not been somebody there in certain situations when we were in the hospital, like, I don't know what we would have done. We had my grandma there that would, she will always advocate for anybody that needs it. And that kind of just, you know, solidified to me like, I, this is what I want to do. That happened in September of 2022 and I was enrolled in classes in January of 2023, finishing my basics. So I, That was kind of the deciding factor and what led me to where I am. And I'll say this, know, no matter what you go through, like during the time that we were going through that, I really and truly thought this is the worst thing that could happen to us. My brother, Jordan, like this is just a terrible situation. And being on the other side of it now, it's like, okay, that, while it was super unfortunate and it was a horrible situation, Everybody learns something out of that situation and it brought me to where I am today. It brought them to where they are today. While a bad situation, has kind of turned into a really, really good learning and just getting people where they need to be throughout the bad, I guess you could say. Yeah, and that it sounds like I mean and that's what makes you such an inspirational person because you know those those moments can make or break you and it sounds like it definitely made you in spades like you're like no I'm taking this and we're running with it if you don't mind my asking how are they doing today two years later? Oh good. Both of them were back at work within six months. There was a lot of physical therapy that had to be done, a lot of surgeries, but they both are back and probably better than they were when it happened. And we're very thankful for that because there was a minute there when we did not know how recovery was going to be. Yeah, wow, just incredible. If you don't mind me asking too, doubling back on the fact that you had two NICU babies, not one, but two, how far along were they when they were born? My daughter was 34 on the mark and my son was 31 and 6 days. And for those that are not, you know what mean, maybe privy to all of that, you know, the current standard in 2024, at least where I work, know, 35 weeks and zero days is the minimum age that we keep on our floor that there's not an automatic admit to a NICU, so long as that baby's stable and doing all the things. 35 weeks, which if you think about, is roughly a month to five weeks early. So we tend to call those babies late premature babies. Whereas if you're before 35 weeks, you are just definitely premature. So yeah, they face some struggles very early on in life. And I can't imagine being a young mom, first of all, being a young mom, let's just put a period there. Being a young mom, period. Being a mom, period, is hard enough as it is. Then you add young, and then you complicate that by adding the fact that not one, but both of your children ended up in the NICU. How do you, like in challenging times like that, trying moments like that, and when you get the news about your brother and your kid's dad, like you get that news, you're in those moments, how do you work through that? How do you not crumple up into a ball of helplessness? When that night happened actually, I cried for just a minute and then I kind of looked at myself in the mirror and was like, you've got to get it together. Like there is nobody else to get it together right now. It is you, you are the next to kin for both of them. There is no option for you. And I think through that, I learned like you either do crumble or you build from it and you keep going. through trying times like that you can really realize how much you can go through. Whereas sometimes like you have minor inconveniences in your life. Your car breaks down, you're like, oh my God, like this is, I didn't need this right now. you know, and then when you go through something like that, it's like when those little things happen, it's just like, okay, well, it's just another day in the life. Like, you know, you just keep going with it. And I'll say this, I struggled with my mental health when I was younger. And not to say that I don't now, the wreck itself made me realize how much I'd dwelled over throughout my life that maybe I shouldn't have. That there were more important things that I could have been focusing on. It wasn't that serious. It wasn't that serious. And that's what I kind of tell myself now when something happens. You've had worse things happen to you, this is not that serious. Tomorrow will come and it will be okay. Like everything's going to be okay. Yeah, and it's weird that we need those reminders, right? Not that I'd ever advocate for bad things to happen to people. My wife and I are no strangers to any of that business. And yet, despite what we've gone through, you just, you know, it doesn't matter whether it's years down the road or whatever, every once in a while you lose that perspective. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like that's kind of what's going on in society today, right? Like everybody's like, oh my gosh, I did not get my... coffee the exact way I ordered it or whatever. You know what I mean? But it's those things that are important in the moment. But if you step back and you go, you know what, like you said, the car broke down, man, that gets under my skin like nothing else. I'm like, but why? We know that cars break down. We know that even if you keep them up, they still break down. So don't be so surprised and for lack of better term, guess, butthurt about it because It's a car. It's okay. You know, it's not the news you get. It's not having a baby in the NICU and wondering, you know, what their life is going to look like and all the things. So, no, I appreciate you sharing those things and being open about those things for sure. So let's transition a little bit then because I'm doing the math and you you have yet to graduate and you're graduating relatively soon-ish. Yes, when is graduation again? uh August and 2025 so we're coming right up on it. barreling coming at you a hundred miles an hour. That's fantastic. And yet I'm sure there are some days it doesn't feel that way, right? No, no, no, no. So let's take this and tie it into nursing school. Let's talk about Sydney, the nursing school student. Because I mean, that's primarily the crux of what we're talking about here and why we're here. But I'm doing the math, like I said, and doing the math and you have yet to graduate. And so, and your kids, so that means you are going through nursing school with two kids. What is that like? How is that? I feel like it definitely is more challenging. Like, last week or two weeks ago, my son had the flu and was out of school for a week. Well, I still have class, have tests, I have things I have to do, so I have to kind of get other people to help me out and stuff like that. But I will say that I think it gives me an advantage in nursing school too. And I don't think you'll hear them, but I have drive for my kids. Like I'm driven to make their life better. to be able to provide them with more things, to have a stable job and give them everything that they want in life and go on vacations and do all the things. So when it comes down to like a test and stuff, it's not just, man, I've got to do good on this test. It's I've got to do good on this test. Like my kids are counting on me to do good on this test. And like I'll tell them before. before I drop them off at school and I have a test, like, I have a big test today and they're like, okay, well we hope you do good and as soon as they get in the car in afternoon, it's like, how'd you do on your test today? So I feel like that kind of is an advantage because they give me more drive. They give me like even on the hard days, the days where I'm coming in from clinicals I am so tired, like I'm still a mom and I've got to do good. How do you do that? How do you manage wearing student hat and then you gotta come home, take off student hat, put on mom hat or wear both hats at the same time? so. it's that there are days where it's really difficult when the kids are sick or something that kind of throws the kink in things but luckily both my kids are in school now so I dropped them off at school in the morning I head to school I get out of school go pick them up and on the days that I have clinicals most of the time I'll get their dad or my parents or one of my friends to drop them off at school and I'll go to clinicals and pick them up Last semester I had Friday night clinicals. So my mom would pick them up and then their dad would pick them up and bring them home, cook supper, and I would come in, strike them clinicals, eat, know, do the mom thing, lay down, go to sleep, do it all over again the next day. And we also are, they're involved in a lot of different sports. We do cheer, volleyball, basketball, baseball. We do all the things. And I actually I a lot of those things. People tend to tell me, you think you do a little bit too, you say a little too busy. I'm like, you know, if you're busy, just, ain't no time to stop. You just keep going. So, you know, I've got to be able to manage like schoolwork, test, know, parents of the teams that I coach, the kids, supper, all the things. But I really found that the busier I am, the more I can keep going, you know, the more drive that I have. Like the moment you stop is when it's kinda like, ugh, like, I don't really wanna do this, I don't wanna, I don't wanna, as long as you keep going and you're busy 24-7, you're fine, it's fine. It's like otherwise you gotta kinda restart that motor, you gotta get that going again. You're like, but do I really want to? Like know I can do it, but this has been so nice. Well, so then, I mean, and it sounds like, you obviously come from a place of incredible support, your significant other, your family and all the things. What would be your advice to those students that are listening going, man, Sydney, I'm doing this by myself with kids. Like how do I? So for me, like starting nursing school, I stayed home with my kids up until they started school and I had only ever known like me watching my kids. Like, yeah, family members, know, keep them every now and then overnight. But like, I was primarily the one that was always doing it. So when I decided to start nursing school, I kind of had to reel in other people, know, one of my best friends, my whole first semester of nursing school, she took the kids to school every single day. Like, I don't know what I would have done without her taking my kids to school. If there's just a couple of people you can find that you can count on, you know, that makes it so much easier. I will say that it is extremely hard sometimes. Like people have a lot of my parents to work. Like there are times where it is extremely hard and there are times where you have to say, okay, yeah, nursing school is important, but I've got to take care of my family or yeah, you know, there's been times where I've told the kids, know, I'm going to make you some ramen noodles or some pizza rolls. I've got to study tonight. You know, you've just got to plan your time wisely and accordingly when the kids are at school. I try to do a lot of this schoolwork, but it really comes down to time management and having your head in a place where minor inconveniences are not going to throw you off the loop because minor inconveniences are going to happen when you don't need them to. Anytime you do not need them to is when it's going to happen. So just making sure that you're in a really good headspace where you can say, you know what, no matter how hard this is, I'm going to keep going. Like, I'm going to keep pushing. You know, if it comes down to it, I'll talk to my instructors and be like, you know what, my kids are sick. Like I have nobody else to help. Is there anything I can do? Can I, you know, come in on Zoom or something? Can I watch it? Can it be recorded for me? Stuff like that, I think could really help. and it does help me. Yeah, that's incredible. And I, at the risk of sounding like I'm gonna sound slightly calloused here, but would you have anything to say, and this isn't a question that she's prepared for, by the way, would you say that because of that sometimes? Do your grades sometimes have to suffer when it comes to priorities? There has my, during last semester, my daughter stayed really sick. We had RSV, pneumonia, you know, all the things. I took her to the hospital twice, like yeah, and you know. Walking into that ER and being like, man, I really, ugh, do we really need to be here? Because it always happens when the doctor's office is closed, it's the weekend, or it's a holiday. Mm-hmm. That's always how kids are. So there were a couple of tests last semester that got to me a little bit. And like reflecting on them after the fact, you know, I kind of just had to be like, I'm a mom. Like I'm a mom and sometimes being a mom matters a whole lot more than nursing school. Like I made good grades and I was able to make good grades after that. But Right now, I've got to focus on just being a mom. It's a matter of picking what matters the most and allowing the other things to, if they have to suffer for a bit, they have to suffer for a bit. you know, long time listeners of the podcast, I say long time, we're not even a year old, but those that have listened to more than one episode know that we talk about, don't, we're going all the way back to Sue Perkins, one of the original honored guests. And she, you know, she says, you know, bees, people, you you talk about C's get degrees. And she's like, well, bees, you know, B stands for balance. Okay. But that's the minimum. That's the standard. And if that's what you got to barely get above in order for you to, like you said, provide the care for your daughter, to do whatever needs to be done for the family, these other life things that are vastly more important in the grand scheme of things, then that's what you do, right? Yeah. Awesome, well on this subject before we, you I don't want to wrap things up too quickly like man, I just want to keep talking, I want to keep talking with you. But on that subject, and I know you've touched on this to a certain extent, but I love how you wrote this and what you responded. Because I asked, know, what challenges have you faced, and you've kind of touched on that. You can embellish more if there's more you want to chat about. But in particular, then the follow-up question of course is how do you overcome those challenges or work through those challenges? And I love what you had to talk about there. So if you don't mind kind of sharing that with us. Yeah, so I overcome the challenges by focusing on my why. My children, the future that I want to build for us, and I also lean on all my support systems, whether that's my family, my friends, like the school even. And I remind myself that every difficult moment is temporary. Like, I may be having a bad day today, I cannot let that roll into tomorrow. I cannot let it roll into schoolwork. or being a mother. The challenge, it may be big, maybe small, but just focusing on the future and adapting and staying resilient and never giving up on what I truly want. my kids right on my shoulder saying, you can do this. You've got this, you've got to overcome this, you've got to keep going. And I just look forward to know what the future holds for us and the family and all the places we're gonna see and where we'll end up with this. And that's what keeps the motor running or gets it running again after a small delay, yeah? Oh, I love it. Well, Sydney, this has been incredible. Let's pull it back around to the three words that you use to describe nursing school. Hold on. I'm gonna scratch that part. Ignore that I said any of that, just for a second. Sydney, that is so incredible and so inspiring. And... before we pull this back around to the final question, is there anything else, we got our standard, why'd you pick those three words and the one piece of advice you've got, but other than those things that you've already prepped for, is there anything else we have not done justice to or haven't covered that you wanna share? No, I think we've pretty much covered everything. Awesome. Awesome. Then with that, what were the three words you chose to describe nursing school being in the midst of it as we speak? What were those three words and why'd you pick them? I chose challenging, transformative, and rewarding. I chose challenging because nursing school pushes you to your brink sometimes. know, academically, mentally, physically, the workload of school, tests, clinicals, STEM labs, you know, all the assignments that you have to get done. It's demanding and it's hard to balance everything. It can feel really overwhelming sometimes, but there you can do it and there is a way through it. And I chose transformative because it changes you in ways that you think and that you learn and that you interact with the world. You develop critical thinking skills, clinical judgment and confidence for the care of patients and rewarding. know, despite the stress, you get to your project or progress. You know, the helping patients, knowing that you're making a difference makes it all worth it. And I'll add another thing to the rewarding, you you get to pretty much make a whole new family. Like I have met some of my greatest friends in nursing school. know, many of us are mothers, like my best friend in nursing school, she also has kids and you know, we keep each other going. Like her and her kid are actually sick right now and I'll text and you know, how are y'all doing? Like, are y'all feeling better? You know, are you coming to class today? You know, what do I need to in the same goes for me. Like when My son was sick and there was one day I didn't go to class. She took notes from me. So it's really rewarding in like the fact you get to build all of these new branches in life. And I hope more than anything that we all stay friends forever. We're gonna get through this challenging time together. The trauma of nursing school. I hope that we can always have that friendship and relationship with each other. And there's nothing more special than that, there? No, just incredible. Again, you go to school to get an education. That's the basic story of school. You go to school to get educated, but there's so many other things that come with that, amazing. Well, Sydney, I have bad news for you. Nobody listened to anything you had to say. For whatever reason, they started your episode and jumped to about 30, 39, 35, some however many of minutes in. They didn't listen to a thing. I don't know what their problem is. So you've only got one thing that you have to impart to them. What would that be? I want my story to show that no matter how many obstacles that life throws you, it's never too late to chase your dreams. As a young mom, I know how easy it is to feel like your dreams are out of reach or that you could give up on them entirely. There were many times that I thought pursuing a career or going back to school was not going to be possible, and I've learned that it is. Being a parent doesn't mean that you have to stop dreaming. It means that your why gets even stronger. With hard work, sacrifice, and resilience, you can create a future for yourself and your family that you're proud of. Mic drop, done, that's it. Sydney, thank you so much. I greatly appreciate you encouraging me, encouraging the listeners, and I just hope you have a lovely rest of your day. Thank you, I hope you do too.