117 - Allie Henderson Pt 2: Keeping Your Eyes Open For the Moment

Continue with nurse practitioner, entrepreneur, and Brazil, Las Vegas, Nevada, and O’ahu, Hawai’i native Honored Guest Allie Henderson as she articulates her first experiences with the “eating our young” phenomenon, being unable to “turn off” her nursing mind, why she became an NP, forming friendships in nursing school, her misconception about having to work in a hospital, “eating our young” still being in NP school, her passion for functional medicine, how disease begins in the gut, and more!

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Transcript

0:01

Welcome back to the second episode of the Feeding Our Young podcast, Allie Henderson experience. I just got to say it like that intro, if anyone is skipping the second episode intros on people because they think it's the same as the first, every once in a while it is because I either forget to ask them to do something different or they don't want to do something different. But kind of the tradition on this podcast has been that that second intro becomes something totally different. So if for some reason you skip that to get to this point, stop. rewind, go back to the beginning, and listen to the second episode intro. Because for the first time, I had someone say it in Portuguese. Oh, like, and I, it's, I, so this might be an overgeneralization and I feel bad for saying it this way, but I think I'm still gonna say it. it said, Portuguese sounds like, almost like if French and Spanish had a baby. Yeah, that's what I heard that I heard that plenty of times they go like, is that like they go like that Italian? Is that French? Like I know it's not Spanish, but it sounds like Spanish. Yes. It's very beautiful. I told her I said I'm going to be listening to that intro many, many times. I'm like, I could listen to you do the whole interview in Portuguese, but no one's going to know what you're saying. So we did a lot of the getting to know Allie in the very first episode, and now I'm excited to unpack your career progression. You briefly mentioned that, and we might have some overlap there, but we're going to talk about her nursing career, for lack of a better term, how she got educated the various steps and all those things and what that was like. And so before we do, know, one of the other questions I like to ask people on occasion is, you know, of course this is feeding our young in direct opposition to the culture of eating our young, which again I don't think is exclusive to nursing but is awfully prevalent. And so with that, Allie, do you have any experiences either when you were in nursing school or all the way up through now where you have experienced or witnessed that eating our young phenomena? my goodness. Unfortunately, yes. And this is what I was told when I joined, you know, and I started nursing school. That was the first day, my first day, my first lecture. That's what my instructor told us. Nurses eat their young. And in my head, I went, wow, that sounds interesting. I'm so excited to be here. And I'm thinking. Right. And I'm thinking, did I like, what am I doing here? Did I like, did I laid in the blackjack table? Was she messing with me? I'm like, I don't know. Like I'm starting to doubt things. Right. and is like, oh, get this. Hey, you look like you'd make a great nurse. Have fun, lady. And I couldn't understand because I didn't come from any medical background. So think about it, I was flipping cards and then I'm like, okay, let me just become a nurse. So once I started learning, I actually saw the culture and it's quite scary and unfortunately sometimes, I don't know, it's depressive to see that it's hard for nurses to support each other. And that mentality when I went to nursing school, when I went to my clinical rotations, that mentality wasn't there. So it was rough. It was rough on clinical rotations. It was a lot of competition. Like you had to be liked. You had to just stand out. Otherwise, if you didn't, you wouldn't get that ability to learn or be involved. You would be singled out. Like competitive as in like for that instructor to notice you or just nursing in general. And the nurses, yeah. But I don't blame them because, I mean, yeah, I do blame some of them, but let me go, let's not go there. But they are very overworked. There's a lot going on in the hospital. There's a lot going on and taking on a student is, it takes a special person to do that. And if you don't like it, just don't do it. but don't put someone through it because that person is looking at you like you are my role model. I'm here to learn from you. I'm here to absorb everything that you know. And if you're not ready, don't do it. I just think it should be that simple. Right, and if you don't like to teach, you don't have to. Yeah. Yeah. just be nice to people. Please, please be nice to people. And that's again, we don't want careers snuffed out before they even have a chance to start. Was there ever like a particular incident in your past Allie where it made you question besides the very first instructor telling you that nurses eat their yuck? Was there actually an incident where you kind of went, did I make the right, like where you genuinely thought about dovetailing in a different direction or when you were in, were you like, I'm in, I'm going forward? When I was in, was in. Like I really loved the fact that I could help somebody and I could educate. And the whole thing about nursing, like we are amazing in assessment. We can look at somebody and we can go, yeah, I'm COPD, blood swelling, plus two, putting edema. And you just keep on going, your head never stops. I do that now. I do this when I go out to eat with my husband. I'm like, you know, look at that, look at his goiter. ha ha ha ha ha ha! He's like, okay, can you stop it? And I'm like, he's probably a smoker. know, like, we don't stop. Our mind does not stop. And that's something that we nurses do. Our assessment skills are on point. So that taught me a lot about, you know, people, about understanding, about just, I don't know, just connecting with others. Yeah. Yeah. That helped me a lot in my clinical rotations, by the way. Would you say that having that skill, you know what mean, which only magnifies, you know what mean, as you continue in your career, by the way, for nursing students that are like, well wait, or new grads that are like, that doesn't happen to me, yeah, not yet, but it will, we promise you, yes. But would you say that's a blessing and a curse? Yes. Yes and yes. Because your mind is always on. You can't turn that off. And believe me, we cannot. I tried. Unless someone else has the switch. You teach me how you found that switch because I have not been able to find it. So it is. Like it's pretty, like you're always on. Especially after you have kids, you're always looking at them, you're always assessing, you're always making sure. Everyone around you, that's what you do. And I feel like that's why I decided to become an NP because I wanted teach, right? Because you can use those assessment skills and you can use your knowledge and you can actually translate that in a simple form to someone. And if you have that ability, like you know you're gonna be a good nurse. If you can break down. those crazy concepts into smaller little bites for people, for them to understand what's going on with their life, what's going on with their health, and for them to be able to make changes, that's it. That's what nursing is about. Like if you ask me, how do you define nursing? This is it. You teach and you help people. Period. And it can be hard work, it can be easier work depending on the day, depending on the job, but you're doing those things all the time. and over and over. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I don't know. That's what I love about it, though. So there's also that. Like, it is literally the best career on the planet. I've said it before. We've said it before. We're all biased. I don't care. It's the best career ever. Okay, so with that, do you have any other, like, now, for the refresh for everybody, how many years ago, roughly, I'm asking you to do numbers in your head again, but just roughly, how many years ago was nursing school for you? So I have it here. I graduated in 2012. So I got admitted in 2010. Yeah. So. ago is when you stepped foot out that door. Sorry, I don't mean to, if that's a painful thing to hear how big those numbers get. I always tell my wife, I'm like, we talk about like, man, we're getting older, like this is happening, like your body starts to rebel. And I'm like, but babe, I mean. The alternative is not having, you know what mean? Like, we knew this was coming, like we're still alive and can make a difference in people's lives. Anyway, whatever. But that's saying 13 years ago, you lost that foot out of nursing school. Do you have any other memories from nursing school, positive ones? What did you love most about nursing school? Even though you said it's harder than getting an NP, what did you love most during that most difficult time of your education? the friendships that I made. That's what I love. Like the people that I, I still talk to people that I went to nursing school with and some of them retired. Some of them, I'm done. I'm gonna retire. Some of them wanted to be, you know, like NPs and they left nursing. They went back into anesthesia. So they've decided to go, know, some of them are travel nurses, some of them are, they work in helicopters. you know, so they do all kinds of fun, different things. I, the friendships and the ability to just share your life with them, right? We all went through like hell and back together, like literally. And that was my favorite part. And of course, learning about patients, like going into hospital and seeing different stories every day. That was cool. especially for someone as personable as you, you know what mean, who may or may not be kind of intuitive when it comes to that and just kind of, I mean, that's why you and I are here, because this is my, like, I just love learning about people, so okay, let's learn about Allie today. And while you're saying that, it gives a nice, a visual pop to my head that I never really kind of pictured before, but like you're talking about that class, right? You've got, how many students roughly do you think were in your class back then? Just spit. 45, okay, so 45 people sitting in a room, sitting in rooms, going off doing clinicals, all the things, but sitting in a room together, you got 45 of you. And the 45 of you now doing all these crazy things, know, some are still bedside, some are in helicopters, some are doing this, are in P's, some are in S's. You just, mean, the possibilities are limitless. But those 45 people, like, so nursing student who's hearing this, when you go to class, when you're looking around, whether your class is, you know, a dozen people or a hundred people, Look around. All of you guys in what? We've just established 13 years. So in a decade, all of you are gonna be just out doing all these amazing different things. And I just, I love that idea of like in one room, you have all these different personalities, all these different people, all these different backgrounds, and then they're all learning the same thing and literally basically are learning a language that only they can speak with each other, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. Couldn't have put it in a better way. Because only you understand. You each understand each other no matter where you go, no matter what you do. Sure, you may become an anesthesiologist and I don't know what the heck. You know what mean? Like whatever, great. But nursing at its core, man you know. You know. Ugh. our students, you're listening to this. Yes, it's hard. Yes, some days you just wanna walk away. Some days you see you think, maybe I wasn't cut out to this. Or someone might tell you, maybe you're not cut out to this. huh. let that stop you if that's what you really want. Because yes, it is hard. Yes, it's gonna drive you crazy. But once you're done with that enclax, once you, the next day, it's just like, it would make a lot of sense and you will never regret going into nursing. Yes. Yeah, 100%. And that's from someone who has been a nurse through the pandemic. know, that's come up on this podcast before too. That that rapidly burnt a lot of nurses out or rapidly aged us at least because of the various things that people had to face. I don't claim that for myself. Yeah, we had to face it, but I mean in the postpartum world, OB, yeah, COVID was there and yeah, we had some sad stories. But it wasn't, you I wasn't down in the ER. I wasn't, you know what I mean? I wasn't front lines when it comes to that. So I don't claim that for myself. But that being said, every nurse that worked through the pandemic, the joke was, if we needed to make a joke out of it, the joke is, I tell people like, if you nursed through the pandemic, each of those years are like dog years. You're like a seven year nurse in that first year of the pandemic, and add another seven years for the second year of the pandemic. You're a 14 year nurse, you know, in two years. That's, it was rough, it was rough. But here you are saying that. Don't give up. Don't like, ugh. I love it. Okay. You got this. You got this. This is why you're here, Allie. All right, I'm just letting her, you take the mic, you preach it. I'm gonna go walk away, I'm gonna let you finish. All right, so let's learn more about you and your nursing career progression. Is there anything you wanted to expound on from the point that you first went to nursing school in Las Vegas? to getting your NP. Otherwise, we're gonna move on to what you're doing with that NP and what your passion is. There's just one thing that I want to tell the students because I kind of went through it and I had this image in my head that I had to work in a hospital for me to be a good nurse. I really had that. had that and I don't know why I had it. I don't know where that came from, but maybe it was the mentality of my school. that was instilled in me, like I had to be a hospital nurse. If I didn't work in the hospital, I wouldn't be good at it. I wouldn't be looked at a good nurse. I would have been doubted. wouldn't be, like people wouldn't see my knowledge and my ability. And I had all those doubts in my head. And I just wanna let them know that, yeah, I worked in a hospital, that's fine. It was rough. It was, you know, like, and you have to look at what works for you as a person because if you are good at what you do and if you love what you do, you're going to be good at it no matter where you go. So you don't have to be in hospital. You can be in a clinic. You can be doing home health. once I told some of my coworkers I was going to step down and do home health, they looked at me and said, are you crazy? Why would you want to do that? Because they looked at the career. They looked at like, oh, that's not, you're stepping down. You need to be going to, I don't know, a surgical floor. You need to be going into, like why are you not going into a surgical PQ or trauma? And it made me feel bad about myself. I'm like, am I, why, yeah, why am I not doing this? Am I not smart enough? I don't know. Like, am I telling myself that I'm not able to? So I just wanna let, you know, like your peeps know that if you love what you do and if that's what you like to do, like you can do it anywhere. You can be a good nurse down their bridge. You just have to have a patient. You need to have someone to talk to. So that's what I wanted to say, because I think it's an important thing to hear. I don't know if it's gonna resonate with anyone, but if it does, here's a little bit of an advice for you. Just follow your heart, do what you need to do, and if you love what you do, you're good at it. You don't have to have a place. You have you, and you have your knowledge. Mmm. What makes you a good nurse is not where you practice. What makes you a good nurse is what you bring on the daily to your patient or patients. That's what makes you a good nurse. I, and inpatient, we get the same thing, right? There's, there's this perceived hierarchy and I get it. Like nurses that are in the ICU, dear God, I don't want to do what you do. And you have to go through so much extra and all the things. I'm not saying that there's less skill involved. But what I am saying is there's not this hierarchy of, you know what I mean, even in OB world, we've got two sides to our unit. I'm a postpartum nurse. We have nurses dedicated to the labor and delivery part. They take care of the mamas for two hours. They come to us. And even within that dichotomy, you get that like, well, you just take care of them. You just help them with breastfeeding. You just, you just what? Come do what I do and tell me I just. You know what I mean? thank you. ugh, Allie, I'm glad you shared that before we moved on to your nurse practitioner thing. You guys, mm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Okay, all right, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, that's it, that's the most articulate way I can respond to that, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. All right, so, nurse practitioner Allie, what are you doing with that nurse practitioner? Why did you get it? And I mean, what are you passionate about? What's going on in your world? So why did I get it? Got into, reached that point in my life that I said I had that bug, right? I'm like, hmm, do I wanna be a nurse? RN, do home health my whole life? Or do I wanna do something else with this? And that's what I said. I'm like, yeah, let me just apply. Maybe I won't get it. I friend up, yeah, I'm like, like South University, I researched it, I liked it. And I'm like, okay, maybe I'm awesome, you know. I found out that I got accepted and I'm like, wow, I guess that's a sign that I'm going through. Yeah, you gotta keep going. and I just, I felt like, I felt like it's such a blessing to be an RN, because you have, you you have your assessment skills that you're really good at. You have the educational piece that is just like, you're born with it, right? You can educate, like we can educate everyone. Mm-hmm. stay and sit on, you know, standing line in a bank and start educating. That's what we do. And then I talk to myself. I'm like, you know what? If I am able to understand where the disease is, this process, understand everything, and if I can actually figure this out in my head, I will be able to treat, educate, diagnose, and really be a good resource for that person. And that's where the bug for NPE came in. Because especially in the field that I was, in home health, I had a lot of things that I needed. Like, hey, I need this person on Lasix, my goodness. I gotta figure out the swelling, I'm looking at the labs, I'm looking at everything, BNP is okay. I couldn't do anything, I had to go find the doctor, I had to take a picture, I have to do so much more work. And yeah, it got into a point where they trusted me that I could actually call the pharmacy and put it in order and per Dr. So-and-so and it was fine. Everyone knew me, but it took a while. And I'm like, OK, I can cut out this middle man right here. I can be the one doing this. So that's the reason why. So there was a lot of a lot of components that made me feel like I can do this on my own. Like, I feel like I'm doing this already. I'm just not getting the credit for it. You know, so that's why it got me to become an NP. So as an NP, you learn a lot and it's funny, you still have the "eat your young" in NP school. Same thing, it repeats itself. Yeah. and you're chasing advanced degrees doesn't necessarily translate to you are more mature. Like, come on! right, you still have it, you still have the whole I'm better than you, the whole thing, right? But if you wanna do something, you don't let that affect you, you just keep on going. throughout NP school, I learned a lot, but there's a huge difference between your student NP to all of a sudden here, you graduate, you pass that exam, and go. And you're like, oh my God. Your first day on the floor and you're like, where am I going? What are those noises? There's a lot of beeps. Yeah, like, yeah, yeah. Because we are so used to go to say, as a nurse, you go, hold on a second, let me go find someone for you. Let me go find a doctor. Right? And then I remember and I'm like, wait a minute, uh, I'm the one. Mm-hmm. I can't go find somebody. I'm like, yeah, I'm like, I'm it. So that mentality, that mentality was a little bit different, like challenging to switch. Because you have to go from the nursing mentality to a provider mentality. So that is something that they don't teach that in nursing school, the way, NP school, by the way, you figure that out on your own. So it's a lot of, and it's a lot of the transition of learning and being comfortable and being confident. And you know, you know your stuff, but just being in front of somebody and delivering that message, right? It's a lot of it is, it's the going and the learning and the doing. And that is something that it was, I guess that was the life-changing part of the nursing. If you ask me, that's what I said, life changing. Because just the ability to go, yeah, I can go from teaching to educating to assessing to breaking things down to treating. And I can go back down and I can completely fold, you know, like in the circle and to teaching again to make sure that worked. Mmm. Mmm. And thus the reason why you're an NP. reason why I'm NNP. Now I'm not gonna poo poo on traditional medicine, obviously I am a member of traditional medicine, but I don't think the story stops there either, right, Allie? Remember that bug? Let's bring that bug again. So, you know, you learn. You learn about everything. You learn about diseases and the process. You learn about everything, right? How to treat, how to diagnose, and the pathophysiology of it. And then you treat and you give medicine and then you're looking at someone and then... You have a patient with polypharmacy. You have a patient with a lot of diseases and one comes from the other and it becomes that crazy web of things. And sometimes you look at it and you go, wait, am I helping this person? Or am I facilitating them not to get better? And that's where I started digging into the other part of the functional side of things. Because you learn pathophysiology and you learn about, let's say, hypertension. And you know, you know what hypertension, you know what happens, you know what happened to the blood vessels, and I'm not gonna give you the whole story right now. We're not gonna go anatomy and physiology, but we know. But we don't know the why. We don't know why this happens. Like in your cells, in that blood vessel, what caused your blood vessel to all of a sudden harden? We don't know. We are not taught that. We just know that, if you give an ACE inhibitor or a methylpro, you know, an ACE inhibitor, if you give them a R, beneath you give them a statin, all that works, right? We'll put them all those meds and they're okay. But why is this happening? Like what's the root cause? That's where I started getting interested in. And that's when I switch into, let me know why. Let me figure it out why. And that's where my passion of, I started learning about functional medicine, I learning about the why of things. And my biggest passion is gut. I love everything gut related, gut health related. Mm-hmm. So that's why I started diving into, working into, and that's where I'm at right now. I became a functional, of course I'm still a nurse practitioner, but I became functional medicine certified. I am a gut health specialist. Everything gut related. Like why you cannot poop, why you're anxious, why you're depressed, why you have GERD, why you have IBS, you name it. And the crazy thing when you learn, when you dig deep into functional medicine, you realize that everything starts in the gut. Disease begins in the gut. And that is such a powerful phrase because that's where the beginning of everything happens. That's it. That's the starting point. If your gut is not aligned, it's gonna be rough and a lot of things are gonna come up and then you're gonna be there's a medicine and there's another medicine and there's another medicine and then you just and this is gonna cause that that you and then you treat this with a side of this for a side effect of that and it becomes a crazy spider web but once we know the why instead of adding you can correct you can restore and you can start taking it away. Yeah, and it's just, to me it's just fascinating to see like what that, you know, the science, what this science is able to translate into the human body. And our bodies are very smart. Like we don't need the majority of the medications to make it work. Our body knows what it's doing. There's just something stopping it from doing it. there's a toxin, there is something that is just stopping that pathway. And once you've figured out what's hindering that pathway from working, you remove it. And voila, the body goes back to doing what it's always, what it was designed to do. Addition by subtraction is what it is. That's what's coming to my mind. Like, my goodness. So, when did you get certified? Functional medicine, I got certified three years ago. Yeah, that was my first, yeah. That was, that's my first certification. My second certification, of course I can't stop, I told you that. I'm going for an equivalent of a master's degree, which is with the School of Applied Functional Medicine. And yeah, and I certified with them now in April. So that's my last, yeah, this month. Oh! my goodness. In one week! Not even this month, one week! well... wait, we're April. We are April. Yeah. April, you guys. We're still used to it being March. I don't know. Whatever. No, that's incredible! Congratulations in advance. That's amazing. Oh, wow. and the whole idea is to just to be able to help, help people. And I understand, like a lot of people are not, they go like, I don't have any gut issues, I'm good. You know, I go every day. You know, I go number two every day, everything is fine. And that's it. Yeah, but if you look at the functionality of the gut and what it's supposed to do and how it's supposed to help us. Once you start breaking things down and what I tell my clients is like, like peel the onion, right? Many layers, there's a lot of layers and you just have to start peeling it. Once you look at the whole picture, I've had people telling me, it's like, wow, I didn't know my joint pains was steamed from my gut issues. So it's, to me, it's amazing. So then have you have you opened your own practice? Like what does that look like from a functional standpoint? What does functional medicine look like from a functional standpoint? What I mean, what have you done practically to? I'm assuming you've either you've got your own practice, your own business. Let us know about that and then we'll wrap your episode in our traditional manner. Yes, so I do have my own practice. It's called Get Functional. It's a telehealth company. And you can find me on social media. I thought it was cute. I put in Get Functional with Allie. Oh, I love it! I love it. Get functional with Allie, okay? Yeah, so it's just it and I like to educate so I have a lot of educational material I have a lot of educational pieces. I have a lot of things that people can go in and look and absorb and understand and you know, like I've had people ask me questions Hey, what do I do with this or how do I go about this and like my mom? My mom has been going through this for years and you know, unfortunately, there's not really like the the beauty of functional medicine is It's not cookie cutter. There's no one size fits all. Everything is tailored to that specific person, but there's a lot of things that we do that's about the same. you know, it's been, I mean, I'm telling you, it's been like an amazing and amazing opportunity, an amazing, a blessing in my life to just be able to help and educate and educate myself about it. Help myself with my issues. You know, can't, I'm just extremely happy and blessed to have the ability to put my voice out there. And that's the whole idea. I really want to help others. Allie, I just like, and from the top down, like looking at both your episodes and what we've talked about, like it all started at a blackjack table. You guys, it all started at a blackjack table. I, I, obviously most people listening are either nurses or they're nursing students. I'm hoping we still have casual listeners out there just getting the peek behind the whole industry and how that works. But regardless of any of that, the takeaways from all of this. is to keep your eyes open for the moment. Whatever that is, for whatever it is. Like for me, the moment for this podcast, I've already explained, came from a group of my students, a group of my students who I adore. I just like, crystallized. And it's like in that moment, like what you described, Allie, you you're like, this is it. This is what I have to do. I know what it's gonna cost me, both financially, time-wise, and everything else, but now I'm compelled. I can't not do it. And so like I, I, Allie, I just thank you, thank you, thank you. And thank you lady out there, wonderful woman who came and played blackjack. Wonderful. I'm assuming she was a nurse, right? She was a nurse. Yeah. So thank you. So nurses. I believe in Chicago. She was from Chicago. I remember where she was from. I know how crazy this is. She was from Chicago. She was an RN from Chicago. I don't remember which floor she worked. She told me, but I didn't know what floor that was back then. I no idea about anything. Hospital. maybe she has something to drink, maybe not, we're not gonna defame you there, ma'am. But you know, she's telling her life story, she's in Vegas on vacation, and then she's like, guess what? You should be a nurse, I definitely recognize that. No, that's amazing. All right, so you've kinda touched on it already, but you picked three words to describe nursing school. What were they and why'd you pick? First one, challenging. Let me find them for you. It was extremely challenging. Number one, yeah, like I think emotional, physical, spiritual, mental, but if you're able to overcome that, and if you want it, you will be. It's not a matter of, can I do it? It's a matter of do I want to? That's the question you have to ask yourself. Because if you want something, you make it happen. It's just life. So it was very, no matter how long it takes, absolutely. It was intense because I did an accelerated program. So it was a four year program that got squished into a two year program. So we, that's intent, that's intensity right there. But that's okay, I don't regret it. And it was, yeah, don't regret it at all. And four-year programs that are not squished, that are breathable in four-year programs are intense. So yeah, totally applicable. And it was very rewarding and life-changing because I think that I don't think I could have accomplished anything else in my life had I not been an RN. Like being a nurse gave me so many opportunities. I met so many amazing people. I've made so many amazing connections. And this is it, life changing. Just keep on it, stay on it, don't stop. You got this. And I feel like I might be, you might already be overlapping the last question, but no, the last question being if there was one thing that you wanted someone to walk away with from listening to your episode, what might that be, Ally? Don't give up. Life gets hard. Things are tough. You are the only one who can make the decision whether you're able or not able to do something. No one else. No one else can tell you, this is not fit for you. They don't get to play that game. They don't get to play that card. You are the one that make that decision. I've had instructors tell me, maybe this is not for you. I'm like, well, let me make that decision, sweetie. Thank you. Ha Your input has been noted, thank you. thank you. So this is what I want to tell because you see, and I don't know if your students have seen, have seen any of this, but I got a lot of that. You know, like I was too bubbly. I was too happy. I was too friendly. no, nurses were not like that. And I'm like, that's too bad. You know, I can't change. If that were the case, I would not have this luscious career that I have. I'd probably be dealing in a blackjack table, I don't know. But no, you can absolutely be all those, my gosh, oh my gosh, I can't believe that. mm-hmm, so let your people know. Like, they are the only ones able to make the decision. And don't let anyone decide their life for them. Yeah. Yeah. Ah! There's nothing left to say, Ally. Ally, I can't thank you enough. Thank you for this afternoon. Well, morning for you. It's now afternoon for me. um, and, you know, I just, I have, I'm walking away from this just on Cloud 9. So thank you. Thank you for encouraging us all. And I wish you the best and congratulations on next Friday. Yes, thank you so much. You are.