BeTempered
BeTempered
BeTempered Episode 37 - Game Changer - Overcoming Epilepsy and Finding Purpose with Jordan Christian
At just nine years old, Jordan Christian experienced a life-altering moment on a baseball field in Richmond, Indiana. Now, as our youngest guest, he takes us on an extraordinary journey of resilience, from the initial shock of his epilepsy diagnosis to becoming a beacon of hope in Raleigh, North Carolina. Jordan's story unfolds with raw honesty, as he shares the struggles and triumphs of balancing sports, academics, and a health condition that often defies predictability. Through vivid storytelling, he highlights the unwavering support from his family, friends, and mentors that sustained him through tough times.
In this episode, Jordan joins hosts Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr to share the challenges he faced during his educational journey, navigating high school, college, and grad school while managing epilepsy. His experiences reveal the intense physical and mental adjustments required, including a pivotal transition from quarterback to safety and the critical need for open communication with educators and peers. Jordan's resilience shines through as he describes overcoming setbacks, such as grand mal seizures and medication adjustments, all while pursuing his passion for cybersecurity—which led to a fulfilling internship at Amazon.
As we explore Jordan's post-graduation path, his story is one of adaptability and perseverance amid career upheavals. Navigating the tech industry's volatility, he candidly discusses the impact of layoffs and the importance of maintaining connections that ultimately led him to a new opportunity in Raleigh. Throughout, Jordan underscores the power of community and mentorship, reflecting on the significance of shared experiences and the strength found in storytelling. Join us as we celebrate Jordan's journey and his mission to inspire others facing similar challenges.
What's up everybody. Welcome to the be tempered podcast episode number 36. All right, we got it right there. 36. Today we have a this would be our youngest guest a young man who was a two-sport athlete in high school and college. Local here from local here from Richmond, indiana. He's living down in Raleigh, north Carolina right now.
Speaker 1:Um, developed epilepsy as an at nine years old. Has a um, you know crazy story about how it first happened playing a baseball game. Um, just an inspiring young man. I was blown away by his storytelling. Like we talk about a couple times in the episode I thought he was reading a book. I mean it's just amazing how he told his story. And super intelligent young man. I mean he's got a lot of amazing things ahead of him in his life and so we're super excited to have Jordan Christian with us today. So hope everybody likes, shares, subscribes. If you know anybody out there whose family may have a family member who has epilepsy or who has dealt with it, this is a story you want to share. Absolutely Very inspiring young man. Just tackles adversity head on and gets through it and, you know, just hope you're all inspired. So here he is without further ado.
Speaker 3:Hi, my name is Allie Schmidt. This is my dad, Dan. He owns Catron's Glass.
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Speaker 1:Welcome to the Be Tempered Podcast, where we explore the art of finding balance in a chaotic world.
Speaker 2:Join us as we delve into insightful conversations, practical tips and inspiring stories to help you navigate life's ups and downs with grace and resilience.
Speaker 1:We're your hosts, dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr. Let's embark on a journey to live our best lives. This is Be Tempered Jordan Christian. Welcome to the Be Tempered podcast Welcome.
Speaker 5:I'm glad to be here. Appreciate you guys having me on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, we're glad to have you and excited for you to share your story. This is a unique one to us because, you know, as we'll get into epilepsy that's not something I'm really familiar with, so I'm anxious to learn your story and to learn the struggles and how it's something you still deal with on a daily basis. So how we always like to start the podcast is to hear your story growing up. So kind of start back from childhood and then we'll get into those adult years. Yeah.
Speaker 5:So, you know, initially. So I actually got diagnosed when I was, or got officially diagnosed when I was seven or eight years old, Um, kind of what's interesting with this. Um, you know, I, a couple of years before that, you know, I remember vividly kind of telling my parents and grandparents about some like kind of eerie feeling that I'd get throughout my body, but being so young, you know, you didn't really know the right way to describe it or any of that nature. So, oddly enough, you know, I grew up and played three sports and so the first time that anyone ever saw me have a seizure I was actually I'm not sure if you're familiar with Clear Creek, where McBride Stadium is.
Speaker 5:So we had a team I played for, grew up with a bunch of guys and coaches who you know were super familiar with me, so we also kind of stayed together. But we were actually in the middle of a game there. I was playing short stop, oddly enough, and had a ball hit to my right side, but just before the pitch happened I actually had a seizure and so, you know, in my mind like I kind of moved to my right and like I attempted to get the ground ball and everything it goes out in the outfield, whatever you know, and then, once the play's over, I had, you know, both my coaches jogging out to me, um, like looking kind of worried, and I'm like I gave the best effort that I could you know, I thought you were in trouble.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I was like am I getting benched for effort there. Um, you know, and that's when, you know, my grandparents came out, my parents came out and I was like what's going on? Um, so they took me out, um, kind of to. I was just kind of telling them some of the feelings that I have and, you know, lucky for me, my grandpa's a doctor and my grandma's a nurse, and so when I was kind of describing, um, some of the symptoms or kind of, um, how I was feeling after the fact, um, they were like, yeah, you might have something to really know, need to go get checked out. So, um, that's when I kind of started to see a neurologist here in Richmond. So, again, this was probably 2007 or so.
Speaker 5:How old would you have been I would have been nine years old at the time when I was, you know, first officially started seeing a doctor for it. And so, you know, I saw someone in Richmond for about a year or so. Didn't really get, you know, any definitive answers to what was going on. And then at that point I actually went to Riley Children's Hospital over in Indianapolis to, you know, be seen by one of their neurologists, and that just kind of started the whole cascade of testing and EEGs, mris, cat scans, kind of that whole thing. So, you know, once we had an official diagnosis it really, you know, as a nine-year-old, 10-year-old kid at that time, like to me it didn't really seem like much. You know it was kind of cool. I got to get out of class early and like it was basically a half day for me, you know, having to drive to Indianapolis to go see a doctor. So I looked at it as kind of something that was kind of cool at the time. And so you know, stuff was pretty stable. I was on a medication that was, you know, helping. They call like some kind of breakthrough seizures. Sometimes, you know, I'd go six to eight months and not have a seizure, and then you know, there could be kind of a couple months stretch there where I'd have one or two, and so everything was relatively stable when I was young, you know.
Speaker 5:And the same with middle school too. You know I was playing sports. I played football, baseball and basketball growing up. You know football, of course, was kind of the particular one of worry, but you know everything was fine for that, you know, never had any issues really. And so same with middle school. You know I was also at that point in time joined the travel baseball team over in Indianapolis too, and so two times a week was kind of keeping me busy going out there during school. And even in middle school nothing really, you know, kind of got worse per se. I kind of stayed in a pretty good spot.
Speaker 5:So it was never really much of anything for me, especially through middle school and high school, of having to deal with epilepsy, you know, being on a consistent schedule of that eight to four and then you know 430 to 637 practice homework and then kind of do it all over again. And I think that routine really helped me. You know, just kind of getting the um, the rhythm of really kind of doing the same thing every day. You know, um, especially when I was young, having to adapt and remember to take medicine twice a day was difficult at first. You know there were of course be some times where I missed some medications and that can um or miss some of my dosages, and you know that really kind of messed with it a little bit. But you know, even through high school stuff went pretty well. You know, one of the kind of memories too that I have was actually my senior year. So I was a starting quarterback for Richmond and we were in the red zone, maybe like the 25-yard line going in. Shotgun had a pass play called.
Speaker 5:So go through the cadence and everything. And about a half second before I snapped the ball I actually had a seizure. You know, luckily for me with my epilepsy, you know a lot of the, the seizures that people kind of correlate right have kind of fallen on the ground. The jerking, the seizing stuff like that. Mine were very more mild. You actually wouldn't know that I was having one really, unless in the case when they first found it, when I was supposed to be doing something that I didn't do or, you know, with us chatting here, you know you wouldn't really have knew that I have one, unless, you know, there was just kind of some abrupt, you know, just disruption with that and so a lot of times too. So I was able to to still kind of go about my business and again, it wasn't really unless I was talking with someone, um, or doing something to you, you would really know that I had a seizure. So that was a super interesting because if that would happen kind of right at the cadence, um, you know, I was a sitting duck at that point. So I called the timeout.
Speaker 5:I'm lucky, was able to get that off and I'm walking back to the sideline and Matt Haliva was in his third year at the time, or fourth year, actually my senior year. You know he's walking over to me. He's like why'd you call a timeout? And I can't. I can't speak when I have my seizures based on the location in my brain where I have it. I can't really talk for about a two to three minute kind of time span. But you know I was walking and so my kind of thing growing up was to be able to tell someone that I had a seizure. I would just kind of put my finger up and then tap my head a little bit and so, walking over to the sideline, you know Coach Oliva, you know, was a little intense as to why he kind of wasted a time out there.
Speaker 5:And so for me, I just put you know, put a finger up and he was like, oh, okay.
Speaker 5:It was a good use of the time out. So that was really kind of one of the first times where it's like that could have truly affected me. You know I'm standing there and would have taken a free shot. You know, playing quarterback and playing football too, I guess the transitioning to playing quarterback and that's why football wasn't as big of a risk for me because of course I was protected a little bit more, didn't play defense at all, but yeah, that was kind of one scary moment in high school that I had where, if I was protected a little bit more, didn't play defense at all, but yeah, that was kind of one scary moment in high school that I had where if I was a half second late and calling that timeout, things could have got bad pretty quick. And so you know, outside of that high school was fine too.
Speaker 5:It really started to shift when I got to college right, a completely different schedule, a new lifestyle. You know I went to Earlham here in Richmond but I did stay on campus because I wanted that kind of full college experience. And so you know you're going through the, you know only having classes two times a week and you got practices at 12. You know I played football and baseball in college too. So my schedule was extremely busy. You know, the middle of football season I was still doing some baseball stuff and attending some of the practices and workouts, so that's where it became really difficult and kind of what I've learned with my epilepsy over time is a lot of it is triggered by stress, go figure.
Speaker 5:And so obviously it was hard to manage. You know, in college of course, right, it's the highs of highs and the lows of lows for a lot of people. You know, and I went through some times, particularly my, my freshman year, as we got kind of closer to finals, where you know there was one point in time where I had six seizures in the span of two days, um, and so that was just extremely difficult and you know, I was just absolutely exhausted in various points and it was kind of hard to stop. You know, I was going through finals at the time, right, we're kind of mid-football season getting towards the end, which is also actually interesting with football. So I was recruited as a quarterback. You know, earlham, from a roster perspective we didn't have a ton of guys. You know I had two upperclassmen ahead of me at the quarterback position. So I actually switched to play safety in football. So that one was a change for me too, because I had gone the past six years of not really hitting anyone on any play to now kind of being involved. And you know, of course there's a lot more involved with getting knocked around in your head and stuff like that. So that was kind of an interesting transition to go back to the other side of the ball, and something that I had to really take into account more, as I'm playing football in college and I don't know if maybe that had an effect on, maybe, the frequency of the seizures, but you know, it was definitely something that I had to take into account more than I had to in the past. So, you know, it was definitely a tough time in college. You're going through all these different transitions and now my epilepsy is starting to flare up again, and so this was a time, too, I had been on the same medication, you know, for nine years or so at that point and I thought maybe it was good to try something else. You know, there's a really a large pot of epilepsy medications that you can take. So, you know, I figured, why not? You know, it was that medicine was working good for me. But let me try something else. To see, you know, especially in that span where I was having, you know, a large number of receivers in a short amount of time Um, let's try something different. Um, unfortunately, that amount of time, let's try something different. Unfortunately, that kind of made it worse at that point in time.
Speaker 5:The first medication that I swapped to, you know, didn't do very well for me right off the bat. You know, one of the things that was tough too was I'm taking I remember this vividly too. I was in a chemistry course and we're taking kind of our finals at the end of the semester. You know, I took an AP course in chemistry in high school. So this first course, my freshman year, was kind of just really a refresher.
Speaker 5:And so we're taking these final exams and I'm sitting there and I just go blank, like I I didn't have a seizure, but I just kind of froze and like I couldn't, nothing was coming out, I couldn't, you know, populate any of the answers on my exam, and so I'm freaking out and, um, you know, it was something, dan, that you and I had talked about of, of having to, you know, tell all these people of like, hey, I have epilepsy, like if this happens, this is what you should do.
Speaker 5:You know, informing professors, and most of the time, um, it was really just kind of like the coaches, the athletic trainers, my family, close friends, um, but as I got into college, and particularly when I experienced that kind of episode, I guess, if you will in the classroom, it's like now I need to tell my professors in case.
Speaker 5:So you know, I was frantic about that, I was like I'm going to fail this final just because I couldn't complete it. But you know, luckily my chem professor was super understanding, was able to finish that, was able to finish that. But that was, you know, one point in time too where it's like I really have to, unfortunately, tell a lot more people about my condition because of various stuff. You know, I was telling you two on the phone that, um, you know, in high school I had, you know, one on the baseball field that I was pitching in and uh, had a seizure as I was walking back to the mound and the uh, the umpire was, uh, not very pleased that he wasn't aware that I had epilepsy too. So you know, it was usually on a need to know basis and unfortunately we didn't feel that he had a need to know at that point.
Speaker 5:But yeah, so it's. It became interesting. As you know, I got into college. Of all all these other folks that I had to tell you know about my condition. I didn't really like to share that with people cause I didn't want to use that as an excuse for academics or athletics or anything like that. But it just became, you know, kind of more amplified in college. So that was really tough to deal with. Made it through.
Speaker 5:You know, one of the big things for me was finding support and people to talk to in college. Yes, I was in school at Richmond and you know I had family in town too. But when you're on the campus 24-7, it's not always that you can just leave and go back. You know, as 24 seven, it's not always that you can just leave and go back. You know families working, of course, all that stuff. So for me, you know my football coach at the time, nick Johnson awesome guy, one of the best guys that I know you know he was really kind of my go to no-transcript you can trust and talk to. You know stress is never going to go away in any aspect of life. But being able to deal with that and for me, being able to have coach Johnson to really talk to throughout.
Speaker 5:Those four years of college were huge. So, you know, got through school Unfortunately didn't be able to have my graduation because of COVID. You know, I was a 2020 graduate at Earlham, so didn't get to experience that. But at that point in time I knew, you know, for me grad school was an option that I wanted to go to kind of go through. I was entering, I wanted to get in the field of cybersecurity, but at Earlham we didn't really have any classes that were kind of tailored toward that. I was always good in school, so I figured, you know, why not just go on to grad school and kind of, you know, just keep going at that aspect? So that was the route that I chose to go. So I went to Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh in 2020.
Speaker 5:And, of course, when you know, before the pandemic kind of broke out, you know I signed my lease to move to Pittsburgh, I paid my initial deposit and so it's like, well, crap, I kind of have to move and still go through with this. And so moved to Pittsburgh and you know, that's where things really I would say that 2020 to 2022 was probably a couple of the worst years of my life, obviously with the pandemic and everything, but my epilepsy and my seizures really transformed. So I was in September, I was about a month into school, you know I had a pretty bad accident where my seizures instead of were very kind of mild. You know, out of all of a sudden just kind of transformed to what are known as grand mal seizures and those are the ones that people typically familiarize themselves with. And you know, falling on the ground, kind of seizing, doing that sort of thing, you know, and I woke up in an ambulance. This kind of happened just randomly.
Speaker 5:I woke up in an ambulance in downtown Pittsburgh. I had really no idea what had happened. You know, the EMTs, doctors, everyone's asking me like, what happened? And I have no idea. You know, in this one when, in my you know the, the more mild seizures that I had, you know, I could kind of talk and I was aware, through all of that I never lost consciousness or anything like that, but this one was completely different. Um, so I had no idea. You know what was happening at that point, um, and woking, waking up in a hospital with texts ripping off your clothes cutting or your.
Speaker 1:You know your shirts and stuff was terrifying. Um and you're.
Speaker 5:You're by yourself right, I mean, you're away from your family and friends and you're, you're in a new city and, yeah, brand new, and uh, you know, family the closest family was four and a half hours away, um, and so that was extremely difficult in the pandemic. Of course, all that stuff on top of that, the stress of grad school, um, of course, all that stuff on top of that, the stress of grad school, you know. So I went through that and really had, you know, I was in the hospital for a couple of days. You know they did a ton of tests, of course CAT scan, mri, eeg, all of the stuff that I had. You know it wasn't my first rodeo, of course, going through all of these tests. But you know, everything came back fine, which was also puzzling, you know why, all of a sudden, just in a, I've had epilepsy now for, at that point in time, 12 years. You know what was this kind of sudden change?
Speaker 5:And so when I got out of the hospital, I would say that you know, those next two weeks were probably some of the darkest you know of my life, going through the pandemic and trying to come back. And our classes were pretty much fully remote and my apartment at the time wasn't the greatest, uh, you know, situation or so. And you know, for me I vividly remember I was in such kind of a dark place that, um, you know, like I said, I was always good in school, um, and even remote you know we were. I was at my apartment and, of course, um, and I just turned the lights off, left my laptop on and then went and just laid down because I was just kind of sitting there I was like I can't do it, Can't sit and listen to this course, you know, I had so much stuff going through my mind, had no idea what had just happened.
Speaker 5:Really, you know, a week and a half, two weeks before no-transcript, you know, within a week, I was kind of moving back home, you know, and really at that time, because of just the way that initial experience went in Pittsburgh and with grad school, I was like I'm not going back. You know, it's time to just find a job local and just kind of stay and let things stable out a little bit. And so actually, oddly enough, you know, since I hadn't finished any of school, like I was still kind of new, my CS major at Earlham, like I didn't really have kind of an avenue yet of what I wanted to do with that, since this kind of cybersecurity Avenue was put on hold a little bit. Um couldn't find a job at that point, and so what I did was actually go through manpower um and found uh was able to get an it position with Belden Um, so was back.
Speaker 5:I think I started that probably like the first week of December, maybe like the week before Christmas, I don't remember exactly. Um, and it was just kind of like a general it help desk position. Um, you know it was pretty boring. Um, I spent a week there and I was like you know the hell with this. Like I started.
Speaker 5:I started, you know, my journey of wanting to go into grad school. It was something for a year and a half prior to that that I had always dreamed, especially getting into Carnegie Mellon, you know, it's one of the toughest universities to get into. Their security and IT departments are some of the best in the world, and so I didn't want to waste that opportunity. So I knew I was for sure going back. Luckily, I think the pandemic helped a little bit at that time because things were still kind of fully remote. So I was able to, you know, kind of continue my classes in the spring, um back at home, so I didn't move back to Pittsburgh just yet, um, so it was another thing that became difficult. Now. It was kind of half a semester behind, um, you know, in my major and didn't really want to, you know, extend that, of course, the additional uh money that comes with it going an extra semester and everything like that. So, on top of still dealing with some of this epilepsy stuff, I doubled up on a lot of my courses to be able to graduate on time. And so, you know, 2021, for the most part things went pretty smooth. You know I can, in January, started my classes again.
Speaker 5:I was actually lucky enough to land an internship with Amazon that I, in the summer, for two and a half months, went out to and was able to, um, you know, work there for a couple of months, being able to see California as my first time, you know, traveling out west and everything, um, and it went really well, had no issues out there. You know, I figured I was a little bit nervous, of course, going that far away from home again after just what had happened only moving four and a half hours away, um, but it was a blast. I had a great time, was feeling great. You know, we had kind of figured out medicine wise that, you know, things were pretty stable at that point. So I was like you know what, when I finished that internship like stuff was moving back in person a little bit at that time at the end of 2021, I was like let me move back to Pittsburgh. I really wanted to get that full experience of, you know, just being living in Pittsburgh and you know I was chatting with you guys before.
Speaker 2:I'm a Steelers fan too, unfortunately, Were you a Steelers fan before you moved to Pittsburgh.
Speaker 5:I was yes. I actually became a Steelers fan, I think in 2006, when they played in the Super Bowl against Seattle. I was at my grandparent Bandwagon. Yeah, I love Peyton Manning and everything but something just about the black and yellow that I loved. It was also cool that Ben Roethlisberger went to Miami, ohio, so that was kind of a little bit of a connection and so loved it Always became was always a Steelers fan so when I was going to Pittsburgh I was like this is awesome.
Speaker 5:Die hard football fan played football my whole life. Now I get to live in the city with my favorite teams at and Pittsburgh is an awesome city it is. I had a blast. You know it was very kind of an older industrialized city and over the last decade or so it's become a lot more modern. You know just the layout of the city too. You've got the rivers there and the stadiums across the river and stuff, and so it was super cool. I was super excited to live in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1:I think, one of the coolest things about Pittsburgh. So you know, brad VanVleet and I played at Dayton while we played Robert Morris, which played at um. I remember where they played at, where the stadium was Um. But I remember the first time going to Pittsburgh and I don't know what interstate that is, if that's 70, where you go through the tunnel and then all of a sudden it's bang, there's the city. Yeah, it's um, I think 76, something like that.
Speaker 1:You talk about just the coolest thing. You go through that tunnel and then all of a sudden you come out the other side and all you see is this beautiful city with all the rivers coming all together. I mean it is cool Now.
Speaker 1:I strongly dislike the Steelers but that's another story, so, anyway, so you've said a ton here and the whole time you're talking. I want to go back a little bit and then we'll continue to move forward from 2021, 2022. Um, you know, ben and I have nine-year-old sons, um that we, we coach uh in in almost all the sports that they play. And I go back to your nine-year-old you're playing baseball and you have your first seizure, what you know, you, you say, you, you, you went to the ground and you don't really remember what happened. And everybody's coming to you. So talk about your parents and kind of their perspective, that very first time when that happened, because I don't know, I'm I'm ignorant to epilepsy. Um, is that something that that runs in a family as a hereditary, or is it just? Is it just a random thing?
Speaker 5:Yeah, so it's both, you know it's, it definitely can be hereditary.
Speaker 5:And you know that was a bit interesting on my part because, at least to our knowledge at the time, no one in our family, you know, had a history of epilepsy and so really had no idea where you know this had came from and so don't know maybe what even kind of led up to, you know, having having these seizures.
Speaker 5:You know, I lived just kind of a normal life like any other kid, um, and had, you know, really no idea, and neither did my parents at the time too.
Speaker 5:I don't remember their exact reaction, of course, that they were scared and worried, but I think a lot of that comfort and it kind of settled it down because my, uh, I mean most of my family's in the medical field now, like I said, my, because my, I mean most of my family's in the medical field now, like I said, my, my grandpa was a doctor and grandma was a nurse. So being able to have them there right at that time definitely kind of settled a lot of that um, you know anxiety down and um, you know we just kind of worked from there, you know it. It wasn't, um, there wasn't like any kind of at least immediate reaction that I remember again to me, like oh, it's kind of cool like I get a little bit of attention now, like I'm eight nine years old at the time, but you know my parents were probably freaking out because they had no idea what was going on.
Speaker 2:But uh, but, yeah, yeah that's what I can actually coach a boy that has epilepsy in baseball and I remember you talk about a need to know basis. Well, his mom told the head coach about it and I remember the first practice. I'm sitting there, I'm like this kid is just not like, he's not paying attention, he's like no, like he has episodes like and he has to go and he puts on the cap at dayton children's and he's still going through testing and stuff like that. So it's one of the reasons I was really pumped about having you on here, because I know he listens and all that.
Speaker 4:So yeah, it'd be pretty cool for him.
Speaker 2:but yeah, I remember the first time that I'm like Brandon, like I'm coaching him.
Speaker 4:You need to tell me so like I just think this kid's not listening to me.
Speaker 2:And just sometimes it was just like kind of you know zone out, but it's not him. It's actually like that kind of like the epilepsy episode is what you called it, yep, and so uh, yeah, so I can kind of give a little bit of um again.
Speaker 5:I've been able to learn about, of course, epilepsy and the different type of seizures. So epilepsy in general is basically there's, of course, all the electrical activity in your brain. Essentially what happens when you have a seizure is that there is a kind of misfire, you know, right in the neurons in your brain and that can happen in various locations. Right, they have what are called focal seizures, which is what I have, where the kind of disruption in the electrical activity happens in kind of one portion of the brain For me it's more kind of in that prefrontal cortex and more on the left side of the temporal lobe.
Speaker 5:Or you can have what's kind of generalized seizures is where when you do have a seizure that there's multiple points in your brain where this is happening. And so that's why when you see, in particular, someone is on the ground and doing different jerking motions, is because it's affecting so many different portions of the brain and, um, you know, even from just the focal and generalizes or different types again just varies on where they occur in the brain. And so I, from that standpoint, was lucky that mine were kind of just focused or were only on this one portion of my brain. And so you know, when I say when I have a seizure, the reason I can't talk to that, just because of the location of where you know the seizure occurs in my brain.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's interesting. Um, so we go fast forward back into, uh, into Pittsburgh, and you've been um jaded by the black and yellow steel city, steel city and all that good stuff. So you're, you're, you know, you're back in college, kind of kind of pick it back up from there 2021 yeah.
Speaker 5:So I finished the internship in California. You know it's pretty quick turnaround. I've finished about the first week of August and then was starting classes again in grad school about the end of the end of the month. So I I came back home to Richmond, was here four or five days and then moved back to Pittsburgh. You know, classes were back in person. I was able to see, you know, some of the friends I was able to make in Pittsburgh, be able to go out again and just kind of enjoy yourself and see the city a little bit more. Since some of the restrictions were easing up from the pandemic had a great semester. Things were going really well, you know, had no seizures again up to that point. So I was sitting at almost a year of seizure free and so that was a really bright spot for me, you know, especially because I wanted to experience grad school, had no complications for the year, like things were going great. It became that time of the semester. Now, of course, I'm, you know, basically a year off from being in the rural real world and, you know, working a full time job. So I'm starting to fill out a lot of job applications, going through the interview process, stuff like that.
Speaker 5:Um and again, this was one day that I'll remember forever. I'm middle of October, so, um, it's about three o'clock in the afternoon. I actually just got off of, uh was finishing up an interview with Ford Motor Company positioned out in Detroit, and so got off of that interview. You know, I was kind of having a little bit of a late lunch, early dinner. There was actually a CVS across the street from me. You know, before I had some of my night classes and stuff like that, I went across the street to just grab some you know pre-made food that was already there, or whatever, a Coke or you know whatever I was grabbing. So walk out of the CVS. I literally just had to cross one street my apartment complex was on the corner cross one street and the CVS was right there. I was standing on the corner waiting for the walk symbol to come on to cross the street and just before it came on, I collapsed again and had another seizure.
Speaker 5:You know, this was the second time, of course, that this has happened, and again I woke up in an ambulance. Um, but of course, this time I kind of knew what had happened, and so I woke up in an ambulance again. You know I'm telling the EMTs kind of what happened and you know, of course, didn't want to be admitted again because of all the bills that comes with that, and so I was like I'll, you know, as long as we, you guys are okay with it, like I'm going to go on about my business. You know, I'll talk to my neurologist, you know, back home and get some stuff scheduled to do that kind of thing. And so you know, it really didn't affect me as much because I had been through that. You know it was definitely tough. Of course. One thing that was sucked was I was wearing a white hoodie and from falling on the concrete, of course, was a really good under armor one.
Speaker 5:So I hate that I ruined that, um, but you know, things kind of kind of went on from that point. You know, the rest of the year was okay, had no issues during finals, you know, was able to, you know, go to a steelers game. Actually, that fall everything was good. Um, because that's one thing, too that can be a bit tricky with epilepsy is some of the triggers that can cause it. One of those is often bright lights or strobe lights and stuff like that, and it's even during testing that's a lot of times when you have an EEG is that they will. Essentially, when you're doing an EEG, they're more than likely not trying to make you have a seizure and that's why they'll flash strobe lights in your face, because that oftentimes is a trigger for that. So really have to be careful from that standpoint of like going to concerts, that standpoint of like going to concerts, going to games, blah, blah. So, um, but anyway, that was fine and so I went back home for Christmas. Everything was good.
Speaker 5:You know, I'm entering my final semester now of grad school, stuff's picking up again with job interviews and all that good stuff, and this was probably the first or second week of February in 2022. Um, I'm sitting at my desk about seven, 30 or so at night, had a night class at 8 o'clock that I was getting ready to head over to CMU on campus for and was finishing up a bit of an assignment before I left and had another seizure and I was sitting there at the desk, you know, again, working on some stuff and I woke up on the ground and again I knew immediately what had happened. Unfortunately, at this point I fell and kind of hit my eye on the corner of the table and so I woke up you know seeing how red my eye was. Um, you know again, and I called my parents, told them exactly what happened, again called my program director. I was like, hey, I can't come to class tonight, like I literally just look like I went to South side in Pittsburgh and got punched in the bar.
Speaker 5:So you know again, and even after that one I was like, okay, I probably should go back home again I this is now the third one that I've had since I've been in Pittsburgh. You know, maybe the city is just cursed for me living there. I don't know, what it is.
Speaker 5:But uh, and so I ended up moving back home again about a week later. Um, you know, had had some family come up and help me pack stuff again, kind of go through the same routine that I had been there before and get back home. Stuff kind of stabilized a little bit this time when I moved back home I was living with my grandparents and so we actually wanted, when I got back, wanted to go out to eat over at Gallo's on the east side of town, and so I'm riding in the front seat with my grandpa my grandma was in the back with my cousin, and so I'm riding in the front seat, my grandpa, my grandma's, in the back, with my cousin, and we're on about halfway to the gal was about getting close to pulling in. And I have another seizure about two weeks after that last one, you know, getting passed out in the truck. Luckily, again, my grandparents work in the medical field, so they know what to do. I wake up and we're kind of already back home in the driveway.
Speaker 5:Obviously knew what had happened, and that was one of the the worst ones, even though the first one that I had was pretty terrifying, having your family watch you have a seizure like that, you know they had seen me have the ones that were very mild numerous times. But to have them see you seize up and jerk emotions, and one thing that's tough with it too is you bite your tongue and kind of clench your teeth a lot. I had split a good portion of my tongue on that one. And but, having your grant and I'm extremely close with my grandparents, of course my grandpa too, I've always been or my grandma, I've always been a grandma's boy and she was crying when I woke back up. It was just hard for her to see, you know, her grandson kind of going through something like that and, um, that one was tough. That one was tough for sure, um, but you know, didn't didn't stop with classes, kept going, was able to graduate on time, went back up to Pittsburgh for graduation, um, but after I had that last one in February that my grandparents had seen, um, you know I was on the medications and stuff. Of course that wasn't helping at this time. So I thought it was good.
Speaker 5:I wanted to explore brain surgery. I wanted to see, you know, maybe I could be a candidate for epilepsy surgery, and so that was a whole, you know procedure and, by itself, all this different testing you have to go through to even see if you're the right candidate for it. So, again, go through the whole thing of MRIs. Um did a CAT scan you have to do like a neuropsych exam. Um was doing this again in Indianapolis with the doctor that I had basically seen my entire life, so she knew me pretty well and I was a frequent flyer, I guess, on that point, um, so it was going through all that stuff. Um, you know they do.
Speaker 5:There are a couple of different types of EEGs. They can do kind of like one that lasts about 45 minutes. You're an outpatient, you get done. You know you can do one at home too. You know they strap all the electrodes to your head. You kind of take the monitor with you and go home. Or they do can do an extended EEG, which basically you're inpatient for four or five days and so and that was just part of the testing they wanted to do you know obviously a more in-depth EEG to to get a better picture of what kind of the brain activity was doing.
Speaker 5:And at that point too, when they were doing this, they cut me completely off my medication, cold turkey, and of course I knew what was going to happen. So I'm in the hospital. I had a couple of seizures while I'm there. I again don't know why this was the case, but I had gone back to my more mild seizures at that point, didn't have any of the grandma seizures while I was in the hospital, but they got, you know, of course, the readings that they needed to.
Speaker 5:Again, it was kind of a weird case because I woke up, I was asleep middle of night. Apparently it had kind of some seizure activity while I was sleeping and then woke up and the room was completely bright. I had like four or five doctors around me and stuff like that and I was like what in the world's going on? But so, anyway, I w I wasn't a candidate just because of where the seizures, uh, for me, were happening again, kind of in that prefrontal cortex, where language, speech, all this different stuff. That issue was just too risky, um, to do that. So we made some more adjustments to the medication. You know, of course I've still had some seizures since then, but none have been any of those grand mal or extremely bad ones. But yeah, from 2020 to about mid 2022 was a rough two year stretch for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, when, when these seizures happen, you have no feeling that they're coming.
Speaker 5:So I actually get, um, what they call an aura and it's kind of like a full body, like tingly sensation. So when I get that, I know that I'm about to have one for sure. You know, for example, if I was going to have one while we're chatting here, I'd kind of get that body feeling. I was kind of putting my finger up, but yeah, I get kind of just a full body sensation that I know that I'm about to have one.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, I can't imagine, um, you know, waking up and you know, like when you're in college and you're going through all those changes that college kids go through.
Speaker 1:You know my, my oldest daughters and her just finished her first semester in college and, and you know, I remember the, the stresses of being away from home, and then the, you know, playing sports in college and and the, the rigors and the demands of of all that, and then the schoolwork on top of that and, uh, the social life and all those things and and um, you know, here you are four and a half hours away and and you have all this stuff happen. But what I, what I think is amazing, a couple of things. You know, I, I, I don't know you, right, I mean, we talked on the phone last week and and I read your story, um, you know, I think from the epilepsy foundation, that that that you had, um had put out there and that's how I kind of came across you from the Van Vliet family, um, but you're amazing, man, I mean you, how many times do you have you told this story in full length?
Speaker 5:Um, to be honest, not a ton. Um because again the people that need to know about my story have already know. Right, I live with you. Know, once I graduated and got my first job, I moved to Indianapolis and lived downtown for a little bit and then moved in with you. Know, my best friend and his wife save a little bit of money. Um, it's not like I had to tell them my story like.
Speaker 5:I've known them for 15, 20 years or so, um, and so they had known kind of about that. But um, yeah, I mean honestly, from beginning to where I'm at now, I think this is the first time that I've really kind of shared that story, this kind of laid it all out there.
Speaker 1:What's amazing is is it's almost like you're reading a book.
Speaker 1:I mean you're, you're, you do. You just kept going and going and going, and it's amazing, Cause I didn't know what to expect. You're obviously very intelligent. Um and um, your support system sounds amazing, you know, from from parents to grandparents and and uh, so certainly something I know that you're thankful for is is that family support. So talk about for those out there you know somewhere like Ben's coaching a young kid who's dealing with this, and I'm sure there's high school kids who are dealing with this and, um, you know, I, I'm sure that that, oh, I know the way kids are, that there's difficulties where kids get teased and kids get bullied and picked on because of it, and, um, which is sad, but, um, it happens. So talk about from your perspective, what it might look like for a kid out there who's dealing with the things that you dealt with in high school, and how, how you get through something like that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think definitely the biggest thing is is finding who your support system is. You know, I was lucky enough, um, my grandma was actually the nurse at the high school too, at the time that I was in school, so I had her there in case anything was happened. But the people that I grew up with I had, you know, I'm a good core of friends that I've known basically my entire life, and so that's been one thing for me, that, if, if I ever had some situations like this or in grad school when I had that stuff going on in two years, you know, being able to talk to them was extremely important for me. It's something that I relied heavily on. Um, and the other thing, too, is just right, don't be embarrassed about your situation. Right, and just kind of own it. And you know, of course people might have their opinions or say some things that aren't, aren't right and stuff like that, but it's just part of life. They more than likely have something that's different about them too that they may not want people to share, and so that's that's a huge important thing is to never be embarrassed by it. You know, I think even you know, coming on this podcast and talking with you guys is helping me still deal with it. Right, it's not something that I'm over with. It's going to be there most likely for the rest of my life. But, um, you know, I think the biggest thing is the support system again and having people you can go talk to.
Speaker 5:You know, one thing that was tough with me as a kid too, was I didn't really like people asking me all the time of like how my epilepsy was, and I was always kind of like, if it's bad, I'll tell you. If, like, if I don't say anything, then you know stuff's going well. And so I think you know, with kids sometimes Again, from that aspect of maybe it could be embarrassing I think the biggest thing for me is just treating me like any other kid, unless I have the seizure. The biggest thing for me again was just not being asked about it all the time. It just got old pretty quick Maybe. When I was young that was always the case. But when I got into high school and college I was like I'm okay, I'll tell you if I'm not okay. I can't stress it enough that the support system was huge.
Speaker 1:Yeah that's great and and had some good coaches throughout your career and, um, you know coach Johnson over at Earl on my you know he's got his own story, um, you know, with, with his wife who's passed and and all the things that he's he's dealt with in his life and you know what a what an amazing mentor for you at an important time in your life, right, yeah?
Speaker 5:I mean coach Johnson. I I've said this numerous times, numerous times, but without him I don't think I would have made it through undergrad, you know, and he's had that effect on a lot of kids throughout the years that he's been with Earlham and I. I will forever stand on that that, if you know, he wasn't our coach and I didn't. And the big thing with him is he always made himself available to everyone.
Speaker 5:Whatever problem you had going on off the field, off the, you know, on the field with family, whatever it was, he was always, you know, an open door. And again, I can't stress enough of being able to find kind of a person like that that you could just go in and kind of basically put everything on the window and just everything you're going through. And so, um, you know he's a awesome, his family's awesome, you know they're super strong with what they've had to go through, um, you know, and for him to still be open like that to his players and really any students it wasn't just his athletes Um, you know, it's it's unreal type of person.
Speaker 1:An amazing man, amazing leader, mentor. So how was it for you transitioning from? Uh, you know we know how, how the challenges when you left home and you went to Pittsburgh. But you know you're a two sport athlete in college sports stops yeah, what's that?
Speaker 5:look like that was hard. That was rough, especially because of the way that both my sports ended in college. So, of course, with baseball that I mentioned COVID, you know we were 10 games into our season, that got stripped, everything like that. But with football, as you guys may know, erland pulled the plug on his football program and that was at the end of my junior year, and so I didn't get, you know, that whole senior experience of being able to play for your final time. It just got stripped, and so really sour taste in my mouth for both sports.
Speaker 5:And that was tough, because now I was left with you know what, what am I supposed to do? And then you know the pandemic. And, right, I'm big into fitness too, and I really couldn't go to any of the public gyms at the time. You know the, the school's gymnasium was pretty restrictive, of course, you know. So it was hard and that's what made 2020 even worse. And you know, the big thing for me again was just finding what was that next hobby, um, you know, as chatting with you, um, I'm a golf addict. Now it's.
Speaker 5:I I golf 24 seven. You know I can uh, you know, thanks to my best friend. You know he uh actually golfed his last year at Richmond and then he went to Earlham also, um, and golf there, golfed there while we were in college and then he got me into it in 2021. You know, thanks to him, I've spent a lot more money than I probably should have on golf, but you know, it's been good. It's something that gets me out of the house that I look forward to. You know, a lot of times I'll even just walk the course instead of getting a card or everything, but yeah, I'm completely addicted to it. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Talk about what you're doing now, because you kind of had some change here in the past year, right, so talk about that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, this past year and a half or so has been interesting. So, when I got the job offer for the company that I worked for so this was May of 2022, big tech company I was given an offer that I could work fully remote, which was great. So, about a week before my graduation so this is probably the first week of March or of May or so they announced that an acquisition was happening. They were being acquired by a larger tech company and so, like I was freaking out, I was like, am I still going to have a job? Like a message in my recruiter and stuff like that, because you know, everything was kind of lined up how it should be and it's like all right, now throw this into it. But, yeah, stuff started out good. I still worked for them for a year and a half, but I knew that down the right with any acquisition, layoffs are always a potential, especially with big tech it's going to happen and I knew, of course, with you know, at that point in time I was only about a year and a half in, but I finally finished in the acquisition itself, finally finished in November, october, november of 2023. And, unfortunately, actually the day before Thanksgiving of 2023, I got the letter that I was being laid off and so, you know, every everything had been stable, been good. You know I was. I really enjoyed the job that I was working, who I worked for, who I worked with, even though it was remote. You know, I had a chance to go out to Denver and, you know, meet my director and even go back out to California in early 2023 to meet my, you know, manager face-to-face, which was really cool. Um, they were awesome to work with. And so you know, again, to kind of have something that was stabilized and going really well, kind of pulled under the rug was tough too.
Speaker 5:You know, the end of 2023 was hard, just in for tech in general and big tech. You know I had a lot of friends that were laid off as well. Some friends of mine worked at PayPal. Another person also worked at the same company that I was at that all went through large layoffs, so it was difficult. The job market, particularly in cybersecurity, was really tough. You know, unfortunately, with security, it's hard for companies to get a real return on investment, to put an exact number to it, and so a lot of times it can be seen that sometimes those are some of the first positions that go. Um, so that was tough and I went probably about four months unemployed, um, you know, again, lucky for me, it was super stressful but I had, you know again, kind of falling back on the support of my friends and family back home here in Richmond, um, but nothing popped up.
Speaker 5:Is Indianapolis, and Indian in general, isn't a like a huge tech hub? Every, a lot of these companies too, we're starting to go back in office, um, you know, and larger tech, which is all that I knew at that point. Right, you're looking at Silicon Valley, austin, texas, right, new York. And so I always knew that there was a chance that I was going to have to move away again, um, and so I wasn't necessarily looking forward to that. But, um, uh, but, yeah, so I got a job with a company out in Raleigh, north Carolina, actually from a referral from a guy I went to school with at Earlham, uh, and he went to the same grad school. He's a couple years younger than me. But, um, get a referral, um, I was able to to get that job. And again, it was a quick turnaround, um, you know, I think I got this job offer at the end of February and ended up moving, like the second week of March, down to Raleigh, north Carolina.
Speaker 5:Um, so, again, that was just another huge jump of you know, I was, I was settled and stabilized here and now I got to make this jump and move and again, like I mentioned, that stress has always been kind of the biggest factor in how or when I have my seizures.
Speaker 5:Uh, and, of course, I was worried about all this and, oddly enough, right, you mentioned the story from the epilepsy foundation that came out, um, you know, similar to like the American heart association where you can submit stories and stuff like that, I had actually, you know, just kind of submitted my story it was like January of 2023, interesting enough, um, and it was really I had no, you know, intentions coming from it and you know it was just another opportunity to share my story.
Speaker 5:That the Epilepsy Foundation, you know is great about sharing stories for individuals and families all around the world and so, I think, one that helped me a little bit of being able to just share my story and put that out there, but it, you know, all of the stories that they've shared have kind of helped me. So, you know, really didn't have any expectations for sharing that. I just think it was cool to kind of lay out what I had been through, um, but yeah, and then, you know, moved to Raleigh, have been there for gosh, that's about nine, 10 months already, so it's. It's crazy how fast it's gone, um, but you know things have been good, stabilized again and, uh, you know I'm enjoying. It sucks being away from family and friends, um, but it makes the times when I'm able to come back here definitely more special.
Speaker 1:So being down there, being away, no issues down there that you've had, yeah.
Speaker 5:I've I've had a couple of um seizures throughout the 10 months, but again it's hasn't been anything that um has, like it was in Pittsburgh while I was there, just kind of small episodes.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, stuff stabilized pretty well, Would you say, as you have have gotten older and you've matured, that you recognize how to kind of control your mindset a little bit on. Hey, okay, this is a trigger, I need to step away from this. Or, you know, I need to take a deep breath. I mean, are those things that you've kind of learned as you've gotten a little older?
Speaker 5:Oh, absolutely, I think one of the the and I don't know this definitively but I think one of the biggest things that contributed to some of the frequencies that I would have seizures, particularly in high school, college and even a little bit in grad school, is just managing stress Like how, what are the best ways? Um, and I didn't have, really and that's where sports were so important for me, because that was my, you know, de-stress. That was being able to go out in the field two and a half hours and get away from everything. Um, you know, and when that was stripped, uh, that was hard too, and I've always been, particularly when I was younger, I was always a person that kind of internalized everything. Right, I didn't really kind of talk to anybody about, like, some stuff that's going on in school or you know, any personal stuff at home. You know, I just kind of kept all that inside. You know any personal stuff at home, you know, I just kind of kept all that inside, you know, and really, when that first seizure happened in Pittsburgh in 2020, it's like, okay, something, I have to do something differently. You know, and particularly once I graduated, you know, and I had already tried all these different medicines and some, some different avenues. You know it's, I think it I just had to be better at managing stress and I think that's helped me significantly.
Speaker 5:You know, I in college, at earlham, I got into yoga, um, not voluntarily, but the the baseball team, we all did yoga. But for me, um, of course it was really good physically, but just on the mental side of things was huge. Um, you know, maybe a lot of people might not it's like oh, why are you doing yoga? I mean, it's it was, it was awesome. It really helped me a lot just being able to to de-stress and kind of work through some things. And you know, even you know, over this last year that I've been in Raleigh, one thing I've wanted to focus on is just dieting more and really being an intentional. You know, I've got a ton of different vitamins that I take and and been working on dieting and getting back in the gym and doing some different things too and, um, you know, again, just learning how to to manage that stress, um, and just be more proactive. And you know, my health overall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great man. Um, I want to ask you a couple of questions as we kind of land this plane. You've done a phenomenal job for for not telling this story in depth. I mean it, I swear. It's like you're sitting here reading a book and there's no book here for anybody who's just listening. Um, what do you envision your life in the future?
Speaker 5:Yeah, um, you know that's it's always a difficult question, right, cause I've had a lot of change over the last five years. So it's kind of the point where it's like I just want to stabilize and be on one kind of thing. Um, you know, for me I would definitely like to get back, you know, either to Indianapolis or just being closer to family, for sure, uh, family and friends, of course, and so that you know, outside of personal goals from a career standpoint, you know that's just a goal for mine to get back and be closer. I always was kind of the one that was like I want to, I want to get away, I want to move out. Um, now that I had moved out a little bit, I was like okay, it might be a little easier and more fun to be back home when I can go visit.
Speaker 5:You know all these other places but you know, from a career standpoint I kind of chatted with you this a little bit as well I could definitely see myself in kind of a managerial role. You know this is also you know, us doing this podcast is a chance for me to share my story and I hope to to do some other things in the Epilepsy Foundation. You know they actually have what's called the walk to end epilepsy and they're doing that walk in Raleigh kind of the first week of March. So you know, I think for me too I'd like to get into that role of just being able to share my story and kind of being an ambassador for for people who are going through a similar situation that you know I went through as a young child and then I'm still going through as a young adult now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great answer and I think that's extremely important. And, again, the reason that we do this podcast is because, you know, we've had people on here who have been as old as um what was Jim? 84, 85 years old, you know, telling their story of their life. You know, you're you're probably one of the youngest um to to be on here. So it's kind of interesting for me, um, you know, to go from someone who's been in their eighties and live their life and to hear someone like you, who's who's still fully youth and and excitement and vigor and ready to take on the world.
Speaker 1:You know and um to to hear those different answers, and you know from, from interviewing all these different people. So that's a great answer, man. You, you got a. You got a lot coming your way. That's that's good stuff. You are a very, uh, very unique, uh, motivated young man. Um, this one's a little deeper. If you could have a conversation with one person, living or deceased, who would it be and why?
Speaker 5:Oh, now, this is just anybody Like you don't have to go anybody. Yeah, that's really interesting. Um, I mean, it kind of caught me off guard.
Speaker 1:That's good, that's what I want.
Speaker 5:Um, you know, I think one of the things that would be really cool is to chat with someone who has gone in terms of living with epilepsy. Um, you know, actually one thing that's pretty cool was, um, Alan. I can't remember who pronounces that, Faneca, but he was a guard for the Steelers for a long time.
Speaker 1:He's a Faneca. You call yourself a Steeler.
Speaker 2:I knew his first name, so he actually has epilepsy too, and you call yourself a Steeler. I knew his first name. Us Bengals fans got it. He terrorized the world for a while.
Speaker 5:So he actually has epilepsy too, really. So it would actually be really cool to sit down with someone like that who's been you know, of course I wasn't in professional football or anything like that, but played the sport, who's gone through a lot of different things, you know. So, chatting, if I had the opportunity to chat with Alan and just see what some of the stuff that he's gone through and how he made it to where he is today, of course, playing through the National Football League as a lineman with epilepsy, I can only imagine what that was like. So that would be really cool just to see from another person's perspective. Lucky enough, with some of the stuff just from the Epilepsy Foundation story that I posted, I had someone that I went to high school with um that reached out, um right off the bat and, you know, just was asking about my experiences and some of the stuff that I've gone through, and so I think being able to share and hear other people's stories is awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, I hope that. I hope that, um, you know what comes of this podcast as we share it when it comes out, and all the little shorts and reels that we'll make from it, um, that hopefully you're flooded with with those calls and text messages where you can have those conversations, cause I think it's important for you, I think it's important for you to to tell your story and, um, you know, to talk it out and for other people to understand. You know, because, like like I said, I don't know a lot about epilepsy. So I hope that you get some fulfillment from doing this, not only from just sitting here and telling it, but from other people.
Speaker 1:So, last question I have for you you got any closing thoughts, any words of wisdom, any quote that you live by that you know when times are tough. You know when you're times are tough. You know when you're when you're sitting in Pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and you have a massive seizure and you're just trying to figure out. You know why, why is this me, and what am I going to do and where am I going to go? What gets you through that?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think you know one of the I guess kind of an easy one, right, there's always light at the end of the tunnel, kind of thing, right, peaks and valleys to life.
Speaker 5:I think, right, if we've gotten into a more digital world and we're able to see lives of basically anyone that we'd want to, I think one of the biggest things that I would share with folks with epilepsy, or just in life in general, is that comparison is the thief of joy, and I think that as you begin to to look at your life and, right, social media, and you can see into the lives of these other people and like, maybe you're not really where you want to be.
Speaker 5:You know, I think it's truly important to to stay grounded and really not think about what other people are doing, but look at where you were in the past, where you are today and where you want to be in the future. And so when I look back, right, I'm still having seizures, right, no-transcript, the epilepsy foundations, and you can see where other people have at, but you're not comparing yourself, right, it's more of an inspiration, um, but yeah, comparison is the thief of joy and that's something that I for sure have learned over the last couple of years is um. Social media has a lot of good things, but uh, that is one bad thing. For sure that.
Speaker 1:I can take from it for sure. Yeah, I love it. That's awesome, man. Uh, you're an inspiration. I mean, you may not feel like it, but you are. You are an inspiration. I mean I'm sitting here with goosebumps hearing you, hearing you tell this story, and you're 20 some years old. I mean it's um, I didn't know what to expect from today, um, but you blew it out of the water and, um, your story's amazing, your family's amazing, your support system, your friends, um, you know, um, I hope we get you back up here in this area, because we need more people like you up here, inspiring and sharing your story and and being a mentor to others. Just like, you know, coach Oliva was at Richmond and coach Johnson was at Earlham, and, and all those coaches and professors that you had throughout your life that, um, you know, help you get through those times when, when they were the darkest. So, um, I appreciate you coming and being on the podcast, man.
Speaker 5:Yeah, absolutely. Thank you guys for having me. You know again, for this is just, you know, helps me again in my journey of being able to share this with others. So, no, you guys having a platform and being able to share that with folks. I greatly appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we appreciate you If. If somebody wants to connect with you on social media, how can they? How can they find you?
Speaker 5:Yeah, so I'm pretty much on all the major platforms. You know Facebook, instagram, linkedin, if you're, you know, into the more business side of things. So, yeah, I my similar to what Coach Johnson for me. You know I'm an open door. You know I hope that folks come to me and have questions and that you know that they are looking for some guidance or just even someone to talk to or share their experience with. You know, but yeah, I'm on all the social media platforms. You know someone to talk to or share their experience with. You know, but yeah, I'm on all the social media platforms. You know, don't hesitate to reach out. You know I love sharing my stories. It's definitely a unique one, you know, it helps me and I hope it helps other people as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. Well, jordan Christian, thank you again for being on the Be Tempered podcast and everybody out there. I don't know how you don't share this with someone. I'm sure that there's someone out there in our immediate area and in the surrounding areas that need to hear this story, and especially those young kids that may be dealing with this and wondering why and asking why and just trying to figure life out. So be sure to share the show. We appreciate your ears. Everybody. Go out and be tempered.
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