Everything Counts

Bonus: Try it first, decide later.

• Kristin

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In this bonus episode of Everything Counts (but nothing is real), Kristin sits down with her almost 10-year-old niece, Quinn, for an off-script conversation about school, art, animals, ambition, and all the possibilities that exist before work becomes a defining force in our lives.

There’s no tidy narrative arc here, and that’s the point. Through stories about clay figurines, lemonade stand economics, animal rescue videos, sibling dynamics, and future dreams of teaching and saving animals, Quinn offers a reminder of what it’s like to be “pre-work,” when curiosity leads and some identities are still joyfully undecided.

This episode is a reflection on trying things before mastering them, wanting more than one future, and allowing phases, pivots, and wonder to coexist. It’s an invitation to reconnect with childlike imagination and to remember that not every meaningful path needs to make sense right away.

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Kristin:

Welcome to Everything Counts But Nothing Is Real, a podcast about careers, detours, and the absurdity of work. Here we explore the twists, the pivots, and the tiny choices that shape our work lives with humor, feminism, and honesty. I'm your host Kristen. Let's get into it. Hello and welcome to Everything Counts But Nothing Is Real. Today I have such a special guest. I'm so excited. This is bonus episode number two. To be clear, we are off script a little, and that is on purpose. Today's guest is my almost 10-year-old niece, Quinn. She is an aspiring artist slash aspiring everything. Because at the end of the day, aren't kids all aspiring everything? One thing you'll notice throughout this episode is that there is no clear arc here. This is not a there's not a narrative to tell. And I think that's beautiful because isn't that how we all started? We all started the world was wide open to us, and it was impossible to tell a cohesive story. And I think that again is the point of everything counts. It's that sometimes when we're in it, we don't see the narrative. We don't see the arc. We just we're just in it. And when we're little, we are really in it, and we don't have a ton to look back on and learn from. We have nothing but possibility ahead of us. So I hope that you enjoy hearing all about her life and her aspirations and her current realities. Anyway, without further ado, welcome to the show, my niece Quinn. Hi, Quinny!

Quinn:

Hi, Kristen. Hi. Quinn. Yeah.

Kristin:

What did we just do?

Quinn:

We made dirt. We made dirt out of pudding, Oreos, whipped cream, um, gummy worms, and that's it.

Kristin:

I think that was it. Was it delicious?

Quinn:

Yeah.

Kristin:

Was it a fun way to start the day?

Quinn:

Yeah.

Kristin:

It's only 9 30 and we've had nothing but sugar.

Quinn:

True.

Kristin:

I also have a coffee here. I don't know where I put it though. Okay. Oh, there's your coffee. Okay. Quinn? This podcast is about work and life. And I want to talk to you about school and your art and your hopes and dreams for your future. Okay. Will you first tell us what grade you're in?

Quinn:

I'm in fourth grade.

Kristin:

What is your favorite thing about school?

Quinn:

Probably my friends in school.

Kristin:

Your friends?

Quinn:

Yeah.

Kristin:

Um, what is your favorite subject in school?

Quinn:

Why math?

Kristin:

Math?

Quinn:

Either math or ELA.

Kristin:

Math and ELA.

Quinn:

I said either math or ELA.

Kristin:

That's a to like both of those is a big deal. Social studies and that bad at it. Do you think that your teachers really matter in how much you like a subject?

Quinn:

A lot.

Kristin:

A little?

Quinn:

Yeah. I feel like they're all good at they're f I feel like they're all good at a different subject.

Kristin:

They're good at their subject that they can eat. Yeah. But like sometimes their style doesn't like agree with you.

Quinn:

Yeah. It does sometimes and it doesn't sometimes.

Kristin:

Can you tell me a story about one of your favorite classes? Like something cool that you learned or like an activity that you did.

Quinn:

So on Friday, all fourth grade skipped their first period because we were doing a skiing activity. So you had tin foil, you made a little person out of it, and then you taped him to little like popsicle sticks for like skis. And then you could bang him however you wanted to make like a little ski person. And then we would race it down a like like a metal thing, and it would go all the way down. And then the winning pairs, the two winning pairs of each class would move on to the finals. And me and my the one who I was with named Erica, that's who I was paired with. Um, we got to the finals.

Kristin:

Amazing. What do you think was special about yours that made you get to the finals?

Quinn:

Um, so the smaller the figure is, the more mo like the more momentum it has. Yeah. So the faster it goes. And ours was like pretty swift squished down. Okay. So it made it go pretty fast. So which made us go get to the finals. And at first, so we're it was us against a couple other kids. But first, we were up against one group and we won that round. Then we were up against another group and we lost. But at least we made it to the finals.

Kristin:

That's so cool. I'm so glad that's a good one.

Quinn:

The winners of the whole game were um Cameron and someone else. I don't remember.

Kristin:

That's amazing. It's really cool that you got to the finals.

Quinn:

Yeah.

Kristin:

What's your favorite sport?

Quinn:

Either tennis or soccer. Soccer. I like it. I did soccer club in either second or I think second grade.

Kristin:

Okay. You want to go back to soccer maybe? I don't know. What about uh tumbling? Are you liking tumbling?

Quinn:

Yeah. Although I got offended by it.

Kristin:

Oh yeah, tell us the story about your little kid that offended you.

Quinn:

We were in class and it was like begin, it was like it wasn't time yet. So we were just sitting on the bo floor and we were talking to each other. And um you were talking about how old we were. And I told them I was nine. And she said, you know that if you're in a beginner class, you're a baby, and then I just stopped talking.

Kristin:

I'm so sad. Maybe it just means you're a you're new at tumbling, like baby new. You know what I love? What? I love that you like to try new things. Like you've done soccer and tennis. You did dance for a while?

Quinn:

I did dance. I've been doing dance since we lived in Texas.

Kristin:

Do you miss dance? Do you want to go back to dancing?

Quinn:

Thanks so.

Kristin:

No? No, not really. Tell us about how you were in the nut cracker last year.

Quinn:

I was in the nutcracker.

Kristin:

What role did you play?

Quinn:

I don't remember what they're called. But my clas my group my class was um like a bunch of little statues of liberties. Oh yeah. We were going around with little torches and like the bigger statue of Liberty was like taking her torch and lighting ours up, and we would like press a button on the bottom with our thumb.

Kristin:

And light it.

Quinn:

And light it, acting like this their torch her torch was lighting ours, but it wasn't really it. We were just pressing the button underneath to make it look like she was lighting it.

Kristin:

That's cool. It was a Jersey City themed nutcracker.

Quinn:

Yeah.

Kristin:

That's pretty cool. I want to talk about your favorite thing in the world. You love art. You're an artist. Can you tell us about what kind of art you make?

Quinn:

Since I live right by the water and by New York, I get I have a really good view. So I um like to paint the skyline of New York.

Kristin:

You're so good at that. The skylines are so good. You also make tiny figurines out of clay.

Quinn:

Yeah, I do.

Kristin:

Tell us about that.

Quinn:

Um, I stopped a little bit ago. I was like taking a pause on the clay because I I was running low on it, so I like wanted to take a pause for a while. Um but yeah, I did make a lot of small figurines. I made my pets, I made um like little m junk items, like a little tiny pink hat, like a little makeup thing, a little shoe, a little coffee cup. Like I made a lot of little things. Little some some of them were just like little random items. Um I made a couple of my stuffed animals into Yeah you did. I made one that grandma likes a lot. Um I so last Christmas, not 2025, but like 2024, uh Daddy Gate got me a sock monkey for Christmas. Yeah. And I made it into clay, and now it's grandma's favorite piece of art.

Kristin:

It's so good. Grandma's very proud of it.

Quinn:

I think she wished she could keep it.

Kristin:

I think she just wants the world to see it. So we've talked before about figuring out how to get the world to see your art. Do you have ideas about that?

Quinn:

So me and mommy already have plans for my 10th birthday.

Kristin:

Okay.

Quinn:

So some more we're thinking about in our lounge. We're going to do an art gallery where people can come and like buy art. There's gonna be a tattoo artist there. Yeah. Like a real tattoo artist putting permanent tattoos on the adults, and then we're also gonna have fake tattoos for the kids.

Kristin:

I'm obsessed. Are you excited about that? Yeah. Are you excited to have lots of people get to see your art for the first time?

Quinn:

Yeah.

Kristin:

Are you and you're gonna like display it and curate it?

Quinn:

Yeah. We have a lot of okay.

Kristin:

We also have talked about one time you, you know, because this podcast is about work. So one time you told me you wanted to figure out how to make money. And we talked about lemonade stands, but also we talked about selling your art.

Quinn:

I do want to make a lemonade stand this summer. Yeah. I've always wanted to make a lemonade stand. I don't like know how to get like make a stand. Could you do it?

Kristin:

Like a table?

Quinn:

Yeah.

Kristin:

I bet we could just rent a table for you.

Quinn:

Or like get a foli up table?

Kristin:

Yeah. And we could like put like a a tablecloth on it? Yeah. Do you want that? Would you do it? Where would you do it? Outside of your apartment? Um like at a park.

Quinn:

Probably like at Hamilton Park or something.

Kristin:

Yeah, I like the idea.

Quinn:

Or like Liberty State Park.

Kristin:

At a park, that's fun. You could have water too for like people who are running.

Quinn:

Mm-hmm. Like water in a lemonade. And the water would probably be like two dollars. And then like the lemonade. Um, if you just want a regular, it would be um four. And if you wanted ice, it would probably five. Okay, let's talk about animals. Yeah. Tell me you have one in your lap right now.

Kristin:

I do have an animal in my lap. I I often have a tiny chihuahua sitting with me. She loves me. Tell us about your dog and your two cats.

Quinn:

Um, so my dog's name is Winston, and he is a type of mutt. And he has like a pretty black his like body is brown, but he has like a black back.

Kristin:

Yeah.

Quinn:

Which is really cute. I take him on walks and mommy feeds him. And the two cats. My sister Piper's is Patch. And mine is Milo. Milo's pro the more shy one, like he's more of a scaredy cat.

Kristin:

Yeah, he is.

Quinn:

And he looks a lot like Puss and Boots. So whoever's wondering what he looks like, he looks like Puss and Boots. Without the boots.

Kristin:

Without the boots.

Quinn:

Without any of the accessories. Like Puss without all the gear.

Kristin:

Okay. Yeah, he really does look like that.

Quinn:

And even the big eyes, he goes like he hasn't the big eyes like Puss.

Kristin:

He's very shy, so he really only likes you.

Quinn:

Yeah, he likes my bed. Yeah. My bed, I say this all the time. My my bed for him is like cat heaven.

Kristin:

It's because it's up high and it smells like you.

Quinn:

Yeah. And then Pat is the more like snuggly one. He'll like he'll go up to you and just like, if you're sitting on the couch, like go up to you and like rub your legs, like he's the more, oh, I want Pet to pick me up, feed me. Like he's the more demanding one. Yeah. He's the more boss baby. He's a baby. He's like a boss baby.

Kristin:

He's a boss. He's a baby. He's a boss.

Quinn:

Yeah. Um, and I feel like he's really um he gets really hangy a lot. Yeah. Like he gets really angry. Like, he'll go crazy. Like he'll meow like crazy. He'll run around. Just wants food. He's just hungry all the time. Like, I'll feed him, and then 10 minutes later, when the bowl as soon as the bowl gets empty, he'll meow at me again. He's just a hungry boy. He's growing. What were their names before you got them? Um, so Patra's name was Patrick Mahomes. Uh-huh. And Milo's name was Travis Kelsey. So funny. I liked I lied to Milo to be my cat because um Travis Kelsey is Taylor Swift's um fiance. And um, she's my favorite singer. And also, I just felt like Milo needed some love because he was all the way in the back, and I was like, oh my god, wait, I like that kid.

Kristin:

Yeah.

Quinn:

And Pi Piper was really growing like a bond with Patch, so I was like, I like the one in the back. And then once we got them, when I first uh saw them, I was like, oh my god, they're so cute. And then the m the um longer they stayed, like the more days went on, um, the more Milo grew to like me.

Kristin:

Yeah.

Quinn:

And then he started climbing up in my bed every night, and then I'd wake up with the cat just purring on my head. He he does sometimes go above my head and will like take his paws and like scratch at my head. But like gently? Yeah, he'll just like Oh. Sometimes his clothes will get stuck in my hair though, which sometimes hurt. Sure. He's like, Marvel.

Kristin:

Where did you first see the cats?

Quinn:

On Pride Day.

Kristin:

Yeah, Jersey City Pride. They were in like a little stand, weren't they?

Quinn:

They're my yeah. They're my pride babies.

Kristin:

They're your pride babies. I love that. They're my rainbow kiddings. Do you know what pride is? Can you tell us about pride? Um tell us about what pride is like us in uh Jersey City.

Quinn:

Um so it's all like colorful and like rainbowy.

Kristin:

Uh-huh.

Quinn:

And I think it means like um the free like freedom.

Kristin:

Yeah. It's talking about freedom for everyone. Freedom for people to love whoever they want to love. Yeah. Can we talk about what you picture for your future? What do you wanna what do you wanna do when you get older?

Quinn:

Either probably I've been thinking a lot about being an animal rescuer, but at the same time, I've I've been thinking about being a teacher too. You could do both. Yeah, I kinda wanna do both, but like do like the animals on the weekends and teacher on the weekdays so that like I can teach, but then at the same time, on the weekends I'm doing. I love that.

Kristin:

What kind of teaching do you want to do? Oh, duh. Do you want to do elementary school? Like kids your age? Yeah.

Quinn:

Yeah? Like fourth grade, third grade. Okay. Probably like third to fifth.

Kristin:

I like that.

Quinn:

Like second to fifth. Like not I want to do first under because they're a little bit crazy. And I don't want to do sixth up because they're a bunch of teenagers.

Kristin:

Yeah.

Quinn:

You're just like your grandma.

Kristin:

Grandma goes everywhere. I n well your grandma grew up. She's a high school. She has, but she's most comfortable in elementary school. You know? Yeah.

Quinn:

They're a little bit elementary school, like four, like second to um like second to fifth, are a little bit calmer than um first and unbanned six and up.

Kristin:

Oh yeah.

Quinn:

Six and up are crazy.

Kristin:

You are correct about that. You went with me and Lauren to pick up Estee from the Rescuers. Yes. Do you remember that?

Quinn:

Yeah.

Kristin:

Did you learn anything? Did you have any observations from watching those people do animal rescue?

Quinn:

Um not really, but I know I used to watch videos on like so I still do. Um I watch YouTube Shorts on this man. He like there will be someone with their cat or dog, and he'll and like they'll be like hurting the cat cat. Like one time I saw one the cat the person the woman um coated the dog and like glue. Oh no. And then my the man took the dog away and rushed it to the vet, and then he got arrested just for helping a dog who's about to die. Oh no. He got arrested? Wow. Did he get out? Yeah, and then he got out and then recorded the woman from the window doing it again on the dog, and then showed the police, and then the woman got arrested for animal endangerment.

Kristin:

Wow. Why what was she was coating a dog in glue?

Quinn:

Yeah. Huh. And I also saw one when she a woman um put a cat on a balloon, like a bunch of balloons, and like it floated away. What? But the but the man got in a helicopter and chased it down and got the cat. Cat's fine, but then the woman got arrested. Wow. Every time she saves the pet, when the person that that was the owner goes to jail, uh-huh. She he keeps the pet and I don't think the owner ever gets it back. Wow. Is this a real guy?

Kristin:

Yeah.

Quinn:

He has like a camera that like goes on his chest and he's like running around and helping that I just can't believe he gets arrested for helping in this.

Kristin:

Yeah. Um well that makes me think of several other things. So one, didn't you watch a video about a man who like rescued an axolotl?

Quinn:

Um, so yeah, I watched episodes on there's two people, there's two men that I watch that save animal like water animals or like and animals in general.

Kristin:

Uh-huh.

Quinn:

Um, their YouTube channels are one of them are Terra Green, and then the other one is um Piper calls him the fish guy.

Kristin:

The fish guy.

Quinn:

When it's really bash bass fishing productions.

Kristin:

Okay, okay. Is the fish guy the axolato guy?

Quinn:

Well, they both they both saved axolottos. Oh the the fish guy has saved has he shows his face and like he goes, he saved snakes, spiders, he saved giant birds before. He's saved a lot of different crazy animals. But the Terra Green, he's saved axolotls. Well, like he's made enclosures for axolotls, spiders, snakes, bird-eating tarantulas that are so big that they eat birds.

Kristin:

Oh my god.

Quinn:

And he's um done one, he's done a couple videos on he goes around and flips a hundred rocks in like a forest desert. He flips like a hundred rocks to see what crazy animals are under it.

Kristin:

Wow.

Quinn:

Yeah.

Kristin:

That's really cool. So you're like learning a lot about animals on YouTube.

Quinn:

Yeah.

Kristin:

Okay, that makes me think about how you're a vegetarian.

Quinn:

I am.

Kristin:

Can you talk to us about that?

Quinn:

Um, well, I I like to be I'm half vegetarian and half not vegetarian. I'm not not fully vegetarian because I eat chicken nuggets and hot dogs.

Kristin:

Oh, yeah, you do love hot dogs. Yes. This morning we were talking about like how you sometimes you even feel sad eating like a gummy worm because it's cute. Because it's so cute.

Quinn:

That's why I'm vegetarian, also because I don't like to hurt the ant. Because like the meat comes from the animals, and I don't like the fact that the animals are getting hurt just for meat.

Kristin:

I agree.

Quinn:

People should just start farming more.

Kristin:

I agree. Don't kill the pigs and the cows. Um and also you're kind of born this way. Because I was born I was born not liking meat.

Quinn:

I've only eaten chicken nuggets and hot dogs my whole life.

Kristin:

Yeah.

Quinn:

That's the only meat I've I've ever eaten. Well, I've eaten pepperoni before. But did you like it? I like I I liked it at the time, but then I I started not liking it anymore.

Kristin:

Well, when I was a little kid, I also liked chicken nuggets and hot dogs because they didn't look like the animals that I was eating. You know? Yeah. They just kind of look like whatever.

Quinn:

Because chicken nuggets, they're like, I don't know, I don't know. Like they're at a lot of like fast food restaurants. So like I eat them a lot because Piper likes McDonald's and Wendy's. And then hot dogs, I don't even know what animal they came from, so I don't really feel bad eating them because I don't know what they came from.

Kristin:

Yeah.

Quinn:

Like what do hot dogs come from?

Kristin:

I think it depends on the kind of hot dog, but I think they come from cows. I thought steak cake. Steak does come from cows. Oh.

Quinn:

I didn't know the difference.

Kristin:

Do you well they're definitely different kind of meat because steaks are fancy apparently.

Quinn:

And hot dogs are like, whoa, whoa. Hot dog? I one time I said randomly, do hot dogs come from actual dogs?

Kristin:

Oh.

Quinn:

I said that once. I thought it was I thought like they came from a wiener dog.

Kristin:

Oh my god. That would be so terrible. Do you remember going to that farm? So, like the farm the rescue farm. It had goats and cows and pigs. Yeah. What did you think about that?

Quinn:

It was So fun. It was the animals were so cute.

Kristin:

You fell in love with a goat named Marley, I think.

Quinn:

Yeah, because he was cute. Yeah. She or she was cute. I don't remember who those girls were.

Kristin:

I don't remember either. But that guy also rescues the guy that gave us the tour. He rescues those animals. You've also been making social media with your mom.

Quinn:

Yeah.

Kristin:

Do you like doing that? Yeah. You're really good at it.

Quinn:

I have there's I have one that's gone like been has been viral for like months since 2025.

Kristin:

Yeah.

Quinn:

And so we were at the mountain house. And at first, so we were outside making a fire, and we called mom's boyfriend at the time, Jake, and asked, hey, does this fire look correct? And I had already roasted a marshmallow, but before I took a bite, we asked Jake, does this look good? And apparently it wasn't.

Kristin:

Oh no.

Quinn:

Because it the it was oh the fire was on the fire fire starter, which wasn't good. It had to be on the lawns. Oh, right.

Kristin:

Yeah. So I threw out the marshmallow. Freaked out marshmallow. Um and I and then we went, and then the next day we were inside and we were making a fire. And I said randomly, do we need to call, do we need to ask a man for help? We don't need an ask a man for help. We're girls, we don't need a man. And then she wanted me to say the whole thing again so that we could get on video and it is. And then it went crazy viral. Yeah, it's it got picked up by another account. Yeah. And went viral again. And again. And again. Do you like going viral? Yeah. You know what I like that you I especially like that you went viral for being a feminist.

Quinn:

What is a feminist?

Kristin:

Someone who believes in the power of women. Oh yeah. You do, don't you? Yeah. Yeah. You like making videos. Not just that video, but even doing videos with your mom.

Quinn:

Yeah.

Kristin:

And you're getting really good at acting.

Quinn:

Yeah, I am getting, yeah.

Kristin:

Do you want to do any more any acting?

Quinn:

Classes? No.

Kristin:

No. Yeah, I also heard you're not interested in art classes because you already know how to make art, right?

Quinn:

Yeah, I don't mean art.

Kristin:

Will you tell us about that time that you did fashion camp?

Quinn:

A lot of the time I would so on certain days, mom would take me to New York because my fashion club was there. And we would like use sewing machines, fabric, we make shirts, shirts, and other stuff. Um, at some point in time when there was like a little tiny bit of time, I took like one piece of like stretchy fabric and I like folded it and I just f like like sewed the sides with the sewing machine. Yeah and now I just had like a little purse.

Kristin:

I remember picking you up that day and you were like, Oh, I just needed something to carry my stuff, so I made a purse. And I was like, What? That's amazing.

Quinn:

That wasn't amazing. It was cool. Do you still have that purse? Oh, I think so, but I think it's a little bit ripped. That's okay. Not like the fabric, but like the thread. Are you still interested in fashion design? I still have my mid-gun.

Kristin:

You do?

Quinn:

I want my I want to get my sewing machine done. Someday. You don't have a sewing machine?

Kristin:

I do. Oh. Where is it? I don't know. Oh, okay. I have one. Oh, you do? You can use here, yeah. I did not know you had sewed. I used to sew. I did not know that. Okay, so tell me about you have some pretty specific ideas about your future and how many kids you have and how many dogs you have. Tell us about that.

Quinn:

First of all, I want to live in a house. Like not an apartment building, but like a house. Yeah. So like I'll say kind of like a yard and stuff like that. And then I also I want five kids. Uh-huh. But I'm gonna start off with one just in case, like I just want one. I like I might want another one, but like I wanna start off with one so that like I can see how it goes, and then if I don't if I really want another one, I can get another one. But I I'm gonna start off with one.

Kristin:

Okay.

Quinn:

And then for the dogs, I want a wiener dog.

Kristin:

Uh-huh.

Quinn:

And a husky. And a German shepherd. I mean. Well, either German shepherd or golden.

Kristin:

Ooh.

Quinn:

But I really want a dachshund. I do too. I love them. They're so cute. They're so long.

Kristin:

And do you want to live do you think you want to live here in New Jersey? Um, it depends. Depends on what.

Quinn:

I don't depends on what. I might want to like I I either want to go back to Texas or stay in New Jersey.

Kristin:

Okay. Okay. What do you like about Texas?

Quinn:

Um I like it because like there were more like houses and apartments. Yeah. And um that's where I grew up most of my life. I was there for six years.

Kristin:

And then you came here.

Quinn:

Yeah, and I came here and uh and then I just want to move back there because it just feels I just wanna be back at time.

Kristin:

It just feels like home to you. Yeah. Yeah. This is the big city, isn't it? It's not for you. It's sub-home. It's sub-home. Yeah. Okay. And so if you go you go to college, you might go to Texas. That could be cool.

Quinn:

I didn't want to do I wanna I wanna do school here.

Kristin:

Okay.

Quinn:

I wanna finish college. I graduate college here. Okay. I don't want to graduate in Texas when all of you guys are in New Jersey. That's fair.

Kristin:

You're gonna be here with your fam. Yeah. Okay, last topic. You're a big sister. Does that make you good at teaching? Does that make you good at giving advice? Tell me about being a big sister.

Quinn:

It's quite hard. It's quite hard. When your little sister it always takes stuff from you.

Kristin:

It's hard to share.

Quinn:

Like I read at night, she'll take the remote from my bed.

Kristin:

Uh-huh.

Quinn:

Just to turn on what she wants to watch.

Kristin:

I know, she's a night owl.

Quinn:

I know, but also at the same time, it'll be my turn to pick what we watch for bed, and then she'll go to mommy be like, Sissy won't turn on this. And then she'll mommy won't come in here in our room and she'll be like, Quinn, put on what your sister wants. Put on what you want your sister wants to watch. You're gonna go to sleep anyways. But then I'm like, but mom, it's my turn to w first of all, it's my turn to watch. Second of all, she's gonna go to sleep too. So what? She's gonna go to sleep too. Like that's what I'm thinking in my head. I'm like, wait, but mom, it's my sir. It's mine. And then she gets to pick, and then I'm trying to pick the next night, and then she gets to pick again.

Kristin:

That's the burden of being a big sister, huh?

Quinn:

And at the same time, every morning I'll find like five of my stuffed animals from my bed in her bed.

Kristin:

Do you ever but do you help her? Do you give her advice? Do you find joy from being a big sister? So yeah, sometimes.

Quinn:

Yeah, you get to be in charge of things. But at the same time, she makes she thinks she's in charge. She does, I'm not kidding. I'm not even kidding.

Kristin:

When you think about school and your art and trying new things, do you have any advice?

Quinn:

Um not really. I'm more likely asking other people for advice. What kind of questions? What kind of questions do you ask people for advice? Any advice on uh what to do about whatever I'm g I'm doing.

Kristin:

Okay. Do you ask your friends for advice or do you ask like teachers and grown-ups?

Quinn:

Um grown-ups and some not really my friends, but like sometimes.

Kristin:

Okay. When you text, do you fix your typos? What do you do you have typos when you text? You don't really What are typos? When you like misspell a word or something.

Quinn:

No, because it just fixes it.

Kristin:

Yeah, you have mastered how to have the text uh just happen. Right?

Quinn:

You just if I do misspell a word, it's normally just like one letter that's wrong. And then it will just like pop up as the right word.

Kristin:

And you just click that word.

Quinn:

Yeah. But if I got like more than like two letters incorrect, then it will be like it'll have like a red squiggly line underneath, and I'll click it and it'll show me the options on what I'm trying to spell, and I'll click on the one that's correct.

Kristin:

Okay. So you never send a text with a typo with a misspelling.

Quinn:

Never.

Kristin:

Never. Okay, I'm biased, but I thought that was adorable. And I laughed out loud uh at several parts. And I also promised you a pre-work, post-work dichotomy in these bonus episodes. So last time our bonus episode was of Lauren's grandmother, who is post-work, enjoying her life as an elder. And now we have this episode of Quinn who is pre-work. Work to her is some vague concept. She, you know, she sees the rest of us doing it, but what does that even mean? And it's kind of beautiful the dreaming that gets to happen in between those points. What I really hope that we all take away from this is that like beauty of the fact the kids can show us that we don't have to be attached to one thing. We can want it all. We can actually do it all, maybe not all at the same time. But maybe we have phases in our lives, pivots, perhaps. We can try something and then see if it works. Try again. One of my favorite things is how she talks about having kids. As like, I'll have one to try it out, and then maybe I'll have five. And like it's adorable and actually so real. Like, let's try it. Let's try a thing. Let's make a mistake, let's aim for the stars, and let's keep going. I hope that this episode made you smile, and I hope that you take a little bit of like childlike wonder and hope into the rest of your day, thinking about who you were, who you are, what kind of path you've been on. And I want you to find joy in that path. Think about those moments that sometimes when we think back, we they feel hard and they feel heavy, but they were special and they were important, and they're how you got to be who you are today. Let's all be a little kid today. Thanks for listening to everything counts, but nothing is real. Remember, even when nothing feels real, everything you do counts. Capitalism may be absurd, but so are we. And on that note, well, it's been real. Don't forget to subscribe. I'm Kristen. See you next time.