SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the Tyler Reagan Exchange. Today we have on Micah Salman. He was one of my first students when I was in youth ministry. And he has transitioned from student to really, really, really good friend and a really special podcast guest. So I hope you enjoy and have a great day. What's up? And then I'm just going to give a definition about how much stress you've caused in my life. Oh, that's perfect. Yeah. Because I do a separate introduction. Yeah. But I don't even know how to introduce you as a person. Thank you. My friend now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

I mean. Originally my worst nightmare. Yeah. And then it like simultaneously your friend. And worst nightmare. Yeah. And then like and then just friend, I feel like recently. You don't cause me an issue. No, not you.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

I feel like if you live close, you absolutely. If you live through it, I'll be like, oh, there he goes again. You just give me no problems on TK.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

You leave me open in the corner a lot. I I do do that a lot. I just I don't always hit, so I mean, you shoot pretty good when you're open. With the new bill, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Yeah. You should you shoot pretty good. Do you think we should build Chaston? You think we should have Chaston join the build him? Absolutely. But we have literally he can only shoot with Con Knipple and Tyler Hero. That's it. I'll I'll fix him. So did he tell you about the two games after he faced on you? No, he did not. I beat him by 40 twice in a row. I don't think he cares. No, he doesn't. But it would what so the whole game, he was just then he called you and he was just I called. No, but he texted me. Yeah, he sent me a picture.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

I was like, I was like, this is right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

But he's like, he's like, I'm gonna rub this in your face. I've never beat you in anything.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

I'm just like okay I could, I could he banned over to like and then he's like, let's run another one, right? And I yeah. If if I if I were him in that situation, I would have been like, all right, I actually Charlotte's calling, like I gotta get to getting.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

I don't think you would have rubbed it in though. I think that see, I used to Caleb, do you we would play volleyball, right? We when we used to play when I used to go and play volleyball, and I didn't I was not competitive at all. I'm I was never competitive at volleyball until someone started mouthing off. Right or wrong, Caleb. And then as soon as that mouth started running, I would, I'm like, alright, it's time. Yeah. I was here to have fun.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Um now I'm here to make you cry. I'm also never, I'm never the the type to like rub something in because I only talk when I know I can back it up.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

I'm like, if I if I don't know if I can continue this, like you could talk in 2K. Go true. But that that's like if I was in Chaston's shoes. Right. It's like there's always another thing. Even like sports, like I I never really talked unless like I knew I could keep it up.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Right. So you're only talking if you're gonna win. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Like I'm I'm only talking if I'm confident that I'm better than you.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

That's why, like you're obviously you graduated from state, right? So you're a state fan. Yeah. When have you ever been like as a state fan, like talking crap to a to another team's fan? Very rarely, right? No, I just I mean, I don't like it's mostly like friends, though. Right, but even then you're not saying anything too wild. Am I right or wrong? I might be wrong.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

It depends on the relationship with the person. Because most time it's no. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

I don't say a word.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Not a word. I I remember my one of my buddies who actually like we we grew up on the same street. Like he uh he moved down the street in like third grade or something, and he went to Syracuse, and like, you know, we we would play them like once a year. And like we didn't really keep up that much after after high school, but he like every year we would start talking again, like just trash talking that whole week. So it was like that was one of the guys that like I'm thinking of when you're asking me. Like, maybe you just don't take it as serious as I do. Because I take seriously too serious. I don't it can ruin a day for me. My I mean I'm I'm used to it sadly that like my day could get ruined if I get my hopes up too much. But also, like there's there's some really good days. Like my my like my freshman year. Oh, when y'all made the run? Was that your freshman year? No, no, no, no. In uh in football. So my freshman year was when like it was like September, I think, sometime, maybe October. We played Clemson at home. They ranked numb number nine.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Remember that game?

SPEAKER_01 4:51

We beat them in double overtime, stormed the field. That was lit. The last regular season in the season, we you know, we were supposed to beat Carolina, and it wasn't looking that great with like a minute and a half left. Made a ridiculous comeback, scored two touchdowns, just boom, boom, score, you know, won the game, stormed the field again. So like that was my my freshman year. That's your peak in life right there. Well promote sports. Well, you start that. You start that, and then my the very end, like my last semester in college was the the final four run. Oh, yeah. So like it's it was actually crazy. And then you left, and now exactly like I had a great three-year run at NC State Sports, and now I'm just like, yeah, it's it is what it is.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Yeah, that's like we took uh I'm different. I like you say it doesn't really ruin your day. Not, I mean, I dude. I wouldn't say it does. Dude, we took Bo to the Oklahoma game this year, Tennessee Oklahoma. Oh, really? Yeah, and so it's he's a young kid. We're taking to a foot his first football game ever. It's an SEC football game, yeah, which is pretty sick. SEC playing SEC football game at night in Neeland. It's pretty lit, right? And so leading into it, I'm like doing all the hype things. We're singing all the chants, I've got him on my shoulders. We get in the game, I'm like, listen, we're up there, the game starts. I said, You have one job, and it is a scream every single time that Oklahoma has the ball. Yep. And he took that mission and he ran with it. Then we go down two touchdowns, and it's like, I just want to leave the building. And he still in his mind is like, I gotta scream. I have to scream everything. And it's like, dude, and so Bonnie, the amazing aunt that she is, is right there with him. And she looks over me and she's like, You bet you better get involved. Like, and I'm like, My life's over. I don't want to do anything ever again. You like sulked my way out of the building. How his experience is like sucks. I hate my life. Cool.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

He cool scream, kid, whatever. We're losing. Yeah, my experience at the Tennessee game was much better than that.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

So which game did you go to?

SPEAKER_01 6:59

I went to Alabama in 2024. You were oh you oh, you were in the I took I took Morgan's spot because she couldn't go.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Yeah, you had a great time. I had a great time. We got to see all those people get tased right now.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

I forgot my cigar and the other shirt that I changed up. I remember they left in the car.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Smoke it, and you're like, oh man.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Can I have just a little pub?

SPEAKER_00 7:19

I'm trying to go back for a couple games this year. You should come. I'm trying to take a boys' trip. I'm down. Just the guys. Um, yeah. Do you miss being in youth group ever?

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Like youth group specifically? I would say like, not really. I feel like that's not what you meant, though. No.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

What did you mean? Did you miss a time period?

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that oh, that was that was a wild.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Generational run.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Don't it was, I mean, there were a lot of ups and downs. A lot of ups. I feel like really a lot of ups. There were like probably half as many downs, two-thirds as many downs. The downs were big though. Like there were a lot, there were a lot of blow-ups.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Yeah. When you messed up, you messed up big. Well, not just me. Yeah, we're only talking about you right now. In totality. Okay. Yeah. In totality, it was. I would say for you specifically, it was like 80% good. Oh, yeah. And 20% bad, but the 20% was some of the dumbest things you could do. So it made that 20% seem a lot more. It did.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

I think it's because of like the time period that it affected.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Yeah, it was a weird time.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Well, it also like it affected a long time period. There were a couple things that like affected like months.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

And then I just had to deal with it for months and years. And you were like, I'm going to college by screw you. So when you let's let's talk about ministry for a little bit. When you accepted Christ and started going down, like doing the you thing, one of the first things you were considering was ministry, right? Full-time vocational. Um that shifted, obviously. You have no issue with full-time vocational, right? Not at all. But that was just not the avenue you wanted to go down. So walk me through, and we've kind of walked through this, but I'd be interested to hear this in its fullest. Walk me through, I want to go into full-time vocational ministry to I'm now living in Raleigh working for MHC.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Doing it's a Kenworth semi-truck dealership, and I am the assistant service manager.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Okay, so going from that to that walk through that whole rope. So because a lot of people have an experience are like, okay, now I have to go into full-time ministry.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

And then it goes nowhere or it does whatever.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Yeah, so I think honestly, like right off the bat, it was a lot of my reasoning for wanting to full-time ministry was to was like trying to create the same environment almost as the youth group. Um, and not even just like at the end of the path, but also like throughout throughout it. And I think kind of like my my easy button for that was just like, oh, I'm just gonna go to Liberty. So when I was kind of weighing my options there, um, I was like, I was honestly pretty much a hundred percent like planning on going to Liberty.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Did you apply and get in?

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Yeah, okay. Yeah. So I like I was like set to do it. Um and I was gonna go like double major in business and um ministry. I don't remember which like specific like sect I was gonna pick, but um was like gonna go do that. Um because basically I had like you know, if like there's levels of Christian community, I was like, like either go like liberty and it's here, I can go to like a public, you know, state school and it's gonna be here. So um that was kind of my my whole reasoning, and I didn't had like some evidence to back that up, but then it really it changed um when so one of my at that point, he really wasn't one of my like that good of friends. Um we you know, I knew him because you know he was like a solid believer, um, he was a year older than me in school. Um we played on sports teams together. I know who you're talking about. Blake Sullivan, um, which I actually live with right now, which is crazy. I don't know if you knew that. That was the move for a short period of time. I'm living with Blake. No way, you're lying. No, how did I miss that? I don't know if ever like specifically, well, like I was kind of not telling you too much because like you were trying to move at the exact same time, like we were moving over the same weekend. Yes, so because you texted me. He's like, Why are you not here? Yeah, you're like, Hey, what do you do this week? And I was like, I'm moving. You're like, Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Which you told me probably 12 times.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

But I was yeah, I didn't hold it against you though. But anyways, thank you. So Blake, I reached out to him because I was like, I know he's a solid believer. Yeah, um, he had you know been at state for whatever it was, a semester at that point. So basically, like called him or text him and I was like, hey dude, like I kind of want to know what what does like Christian community look like at state. Um it was kind of a weird time too because that was like midst of COVID. So he like tried to go to school and then like ended up getting sent home. Um it was actually over Easter weekend, my senior year. Um it was also the same night as the same weekend as the Final Four that year. So that was when um shoot, what was it? That was like Jalen when Jalen Suggs hit the the game winner. I want to say it was UCLA. Okay, yeah, but anyways, like it was that that that that that whole night, um he basically had a bunch of of his like college friends back home for that weekend um to like stay at his house. So there was probably I would say right about 10 guys over there, maybe including Blake, I don't remember. Um and I just like went over there, he was like, dude, like come meet these guys, like just come hang out. Like you'll see, like these are the people that like I call like my brothers right now. So I went over there, and there's actually a guy who's really good friends with Blake. Um his name's his name's Trevor, and he was living in Raleigh doing Liberty Online, um, is actually now a youth pastor down in South Carolina. Um, and he we basically like I talked to everybody, but I probably talked to him for like 45 minutes just about like kind of what led him there. Um, and basically from like that, I would say like that night on, I was like, like I put Liberty on a pedestal as far as Christian community goes. Um, like talked with him and like he honestly, you know, was like he kind of helped push the decision over to state just because like I think my main reason in that was trying to just have something that was similar to the youth group, like because honestly, especially in that time, like the youth group was not normal, like health-wise. Like it was it was good, like the the community that we had, yeah, like tried to do that. I don't think it was not a normal youth group. Like as far as like like my friendship with with Chastin, with uh with Jacob, like a lot of guys like that were like actually serious, or like you know, they were serious enough where we could have intentional conversations, like confess sin, stuff like that, try to hold each other accountable, especially for being, you know, 16, 17, 18-year-old dudes. Um, I feel like that wasn't really a normal thing. So I was kind of just trying to like grasp whatever I could to put that somewhere else. Um and so that was kind of I think my my main goal in it. Um, and then really just realized that honestly through that conversation with Trevor too, like I can do ministry however, even if I'm not in vocational ministry. Right. Um, and I know you had like told me that, like you don't have to do this. Um, but it was honestly like nice to hear from like somebody else too, um, that was in the midst of he was in the midst of trying to figure out what his life looked like while you were at that point in vocational ministry, like somebody who's trying to figure it out is like a small stage ahead of where I was at. Right. It was really cool to kind of be able to talk that through with him. Um so I that's honestly kind of where it changed. I was like, well, I can do ministry over, and honestly, like especially for the college portion, like I do not have a single regret about where I decide like that decision to switch from Liberty to NC State. Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Um decommit from Liberty and NC state.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Basically, like I I was like, I'm just gonna go there, you know, had like enough scholarship where it was gonna be not the same, but like moderately comparable. It wasn't like I'm just paying, you know, out the butt for liberty. Um and honestly, like it was it was great. Like my first actually the the beach trip my before I went to college where everybody got COVID, I was included in the everybody. And it's one of the worst weeks in my life. It was yeah, changed your life for sure. Um and so I got sick and I was actually like I didn't go to the first two days of my freshman year.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

My bad.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

No, it's okay. I don't regret it, but it's just crazy that like I was supposed to event on like either Friday or Saturday, and like we literally moved in like Tuesday morning. Gotcha. So I was like getting set up Tuesday. My parents were there and everything, and then I I don't think I went to one class, but I had like emailed all my professors like, hey, this is what's going on. Like and really you could just say I have COVID and you were good with whatever at that point in life. Yeah, it was literally you could and it wasn't even like I was lying, like I was I was very sick for I would say like two days. Um I won't get into like the whole COVID situation, but yeah, I wanna don't want to start down there. Might get this cut but this podcast taken down. But I was I was sick. I mean, I don't remember if they made me prove it or whatever. I think you just had to show like a positive, which is crazy. They're like trying to make sure everybody doesn't get positive. And I was like, like, hey, this is like my my test was like okay, cool. And then it was either a negative test or like 10 days or something, right? And like we got back from the trip like seven days before I was supposed to move in. Right. So then it being like two days late. Um, and from that very first day on State's campus, like Blake was like, hey, there's a butt big group of people, like we're getting dinner at the student union, and it was probably a table of I would say 30 people. It's just like one long table. There's like a booth on one side to push a bunch of tables together, everybody's sitting down. So literally, like, I was kind of also going to college, like, hey, I might try out a couple different, you know, college ministry see, kind of where I fit in. Psych. And I literally just like went, started hanging out with the the summit people, and then I was like, Well, like they're not heretics, so like I'm locked. Like, why I don't know, it just kind of feels like unnecessary at that point.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

I remember that time period when you were just getting in and like FaceTiming you and calling you a couple times at the beginning, and I remember being like, dude, this guy found it. Whatever it is, he found it because there was like you're like, dude, we're I and just and not to say that you weren't energetic in youth because you were, yeah, but you were more like you were excited, but like you there was some like, I'm the senior here, I'm not gonna act like a fool. True. And as a freshman in college, yeah, you were just like, I'm so excited to be here. This is the best thing ever. And I remember like, dude, that's great. He found it.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Yeah, also, this is I mean, kind of a, I don't know if that's like catapart's over, but kind of a tangent. So my very first week of school. So I get there on Tuesday. Have you ever heard of a game called, well, you definitely have called Hostage? Yeah, yeah. So that was my introduction to hostage, was like, I think it was Saturday, I want to say Friday or Saturday night. It was that that first weekend that I was there. I hadn't even been in Raleigh a week. Yeah. And I had my car on campus as a freshman, and like there was way more people than we thought were gonna be there.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Like, probably had, I want to say, like 12 cars of people playing. Like it, it, it was like four or five people a car. Like there was there was like 50, 60 people there. Um, it was it was crazy. But basically, they were like, like, they're kind of running out of people who, and then they're like, who else has a car here? And I'm like, me? I'm like, okay, cool. This is boob boo-boom, here's your team, and I'm like, oh frick. And for you know, the people who don't know what hostage is, basically, you get in a car, you have the person driving, you have a quote-unquote unquote co-driver who's responsible for um kind of trying to help navigate, then you switch people, switch your hostages with another team. So, like normally three people, because you don't want to leave just two people by themselves. It's like three people go and you switch with another team, and then you go and drop the other team off. You then call, you have a set time limit, five, seven minutes, something like that. Nothing crazy. And then you let your people out. There's a timer, you immediately call your team, and you can't use maps throughout the whole thing. So, you know, being five days into Raleigh, the only things that I remember is, you know, vaguely road trips from coming into Raleigh. I mean, and when you come into Raleigh, like all the stadiums are on the west side of campus. Right. So like you don't have to ever go through or past campus to get to the stadiums. So like I'm driving around and they're like, they're staying where they're at, and I'm like, I vaguely know where that is. Like it's one of like two places I could probably get to. Right. And end up finding the team, finished fine the first time, and then the second time it took us like 30 minutes to get back. I have no clue where I'm at. So then if it gets to where you're like one of the last couple teams, it's like, all right, you can like use your boss, like just get back and don't renew it for everybody else. So that was my wild first five days on State's campus. Like, found like, all right, this is who I'm gonna basically sign my life away to for the next three years. Like, this is the people I'm gonna be with every day. Um, like that night, I remember the same night we uh I remember having like my first actual like memorable interaction with like a guy. Who's actually now one of my best friends? His name's Thomas. Um, we were it was basically like we thought somebody was somebody different, and then they called their name and we were like, that's not, and it was just like really random situation, but we like were dying laughing. Like we got a bunch of people confused because we're trying to go based off of like group me pictures and stuff like that. So and I remember that like very vividly standing in that uh in the cookout. Well, the parking lot below the cookout at the Biscuitville in Raleigh. So dang. Yeah, because the cookout had like you know, not really a parking lot, it's just like a loop around as cookouts do. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, crazy first five days on State's campus.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

And you're like, I made the right decision. Yeah, I made the right decision. That's sick. So now that you're an adult-ish, um and you are ish in the full-time workforce, like you you go, you go to Raleigh, you go to NC State because you're like, all right, I'm gonna serve from a ministry perspective in my workplace. Yeah. Um, now that you're there, you're doing it. Obviously, like if you're in your day-to-day interactions, you're trying to be an example of Christ, right? Yeah, you're trying to share the gospel when you can in the right times and so on and so forth. Um, what would you say is the most important? If someone's listening here, they're like, Yeah, I didn't get into full-time ministry, but I still want to serve, and they believe that serving is more than setting up chairs on a Sunday morning. Yeah, what would you say is the like biggest step that you could take to be able to do ministry and also work in the full-time workforce?

SPEAKER_01 23:34

I would say um just find something that you're like you you care about and find a way to like do it for ministry. Like when I was when I was in Charlotte right after graduation, um, I was like, I love students, like I love like serving the youth ministry. So I got plugged in at my church in Charlotte um serving in the youth ministry. Um, and that was like basically like my friends while I was there was like the people that I served with in the youth ministry. I think especially like if you're gonna do that, like and you're gonna move, you're gonna go into some type of job where you're gonna have to move, it's like it's so important to get plugged in serving somehow. Because if not, you're you're just you're gonna, you know, inherently isolate yourself and then whatever effects that has, you know, it's gonna be different for everybody, right? But that's just gonna like, even if it's like, you know, one like one Bible study and then like a night serving in youth, like just having something to do where you're around like-minded people is huge. Because I mean, working in a worldly workplace is it's tough, like it wears on you. Um, I would also say like people people notice, like, like why are you why are you different? Like it, even if like there's a lot of days where I like I don't handle, I feel like I don't handle most of the things right, but I still like you know, people will be like, how do you handle this like difficult customer? Like, why are you so like calm about this? And I'm just like, I realize the blood of Christ. Yeah, yeah, I say exactly that. And no, but it's just realizing that people like people note like people notice like, okay, this is this is a little bit different. This is a little bit different, like especially when you're you're there for six months, a year, like people notice like he's not like everybody else. Even if I don't do a lot of stuff right, they're still gonna be like, he's like, he's and I've had people ask, like, hey, like, you're like, why do you why do you do this differently? Like, it's it's a little opportunity. Um, but I would also say like find specific people to pour into in your workplace, even if it's not like necessarily discipleship, but like people that you're gonna go out of your way to like like take them out to launch, yeah, take them out to lunch, like to get something different between like I just work with you, right, or I just talk to you like during the day. Right. Um, like I honestly haven't taken that great of advantage over like situations like that, but it was actually like three weeks ago. Um there was a guy who I work with, it's like one of the one of the technicians. I was actually working second shift that week to try to help our second shift like shop foreman. Um, so it was like Thursday night, and we got done. Like it was just me, him, one other guy, like trying to close up shop. I was like, dude, you want to get a cookout? And he was like, I could crush a cookout milkshake. Also, cookout, the best and easiest discipleship plug.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

I know I knew it's the exact words you were gonna use to say. Exactly, but and people you've been doing that since you were freshman year in oh high school, yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

Like cookout for for me, like the food, the deal's like good enough. The foods remember when it's five dollars? Do you remember that? Yes, any anyways, the yeah the breathe. Breathe. Anyways, back in the good old days where it used to be like a Saturday, me and my dad, you know, just working in the yard. Hey, let's have some cookout for a lot of five dollars. Now it's like, oh, eight sixty-five. Nine dollars. Off the dome, eight sixty five. 865 if the if it's the price I'm used to paying, unless I get something different, you know, it's 865. You don't change. No, I do. I get I bounced into a couple things. Okay, fair enough.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

Anyways, anyways, you took a guy to cookout.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

Cookout. Um, cookout for for me is like it's nostalgic, but not because like, oh, the food's great or the price is great, whatever. It's like the memories I have there and like the tool that like I've kind of like commandeered it as. Right. So take this guy to cook out, and it's like, you know, I've I've been at work since probably 2 p.m. that day. At this point, it's one o'clock in the morning and we're rolling up to cook out. Just sat literally, luckily it was a beautiful night. Literally, just go. I buy him a cookout tray. We just go sit on the tailgate of my truck and just like chop it up for like an hour, hour, hour and a half. Yeah. Just talking about like different spiritual things, different things, like why he kind of believes stuff the way he does, like his experiences. Um, and I feel like that's the type of thing where I'm like, this is why I come to work every day. Like, like honestly, it's um like I I remember like I literally after that, because of like all the stuff like what he's gone through, but also just like the burden, I literally drove home and I was like sobbing the whole way home in in the car, which is crazy. Um I was like not your normal, no, not I mean not my normal at all. Um, and I was just like, like, I like he he's got a lot of like stuff that has gone on this, you know, whether it's like family stuff or like depression stuff, like it's all all these things are I'm like, if only he knew what what it's like. Um so like that for for me is like I was just like so fired up. Like I was like, I could go to work and just get beat over the head for like another three months. Like it it it it's all fine, right? So that oh man, that was uh that was a good time. I mean, nothing crazy's really happened since then. I've talked to him a few times, but yeah, exactly. Um I invited him to church because that was the week leading up to Easter. Perfect time. So yeah, it was he didn't know. He uh yeah, I don't remember exactly what his reasoning was, but I was bummed. Um of course part of the game. So part of the game, you gotta roll with the punches.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

Sometimes it just doesn't go the way you hope it did.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

Yeah, yeah. Um so yeah, that's that's why I love cookout, is for stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

We had some. Oh. When you mentioned cookout, and I I'm not gonna say I'd what I zoned out for a little bit and started thinking about I came back pretty quick, but I did zone out for a second, and I started to think about how much time we spent in that Kernersville cookout.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

Or with that Kernersville cookout's food somewhere else. True. Yeah, one day. Y'all used to bring it to my apartment all the time. Um that was like a that was a post post-game staple that was.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

I just zoned out and I started thinking about all those different places filled and all the seats filled, and all that man, good times. Yeah, and then I started thinking, dude, we should all show up back up one day. And then I was like, nobody'd show up. Nobody would show up. It'd be me and you, Jacob would probably show up. Yeah, just gotta catch one and I'm not working. Yeah. Dang. Good times. But well, where are we at on a timestamp? 30 minutes? I actually I thought we were farther. Yeah, I was worried. Then I then I realized that Gary said he had plenty of time. Um what um what's your plan for work? Are you still planning on staying there and grinding out for a while? Well, are they gonna listen to this podcast?

SPEAKER_01 31:01

Probably. I I mean, I don't I don't know. They're not. Nobody's gonna be able to do that. To answer that question, no. To answer that question, I don't know what I thought about it. No, unless I tell somebody to, but um honestly, the plan is I'm probably moving in like three months. Where? Don't know. Far away? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

Are you with the company you're with?

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Yeah, okay, cool. So um I'll I should know in like right about two months, kind of where my options are.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

Why? What do you mean?

SPEAKER_01 31:36

Like, is there are they like, hey, it's time you can't stay in Raleigh anymore, or is this you kind of pushing for so it's it's pretty much like it's it's baked into the program that once I'm an assistant for like 18 months, like that's when it's like, all right, let's find out where he's gonna go. Um so I would say let me think of when it is. I think July. So July 20th will be my 18 months in Raleigh. So at that point, it's gonna be like I'm probably gonna be moving very shortly after that. Um, but the reason I don't necessarily know yet is because there has to be like an opening there. So an assistant can like they can kind of make a spot for you. Um if I'm good, like it'd be a promotion. So like I'd be going to be a service manager by myself somewhere. Um so there's only you know, I can't go somewhere where there's already somebody. Correct. So um that's why I don't know yet. And the landscape could change in the next month and a half, two months before that conversation between, you know, my HR lady and the uh like the company executives basically, um, about placing all of us in this program. Um I think there are I think there's five of us that'll be getting placed at the same time. So some of those are parts, some of those are service. Um but yeah, they got they got some stuff to you know try to iron out. So I'm hoping to be I think you know, we'll see if this comes true, but I think I'm probably gonna be somewhere in Georgia.

SPEAKER_00 33:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

Is kind of where where I think um I've told my HR lady my preferences and had some fun fun conversations. So fun. Yeah. What do you mean? Not like not like fun bad, but like like kind of like this is this is how it is. I'm not gonna go like too much. Do you want to leave? No, not really. Right. But it honestly like it it does make sense. Um there's been a lot of stuff like in the last few months that like has kind of given me more peace about moving. Um you just quit. I could. I mean that is that is an option. And just not leave. Part of the part of the fun conversations.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

And uh if you move me to California, I'm out.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Pretty much. I mean, like, if if you're listening, like I'll just quit now. Like that's if that's a problem. But um, yeah, I basically like told him like, hey, like, I really want to be like in this re these couple regions. Like I if it comes to something else, like we'll have to figure something else out. Like, I don't really, that's not what I want my life to look like. But um going back to like I'm kind of more comfortable with moving now. Um when I moved after college, it was tough. Yeah. Like you went to the show. It was only Charlotte. Charlotte. It was only Charlotte, but like, so yeah, it's like, oh, you're only an hour half away. That doesn't help anything during the week. Like I can come back for a weekend, like pretty frequently if I wanted to, but like when you it's like you wake up, you know, do your morning routine, go to go to work, come back. It's like what what does that look like every single day? Right. Without like you, I don't I knew like two people, right? Praise God for your your freaking brother. Jared. Oh my gosh, he uh shout out Jared. Um but yeah, I so that was like really rough, but I think the transition from college of like especially the community that I was a part of, it's like I'm around, either around or live with like all of my best friends, right? And I'm around them all the time. So going from that, you know, I have like a month break, a family vacation, and then I move down to Charlotte, the end of and youth camp, right? No, that was actually after I started.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Okay, so you came back for UCamp? Yeah, okay, gotcha. That's all I was trying to think.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

Yeah, that was that was my third week there. And then you came for UCamp. So I told him, like, hey, like, I have to miss this week. And actually shout out uh my old boss because he forgot to put me in for no pay that week. So I got an extra, like, an extra whatever it was, paycheck, half a paycheck. Um, and he camp was great. And camp was great, but he I was like, hey, because I was gonna be honest about it, like, hey, you like had a had a payroll question for you, and he was out of the office then. Um he actually doesn't work for the company anymore, so what are they gonna do? Fire him, right? Um, fire me, whatever. Um I'm not scared. It's like I I you know gotta make a way. Oh that's heresy. No, he will. I said it. Yeah, but anyways, sorry, the hand motion. I'm sorry. Um so he was basically like I just emailed him, like, hey, I got a payroll question for you. And then I think he looked and like, because I don't have payroll questions about anybody else, like it was just me. I was my third week. He goes, sign a modus, have a good weekend. And I was like, my guy, my guy. I still talk to him, actually. That's cool. Yeah, that's how you know he's not there anymore. Yeah, exactly. Well, I heard you know, through the grapevine, too. Yeah, but uh he actually he runs a race team that was gonna be at the race that I was trying to get you to go to tonight that you didn't want to go to. Not didn't want to go to, had podcast recordings, and that now you get to record. Yes, yeah, it's fine. Priorities, like priorities. Um I knew this was a bad idea. This is a horrible idea. But that was part of the reason why I wanted to go was to like, you know, he quit and now is running the race. He was doing it part-time, yeah. And was doing it full-time, yeah. So um shout out to shout out to him. But yeah, that was that was really tough. Like, going, it's like, okay, what is my like week, yeah, what does my routine look like? And that was like why it was so important to get plugged into like they call it community group at that uh at that church, and um like serving in youth group, like that honestly, I felt like like kept me afloat to an extent, like because it's a very stark change, especially like going somewhere that you don't really know very many people at all. Really, I didn't I didn't know anybody I could hang out with like just on the regular, right? So that was that was tough. So now I feel like I'm more ready to do that. Like I I've grown accustomed to you can run it back, yeah, exactly. Like I could go to Charlotte by myself. I probably know a few more people there too, like more people that I know have graduated and and moved and stuff like that. But at the same time, like I would be like on a week-to-week basis, like I wouldn't be struggling near as much, right? Like I already operate like a lot of my week on like by myself, like kind of figuring out my own stuff, you know, hang out with friends like when everybody's available and stuff like that. But as far as like moving, I'm like, yeah, there'd be plenty of stuff I have to figure out, but as far as like like I've done it, right? So you have your foundation, exactly get plugged in, get a church, yeah, start interacting. And honestly, re-reacclimating in Raleigh was like kind of tough too. Cause like well, you came back differently, but I come back to Raleigh, and my last memories of Raleigh are all you know, hanging out with all of my best friends all the time. Right. I'm come back and I gotta work the whole week. Lame. So it's like even the first few months back in Raleigh were like kind of tough. It's like this is not my memory of Raleigh, right? But now I have like all types of memories in Raleigh, like college after college after college. So it's a good time. But now I feel like I'm I'm a lot more ready to do that.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

That's fair. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

Well, I don't want to move away. I'm not going to move away forever. I'm gonna come back. So why don't you be a barber? I've thought about it. I know if I quit, that's probably what I'm gonna do. I want you to so bad. I know you do.

SPEAKER_00 39:30

I literally I was thinking the other day, if I because I'm planning on opening a barber shop in the next like five to ten years, hopefully closer to the five mark. But um, I was like, dude, if I could have literally just all my friends, it'd be you, Joey will have Sadie, and I'm trying to get Malachi to do it. Would you want to work with Malachi every day? That that ten hours with Malachi. It's a well okay.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

Well, well, to be to be fair, if we want to be good at our jobs, you gotta interact with the customer plenty too. So like it's not just gonna be exactly so like it's not like we're just all working together in a group and malachi for two hours. So I feel like it'd be it'd be enough or like there'd be you know Malachi splashes, but I I just glitched over Caleb. He's like, uh uh uh uh no, don't do it.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

Like, please no, please no.

SPEAKER_01 40:31

Yeah, pretty much it it it would be. Um yeah. Might go make my money somewhere else and then you know say but bounce back. We'll see.

SPEAKER_00 40:43

But mom, dad, moving back in. Yeah, as if they don't move, they're not gonna move.

unknown 40:49

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 40:50

All the grandkids are are east. Yeah, that's an they love their house.

SPEAKER_01 40:55

They do, but they also love their grandkids.

SPEAKER_00 41:01

All right, if you come back, you can live with me. Only if you go to barber school. Oh, yeah, that that yeah, 100%. All right, I have an extra room for you. Perfect. Is it the split room? On that note. Thanks for coming on the pod, I love you.