Daily Lives of Canadian Immigrant University Kids (Adults)

University wasn't that exciting. No dramatic movie moments; just classes, stress, figuring out what we want to do, and hanging out with our good old friends. 

But looking back, we started thinking differently about family, time, privilege, and what actually matters. Turns out the boring years were doing a lot of work.

Transcript

College Vs University And Campus Culture

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Welcome back to another episode of Catch Up with Kyle Cohen. This is gonna be the last installment in our school schooling miniseries, I guess. And today we'll be talking a little bit about the most recent stage of our lives, which is university slash college and a little bit after.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Yeah, you know, it's like the term college, I think they use that in the states, right? It's not like we don't use that here. We call it we call it university, right?

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Yeah, yeah. Pretty much exclusively call it university. And I don't know exactly if this is the same in America, but I feel like in Canada, colleges, college is kind of like a second-tier version of university almost.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

No?

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Yeah. Actually, I I have no idea.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Like in like in university, colleges, at least in my at least from what I've seen, are smaller than universities for starters. You know, smaller programs, a lot less people go to them. And strangely enough, uh, a lot of them are like I guess like Catholic schools or relative schools.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Yeah, I've seen those around. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Maybe they're like private schools too.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Yeah, and we talked a little bit about this in in our earlier episodes, but uh we we mentioned that the post-secondary experience is probably a lot different in the states and then here, to which my friend gave us feedback that she thinks we're wrong. Really? But I want to clarify then I'll make it I make this clarification. The experience of post-secondary in public and I guess and private universities in the states, like big schools like UCLA, yeah, Harvard, yeah, University of Washington. I'm talking about those schools. The experience in there is probably a lot different than our schools in Canada.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Yeah. Like maybe like community college in states compared to here, sure, it might be more similar, but I I want my take, our take, yes was that we're comparing like those big, big schools that are like well known.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Yeah. What are like some some big differences that you know right off the bat?

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Yeah, I mean, like we talked about like like the sports culture is which is like huge.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

We brought it up a couple times, but yeah, it's actually massive.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Like NCAA, like like basketball, March Madness is crazy. Yeah, football is crazy here there too. Like I think huge. And one reason why is because um a lot of those cities actually don't have NFL teams, so they cheer on like the school teams. Oh, really? It's massive, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

Really?

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Okay, so it's a big deal, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

Yeah, like the biggest the biggest thing I would say in Canada is probably hockey.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Yeah, which are post-secondary hockey teams, like the turnout is like it's not it's not horrible, but it's not like amazing.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Yeah, and even even though hockey's like the biggest sport in Canada, I think is the biggest sport in Canada.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Well, the national sport is lacrosse, yeah, lacrosse. But but hockey probably like definitely is popular, you know.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

Like you can play hockey almost year almost fucking year round here with how goddamn cold it is. But even though hockey is like probably the biggest sport in in Canada, it's still not really a huge part of our lives, like in in in school specifically.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

I mean, oh in school, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

Yeah, like even though it's the biggest sport, it's still not on the level of sports in American schools.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Yeah, I will say though, I think there are some schools in Canada. Like there's I think I can think of a couple in the East Coast that the school spirit, the school culture is a lot, a lot bigger than our our universities here in our in our province, I think.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

Yeah, and and I thought you were gonna say, you know, like some athletic schools, which I know a couple in Canada that are like specifically tailored for athletic programs. And maybe those have like, you know, I'm sure they have like a pretty thick sports events and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

But broadly, you know, big difference between American and Canadian post-secondary experience. I think you're totally right.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Yeah, like the like the fraternities and the sorority culture is like way vastly different than well dude.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Do you even know any guys in frats here? Yeah, I've met some.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Yeah, but it's very different than what it sounds like in the States, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 4:09

Like and also I I feel like a lot of people are in fraternities in American universities and colleges. But over here, I feel like it's way less people go going into fraternities.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Yeah, yeah, I don't know. But anyways, those are some of the things, the clarifications that we want

Undergrad Workload And Learning To Study

SPEAKER_00 4:26

to talk about. But our experiences, I can I can start with mine. You know, to be honest, pretty boring, if I have to say. Yeah, like it's not that fun. Like number one.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Focusing purely on school though, right? Yeah, yeah, like not like what we did with our friends and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Yeah, like number one. Actually, one like a big shock for me was that it wasn't as easy as high school.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

You really that was a shock for you. You like expected it to still be easy.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Yeah, because I was like, I would I I was having the top marks in my in high school. Yeah, I was like breezing through it. And like, yeah, sure, I studied, but it wasn't like I was drowning myself like every like like three, four hours a day studying. In high school, right? In high school, yeah. So I thought, you know, maybe post-secondary wouldn't be too different, but I was wrong. I mean, to say though, it's not like my work marks were horrible, but definitely something that I did not expect. And then that actually kind of got me down again. Like it reminded me of my junior high years. So that yeah, that was a big shock to me. A lot more difficult, but I got my shit together after that, and then I started trying a lot more, which which was which changed like the type of marks I got.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

But so you like kicked in another gear, you upped the amount of effort you've got.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Yeah, I did, I did. It was like it was and it was like a drastic effort that I had to put in. But yeah, school, school's actually hard. Like if I like look back on my undergrad years, I I can't believe how I got through that. Like I was studying so much, I was doing so much like other extracurricular stuff just to like ramp up my resume and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Like what kind of extracurricular stuff?

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Like a lot of leadership positions, a lot of school clubs, a lot of volunteering. Yeah, I was just like trying my best to get my hands on anything to really ramp up my my resume, which I eventually I did. I was successful, but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

It's interesting that you saw the value in those extracurricular and leadership things once you got to once you got to university. But before that, you were not interested at all.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

No, I was. It wasn't it wasn't just in the uh school setting in high school. Like I found my own leadership opportunities outside of high school.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Yeah, I see. Interesting. Do you have a specific or actually what was your day-to-day like in uh yeah?

SPEAKER_00 6:41

It's actually very different from when I first started university till my like last years. Very busy in the first couple years. I was waking up at like uh six six thirty a.m. because I had classes at 8 a.m. Yeah, and that would go on until like four or five p.m.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

Yeah, like which is and also university it's it's like far. Yeah, it's like quite a quite a you know, we gotta travel quite a bit to get there, especially early in the morning with traffic and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah, and like back-to-back courses, like the courses were difficult, yeah, very busy. And then the moment I'm done school, I come back, I'm studying, yeah, and I'm doing extracurricular. Like I had, I would say like I my social life actually kind of went down quite a bit compared to high school, my first two years of university. So studying for the most part, like go go there, come back, study. That was for the first year and a half. Like the first year I kind of fucked around, and that's when I found out, well, like I can't, I actually have to study or else I won't get good grades. So in the second year, I I spent quite a bit of time studying. And then third and fourth year I got the hang of it. Yeah. So I was able to like efficiently study, and I was that was then and I was able to get good grades then, and I was uh able to have more of a social life in third and fourth year.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

So you had to like figure out the balance.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

Did you find yourself giving up a lot of things that you actually wanted to do?

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Not at all, actually.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Really?

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Yeah, actually, maybe in second year. Yeah, because I dialed in. I was like, oh, I gotta change up things how I do. So I actually I don't think I saw any friends for six months.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Really? Not at all.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Not at all.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

And you were just like studying.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

I was just studying pure, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

This was during the school year.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

And so I remember a lot of our friends would, you know, after classes, stay back at university. No, uh you didn't, yeah. You would always go home.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

I was always because the main thing is I I couldn't study at home. I mean at school. Like I couldn't study in a library. Yeah, it was always a distraction for me. So it was finished school, always go home, study, and then hang out with my girlfriend or my now my wife. And then third and fourth year, I got a lot more lenient with it. But also because the courses I think were easier, to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 8:39

Really? What were they easier, or was it just like you were used to it at this point?

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Uh it's probably, yeah, it's probably I got more used to it. And then and then third and fourth year, I was like going out a lot more. Like I remember my last year, I was going out so so often. Yeah. But yeah, yeah. That was like that was a big change.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

So it sounds like a lot of a lot of studying, but also a lot of partying.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Only in the only really in the last year, though.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Oh, uh so did you just do your undergrad or were you still in university even after that? Uh or like not were you still doing schooling even after you completed your undergrad?

SPEAKER_00 9:15

No, actually, I I took I took time off.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Oh, okay. So by the time, by the time COVID hit, you were done uh with your school.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Yes, yeah. Gotcha, gotcha. Yeah. Yeah, took time off. Yeah, university was was okay. Like what I what was also another big shock for me is that in the first couple years, or even like most of the classes, like they're so big. They're like 200, 300 size classrooms. Like you can't really get to know anyone, to be honest, yeah. Unless you've already known that person before. So that was a change as well. So the only friends I've had were the friends that I made in high school.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Yeah. So known your friends pretty much at all throughout a university?

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Not at all, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

What were your what were you interested at the time?

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Like in school or outside of school?

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Both. Like, or when when you got to university, the program that you chose, did you stick with it the whole time? No, I actually changed twice. Oh, really? Yeah. Wow. How'd that go?

SPEAKER_00 10:11

I was just being unsure with myself. I was like, I don't know what to do.

SPEAKER_02 10:15

Did you stay in the same field or like completely change?

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Same same field, like same broad field. Right. But that was only because I didn't want to like take extra courses that I needed didn't need to for it for me to graduate. Gotcha. So stuck with the stuck with the courses. But yeah, my interest in in school in terms of academics was kind of weird. Like, because it was the the weird thing about post-secondary, at least in I'm pretty sure this is actually universal experience, but like it's kind of like a random mix match of of stuff. So some courses would not really be relevant to whatever you were taking.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Which I didn't like, to be honest. Yeah. Because I really saw no point in it. It's just like, oh, there's this broad category of criteria you have to meet in order to graduate. And within that category, you just choose a class that kind of fulfills that that requirement.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Yeah, like a certain amount of credits for like a certain field that you must satisfy.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Exactly. Like I fucking took like, I don't know, like game studies and paleontology and like like witchcraft and like classes.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

Witchcraft. What the hell? What are you doing? Witchcraft.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

You've learned about witchcraft.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

What is witchcraft?

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Like the history of like.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Like what's the most memorable thing from that class? Or any memorable thing from that class? Witchcraft? What the hell?

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Yeah, yeah. I don't really remember.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

Like, is this like history of witches? Like how they just like burned them and stuff?

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Damn.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Yeah, yeah. Damn. But my but I liked like classics. There was a classics class I took because I really like Greek mythology.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Yeah. Did you take uh both of the classics class or just like one side? What does that mean? Because I think there was, or at least the university I went to, they also have like the classics fucking class, but it's like two sides. There's first one is like I think it was like ancient Greece or something, or maybe ancient Rome, and the other one is like the other side or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Mine was like kind of like a summary of everything. It started with like Egyptian history, a little bit of Roman, a little bit of Greece, which I actually really liked. So that was fun class. But my favorite class was that class I've been talking about throughout the entire drug series, the pharmacology class, which was like purely talking about street drugs, like nothing really other like pharmacology about it, but I thought it was just super fascinating. Yeah, that was probably my favorite class. And then I also took like a bunch of classes on economics and stuff like that.

Online University During COVID

SPEAKER_02 12:29

My favorite class was uh was okay, so I had a pretty different university experience than most people.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

I started university in COVID. So my classes started out online, and then so I was I was part-time at first and then transitioned to full-time. And by the time I went to full-time, I had already been doing like distance learning, like uh online learning. Yeah. So I just couldn't continue doing online classes for the rest of my university. So I actually didn't the only times I actually sat in a classroom in a university classroom was when I was writing like exams. Oh, really? Yeah. Aside from that, I have I have not sat in like a classroom setting in university, like a physical classroom setting at all.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

So how how is how is like how is that like like online schooling, especially like university?

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Oh, yeah. To live this life, you need to really be on top of it.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Yeah, yeah, I bet.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Yeah, because it's it's a really, really slippery slope. And luckily, I already had I was already a little bit prepared for this because in high school, I don't know if you did this, but I took correspondence classes.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

Which is basically you get to do classes on your own time. If your like schedule is like filled, or you don't want to add more things to your timetable, you can take extra classes and just do them in your free time. And I had done done that already. So I had like a little bit of experience studying at home. And beyond that, I would also I was I was pretty used to studying at home. Like uh sometimes I would have a little bit of trouble totally paying attention in class. So then I was pretty used to like always doing the required reading, like always whenever a teacher would say, like, read, read blah blah blah in the textbook, I would always read that.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Wait, so is it on like Zoom?

SPEAKER_02 14:10

The classes, yeah. No, so I didn't I didn't have like classes like that at all. I would just read like it would just be like a like a fucking packet, you know? Uh yeah, and and I would just have to fill up like do what go through the all the assignments and shit like that, submit them on uh in a certain timetable, and yeah, it was like all my classes were like four-month classes, just like regular university.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

So then what's your day-to-day like?

SPEAKER_02 14:35

So my day-to-day was like I I tried to, so I had to like schedule my day myself. I was like in charge of the whole thing. So yeah. But this didn't last last very long. At first I was like kind of lazy, kind of like put it off because I thought, like, oh, I'm doing it on my own time. I can like, you know. So what if I take like two weeks and slack off a little bit and stuff? But what what changed me, I got like a jump scare kind of which was one of my teachers emailed me at like the two weeks mark and was like, yo, so you you finna submit anything? Yeah, damn. And at that point, I hadn't like submitted anything for any of my classes. Yeah, so I was like, Oh fuck.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

So then after that, I like really got on got on top of it and like started daily like having like a schedule. Like I would wake up in the morning and even though I wasn't like going out, I would like wear like outside clothes, not like stain my pajamas all day. Oh, that's part, yeah. I would I would dress up as if I was like getting ready to go to university. And then even though all of my school and like work would be like in my room on my computer, I would try to you know be in like school mode. So I wouldn't do anything else, first of all. Like even though I have the free time and like the ability to be on my computer and do like whatever I want, starting from like the start of the day and then like study later, I wouldn't do that. I would make sure I like do not click on anything else on my on my PC until I'm completely done with whatever work that I have set for myself for that day. So yeah, my average days would be like study and then as soon as I'm done studying, then I pretty much get to work, start start boosting, and then I'll boost for like like sometimes even like 12 hours. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of willpower.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Yeah, but but actually I can sympathize because um a lot of the courses I took, some of them were also like that. Like they weren't like you're you're not like it's all online. And then I wasn't really doing anything until the very end. The deadlines were due. Yeah. So yeah, I could definitely sympathize.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

I mean, to be honest, if I didn't get that email from my teacher, I probably would have procrastinated for much longer.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

And it was just like what it was just one teacher that emailed me. The other teachers, like, you know, didn't really give a shit, I guess. Yeah. It's like they don't have to. They can just fail you.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

That's true. Like it's not it's not like high school. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

They can just fucking fail you. You already paid for tuition, they got their money, they don't give a fuck about anything else, you know.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

But once I got that one email from one teacher, I was like so anxious.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Dude, I got I think I got like something with like authority. I don't know. I don't like talking to people with authority.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Really?

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Yeah, it like makes me nervous or something. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Damn, eh.

SPEAKER_02 17:17

Or like I'm I'm like really scared of getting into trouble. I hate getting into trouble. I think that's like, even though I'm like an adult now, it's not like I can like actually get into trouble. Like there's like, you know, there's only so much trouble you can get into on a get into as an adult without doing something like terrible. Yeah, it's not like I'm doing like terrible things.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

But yeah, that it was I really don't want to get in trouble. So getting that email from that teacher, like it was enough of a push to structure my life. Um, and then once I got into like a set schedule, I found that I didn't have to set aside nearly as much time for school as I initially thought I did. And I also didn't have like I also didn't have the ambition to be getting like a 4.0, you know. I was totally content with like getting just good enough grades to satisfy myself. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Do you do you miss do you regret not having like the in-person university experience?

SPEAKER_02 18:10

Yes and no. Yes, because you know what it could have been fun to have like a normal university experience because in my head I still have that idea of like, you know, Disney TV chant like fucking family channel, high school or university experience where everything is like where life is a musical.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Yeah, or like even even just just any movies, yeah, American movies, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:32

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, part of me still wishes to have experienced that. But to be honest, like we partied so much, I feel like I kind of did experience a lot of it.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Yeah, because you would come out all the time.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Yeah, I was there like whatever parties you guys were at. I was always invited, I was always there. Yeah. So like, you know, socially, I all I really missed out on was like the social aspect of the classes themselves, and I guess like walking on walking around on campus. But like I still went to like the university you guys went to, yeah, I still visited you guys, like even though I wasn't a student at that university. I still like you know walked around campus with you guys and and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

That's true. I guess some I forgot to mention I have a biased view about a biased view about my my university experience because I'm from the city where the university is is in. Right. But I feel like if anyone came to this university from other cities, they would have actually had a different, maybe a more positive experience. Cause then number one, you're living in dorms. Yeah, number two, you're forced to make new friends. So I've I've I probably imagine that aspect of it changes a lot. Because I've I've heard people they made like lifelong friends in university. Yeah. Actually, that's like a very common thing. Because when I talk to people now in my workplace, they're like surprised, like my current friends are from high school and they're saying I'm they met most of their friends in university.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Yeah, we're definitely in a in a unique situation, I think.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Yeah, so I have a their yeah, so I have a very biased view of my university experience.

SPEAKER_02 19:57

Also, thinking about it, like we live in a major city in Canada. Canada only has like a handful of major cities. So someone from like a small town coming to like our university, exactly. They probably think it's fucking lit.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

No, no, I've I've actually talked to someone who came from a town of like, I don't know, like 20,000 people, and they're like, No, yo, this is crazy. Yeah. I'm like, wait, what? Yeah, you're crazy. This is crazy.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

Yeah, so I guess it's like a bit of perspective.

Finding Meaning In Classes And Interests

SPEAKER_02 20:22

Yeah, something I learned about myself in, or I guess maybe something that I knew always knew, but like paid attention to a little bit more in university was I took this anthropology class and I really, really enjoyed it. Specifically the the part of anthropology that deals with uh humanity, um like human behavior and human experience. And yeah, this was uh this was uh probably the most impactful course.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

What did you what were some big takeaways from that from that class?

SPEAKER_02 20:53

Just personally, like I'm super interested in uh humans, the way people think, and specifically interested in the people that came before us in history, you know, not just important figures, but you know, I often think about the people that came before us, walked the surface before us, uh the the kind of things that they were thinking.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Like you're not talking about like big figures, but just anyone in time, yeah, back in time.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Yeah, think about what how life was like think about a kid in university in the 1900s, yeah. Like what was he thinking about? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What was it, what was it what did what did he like? What did she like? What did she think about? Same with like go and going even further back in time. Think about someone that was like in one AD, you know?

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Dude, do you think you've had like do you think like you've thought things that no one's thought before? Dude, we probably like a kid, a 30 year old in 1000 or 1 AD or whatever, we probably had a lot of similar problems, you know. You think so? I think so. Like obviously, aside from the obvious things, like we have access to we have a much more comfortable life in the sense that we have like plumbing and water and Food and shelter and we don't have to worry about things like that. Yeah. But bro, I wonder if like there was like some 18-year-old, you know, all in his feelings and shit about some girl, you know, that probably totally happened, you know.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

Yeah, that one, yeah, that one I hurt me.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

Same with like, you know, someone our age, maybe someone like thinking about what they want to do, even even like philosophical things like this, you know, about what it what it is to be yourself. You know, I'm sure there were like people in people thousands of years ago questioning what they're doing and what they want to be doing, why they were why they're here, what they're what they're here for.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Do you think they have the cognitive capacity to think that?

SPEAKER_02 22:33

Dude, yes, of course.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

They're they're humans in one AD.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

In one AD. Totally, yeah. Maybe, maybe you know, there's like famous philosophical figures and stuff, and they get quoted all the time.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

Well, actually, wait, yeah, you're completely correct. Yeah, that was a that was a stupid take.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

Yeah, but even beyond that, like those are like the philosophical figures are like famous for these thoughts, but but there's no way they're like the only ones thinking these things.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Yeah, I mean like like Aristotle and like those. Exactly, yeah. Those movies, like yeah, so that was uh although he's not 180, he's way later, but yeah, still wait, was he way AD? Was he BC AD? I believe who who'd you say just now? Galileo? No, Galileo was like 1500s. Yeah, who what other name? I said Aristotle. Aristotle? He was he was BC. Yeah, so definitely they have the they have the full karmic capacity to think about these things.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

Yeah, I realized in through that class that I'm like super, super interested about this kind of stuff. And now I uh yeah, I think this is like something that I want to be involved with in some way. Like I want a career in this field in some way.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_02 23:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Why don't you why not do like a doctorate or something?

SPEAKER_02 23:39

I mean well, I would have to do like a master's first because I only have my bachelor's.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Yeah, that's true. But I mean, I'm open to it to be honest. Actually, I I know nothing about anthropology. I was gonna take it, but it was full. I remember in undergrad. Yeah. It's a great class. Yeah, that's why I took a lot of sociology classes, which I enjoyed as well.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

Yeah, yeah, like very similar feels, you know.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

Yeah, yeah. So you liked anthropology. Was there so what are like what are some things you enjoyed in your online university experience?

SPEAKER_02 24:06

Well, I liked the uh the freedom that I had. I the actually the thing that I liked the most is the university that's in our city, it's like a 45 minute drive from my house.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Is it actually?

SPEAKER_02 24:19

Yeah. Oh, actually, and and that's like or okay, if there's like no traffic, it's like 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, actually that's true. Because it takes like 15 minutes to get to that university with traffic, which is which is downright horrible.

SPEAKER_02 24:31

Yeah, yeah. But yeah, like morning traffic, it's like takes fucking forever. And I hate, I hate public transportation so much. I I think I mentioned I haven't taken I haven't taken like a bus or a train in our city in like 12 years, since like the day I got my car. I basically have not taken public transportation. Damn. So yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

I after I got my car.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

Yeah, yeah when when did you get your car?

Commutes And Car Crash Stories

SPEAKER_00 24:56

First year university. Dude, the the first day I got my license and my insurance, I got into in a car accident.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

No fucking way.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Damn. It wasn't my fault though. Oh, really? I was parked. No, I was at the I was waiting for the light to turn. Yep. The guy high on drugs hit my car and runs into a garbage can. Garbage bin. And then the police, five police cars come and they tackle him down. Damn. I'm like, what the fuck is going on? A guy ran into, like in a car ran into you. Yeah. Oh shit. And then and then he comes out with a hammer trying to break into stores. What the fuck? And then he goes back into his car, and at this point I thought he was getting a gun, so I'm running away. From your car? Yeah, like driving away. Oh no, like I parked trying to go talk to him. Yeah. And I thought he was gonna pull out something. So I'm running away.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

Right. He crashed into you, so you wanted to like like exchange information. Yeah. Damn. And then how soon after that did the cops get there?

SPEAKER_00 25:47

Probably like 10 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

Holy shit. So you were just like in a life-threatening situation from the city.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

No, I mean there was there, there were a lot of people there. Like our friends were there. Oh, okay, okay. I was supposed to meet up with him at a restaurant. Um at a bubble tea place. Gotcha. And I'm like, yo, I got I got fucked. And they they come out and I'm like, yo, what the fuck? Oh, okay. Damn. That's fucking scary, man. What the hell? Well, my parents are so pissed.

SPEAKER_02 26:07

Why? You didn't do anything wrong.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

What the hell? But my first uh I got into my first accident like two months after I got my car. It was like winter time.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

Yeah. Were you were you at fault?

SPEAKER_02 26:20

No. It was a single vehicle accident. Oh, I see. I'm I I mean, actually, yeah, I I was at fault, but it was like the weather conditions were like terrible. It was Christmas Eve, um, like six years ago, and I went to a party, didn't drink, driving myself back home, or no, driving someone else back home, because uh they lived on the way. And I remember going on the highway way below the speed limit. The speed limit is like what eight, yeah, 80 on that.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Yeah, you know what you know what you're talking about. Yeah, it's like 80, and I'm going 50 on it. Yeah, and there's like a downhill area, and so the weather condition was so terrible, it was like a blizzard going on, and it was like a gigantic blizzard. Yeah, like visibility was horrible. There was it was a blizzard that the city was not prepared for, so like the trucks weren't out shoveling snow and stuff. And it's also like Christmas, Christmas Eve, so no one's really working this stuff, anyways. So yeah, I'm like driving, and all of a sudden I start losing the I drive, I drive a front wheel drive and I start losing the tail end of my car. Yeah. I start like fishtailing like this.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

And I'm like trying to correct it. And because I'm fishtailing, my my car is like kicking up a fuck ton of snow. And the snow is like making it's like getting in front of my car, so it's like hard to see too. And there's a blizzard going on. So after like a certain point, I like lose control of my car. And it's it's so disorienting that I don't even know if I'm like which way I'm facing on the road. Like there's just like everything's just white. There's just like snow everywhere, and my car is like spinning and I can't see shit. And I I at least remember like I was in the left lane, and I was thinking, like, if I go any further left, there's a barrier there. I don't want to hit the barrier. You know, it's it's I'm either gonna like fucking head on with the barrier and die, or my car's gonna get fucked up. So I don't want to hit this barrier. So I remember turning to the right, and when I turn to the right, my car is just like spinning, like fully spinning, spinning in circles. Everything around me is in white, and I'm I'm just like along for the ride. Jesus has the wheel. I'm like hitting the brakes, and I got off the road, and the and the road that I was on was like on a hill, like a really, really high hill. So I got off the road, and my car is like sliding down this hill now, like on the grass and snow. Go slide all the way down this, like, I don't know, like 50-meter hill, or maybe not 50. Yeah, actually, yeah, like 50 meter hill, all the way down to like this other road at the bottom of the hill, and then on the other, like slide across that road too to like a snow bank, and that's where my car crashed.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

Damn.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

Yeah, it was like so fucking scary, but luckily no one was hurt.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

Oh, okay, that's all good.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

Yeah, my car was kind of damaged, but I got the got the bumper replaced, got some oh, it was only the just the bumper. No, it was like the bumper, the radiator also, and then had to get my wheels realigned because yeah, I just wanted to plow through a shit ton of stuff. Yeah, but you you weren't injured though. No, I was fine. I mean, my yeah, I was I was pretty much completely fine. Okay, yeah. That's the difference. Same as my passenger.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

Everyone was blind. Oh, like the oh, there was someone in the passenger.

SPEAKER_02 29:21

Yeah, there was uh I was driving a girl home.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Damn.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

Yeah, I I I swear I wasn't like speeding or anything. I wasn't like was your it was your girlfriend? No, no, no. It was just I I was purely just driving someone home. Oh wow. Not a girlfriend or anything. Yeah, yeah. Holy shit. Yeah, I felt I felt bad for her. I was like, I'm so sorry.

unknown 29:37

Damn.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

But I knew it like it's not like it was my fault. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, it was my fault because I had summer tires on my car. So yeah, that was definitely a mistake. But um yeah. Shit. Scary moment. Have you been in any other car crashes?

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Yeah, there was one where I was at fault.

SPEAKER_02 29:56

Yeah? Yeah. How bad was it?

SPEAKER_00 29:57

I wasn't bad at all.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

No, okay. Um yeah, yeah, that was the only car crash I've I've been in. So uh didn't make any new friends in in university. It was pretty much the same for me. The only new friends I made around university time was like people that you guys introduced uh to the group. But but even those people were like, I don't think you introduced anyone, but a couple of guys they like introduced like coworkers into the friend group.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then that's kind of how our friend group grew. Me too, yeah. So not really, not really any new friends I made.

Friendships And Group Chats Growing Apart

SPEAKER_00 30:30

So then what happened to your friends you like you were hanging out in high school?

SPEAKER_02 30:33

Dude, I don't know. For I don't remember exactly what happened, but we kind of just like started talking less and less. I th I I'm guessing like we all just got busy with stuff.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

Yeah, but didn't you guys have like a group chat like we do now?

SPEAKER_02 30:43

Yeah, so we had um we had an iMessage group chat. Yeah. And I I didn't want an iPhone anymore. I got an Android. So you had an Android? Uh for like a little bit. Oh for like one year or something. Yeah, I had an iPhone originally, and then I was I was like getting a new phone and I got an Android. I like told him in the group chat, like, you know, boys, I'm getting an Android. So this is it for me in the group chat. And I I remember one of my friends in the group chat made like a a YouTube video, a sad YouTube video about me leaving the or me getting an Android instead of an iPhone.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

So I think that was actually like a big contributor to us stopping talking because they had the group chat now, and then I was no longer in this group chat because I was on Android.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Oh, so you think they're they're still homies and they just hear this.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

No, I don't think they're homies like to this day. Oh, but uh well, some of them I could see them be homies to this day. Oh, okay. But it was like it was a group chat of like eight guys or something. Yeah, I mean our group chat is like yeah, but like our group chat has survived. Yeah. But uh but maybe that's because we don't use like specifically iMessage, we use like you know, another app. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that that might have been why the group chat survived.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

Damn, isn't that kind of sad though?

SPEAKER_02 31:49

Like Hmm. Yeah, I mean it it it is kind of sad, but it it's not like the worst thing. I mean, it it wasn't like a bad ending to like a friendship. Like if I if I saw any of those guys in public, like I would say hi.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

And um, I'm sure they would say hi and we would have like a nice talk. And if we feel like it, like we could like reconnect, you know. Yeah, if if the if if the stars align and it like happens. Like I would I wouldn't be it's not like I'd be opposed to it, but yeah, I don't really feel bad about it. It's just you know, our lives went in different directions.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

I guess I guess I can kind of sympathize it because I had a group I had like really close friends in junior high. Yeah, I don't talk to anymore. Yeah, like I'd still talk to them pretty frequently in high school, but then now university I literally don't talk to them at all.

SPEAKER_02 32:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

I mean it's kind of like when someone moves away, you know, like you totally have the facilities to like keep up with them, but yeah, you know, life, life gets busy.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

Yeah. And it's bi-directional, like the effort has to be made on both sides.

SPEAKER_02 32:48

So and I remember I was like extremely busy after right after high school because I was forced to get a part-time job, and then I was really, really grinding league too.

Grinding League And Creating On YouTube

SPEAKER_02 32:58

So like going out was something I only did for like events, like birthday parties or like actual parties.

SPEAKER_00 33:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

Just just hanging out wasn't something I did very often.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

I see. What were your during this time of life then? Like what were your interests in like hobbies?

SPEAKER_02 33:12

I was full on in League of Legends mode.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Other than League.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

No, no, no, there was nothing else. If I liked anything else, I'd be like, I don't have time for this. Damn. I was I was so fucking dude. I should I wish I wasn't like this.

SPEAKER_00 33:26

Also you regret it.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

Yeah, because it was like there was like so much fun to be. Well, I don't know if I regret it. It was just like I wish I could have it both ways, I guess. I don't know. But there were like I remember there were so many like look at how many things I'm interested in now that are not League of Legends. Yeah, these are all the things that I was always interested in, but I told myself, I don't have time for this. Once I once I make it 20 years from now, then I'll visit this stuff again. So yeah, at the time I was just like pushing away everything, everything else that I could be interested in. I was like, no, I'm busy, I'm focusing on something else.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

Damn, so you had no interest.

SPEAKER_02 34:02

Yeah, as I I mean, I was I did like League, I liked playing it, but also at that point it was really becoming more of a job than I see, I know what you're doing. For fun, yeah. Yeah, yeah, like a yeah, like every game I really viewed it as almost every game I viewed it as like a job. Like I would be thinking like when I'm boosting, I'd be thinking of time literally as money. And it's like if I win a game, if if I win every single game, because it so boosting would be like I have to get to a certain rank.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

And it's like if I win every single game, I need to win 20 games to get to this rank. And if I'm getting paid, I don't know, like a thousand dollars or two thousand dollars for this, two thousand dollars over twenty games or ten ten games, two thousand dollars, that's like thirty three hundred hours for a thousand dollars. But then it's like if I lose games, time gets added to that. Every single time I lose, more time gets added. So the amount of money per time I'm making is like less and less.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

And then once I started thinking about it like that, then it started to get a little heavier.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

Yeah, that makes sense.

unknown 35:07

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 35:08

But yeah, my pretty much all of my focus was on was on League of Legends at that point. How about you? You were definitely into other stuff.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

I mean anime always. Yeah, and then it was during university where my YouTube stuff really blew up. Um because mind you, just to give it more context, started with Beyblade, switched to piano stuff in high school, continue with the piano stuff, and then it it grew exponentially, like like really, really big.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

Yeah. Do you remember do you remember thinking like, oh shit, this is it? Like this is like this one's gonna catch on. This one's gonna do good. What do you mean? Like for a video. No, I mean the first time it happened, yeah. No, not at all. Oh, okay. It was like a surprise the whole time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:53

I was like, oh, what the fuck? Yeah. And then um it got big and big. Yeah, it was such amazing. It is still such an amazing experience.

SPEAKER_02 36:04

So you're actively making music now.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like like I I was making a lot of K-pop piano covers. It grew big.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

Oh no, but you said it is still rewarding. So today are you still do you mean still as in like back in university it was rewarding, or like today still is rewarding? It's always been rewarding. Oh, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

I guess I don't think I I mean I think maybe at one point. Actually, no, yeah. I've I've always never, never taken it for granted. I've been very privileged to able to have like a grow a career out of it and make money out of it as well throughout university, which got me to do a lot of opportunities that I would have really never would have imagined.

SPEAKER_02 36:40

Yeah. Did you get did you get to meet any people that you never would have performed?

SPEAKER_00 36:44

Yeah, but I mean, yeah, but not really like big celebrities that I thought. Gotcha. But but nonetheless, got to travel a lot and got to got to perform in different countries. You got to perform. Yeah, yeah. Damn. Yeah, which is pretty cool. Got to live.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

Yeah. Whoa.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

And then I was able to meet like fans, which is pretty cool. Whoa. And then something I always like try to take it to heart is that um I because I can see comments on like my music stuff. And a lot of them say like it helped them through difficult times, like funerals, like breakups, school, and then people still comment and they're saying, like, oh, I used to listen to your music studying. Now I'm working next month, I'm getting married. I'm like, damn. Yeah, that's amazing. That's that's that's such a like that's that's so that's that's insane. You know, that is awesome. So I I thought I really got into that university, still kept uh throughout it. And then Yeah, yeah. It was it was it's it's a big part of my life. I think I still hope for it to be a bigger part of my life, but back then it was it was really, really big. It's probably like 50-60% of my time, to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 37:53

Well, I'm sure it'll still be a big part of your life as long as you choose for it to be.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:58

Are we gonna say anything else? So I imagine you didn't have a ton of time because if you were you know studying all the time.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

No, I was so busy, I was so busy in undergrad, like I had no time to be honest. Like I was I would say if I had to draw like a pie chart to split my time, I would say 50% was like YouTube music. Yeah, I would say maybe like the 30% was like studying, yeah. And then 10% was like extracurricular, like leadership, volunteering stuff, and the rest was like whatever left, including like social life and relationships. One relationship, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:39

For me, it was like pretty, pretty similar, except because I started school a little bit later, it was like I was I was like I I tried really hard to actually I think I did a pretty good job of like staying a healthy individual during that time. Healthy individual? Yeah. Because I feel like it's like really, really easy to, you know, when you're home all the time. Yeah, it's I feel like it's really easy to just like slip up as like a person. Yeah, you know, start like eating worse, stop caring about your uh you know, physical fitness. I feel like that's something I did a pretty good job of. Not that it was like incredibly difficult, but I once I made a schedule, I stuck to that schedule. And defin definitely was like that. That was probably the biggest reason why I didn't fail doing uh like online school pretty much.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

I see. Oh, actually, yeah, I guess it was it was in undergrad. I started to work out as well. I mean, I was like, I was very skinny. I'm I still I'm I still am very skinny, but then it was during university I started to exercise more. No, yeah, that's one thing.

SPEAKER_02 39:40

Yeah. You have some fun any funny or memorable moments.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

Well then the only big memory moments, like memorable moments I have is really just my last year of undergrad. Yeah, what happened? I was just going out a lot. Like I was going out on like Wednesday, like on Thursdays. Really?

SPEAKER_02 39:58

On weekdays?

SPEAKER_00 39:58

I mean, like you were there, but remember?

SPEAKER_02 40:00

Like we were going out like two or three times a week. Yeah, I was, but I was just like, you know, playing League of Legends, making money, so I didn't really give a shit.

SPEAKER_00 40:06

Yeah, because by that time I just had it like like on like I was so comfortable with like my studying tactics, and like I was so I felt so confident on like with with school work and now balancing the extracurricular stuff that now I just got this free time to really do whatever I wanted. Yeah, so my fourth year was a blast to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 40:25

Yeah, and you know what? Uh I just I just thought about this. Since you said um in high school we had like that third space, which was our which was our friend's family restaurant. Yeah, we kind of had that in like post-secondary as well, where one of our friends like basically like owned a couple different like bars. Yeah, and that was kind of like a third space for us, you know. That was like our spot all the time.

SPEAKER_00 40:44

Yeah, that was a bit later though, yeah. I'd say I think before that it was actually it was still that restaurant, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then our friend's basement.

SPEAKER_02 40:51

Oh yeah, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 40:53

Those are the big ones.

SPEAKER_02 40:54

Yeah, yeah. And then you and then also you moved into like a you got a house with uh a bunch of our friends as well.

SPEAKER_00 40:59

Yeah, once you're later, yeah. Yeah, because yeah, university, I like we weren't going to like malls or anything like that. Yeah, not at all. That was over. We're just like chilling, going out to like bars here and there, having like bonfires and stuff like that. Yeah, you know, which is fun.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

But we we still do a lot of that stuff too, which is kind of nice.

SPEAKER_00 41:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:19

Were you into uh like anime back then? Or or actually, so nowadays you're you're pretty into movies.

SPEAKER_00 41:24

Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:25

When did when did that start?

SPEAKER_00 41:27

I was always into movies.

SPEAKER_02 41:28

Really? Like even as a kid.

SPEAKER_00 41:30

Yeah, yeah. I was so into movies.

SPEAKER_02 41:32

Like English movies, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

Oh I'm not even but but when I say I was into movies, I was like talking, I'm like, I'm not talking about like artistic, highly regarded movies. I'm like talking about like she's the man, like like a Sydney White and the seven dwarves and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 41:46

Yeah, just like uh entertainment.

SPEAKER_00 41:48

Like like teen teen flicks, like I I love those. I still do, to be honest. Yeah, I probably wasn't. Camp rock and shit. Yeah, Camp Rock. I watched all the high school musicals, like Princess Diaries, Princess Diary's 2 is like top five movies. Yeah, great movies. But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was yeah, I was I was really into I was really into consuming me forms of media, dude. You're still kind of like yeah, like music, television, movies, like anything like entertainment media related. I'll I would just like brain rot and just consume all of it.

SPEAKER_02 42:18

And now social media's got you. Yeah, yeah. So we went to my friends and I, we actually went to a lot of festivals in um after we after we got old enough, basically. So I remember a lot of those. Yeah. Did you go to any festivals? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

Those are always fun.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

Do you remember much?

SPEAKER_00 42:38

Yeah, of course. Those are like probably those are really good times.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

You know, dude, to be honest, like they kind of just blend in for me now. Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:45

No, I mean the the first few ones we went to are definitely more memorable.

SPEAKER_02 42:49

But I remember those because not for the festivals, but because of like how rambunctious we were and like the the Airbnb we rented and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 42:58

But those are the those those are the good times. Yes, exactly. My favorite art. My favorite part of those trips are we like hanging out in the hotel, Airbnb, just like staying up late at night, watching stuff, like eating food and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 43:09

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I think I think very uh very fondly about that stuff.

Dogs And Parties Then Growing Up

SPEAKER_02 43:13

I uh so one one of the biggest moments in my life actually happened in my adulthood, which is as some of you may have noticed, we've got a little dog in our uh in our cover photo, and that's that's my little dog, that's my son, and I got him in 2017. And I remember you were one of the first people to meet him, actually. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was a little puppy, and I don't know if you remember it. He was like the size of my palm when when I first got him, and now he's fucking fat as fuck. It's like a hundred pounds, which is fifty pounds overweight. Yeah, pretty insane.

SPEAKER_00 43:45

How's that experience raising raising a dog?

SPEAKER_02 43:47

I mean, it's been it's been pretty fantastic. I mean, no, it hasn't been fantastic. It was the the start was very stressful.

SPEAKER_00 43:54

Oh, why?

SPEAKER_02 43:55

Yeah. I don't know if this is because I don't know if I'm like helicopter parent or something, but Like I remember the the when I first got him, I like didn't sleep at all. I was like just every time he would be asleep, yeah, I would be watching him. Why? Because I was so worried that he was gonna die or something. Why? Just like randomly.

SPEAKER_00 44:13

I was worried that he was just like an irrational fear?

SPEAKER_02 44:15

Yeah, just like an irrational fear. I was worried that he was like gonna like choke on his tongue or choke on his spit or something while he's like laying down or something like that. So yeah, I was just like constantly worried that something was gonna happen to my poor baby, baby puppy the whole time. So like for the first couple months, I slept very little, and like anytime he like yapped, wanted to wake up and like go do something, I would instantly like, you know, 3 a.m. you want to go outside? Fuck it, let's go outside.

SPEAKER_00 44:42

Damn.

SPEAKER_02 44:42

So yeah, at the beginning I was uh uh stressful. But also you know, I think having a dog specifically teaches you so many good things. Like what? Like you must be responsible. Oh yeah. When you have a dog, yeah. You don't have you don't have an option, you know. Dogs gotta poop. You you you can't you can't just like stay in the house. Yeah, he's gotta go for walks, he's gotta you gotta feed him, you gotta you gotta do tons of things for your dog. You gotta entertain him, you know, like the whole time. You gotta you gotta be with him. And uh I feel like I feel like that taught me a lot of uh good lessons, at least. Yeah. I I remember you wanted a dog for a while, but unfortunately couldn't get one.

SPEAKER_00 45:20

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

But um, yeah, I've I've always like really been into animals. I'm probably gonna get like tons more. Oh, really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

Like what would you want?

SPEAKER_02 45:28

Well, for sure a cat.

SPEAKER_00 45:29

Yeah, I love cats, actually.

SPEAKER_02 45:31

I I'm all I'm always gonna want to have a cat and a dog. I mean, I have a dog right now, but yeah, I'm always gonna like, you know, I I've I've thought about, you know, unfortunately dogs can't live forever, and at some point my my dog's gonna pass away, unfortunately. But I think I'm always gonna want a dog, you know. Not not to like replace the the dog that I had, but I just you know, I feel like I want that to be part of my life always. So always gonna have a dog. Um another big moment in our adulthood was you getting married, of course. But before that was your bachelor party, yeah, which was super, super fun.

SPEAKER_00 46:09

Yeah, it was a blast.

SPEAKER_02 46:10

Yeah, it was it was uh it was fucking insane. And it was one of those things where it's like, I don't think that's gonna happen again. You know, getting getting so many of our friends. So your bachelor party was for our listeners, it was in Mexico. Yeah, we went down to Cancun and we got like 20 guys. Do you remember the exact number? Was it like 21 or something?

SPEAKER_00 46:28

I think it was 20 on bottom.

SPEAKER_02 46:29

Yeah, like 20 guys down to Cancun for the same how long were we there? Like four days? Four days, something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. On the same resort. And yeah, dude, how how first of all, who invites 20 people to their bachelor party? You know, yeah, let alone a destination bachelor party in in a different country.

SPEAKER_01 46:51

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:51

I feel like getting like 20 of your closest friends to show up to a bachelor party is like so. Oh, that's what you mean.

SPEAKER_00 46:58

Like the logistics work out. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 47:00

The logistics, like getting everyone to be free at the same time, getting everyone to be like willing to pay the money, getting everyone to be like willing to actually go.

SPEAKER_00 47:07

Yeah, yeah, it might be tough to get it in the game.

SPEAKER_02 47:09

Yeah, it was but but the fact that it happened, it was like it was so sick.

SPEAKER_00 47:14

Yeah, it was amazing. No, I'd have such a good time.

SPEAKER_02 47:16

Just like four days nonstop of being surrounded by your best friends and just getting fucking shitfaced the whole time. Yeah, like you know, there was always something to do. Yeah, like literally zero boring moments.

SPEAKER_00 47:30

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, if like if if there was nothing going on, you just chill in the beach, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 47:34

Like, but make stuff happen, even if it's like, dude. Yeah, there was just never, never any downtime.

SPEAKER_00 47:40

Yeah, yeah. It was it was fucking insane.

SPEAKER_02 47:43

It was so awesome.

SPEAKER_00 47:44

It was pretty awesome. Oh man, it was uh yeah, it was a really good trip, actually.

SPEAKER_02 47:48

Yeah, um that happened.

SPEAKER_00 47:49

Yeah, that wasn't even that too long ago, to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 47:52

Yeah, how how long ago?

SPEAKER_00 47:53

A couple years ago, a few years ago, a few years ago, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:55

Yeah, and of course your wedding, of course, which was uh also

Dating With Marriage In Mind

SPEAKER_02 47:59

insane. But actually, since we're on the topic, I wanted to ask you, how did you how did you work up from you know, you met your your then girlfriend, now wife in your last year of not or not met, but you got together with your then girlfriend and now wife in the last year of high school?

SPEAKER_00 48:17

Well, actually first day of university.

SPEAKER_02 48:19

First day of university, yeah. And so how did your relationship progress up to the point of you deciding like, yeah, I want to get married? Was it like did you know early on? Did you have like a checklist of things to go through?

SPEAKER_00 48:32

No, I mean I can't say I knew early on because I was pretty young back then. Right. I think I was like I was 18. So I couldn't confidently say, oh wow, this is this is what I knew everything. But I think just with time, I I knew.

SPEAKER_02 48:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:47

I didn't have a check mark or anything like that. It's just uh just the feeling you get.

SPEAKER_02 48:52

You were just like going with the flow. There weren't like certain things that you felt like you I don't know, like certain requirements, I guess. But you weren't looking for like, you know, are my parents gonna approve this person, or did you already know that that was gonna be okay?

SPEAKER_00 49:05

I didn't care. Oh, if my parents approved it, yeah. So it's just like I guess it's a selfish thing, maybe. I mean, for me to it has to be like okay with me first. You're not gonna well, I mean, yeah, I mean, like my parents aren't like they're they weren't gonna like object or anything like that. They would never so that that was actually never something I even considered in the realm of possibilities for me personally. It was just yeah, just like gradual, gradual feeling and a sense of readiness, and then and then pulled the gun, called the gun there.

SPEAKER_02 49:39

So it just like came naturally and then at some point. It was very natural. Yeah, at some point you were just like, Yeah, it's time.

SPEAKER_00 49:44

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, nothing forced. It just felt like the right time.

SPEAKER_02 49:47

Well, lucky you, man. Some of us gotta fucking suck dick through a couple of relationships, not have anything work out, and then you know Yeah, I yeah, I mean, you've you've had a you've had a share of a few hiccups. Yeah, I've had more than just a share, you know.

SPEAKER_00 50:02

I've I've I don't even know how many relationships I've been in to up to this point, which sounds bad, but after so from yeah, after that time the girl cheated on you, how many re how many relationships have you have you been in?

SPEAKER_02 50:15

Since then? A couple.

SPEAKER_00 50:18

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 50:19

Yeah. After her, I didn't take for quite a while. I think like I was single for like two at least two years. Um and I've I spent long like after a relationship, I never like jump back into a relationship.

SPEAKER_00 50:33

That's fair.

SPEAKER_02 50:33

I always have quite quite a long time in between.

SPEAKER_00 50:38

Yeah, I I actually yeah, I think I do remember the two that you were in after.

SPEAKER_02 50:43

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I I had a couple relationships after that, but I want to stress that every relationship I've had, as as crazy as it sounds, even back to like the junior high days, it was always with the intent and belief that like I'm looking for someone to marry.

SPEAKER_00 51:00

Really?

SPEAKER_02 51:01

Yes, it was always that even back even back to like my first girlfriend in junior high. It wasn't that I was thinking like I'm gonna marry this person, it's that I'm trying to find out if I'm gonna marry this person, you know.

SPEAKER_00 51:12

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 51:13

Yeah, I never like dated someone because I thought they were like hot and wanted to have fun with them. Yeah, it was purely always every single relationship, every single time, I was in the on the pursuit of finding my wife.

SPEAKER_00 51:25

Oh wow. But how would you know though? Like even back then when you're so young. I mean that that was like that was because that was like for me, I'm like, what the fuck do I know? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 51:34

Like I guess because like I I had my first girlfriend in like grade eight. So by then I was I actually was thinking about like not that I was like thinking about marriage, but I was thinking like on that on that path, you know, like I'm gonna date someone and we're gonna be together for a couple years and then we're gonna get married.

SPEAKER_00 51:50

Oh, I see. I guess the only time I had that sort of mindset was in junior high where I was like I was young as I was very young. Yeah. But then after after that, I was like, okay, I mean like come on.

SPEAKER_02 52:00

Like Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's like I I mean it differently because like when you're in like junior high and like young, you're like you're you just tell each other you like each other, and then you're actually like assuming you're gonna get married.

SPEAKER_00 52:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:12

It wasn't it wasn't really like that.

SPEAKER_00 52:13

Oh, okay, I see.

SPEAKER_02 52:14

It was more so like I I was act I was actually dating this person with the intent of getting to know everything about them.

SPEAKER_00 52:22

So you think do you think that's because like um because I would say I'm like a pretty closed off person until I'm I like I like get really comfortable with someone. But do you so so then for you, do you think the reason why you have that kind of um perception or not perception attitude towards finding a partner is because you're easy to become pretty open and comfortable with that with whoever partner that you might you might meet? Like right like right away, you know?

SPEAKER_02 52:53

Maybe up to a certain well actually I don't know. I think I'm pretty I'm I'm pretty guarded until I decide that I like someone. And then once I do like that person, it's like a it's like a switch then. Kind of like a switch. Okay, yeah. I mean I I need them to like me back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. It's not just enough for me to like them.

SPEAKER_00 53:09

Like once like it's requited.

SPEAKER_02 53:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 53:11

And then then it's like a switch.

SPEAKER_02 53:12

Like it's like, yeah, then I'm like, then I'm like, I'm in relationship mode.

SPEAKER_00 53:15

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Because for me, it's like very steady. Like I need to be like really comfortable.

SPEAKER_02 53:22

Well, I've I've also because so I've been in like a few relationships, so I understand my at least some of my shortcomings in relationships. And I know that I'm the type of person that right off in the start of a relationship, I'll like hit this like high high, and then all of a sudden I'll be like, I'll like get in my head and be like start questioning like if I actually want this. But I know that's all like that's all just like anxiety. And once I do pass push past that point, which is like a week or two weeks or something, once I push past that that point, I like stop having those like conflicting thoughts.

SPEAKER_00 53:55

Yeah, wow. So then I don't know. So then weren't you like crushed to find out that damn, I guess this wasn't the one.

SPEAKER_02 54:06

Yeah, I mean, most of the time. Well, I mean, uh the the one that cheated on me in high school, I was crushed. Not only because I was like sad that you know this is not the final relationship I'm gonna be in, but the thing that really fucked me was like she was such an asshole about it. Like, come on, bro. Yeah, yeah. Um but yeah, every I pretty much every relationship, I'm you know, it's been a sad ending for me because regardless of if I break up with a person or if they break up with me, it's a sad ending for me because it's you know, it's not what I wanted. I wanted to at the start of every relationship and like throughout every relationship, I I make my I make an earnest, you know, attempt to move this along, like to be a good partner, to find a good partner, and uh progress towards marriage. And since you know, so far none of my relationships have have progressed up to that point, it is always like a a sad ending, but uh, you know.

SPEAKER_00 55:02

Well, each with a learning experience. Sorry, each each each relationship uh you learned something.

SPEAKER_02 55:07

Definitely. Okay. I think I think I definitely grew after each experience because I really try to, because I think about like, you know, this this failed. Why did this fail? Yeah. And of course, there's there's always tons of room for me to grow. And like like I think I was like, you know, a couple relationships back, many relationships back, many years ago. I think I was like super, super immature, super bad at communicating. And I I would like inconvenience myself a lot just to avoid inconveniencing my partner. And I think that's like pretty pretty terrible. Because it's like, you know, communication is everything, and that's like a whole lack of communication. So I think after each relationship, I've tried really hard to improve myself as a person. And I think for the most part I have. You know, in that sense, not so bad. Yeah, I'm getting better and better for my future wife.

SPEAKER_00 56:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:02

So that's good.

SPEAKER_00 56:03

Yeah, that's all that matters.

SPEAKER_02 56:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:06

Almost in 10 minutes. 10 more minutes. Yeah.

Ranking School Years And Life Values

SPEAKER_00 56:10

Okay. So final question to wrap up the series. Yeah. What would you so take away, disregard like the after post-university stuff? Because that's I feel like that it would be unfair to incorporate with that. But just taking the school experiences by themselves, elementary, junior high, high school, university, how would you rank them from top to best? No way, top to worst.

SPEAKER_02 56:35

I think I think top I gotta say was elementary school. Just because that was like the most pure joy I can remember in my life. Like, truly no worries whatsoever. Of course, I had like very different friends than what I have now, but I mean it in the sense of like how I felt, you know, where my head was at. And I just remember lots of good times back then, even though there were like, of course, like bad times. Yeah, but there's always bad times in life. Yeah. I think the yeah, I think elementary, I would probably rank the highest. Yeah. And then I think I would do oh wait, and university as well. Hmm. I think I would do elementary number one, junior high second, university third, and then high school. It's kind of a toss-up between high school and university. I don't know, this is super hard. Uh, the only thing I'm sure about is that I think elementary was the most fun for me in terms of like purely in terms of school. And then I think junior high was the second most fun for me.

SPEAKER_00 57:43

Yeah, I was that that's the sense I got from how you've been describing yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:47

Yeah, uh, I just went through I mean, like the high school and university would have still been fun for me. I was just going through I just went through so many drastic changes at that time. Yeah. How are you?

SPEAKER_00 57:58

I would say high school. Um I mean, not I'm not just talking about fun, but like I says overall experience because a variety of reasons. Number one, as I talked about, it was a confidence booster for my life moving forward. A huge change, like the first time I ever felt so much confidence, and then I think it played a pretty integral role in shaping my identity. And I would say, and then number two would be elementary school, very similar sentiment to what you said, like pure joy, yeah, bliss, yeah, so many good memories, like so much nostalgia that I have very still good, clear, vivid memories of. And then university, it's like eh, like wasn't bad. Yeah, wasn't that amazing either?

SPEAKER_02 58:41

Yeah, it's it's like pretty bad. You know, it's like pretty similar to like a life now, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:47

I think well, I think life now is better than yes. Life now is better. Yeah, um, and then last is junior high because quite opposite of high school, very insecure, very not confident. They don't have, yeah, they didn't have too much good good time.

SPEAKER_02 59:00

You know, I we did say different stages in our life, but I think you didn't enjoy junior high and I didn't enjoy high school for very similar reasons. I think we were both like really in our heads at that point, yeah. Yeah, for sure. Like dealing with like anxiety, yeah, wanting to like fit in, finding our place in the world.

SPEAKER_00 59:15

Yeah. And just to note that like these are I I like I'm labeling them as worst experiences, but they're still integral, important experiences for for personal growth. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:25

What what what do you like now? What are you into? Like how how different are you compared to those days back then? Do you find that your interests are like an extension of what they were before, or have they changed completely?

SPEAKER_00 59:39

Mine, mine's definitely an ex of uh it's an extension of what I liked before. So probably different than you because you're saying you have a lot more interests, but mine's like, yeah, like still kind of the same. Like I still like anime, but my taste for anime is different, like manga.

SPEAKER_01 59:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:55

I still like music, but my taste for music has changed and I've grew a lot more. I still like movies, but my once again, my taste for movies have changed, maybe a little bit more mature. I still like like the the rom coms, but definitely more mature. But as a person and my values core, I would say maybe like similar, but I care less now.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:18

Really? Yeah. Care less in what in what ways?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:20

In everything, actually.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:21

Well, I mean, surely you care more in like ways that matter.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:24

Yeah. Oh, yes, yes. Like care less about the things that I cared about before.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:28

Care less in like about like societal pressures or social pressures. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:31

Yeah. Yeah. And then I care more about time. Care more about my family.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:38

I have more perspective about my family. Yeah. Well, what especially what my parents went through. Yeah. Um, I try to take things not for granted and I try to recognize my privilege on a day-to-day basis. Yeah. Which I something I definitely didn't do in high school, junior high, even undergrad.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:54

I've noticed that's been something big for you because uh, you know, you and I have had quite a few talks about stuff like this. And I guess one one thing that you've been consistent about, especially you know, lately, is being grateful for the privileges that we do have. Yeah, because I guess you never really applied it to me, you applied it to yourself, being grateful to the privileges that you have.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:13

Yeah, I mean, because I can't say that for your for you. I guess you know, I can't say that maybe it wasn't a privilege for you. But for me, like I'm looking back on it, there hasn't been a time where I've faced much adversity, and I I have to be really I have to really recognize the privilege for that. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:32

For me, I think I've gone through so many changes in my life, but uh interestingly, I think I'm I'm really I'm on like a same like I don't know, trajectory or path or something that I thought I would be on when I was like really young. Like the interests that I had, like like I said, when I was in grinding really hard with League and I pushed all these things away, the things that I'm into now, I would have been into them anyways if I wasn't uh you know focusing on league. So I see I see. Actually, yeah, you did say that. You did say that I kind of just ended up being the person that I always would have been, anyways. Yeah, it just took me a little bit longer.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:06

Yeah, yeah. Took you in a meaningful roundabout way.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:11

Yeah, yeah, exactly. A meaningful roundabout way to get to where I am now. And I'm honestly pretty happy with who I am now, especially like lately. I don't know uh what it what it is. Well, I know a couple things, but yeah, I'm just super content with the way my life is going now.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:28

Yeah, yeah, that's good.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:29

Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I'm fucking proud of who I am now, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:32

Yeah, you should be, as you should, as you shouldn't.

New Podcast Schedule And Wrap-Up

SPEAKER_02 1:02:35

All right.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:35

Well, that is it for this episode and overall the series of what we're talking about for the past four episodes now. And we were talking about actually making a change to our podcast moving forward. So we were thinking that on great idea.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:52

This is a great idea.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:53

We're talking about on Tuesdays. We're gonna there's gonna be essentially there's gonna be two segments on a week, week-to-week basis. Tuesdays will be we will do our series of whatever topic we want to talk about, and then on Thursday, we talk about anything on our mind. Could be about news, could be about culture, could be about a lot of the things we talked about in terms of our interest and passion, like maybe music, anime, and stuff like that. It's when that way people are kind of bored about the things that we talk about on Tuesday, they can tune in on Thursday, or before people are bored about the Thursday stuff, they can tune in on Tuesdays. So we'll have a nice mix of things we wanna share and have a conversation about.

unknown 1:03:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:30

Get ready for casual Thursdays, guys. Oh, that's a good one. PJs and slippers only.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:35

There, oh, there we go. Actually, that's the title PJs and Slippers only. Oh, let's go. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:40

But uh yeah, I'm excited for this new new format we're gonna try as well. I think it's a great idea.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:47

Yeah. I mean, we're we're still at the very early beginnings of our podcast. Um, but surely there are people listening. So which is which is like a good motivator.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:58

Yeah, what do you mean? Yeah. You know what's funny, guys, our listeners, every time there's a new one, we we pay so much attention. Kai, Kai, or sorry, not Kai, Colin tells me every single time there's a there's a new viewer from a new place. So thank you guys so much for listening. You know, it it truly means a lot. And really hope you liked this series as well as our last one. But if you didn't, maybe the next one will be for you, you know. But uh, this has been this week's episode of I keep seeing this week's, but we got two two episodes a week. But yeah, I mean, this has been today's episode of Catch Up with Kyle and Cohen. Thank you guys very much for listening, and we'll see you in the next one.

unknown 1:04:33

Peace.