Calvin Higgins: And welcome back to Choice Men, everybody. Sam, how are you doing? I'm doing good. How are you? Doing good. As you guys can see, if you're watching on video, we just shook hands across the table, and in between us, we have two guests. We have my sister, what's your name? Keila Higgins. And Sam's sister. Jane Rothenberger. And today we are on episode. I mean. With the last two that we recorded and also still haven't posted, I think this is episode five of the Student Summer Series where we're actually either talking to people or doing things related to students. the last episode you guys would have seen was orientation night at ECS. me and Sam got to interview some people. But now we're back and with these lovely ladies. So today is gonna be kind of like the other ones where we've had students on, where we ask about. How their summer's been going, what some of their favorite things have been so far, and then how they're getting ready for the school year, if they have any goals. And yeah, we'll go from there. So first of all, how are you guys doing this morning? Good. Good. Good? Yeah. That's it. Anything exciting going on? No. I mean sports are gonna start soon, but yeah. Yeah, 'cause you guys' sports start on Monday, right? Yeah. Wow. And you guys both doing volleyball? Yes. What what's the prediction for this year's volleyball team? what do you think, Jay? Well, I think we're all trying to go for districts. Districts. At least at least. How many games do you have to win to get to districts or matches? Mrs. Ball said like at least like five Well six games? Maybe. So not is that more feasible this year guys? Yes. Definitely. Because the skill level is higher or you guys have new people on the team? We have newer people on the team that seem like they know how to do volleyball. That helps depending on what sport you're doing is actually having people know what they're doing. That that's good. Nice. so we when we interviewed Alexander and Joshua. I think one was right before the youth retreat, and one was right after the youth retreat. So we got to ask them how that went. We asked Hallie how it went as well when we when we interviewed her. From your guys' perspective, how was the TEC Youth Retreat this one? also, what grade are you guys going in? that's right. That's a good question. we are both going into 10th grade. Yep. Sophomore, yeah. Wow. Sophomore. That's crazy. That's crazy. Just like two, three more years, and then you're Then you're done. We'll be the first class to actually go from kinder prep all the way to twelfth grade. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. Which means kind started three years after you. No. No, not not. Three years after like Abby and Isaiah's class went into first gra went into kindergarten because they are they're the first class that went from kindergarten through twelfth, but then kindergarten prep didn't start until a couple of years later. Would you guys as people who the first first people to go through kineraproppy, is that useful? Do you guys remember? I remember very much. Yeah, I yeah don't remember that. yeah, I screamed the whole first class, I think. Yeah, I I think you did. That's rough, buddy. That's crazy. that kind of feels like that was yesterday. No. No. It's not big as yesterday. When you get older, you'll understand. Yeah, because me and Sam are ancient. So anyways. yeah, so again, back to the youth retreat. How how did that guy how did that go for you guys? Hmm. Well, it was definitely different than a lot of the other ones because of the places that we went to. But I don't think it was actually as good as the Other two or three that I've been to. Okay. Mm-hmm. It felt kinda a little bit like it was awkward. And like people were just doing like different things. I know that like that's okay, of course. But it did not feel like we were like all at this camp to like really do something odd together. Cause also as a public area, so like anyone could have been there and it was a little not Scary, but just like on the edge kind of like at the Johnson's, nobody else is there. Nobody else is there. You're more safe than I didn't like the place where we went to though. That was like really fun. yeah, 'cause I heard that like Mr. Kurosov got his mic stolen too, his boom box stolen at the youth. Really? Yeah, he did. 'Cause he left it outside. man. Yeah. And it got stolen. That's interesting. Yeah. Yeah, because I know that was The location had been a big conversation just to try something new. I wonder if we'll go back to the well. So I think if obviously if the Johnsons are still willing to I think that is the best location. Yeah. I think and part of the you know, there being no shooting was it takes the whole day. It seems like it doesn't need to take the whole day. And then once once you realize, wait a second, we have to get sixty kids through both pistol and rifle for like two, three minutes. Like here's a that takes a long time to set up. Yeah. but it's also fun. I feel like there's a there's an easy way to get there's gotta be like cheapo bolt action, twenty two rifles like what I did for competition shooting and just have like five of those and just rotate everybody through like five bullets. Yeah. Best target. Go. Yeah. I mean if we did more precision shooting with cheaper ammunition and cheaper. Yeah. That would be probably faster setup too. And then we care a little less about it. Then you don't have to have the guys who like are also trying to take care of their guns. Yeah. It's like hey well, don't do that to that. Yeah. anyways So you guys thought it was okay, but maybe not the best you've ever been to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What so because you guys have been to three? I think that was our fourth. That was our fourth one, yeah. Okay. So out of the four, what did you guys remember? What's the best one? Was it was it your guys' first one? I don't think so. I think it was actually last year, maybe. What happened last year? I'm trying to think. my team won. never mind. It wasn't. No, no, what was the year well you took mom's boom? To that was really that was a very fun yeah, that was actually the best. Was that the first deal? No, eighth deal. But that was my favorite year, the banana one. This cause have we been at the Johnson's for the last three years? I think so. Yeah. Was your guys' cause your guys' first one was at the Johnson's. I think 'cause I was a part of planning the second time we were at the Johnson's And that's where we came up with the bandanas and the tent cleaning and the things like that. Yeah, that was really funny. I think that actually has helped just kind of it's kind of like when we do Reformation Day now. There are like some standard things that students have tried over the years. Then it's like, okay, no, this works. We're gonna do this and we're gonna iterate on some other stuff. The bandanas for points and tent inspections has been that was great. I can't even remember who came up with the tent inspections. I think. Somebody because it was all the seniors. We were all there talking about like what could we do that'd be fun? And one of us was like, What if we had somebody grade everybody's tents every day? Yeah, because there was like a tent from one of the years that was just like we could never get people to clean up. It was just the worst. Yeah, so it was like, well, maybe that would be nice for everybody, and it would be fun, and there could be some competition there. So I thought that worked it worked out pretty good. And that's the reason I brought for breeds in a broom. And a bathroom is because I knew about that pre and people didn't like that, but I'm like, well, you know, better get on the advanced team, you know. But also why would be insane is if we had cabin setups. Ooh. Ooh, cabins would be excellent. On the Johnson's property. Would you hey, would you mind if we just build some cabins. Cabins on your property. It wouldn't be really it wouldn't be a big problem, you know. Okay. Well, that's cool. what has been your guys' highlight of each of your summers so far? I think going to the card conference was really a big highlight of my summer. Okay. Cause I got to like meet new people, see old friends, learn about NSA. I don't think I'm gonna go to NSA. And okay, well, that's what everybody says need to go to NSA. But yeah, it's I can you can you explain for everybody our listeners who might not know what the called conference is? okay. It's so basically the people in Moscow, Idaho, like the Jacobics and the Wilsons, they like they made a big kind of okay, it's a camp and like it's kinda like why you should go to NSA. It's basically like the whole entire reason why you should go to NSA for the camp. They're getting students who are thinking about going to NSA, introduced to NSA, get into interact with other students and stuff like that. And it's very fun. It's like a big o'clock of the youth retreat. And we play games and meeting. Except it's national. That's true. Everybody is invited to called conference that can go within a certain age range. where like the youth retreat is generally TEC primarily. And then we have invited students from ECS before. And then there were a couple other people there this year that were friends of other ones. And I think that that is not necessarily a terrible idea. I've actually I've recommended that we have a at least one night that is a parent night where because I think part of the problem is this is really off topic, but it's also on topic. If you know what I mean. It's one, it's one of those. you know, I think part of the problem is that. When you have talks like that to students, the only way that's gonna get into the cracks of where it needs to be is if you have parents who are gonna be constantly talking to them about that too. And I think that if parents were there to hear kind of what their kids were listening to, I think that'd be good. I don't think that family camp should turn into that. And I don't actually think it should be family camp. I think it should still be the euthery, but I think that some way to involve parents getting to listen to some of those. Without at least having making the children because like obviously you should still be checking in with your kid after the youth retreat, but like without having that be the only source. Right. Right. Because also kids do still need to be able to themselves start those kind of conversations. Maybe it is like, okay, each topic person's gonna send an email to all the parents and be like, here's kind of the main points of my message. it would actually be really interesting to do a like What do you guys think about this, as people who are still students? What if the youth retreat obviously is like a three-day thing and it wraps up? But what if at the end of the youth retreat, you guys, you as the students, had basically an assignment where at the end of the youth retreat, within a week, you had to email whoever is running it. You had to email back the group that's running it with D like discussion notes that you had with your parents, like a debrief almost of the youth retreat. Not necessarily super specific, like, well, you know, I lost all my clothes in the river and that was really sad. Like not that. More about just the discussions. So like you had to present your parents the notes that you took during that, and then have a little time of talking with them, take notes during that, and then send that back to the people who are running it. What do you think about that? Well it definitely tells that you were actually listening. Yeah. Because your parents aren't there, so they don't very like they don't know about it as much as you do. So be well, we talked about this and this and maybe we didn't actually talk about that. So if you talked about it with your parents, like you're also getting deeper into it instead of just listening to what he's saying and then just going off. Yeah, what was it was kind of the discussion afterward? Because I know in past years we've had like group discussions after the meetings. Was there a lot of that? Was there a little bit? at least our group did it like twice, maybe. Do I number Each each session we did a different discussion, like group kind of. Because it was either the everybody was there asking questions underneath the pavilion to the speaker, or we because like one of the days. They had brought in some couples to be split up with the girls and boys. Ooh, that was Ian was with the boys and Grant was with the boys. And then Kimmy and Becca and Mrs. Pikinis were with some other people. And then Dean also is with another group of guys. Which I thought I thought that was cool because then they didn't have to be there the whole time, but they could kind of help lead a discussion on that. So that that shows some participation. But Yeah. Okay. That's cool. What do you think about that idea though? I definitely think it's a great idea because like some kids would just like want to like get it all done and don't really care but like what they'll like they don't like care about the talks as much as like the games obviously and stuff. And that'd be a great way to like actually so like what did you actually learn instead of b coming home from camp and being like, I don't know what I did what I launched. Obviously it's not school and so you can't Like, you know, you can't fail anybody if they don't send that in. But, you know, maybe there's a way to frame it as a suggestion. You know? I wonder how I wonder how many people would take that suggestion and be like, yeah, let's try it. Or how many people would be like Or have like a better way to format it in some. Yeah. Yeah. And may maybe it's via survey kind of thing at the end, but I don't actually love end of year surveys. I don't subscribe. More like end of event surveys. Like what what are we learning from this? I need a little bit of time to debrief in my own head about it. Yeah, I don't I don't like it when it's like immediately after. Like maybe give me a week. Yeah. Well and part of the and part of the and the reason that people don't do that is because give somebody a week. Maybe they'll unlikely it happens. Because like at the fiction festival, I mean we're not even done with the event and we're getting the feedback slips of what how did it go? What w what? No. I mean, I could answer a couple of those questions fast, like were the bathrooms clean, yes. Or no, maybe. I don't know. But like answering what speaker should we have next year? Like I gotta I I'm just gonna call out Claude going, what speaker should our event have next year, you know? But I think that some kind of feedback that people could show that they were intentionally talking about it with their family afterwards would be good. But maybe that's just a well, we hope you do that. You know. And there is no There is no way to do that and without it being weird, let homework maybe. Yeah. Anyways. Food for thought. Okay. So we've asked every student we've had on so far. We say that like we've interviewed like 50 students. I think that was kind of our like mental image. Everybody's done it. Yeah, I think that was kind of our mental image was like we were gonna interview that many people. There's no way that's average. What would be cool is if somehow we could figure out how to actually get to close to that number. Before or like after school even starts, like we could continue that, but I think we'll probably switch into another topic. But anyways, what did you have to say? You just go around the school and like just like interview people like that. That would get up to fifty. Sure. Yeah, so little questions. Yeah, like I'll get up to fifty. I probably can't. Well, is it the yeah, it doesn't have to be the first day of school. It could be like Lolia at the barbecue. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I could be here all day, but That's because I work at the building, so that's kind of cheating. anyways, how do you guys think about when it cause obviously, and I know it's gonna hurt a little bit, but you guys are a just just a fraction over a week away from starting school again. How do you guys view it? Because obviously now that's a little bit more of a reflection on this summer and summers before. How do you guys think about the school year? When you're in the summer? Do you guys think like, I want to stay kind of fresh on some of those skills and so I practice them during the s during the summer? Is it more of like a finally getting me out of here? I don't want to be, you know, doing any school. I'm never gonna read, I'm not gonna touch anything before, and then you come back on the first day of school and you just get back into it. Is there is there a balance? Would you guys change what you've done? Like, do you think you've done your summers well overall? That kind of category is what we're gonna talk about for a little bit, if that makes sense. well the first couple days of summer I'm always like, yes, finally I'm out of school but then halfway through summer I'm like Where you know Where am I from I wanna go back? No. I'm yeah, I'm also definitely like that too. I'm really excited to get out of school. And then like yeah, in in the middle of summer, I'm kinda like, well, where are my friends? Like I don't see you guys every day. But I do still keep like reading books, obviously. But I don't I'm not really I don't ever look forward to school until maybe like when sports starts. Okay. Yeah. But I mean in because you've only been a part of how many how many years have you been a part of sports? well legally only one year. But legal not legally I've been a part of it for four years. We've we've been doing cross country for four years. Yeah, I I was in sixth grade. Wow. And Mrs. Lyle I didn't let us go pl play up for cross country. That's right, yeah, because That makes sense. Because that was the year when I'm legally legal illegally for yes. Yeah, that is funny. Okay, it's illegal. it's yeah. X illegal thing. Illegal to the rules of the WIAA. that that makes sense. so with sports, for instance, we're we're adding more sports. You you this year, you know You wanted do cross country, but also in order to benefit your sprinting for the track season, you're gonna do volleyball. Yeah. What like like from your guys' perspective, school sports? How does that benefit you guys both in the summer? Like thinking about that for the school year? Is there any kind of training that you guys do beforehand? And also, do you guys think For you because like I know for guys in particular, sports during the school year is beneficial because it gives us a place to vent some of our energy a little bit. Where do is that the same thing for you guys? Is there another reason? But like does do sports help you guys during the school year? definitely helps mostly because you have to have good grades to do sports. So you have to think It's I at least have to do this over now. Well like It gets you better at thinking about how you want to put your school year into play because you have to do good to do sports and sports are like really fun. A lot of people want to do it. But if you don't have good grades you can't do it. And then if all your friends are doing sports and you're the only one out, it's kind of sad. Yeah. Last year it was more like, okay, I need to get good grades so then I can like do good at sports. But and then I realized that like Either way I should be having good grades. Like it's like even without sports, you we still need put in the walk and energy. But sports definitely like help you realize it like, either way we should already do this work. And that is fine too. Do you guys start thinking when you guys start thinking about sports, do you think about sports before you think about school? Like if you're in the summertime. Yeah. You think about sports before school. Yes. Do you guys once you start thinking about sports Do you also start thinking about homework again? kind of. A little bit? Just just more like you know this workload is gonna be different. Cause like our s evangelical classical school is not the heaviest workload ever in terms of homework. And actually, the secondary classes, the workload has changed over the years from really aggressive workload to a little lighter, and then it got added to a little bit more again. It's not the heaviest it's ever been. Do how do you guys feel the balances at ECS between the amount of homework you're given and the extracurricular things that you're offered at the school? And currently that's mostly just sports. Does that make sense? I think so. Okay. well. Can you say that one more time? Yeah, I can say I can say that one more time. Yeah, I five. So and maybe Sam if if I say it again and you're like, No, there's a better way to say it, you could you can chime in there but Would you guys say that the amount of homework you guys get currently as students at ECS still fits just enough with sports as well? Or does it feel like you have some trade-offs? Like, does it feel like you have to sacrifice time in one of them to get the other one done? Or is there a decent amount of balance? Obviously, it's hard work. And we want it to be like that's the goal: is that it's hard work, but is it? Too hard to balance that? Like how how would you guys say your experience has been so far in that, if that makes sense? Well, it is it depends on the day, but mostly it's pretty balanced out because like, I mean, I haven't gone through 10th grade yet, so we don't know the workload for that. But like last year, We it's way harder enough. Actually actually what's funny is it did get way harder for us when we went from ninth to tenth. Because we added like two plus again too. Whatever. I think. And then two. Again? Yeah, again. We take it. my gosh, what are we doing with twelfth grade? I didn't want to say that during twelfth grade, but that was too easy. But I wasn't taking math. So because you were still taking math. It was easy though. It wasn't like difficult. That sounds nice. Bro's math shaming me right No, no, what's the crazy part is I did, I did actually, I didn't pass pre-calculus, but I passed calculus. What? You didn't pass pre-calculus. You did pass calculus. I got like barely got a D in pre-calculus at the end of the year. I think what? Hey editor. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna talk to the editors real quick. zoom in on my face when Sam says that No, well it was easy because I passed calculus but not pre calculus. Zoom in on my flat face that I just made right there. Cause which by the way guys, in case you're wondering, our editor is me. So Yes, that's Okay, yeah, okay, yeah. Yeah. She was like, we have But it did but it didn't feel easy compared comparatively. Yeah. To 11th grade. So Okay. What we're talking about again? wait. Workloaded. I think that's all of the listeners who listen to us. They're going, What are they talking about? What was it talking about? What's the title of the episode? That does not fit what they're talking about. At least last day it was really balanced. Okay. because well Yeah, I'm just trying to think. It wasn't really that difficult to like put in like a spot for school and sports if you're doing your work like in class and actually paying attention and stuff. But in the fall is definitely is like it seems more harder to like have a spot for sports and s school than it does in the spring. I don't know why, but it seems like the spring is actually pretty chiller chiller than far, in my opinion. Well also we have the farm. True, but even without the farm, it's still like, whoa, whoa, like next thing. Here we go. Let's go. I do think like I have a theory about that, and I think it's because at the end of the year, so if we take from September, so start of the school year to December, or December thirty first, all of that is I mean, it's packed with holiday stuff. So starting in September, everybody's starting to look at I mean Halloween, but for us that's Reformation Day. And so even if you're not, it's is weird, but like even if you're not on the student, you know, if you're not in the grade that's running Reformation Day, there's still a lot of anticipation and there's a lot of like ask me questions of like what's gonna happen and stuff like that. Cause we love that event here and we think that's awesome. And then there is some church stuff with like the harvest party, like who's running that and doing this, and then there is the farm, and it's like we're going on field trips, we're going out there, and then there's Thanksgiving and then there's Christmas. But Christmas, once you get December, it's the whole month. I mean all of it is Christmas. And even leading up to that, there's discussions about it. And so I think that once you hit September, it's like all the anticipation from summer to school explodes because now you're there. And then you get hit with the even bigger Christmas is coming. And then once you get to the new year, it's kind of like, well, now we wait for the end of the school year. And that's a much longer time and I think it slows down a bit. And then on your way here. And then on your way there you hit spring break and like, yeah, there is another break. Yes. And it feels like forever until you get there. Yeah. Because it is. It's a longer amount of time before the break. Because you get Thanksgiving break, you get Christmas break, which is two weeks. And then even depending then on when we start again, there might be another day or two in there. And 'cause midwinter break does not count. It's an extended weekend. Yeah. I say get rid of midwinter break. It's only it is actually useful for the teachers. I know that because they're then being able to make their next quarter plans. But for the students, it's kind of like why does it we get homework? Do we not get homework? Yeah, might might as well just be at school. but it is an interesting that's interesting that you're pointing out that the fall feels very busy. And I think that's because it's anticipation loaded. It's not necessarily because you're actually doing more stuff, but I think that anticipation and then those events lead to doing some more things and so it just feels busier. also I think it's because the days are shorter. And so as the days get longer, it's like, I go to practice, I can still come home and it'd be light outside. Yeah. You might get to practice and it's dark in the winter. Yeah. In the in the winter because it gets dark at 4 30 here. You know what's crazy about this is because I all also always Didn't like the month of May during school because it was it's always the busiest. For whatever reason, every single event is happening in the month of May. I told my life I was like, we really cannot have a child in May. All of you who know our baby's birthday, which is May 8th, you can go ahead and laugh. Because here's the thing: May is just sta. The raft reason. I don't understand. Why does it need to be May? Almost summer and it's like what you're It's like we stack every end of year. We make we make things that maybe don't need to be end of year events, end of year events because it's way cooler apparently at the end of the year. I don't know. End of school year, not obviously. Also, there's my oldest brother's birthday, my mom's birthday, my mom's anniversary. Don't we have an a nephew whose birthday is in May? is it Titus in May? Titus in May, the birthday body birthday party. my goodness. Well, and I think that's cause like it seems like 'cause like I think almost all of the Bower children were born in May. Basically except for Edie. Everyone no, he don't E's born in eighth April, right? Were the boys born in May? Almost. Yeah, yeah. Edith and Mrs. Bowers are the only two that weren't in May. That's right, because Andy is in May. Right? No, wait, no, but Mrs. Bowers isn't April. It's Mr. Bowers. April and then he isn't April and then Mrs. Bowers. I don't know when her birthday. It's like, hey, you could just combine those birth hey Bowers if you're watching. Z editor, zoom in. One big party. Bowers if you're watching. Let's make it one massive community party this year. Let's try that. What if we did that? Just say it. That'd be kinda funny. Or maybe two. Maybe we split up boys and girls. That'd be one thing. But like, what if what if it was like church-wide, massive? Just what guys, guys, zoom out. Yeah, zoom out. It cuts right on. Guys, what if? Zoom back in me. What what if? Zoom back out. We did. Just everybody in May, we just celebrate their birthday on one day. Everybody. End of your school singing. Ooh, the that's a cut down on the side. Yes. Except we ended school on June fourth this year. Yeah. Is that what if June fourth? Well, that's actually my dad's birthday. Wait, we do end? Well, no, this last year we did. I don't know when school's ended this year. You should end then. But what if everybody in May just collectively decided for the betterment of society that we all celebrate your birthday on one given day in May? It could just be the middle of May. The middle of the night. Yes. Direct middle. Pick May sixteenth. Laird's birthday. Guys, what do you think happened? Laird, would you be willing? Okay. Just kidding. Obviously that would be that would be rude and insensitive. Mm-hmm. Yep. Except maybe better. Yeah, because I think that would alleviate a lot of stress. I Let us know in the comments if you think that we should celebrate all May birthdays on one day. That should be like the that should be the clickbait title of today. Like all birthdays in May should just be one day. I think that's a good idea. I I think that's what this episode is. Or no May birthdays. If you're born in May, you are getting an auto generated birthday from just any other month. You can't celebrate it on me. Sorry. Pull the lever. Pull the level. One level. That actually would be a slot machine or whatever. Okay. I'm starting to see like a a funny a funny skit here. I think I think we can make something happen. Skit. Anyways, back to back to real important things. It's great. so but anyway, so you guys are saying that sports are more it seems pretty balanced obviously this year. It'll interesting to see how that how that goes. what are your guys cause we could kind of start wrapping up here a little bit. What are your guys' separate? Obviously not like Keela and Jane goals. What it Keela, what is your what are your couple big goals for the year, maybe Jane, what your couple big goals for this for this? It's fine to include sport things. Also, probably good to include academic or student culture things. So, like I mean, literally Joshua wanted to be best in state or whatever. my goodness, I'm not surprised. I think it's three. All three, yeah. Cross country or track. For track. I'm not surprised. And then Hallie was literally like, I'm gonna have a higher GPA then. Well actually two of the PA. Cajun, you go. wow. Well, it's I don't know, 'cause I mean, this is more in the middle of the year, but like the rhetoric tournament I haven't I like the first year I did one thing. And then the second year I was like, I really gotta step up. So I did more things. This year I wanna try to do all the things. Next year you were forced to do that. Also that's true. Also, you having a goal that's in the middle of the year is no problem. That's that's great. It's awesome. Except it's not even in the middle of the year. It's pretty sure it's beginning. Isn't it February? It's February twelve, eleven twelve. I mean it's at the end of the second quarter. quarter. That's cre yes, I guess that is. So that's halfway through. That does not feel like halfway through. No, February. Then May happens. I think May is its own quarter. Fourth quarter. Surretter Tournament, anything else? well, I mean grades obviously I wanna get a lot of higher scores. Like last year I got a whole bunch of A's, but I wanna keep it. I mean well but yeah, I know, but those some of mine were like Lower. But like I just mo I change it from letters to numbers. That's how good I want to be, is where they can't like to be an eleven point two. Not a lot of students have thought about the rhetoric tournament stuff. I have. Except for a few that start planning for the rhetoric tournament. Right after a year in advance. Yeah, well who does that? Yeah, who does that? No. You know, I I complained about the writer tournament and I may learn it for all you guys. I feel very accomplished. I did that almost every year. I would think about what I want to talk about for the next year. That didn't Well didn't Haley do that? But then I would always write yeah, I think so. But like I would always write it then like you know, the week of or day of yeah. ate on it for a year and then just boom on a page. I mean I get it for the stories though because It does take a little bit longer to write. You wanna get a head on that a little bit? We didn't have to I do wanna be I do for whoever is in charge of sending out the judge's sign up sheets or whatever. I do wanna be an anonymous judge. I know that's kinda dumb saying this on a public format, but I just I do wanna be Sam Rothenbrook pledge to be an anonymous judge. I do want to be an anonymous judge for the short stories again. That was actually kinda fun, even though Y'all need to be better at your story writing. I do a story. I know, I know, I know. But you guys are able to do it this year. I'd love for us to maybe switch up our finals judges. It's been the same for like almost forever. Can we get some new get some younger people in there, maybe? I could do it. No, you can do it. No, just kidding. Actually, I do like I do like the the preliminary judging, particularly of like persuasive speeches, because that's like what I like doing anyways. And I actually do think I stopped thinking about doing persuasive speeches like a year in advance. Like thinking about it a year in advance. Because it actually is way better to pick something relevant to well where you are in that moment. Because it's generally something you're feeling and you're thinking about a lot more. I had never done a persuasive speech until I think it was my senior year when I did the the paper on why we should be able to do And on anything in in it literary That's a great w I that that's a good idea. That's That's so convinced every single judge. Yeah, and they added for us. You they added they you made it you had to do more things. I wasn't given a high score, but I convinced every single one. Yeah, 'cause it's a great idea. Okay, Keila, back to you. What are your goals? But I agree. my goal is definitely I think g having good gaze, that's number one. two is that well, I want to do of course be good in sports. I always want to get like a fifty four, fifty five, four hundred meter track. That'd be really nice, actually. fifty seven, fifty nine. And where would fifty four, fifty five put you? well I'd make it to Nike. I'd be like the time that time would qualify automatically for Nike nationals. I have a time right now that it's like I I'm in like the w waiting list for sophomores right now, so I could go on it. yeah, definitely doing good at rock is like one of my main things because I don't know if you have more heard, but I want to make it to the Olympics really badly. And I've been told by some actually spin so is that I do have a good chance of making it. But I'm excited for that. So yeah. Cool. That's a big goal. Yeah. That's a that's a big one. That's that one's not even connected to just this quick. No, it's not. It's like a long ways away. Well, you 'cause you're not thinking like twenty twenty eight, right? No, no. So we're thinking twenty thirty two? Yeah, probably. Okay. That'd be pretty cool. Thirty two. I will that's six years away from right now. You could have another kid. I mean more than one kid by twenty fifty I mean this yeah, yeah. Also I'll be twenty seven. I could also be married. That is true. Your s guy. Everybody spam the comments. Sam. Get married. No. you could be married too. Okay. Jane keeps telling me, of all people who have told me to do this, Jane keeps on telling me that next wedding that I speak for, I need to do that. Okay, everybody raise your hands. yeah. Yes. Now drop if you're you know if you're a man. Everybody drop your hand, all right. Somebody who's dating, drop your hand. Everybody who's married, drop your hand. All right, so my name is Sam Rottenberger. Sam Rottenberger. I am however. What is gold? But in the wedding. Well, the dating app. Sam no. Sam doesn't need a dating app. Sam will figure out we did make the joke one time that all the girls are tripping over themselves to run towards Peter because they're running away from George. What? We did make that joke one time. That was really funny. Interesting. I am soint and interesting. okay. Thank you guys very much for being on today. That was great. Before we leave, I'd like to do a quick shout out. We've got some which is ironic that I'm not, but I'm advertising for somebody else right now. A much bigger brand. However, we will take a sponsorship, Walker's Coffee. I don't know if you guys listen. I don't know if you watch. Maybe I'll tag you. But Walker's Coffee, thanks for supplying some energy for these people today. Defiance and Obedience podcast. I'm not actually purposefully trying to advertise for you guys right now, but it happened to be on my water bottle and I faced it out. So I was like, well, why not? Why not say something? Also, Monster, I actually don't really want to be sponsored by you. I'd rather be sponsored by like rain or bucked up. So Red Bull, I don't know. Absolutely not. Well boy, yes, yes. I don't need that. But anyways, once again, thank you guys very much for being on. And that'll be it for this Choice Man episode. Have a dad advice. Wait. Guys. What you all thought was me ending the episode is really just the trick you're gonna Into getting Sam some time for that advice. He got to think about it a little longer. He communicated with me telepathically that it needed more time. And so I stalled and I'm still stalling right now. So Sam, don't let your kids get away with everything. That might be the best bad advice you've ever given, actually. That actually was so good. That was so short, it was so concise. It was so perfect. Okay. Don't let your kids get away with it. I if we want to qualify, I can qualify it a little bit. Yeah, go ahead. Because I can guarantee I can almost guarantee you that I mean obviously depending on what age your kid is, g them spending their own time on whatever they want to do is not gonna be as beneficial as if you give them something to do. Cause they will get into maybe not big trouble, but they'll get into something that is you know, could be could be rectified. Yeah. Dude, that's my bad advice one. love that. Okay. That's fantastic. And guys, that'll do it for this Choice Man episode. once again, thanks to these ladies for being on. Sam, thanks for always being here. Except for that one episode of New York. Yeah. But that was we we planned that, so Thanks again, guys, for listening. please be sure to like and subscribe, and we'll catch you guys next time. Choice man signing off. Peace.