Cultivate Podcast
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Cultivate Podcast
Trust God With Your Life | My College Experience and How it Shaped My Identity
Come take a walk with me down memory lane, back to my college days at MTSU. Imagine us strolling through the halls, as I share the moments that really shaped who I am today.
Remember those times when you had to choose between hitting up a wild party or staying in for some quiet reflection? Yeah, I faced those too. And let me tell you, those quiet moments taught me more about myself than any crazy night ever could.
Oh, and faith? It's been my guiding light through it all. Think of it like a trusty thread weaving through the chaos, connecting the dots and leading me toward healing when things got tough.
As we wrap up our chat, I've gotta share something with you. You know how they say it's always darkest before the dawn? Well, turns out, there's a lot of truth to that. I've learned firsthand that our toughest moments often set the stage for the most beautiful breakthroughs.
So, here's the deal: let's swap stories and celebrate the ups and downs that make life so interesting. Together, we'll sprinkle a little positivity and grace into your week. Sound good? LET'S GOOO!
Hello everyone, welcome to the Cultivate Podcast. I'm your host, larell Komolczak. I'm glad that you tuned in today. I'm glad that you decided to click here and to have a conversation with me. I hope you're having an amazing day thus far. I hope you're having an amazing week and I hope you're feeling blessed not just being blessed, but I hope you're feeling blessed. But I believe this conversation that we're about to have is going to be transformative. I believe it's going to change how you think about life, how you think about yourself, how you think about others, and I just, really just want to have a conversation with you.
Speaker 1:As you notice, I'm kind of laid back today. You know what I mean. I'm kind of laid back. I feel like I've been doing I've been a little too stuffy. You know I ain't really show me yet you feel me, I ain't really show me, and I just feel like there comes a point in time where you stop trying to force things or you stop trying to create this persona of perfection, but trying to craft a message that is just, you know, that's, that's. It's who you are, but it's's not all of who you are, and I feel like it's not something that I've portrayed, but I feel like something. I felt like maybe I am not portraying or I'm not showing you all of me and I don't want to do y'all a disservice. So I started thinking about what am I going to talk about today, what I'm going, what am I going to say that's going to resonate with the audience today? What conversation can I have with you all today? And I've been learning a lot of different things. I'm reading this book called how to Manage your Emotions and I'm learning so much about emotions and ego and how our thoughts influence our emotions, how our breath work, how our breathing influence our emotions and even how our words influence our emotions and even how our words influence our emotions. And so lately I've just been speaking so many positive things over my life, over my family's life, and just allowing that to just resonate in my heart, and it's actually really been transformative Actually the past two days.
Speaker 1:Anything that I feel negatively, I just begin to counter that with positive affirmations, and sometimes it's something that I've struggled with. When you're in a negative state of mind, I was telling one of my friends that negative begets negative. When you're in a negative state of mind, you're going to think about negative things and you're going to think about different ways that that negative thing is affecting you and then you're going to add in other different negative scenarios and it just it's a spiral. Right, you spiral in this negative frame of mind. But having a positive mindset is different. Right, you think about positive things. It begets positive. You focus on gratitude, you get joy. You focus on joy, you get excitement, you know, and so there's a lot of different things that I've been learning about how my words influence my emotions and breathing and my environment. It also influences your emotions and the feelings that you feel.
Speaker 1:And also like understanding that even though we have feelings, even though we have emotions, we are not. Our feelings and that's something that I've struggled with in my earlier years is that when I felt something, I felt like that was who I was. If I felt lust, oh, that's who I am, and I began to have shame over that, instead of putting that in a bug and say, hey, that's a feeling you have, that's a natural feeling of attraction you have for a woman. You know, in my single years trying to play, to do the player thing, and you know holler at all these girls, and a lot of times that was kind of shameful for me. I'm like man, like growing up in church, knowing the word of God, knowing religion, and not really spirituality or not really connection or relationship. But I felt there was a lot of shame based off of me feeling those feelings and sometimes I acted on them, sometimes I didn't, but feeling those feelings aren't the sin, you. But feeling those feelings aren't the sin, you know, feeling those feelings aren't the bad thing. You just understand that those are feelings and you put them in a bucket and you grow from it. And so some things that I've learned over the years and some things that I will continue to learn, and whatever I learn and whatever I research and however I'm growing, I want to share that with you and have that conversation, specifically about feelings and emotions, because that's where I'm at right now Just learning how to manage my emotions a lot better than I did in the past Because, as you all know, my father passed in 2007.
Speaker 1:I had a hard time managing that. I had a hard time managing that. I had a hard time grieving, I had a hard time understanding what that meant for me, how to grow from it, and my emotions, I feel like, suffered the most because I had put them in a box. I try not to feel, I try not to get emotional. I would go to funerals and laugh. I'm like, why am I here? And I just tried to get into a different place where I didn't want to feel that. And it didn't help me. As I grew older it didn't serve me well, because as you grow older and the more you put things in a box, the more that box begins to overflow and those emotions just begin to rise and rise and rise and eventually you have a box full of emotions that's trying to get out. And at some point it's got to come out Right. At some point it's going to explode, whether it's out of anger, whether it's out of grief, whether it's out of sadness and crying, you know whatever, however, it's going to come out, it's going to come out.
Speaker 1:So I don't I never encourage people to suppress those feelings and to hold them in and not say anything about them. I think it's important that you let those feelings out. Let those feelings go and don't hold on to it. Don't put a key and lock the key and throw the key somewhere else. No, listen, take, get that key, open up your heart and let those things out. It's important. You have to, especially as men, you have to let those feelings out. I think that's a man's detriment is we feel that it's weakness to share our feelings. We think it's weakness to share our emotions, and actually it's one of our greatest strengths that we could ever have is to share our feelings and to share our emotions and to actually be vulnerable with those we love not just our wives, but with our brothers, and to connect in that way. That's how you build a relationship, that's how you build community and that's how you grow as a person. But you have to first know who you are. You have to first go through that stage of being aware of where you are, so that you can have that conversation with yourself and say how can I do this? Am I able to do this? Lord, give me the strength to do this, because it's hard to be vulnerable, but you have to do it. It's important, it helps you, and so that's something I've just been talking about and thinking about and reading about.
Speaker 1:But I also wanted to have this conversation about my college experience because, as I'm approaching 35, which is crazy in August, 34 now I had to think about what made me who I am today. What experiences did I go through? I usually go through these timelines in my brain of what experiences that I went through that actually caused a transformative change in my life or brought healing or brought destruction, and I just kind of like go through the timeline Okay, but this happened at this moment, this happened at this moment, this kind of changed my life in this moment. And I was just thinking about today. I was just thinking about my college experience. Like I feel like a lot of people have great college experiences, and I believe I did too, but it wasn't like everybody else's, I don't believe. I don't believe I don't think it was like everybody else's. My college experience, I feel like, was a little different, but it was very transformative.
Speaker 1:When I went to college freshman year, I just lost my father and I felt like I was going into a place alone. Me and my brother were tight, like me and my brother. They called us twins. I'm a year older, 11 months older, but it's like we're twins. You know what I mean. And so it was the first time me being away from my family, and so I went to Middleton NC State University, shout out to MTSU, and that was my first time. I didn't know what I was going to major in. I told everybody I was going to major in business because I felt like I didn't want to go undeclared. Have y'all ever did that Just for those who've been to college like I don't know what I want to do in my life, but I'm just going to go, I don't want to go undeclared, but I you know what I'm saying I don't know what I want to do. I just I'm not claiming undeclared, but I still didn't know what I wanted to do. With that. I was like what is this? What do I want to do, you know? And so I went through the motions freshman year. But I did really good freshman year in college. It was. It was cool.
Speaker 1:You know, the first time I went to college the first day I was probably the first or second day there's always a college party first day. There's always a college party where you just really get introduced to the college life. And so I went to my dorm, chilled, and for some reason I saw some people that knew me. What's up, lo? I said, what's up, yo yo yo and I walked out the college dorm because they invited me to go to this party and I said cool. I've never been to a party like that before. It's my first college experience, first college party. Let's go crazy, like why not, let's go. And so I was by myself and I walked out of the dorm.
Speaker 1:I remember walking out of the dorm and walking towards the party and it was so many people there MTSU is a huge school and so I was walking out there, man, and as I was walking, I just begin to hear this voice say turn back around. I was like turn back around, turn back around. That's not for you, you know, that's not for you. Turn around. And I just felt convicted, walking towards it, I was like, maybe I shouldn't be here and so I turned around, listen. So I turned around and I went back to my dorm and I was just chilling. I don't know if I watched a movie, I don't know if I went into I think I went into the lobby and just chilled, hung out with some people connected with some folks I've never talked to before, but I didn't go to the party and I felt that was interesting because I didn't go to a party, since Throughout my four years at MCSU I never went to a college party and I feel like that was like the defining factor of my identity, of who I'm going to be, because a lot of times we get so caught up in what everybody else is doing and because everybody else is doing it, we feel that we have to, we feel coerced or we feel pressured to do something that everybody else is doing.
Speaker 1:And if I have any college students that are listening, and even adults, if you're in an environment where it seems like it's cool or it seems like it's it's culture to do a certain thing, but you feel like, but you have this feeling where you're not supposed to be there, listen, listen to that feeling and turn around, turn around. So I did that. I turned around and I never looked back. I didn't go back to, I didn't go to a party or do anything like that. Um, so I was never a partier. So all throughout my four years I didn't party.
Speaker 1:Um, I remember walking into I remember walking into a dorm, a bunch of guys. They started passing out cups to to get drunk, I guess, uh, passing out bottles and getting drunk or whatever. And, um, they looked at me and I said, no, you don't want one. And they gave a bottle to somebody else beside me and I was like, how you know I don't want one. And they gave a bottle to somebody else beside me and I was like, how do you know I don't want one. I've never drunk at that point either. So how do you what? You mean? You're just going to skip over me. And I didn't argue with them. But I was like all right, you know, everybody else got their bottles, everybody else got their cups. You know, getting ready to invited, I was just I was just chilling with some guys and they were like, hey, let's go over here. And so you know that's how I got there. You know, I know what we were doing beforehand. So that's how I got there and they started passing out bottles and and they looked at me and said no, he don't want one. I said, how do you know I don't want one. And that's when I realized that has to be the favor of God on my life for someone to look at he doesn't want to drink. I didn't ask, I didn't, I didn't even get the opportunity to decline, you know. But God's hand was over my life and it was just automatic. Everywhere I went, god's hand was was guarding me and shielding me.
Speaker 1:But there were some things in my, in my college experience that I wasn't too proud of. I did isolate myself a lot. I got connected with some people. That just was weird. I was like I ain't chilling with y'all. But I really did isolate myself, especially in that freshman year, because I felt alone and with my father not being there and him passing away and then my brother not being there as a support, I was just like in this place where I was like yo, this is a huge school.
Speaker 1:I really didn't want to be at MTCU initially because I wanted to move away, but because my family was going as going through so much at the time, I have to I felt like as the oldest, I had to provide some type of anchor for them. Um, and so I was there every weekend, had a girlfriend at the time I was visiting every weekend and all this kind of stuff, and so it was just an interesting place for me. Man, I really didn't do much in college. A lot of my experiences were from playing basketball and working out, and that's what I did on the daily. You know, I was really small, so I had to eat a lot and I had to work out a lot. To you know, put on, put some weight behind my behind what I was saying on the court. You know what I mean, and so it was just an interesting experience.
Speaker 1:But I realized man, god's hand was really on my life for me not to go so far, which means not to get caught up in things that I didn't need to get caught up in and that really helped shape my identity, helped shape who I was. But I also, also, while I was in college, I was going through a spiritual journey, as a lot of people do that go through this journey, because growing up you're taught one thing, but you want to believe that what you were taught is the right thing once you leave home and I just tested what I was taught from home. I tested that belief. I was on a journey to figure out like is being saved or is being a follower of Jesus Christ? Is it about wearing the right clothes? Is it about looking a certain way, like what is really Christianity, like what is it to be a follower of Jesus Christ?
Speaker 1:And I felt like I was taught some of the right things, but there was a lot of legalism, a lot of religiosity, a lot of religion aspects to it that really kind of challenged me in my faith and just kind of was just kind of on a search, on a quest for who God was and who God is in my life, and how do I apply him in my life and not apply rules? Because my entire life was about rules, what I cannot do, what I can do, where I can go, where I can't go, and so that shaped my entire life. My entire upbringing was about rules, what I can and cannot do. And so when I got to college and there's no rules, it's just me, I had to figure it out Like, okay, god, who are you amongst this freedom that I have? Because there's really no rules. But how do I live in this freedom? You know what I mean. And just to find myself in this place that I was just really lost and confused. People would ask me are you a Christian? Yeah, I'm a Christian, but are you a certain denomination? Because if you're a certain denomination, you ain't saved. And that's the kind of mindset I was thinking. I said, wait a minute, somebody is off about this. This is this is weird, this is a. This is off to think that only certain denominations have the keys to Christ. And I was just like I just had to relearn a lot of different things.
Speaker 1:I remember talking to an atheist. I've talked to a lot of different guys agnostics. I talked to this atheist. It was like 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock in the morning. We was all chilling outside outside the dorm and I think we just got done from coming back from the gym and dude was like yo, I don't believe in God. Out of the clear blue. I was like why don't you believe in God? You know, he said I believe in science, I don't believe in the Big Bang, and this came out out here and you just went on this whole thing about atoms and all this scientific stuff and I was like that's very interesting, man. So do you believe in coincidences? Is everything just a coincidence for you? And he's like, yeah, everything's a coincidence. We just got here.
Speaker 1:I said, okay, do you have a specific story in mind that you could think of? That was just a coincidence, specific story of mine that you could think of? That was just a coincidence. You know that you think that was maybe questionable, that it could have been an act of something higher. And so he began to tell me the story.
Speaker 1:And he told me this story about his father, how he was on this military base and he was driving the big trucks I forgot what they were called, but the big trucks like them, 18 wheelers. But you know the big wheels, you know what I mean. And so I think it was a transit truck, and so he was driving it off base. And he drove it off base maybe about 10 minutes out off of base, and then he said he forgot something. He had to turn around towards the base. And so he had turned his truck around towards the base. No, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:What happened was, um, he didn't have to turn around. His had a flat tire. Uh, somehow, somehow this big old truck's tires, yeah, got a flat. And he was just maybe five minutes off of base, maybe not even that. As soon as he got off base had a flat. But as soon as he had a flat, he had a stroke. And because he was so close to the base, they could see what happened and they ran out there and while he was having a while, they were going to check the tire to see if the tire is okay. He was actually having a stroke, and so they grabbed him and began to care for him. You know, they did medical care for him and took care of him and all that kind of stuff brought him back on base and practically saved his, saved his life, and I don't know if it's a heart attack or a stroke, something like that. Something happened, um, but they caught it in time where they were able to help him out, um, and he was able to live and add more years to his life. And so he was telling me the story.
Speaker 1:I said, hey, man, do you think that was a coincidence that this big old transit truck had a flat tire? You know, this ain't talking about a honda, this ain't no. You know what I mean? This ain't no. You know, uh, nissan, no, this ain't no sedan. This is one of them pictures. I've never seen or heard of a big trip having a flat tire. I mean, I'm sure it happens, but they're not. They're really built to withstand nails. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:I just like it's kind of hard to believe, bro, like you really think that was like a coincidence that you know there was nothing, that something higher that was protecting your father in that moment. And he looked, he said I don't, I don't really know. So I don't know why you're telling me this story, but I don't believe that was a coincidence, bro. I believe that God had his hand on your father and he had his hand on you because he wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that moment. I believe God's hand was on your life, bro, and I just don't think it was a coincidence. And he looked at me and another guy asked me a question about God. I started talking, I looked up and he was gone, I think at that moment, I believe I planted a seed and now that I think about it, I believe that God was using me in that moment to share with him.
Speaker 1:That God is also in the coincidences. We may think that things happen in our life, that it's just a coincidence, but I believe that God happens. God works in circumstantial ways. He works in ways that test if it's really him or not. The beautiful thing about God is that he works in such a way where, even in our disbelief, you can't help but to believe. Even in our unbelief, you can't help but to believe that God is actually working in our life life.
Speaker 1:And that's why it's hard for me to believe that so many people who don't believe in God are atheists or agnostic or whatever, that they believe that God isn't real or Jesus isn't the savior of the world. I believe that deep down inside, they believe that he is. I believe deep down inside that they know that there is a God, that there is a higher power, and I think circumstances and experiences in life have altered their view and what they feel who God is, and even the relationship that they have with their father also influences how they feel about God, and so I always like to ask people who don't believe in God what's your relationship like with your father? What are some experiences you've had in the past that made you even believe that there's a doubt, that God doesn't exist? Because all of those things matter. All of our life's experiences matter, and and they go hand in hand and figure out who we are as a person. They all it's like a, it's like a movement, right, it all it's like a, it's like a river. They all flow together, and I think for a lot of us, we have struggled with understanding who God is, with our unbelief, simply because we haven't decided to test our belief in God.
Speaker 1:We're so quick to say God isn't real. I just believe that's a coincidence. We're so quick to just write off the things that happen in our life, only because the things that we're going through hurts, only because we've experienced some pain in our life and we just choose not to test who God is. I always tell people try God, yo Try Jesus, try him, see if he'll fail. You Just try him one good time In your pain, in the mess that you're in, in the situation that you're in and the things that you're dealing with. Just try Jesus one time. Test your belief in God, have faith. The crazy thing is I'm not saying that those problems will go away, but I will say that God will show up when you need him the most. People will fail you, but God will not.
Speaker 1:That's one of the reasons why a lot of us don't believe in God because of people. They let us down and it's shaped our identity. We put our whole stock in what we believe based off of how someone else has hurt us, and I think that's just the wrong way to position ourselves as people, as humanity is to identify ourselves based off of how we were hurt, and there's a lot of people in this world that are hurting and they have created idols out of the pain that they feel in their life. They have created and they are literally worshiping the pain. They're worshiping the person that hurt them, and they've created idols out of these things. And how do I know that? It's because they have created an identity based off of the pain that they've gone through.
Speaker 1:So many people are lost out there, based off of them identifying themselves by the pain that they've endured. Instead of trying to heal from that pain, instead of trying to understand that trauma and understand that experience, they have adopted those experiences as themselves. So when they look in the mirror, they see the trauma. When they look in the mirror, they see the hurt and the pain. When they look in the mirror, they see struggle. Instead of seeing the goodness of God, they see the opposite.
Speaker 1:So I wrote this song before, called Broken Beautiful. A lot of times we look in the mirror, we see brokenness, but God sees beauty out of the brokenness and it's out of those broken pieces that God can mend us back together. We just have to believe that God can do that, because every time we try to mend ourselves together, we end up cutting ourselves. You see broken glass on the ground. Have you ever tried to put a broken glass together? It doesn't make any sense. But that's what a lot of us do. We're broken, we're shattered and we try to pick up the broken pieces. And we try to pick those pieces up and try to put them together and we keep cutting ourselves even more. And God said put those pieces on, let them be, let them be, let them pieces be on the floor. Let me pick those pieces up, let me mend those pieces back together, let me heal you, let me mend you, let me put you back together.
Speaker 1:And that's what God's intention is for our lives is that, even though we go through some hurt and we have to endure some pain, he's there to mend us back together. He's there to position us in a way where we can feel healed and we can feel happy. We can feel joy. It's one of the fruits of the spirit is joy. We have to feel joy. We've been enduring for a night, but joy comes in the morning. We have to weep in order to feel joy. We have to go through pain in order to experience fullness of joy and excitement. And you can't have joy without pain. You can't have happiness without sorrow. We wouldn't even know what happiness is If we didn't go through some type of sorrow, go through some type of pain.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you my college experience. I was in pain, I was trying to search for something, but I'm glad I didn't search for it and other things, you know, that could have really wrecked me, which I did experience. Some things in my life that did wreck me. That's a whole other conversation for another day. But I feel that in my journey of understanding who I am, I had to go through some hardships and it was in those hardships that I had to find God. And a lot of times we want to find God in the goodness of our lives and sometimes it's hard for us to really appreciate God if all we see is goodness, because God is the only good thing that ever happens in our life and we just think that if I can experience good things, if I can experience strength, then I'll feel God. No, you would think that you wouldn't need God, of all you experience with good things, that you wouldn't need god. If, of all you experienced with good things, you wouldn't need god, there would be no need for god to be in our lives if we experience good things all the time.
Speaker 1:And, um, I just remember man just growing up, just all through my 20s just thinking god isn't good in my life. God yeah, I don't know god. I would be preaching and I and not really believing it that God is really there, I would claim to have faith just of the size of a mustard seed, god would open up doors and things of that nature. And at the back of my head I'm like yo, like I think God's getting ready to abandon me, because how I view God was how I viewed my father. My father abandoned me, he's gone, he ain't here, no more. And so At some point, god getting ready to Cut out, he getting ready to Cut it loose, and God's like I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I'll never abandon you.
Speaker 1:And it was in that moment where, in the toughest moments of my life, where I felt like I couldn't keep going, where I felt that God's presence was heavier and I could really feel him, I could really draw from him, I can draw from his strength. And yeah, man, I think that is important, that we just really draw from the strength of God, even in our suffering, because our suffering is needed and I hate that, we have to say it, but it's needed. But we have to change our mindset about what suffering is. We have to change our mindset about pressure. We have to change our mindset about going through different things. I was just telling a friend not too long ago, right here in the studio.
Speaker 1:I was like yo, like we have to go through things, but in order for us to move forward we have to experience friction. We have to experience this man. Like a car can't go nowhere without the tires feeling the pressure on the cement. Like the tires have to meet the cement, they have to meet the dirt, they have to meet the sand in order for it to move. You have to have pressure in order to move. Man, and sometimes we forget that concept of like yo, in order for me to move forward in my life, I do have to experience some type of friction, I have to experience some type of pain. I have to experience some type of friction. I have to experience some type of pain, I have to experience some type of hardship in order for me to keep growing, because pressure is needed and used to grow. And in order for me to grow, I have to experience that pressure. The pressure is not there for us to stop, it's the pressure is there for us to keep going, to rise above it and to push past it. That's what the pressure is for for us to understand that we're not limited to the pressure. I feel like pressure is there for us to see that we have no limits. That's what pressure is there for.
Speaker 1:Um, I mentioned playing the bass. Yo like, in order for me to hit the notes on the bass, I have to apply pressure to the strings in order for the strings to have a certain note. I have to stretch the strings on my bass in order for it to reach a B or a D, e, g or F. I have to stretch the strings in order for that note to be heard. And I have to apply my fingers, like I have to really apply my fingers to actually play these notes, to play these beautiful notes. But that requires pressure, that requires some pain sometimes, and beautiful notes come out of pressure, beautiful notes come out of pain.
Speaker 1:But it's when God is there with us that we can really handle that and it won't feel like pressure. Over time It'll feel like God's grace in the hand being a part of it. You'll feel God's grace, you'll feel his hands, you'll feel the weight lifted and you'll feel a lot lighter and you'll realize like dang, like God is with me. He'll never leave me nor forsake me. He's with me. Just as long as I draw nigh to him, he'll draw to me. And I think we forget that concept Like and I think we forget that concept like stop trying to do things by yourself, trying to handle things on your own. Draw nigh to God, draw closer to God and he'll meet you where you are.
Speaker 1:But you wanted to have a conversation with you guys about just you know, understanding your identity, understanding the pain process and understanding like God is with us. Man, we don't have to do life alone, we don't have to be here alone, we don't have to isolate ourselves, because the struggle is real. I get, the struggle is real, but it doesn't mean you isolate yourself was real, but it doesn't mean you isolate yourself. That was the one detriment that I had in college is that I isolated myself and I thought that I had to live life alone and I had to go through that pain alone, had to suffer alone. So I hid myself.
Speaker 1:I wasn't my true self amongst a lot of people. I had people tell me, man, I really don't. I feel like I know you, but, man, there's like a mystery to you and I enjoyed that. I'm like, yeah, I want to be mysterious. I want to be that guy that you don't know a lot about, because you don't need to know about all that. You know what I'm saying. Like, that's a lot. There's a lot of layers to me and I don't think you need to know all those layers. It was, it was protection. I was trying to protect me and, um, I don't think that me protecting me was very beneficial for me and so for a lot of people.
Speaker 1:Man, let your guard down a little bit, especially with the people that you trust. Let your guard down, allow them to see you. But you have to first see yourself. You have to look in the mirror and recognize who you are and accept who you are, accept where you are. Stop living in denial and accept this is where I am. This is how I need to grow, this is how I need to change, and once you are real with yourself, you can be real with others. Once you accept yourself and your pride and your lack of discipline, you'll be able to receive some type of love, to receive criticism, receive what you need in order to grow and to be the best version of yourself.
Speaker 1:But you have to. You have to stop being in denial about who you are. If you're, you know what I mean. And stop putting yourself, stop compartmentalizing yourself. I think a lot of us we compartmentalize like, oh, I'm this version of myself when I'm around this type of person, or, and then I'm when I'm by. Oh, I'm this version of myself when I'm around this type of person, or and then when I'm by myself, I'm this guy. And then you know, when I'm amongst other people, I'm this guy. And you have all these different guys. Stop compartmentalizing yourself. You're all of them, you know. And just don't be in denial. This is who you are. If you got a problem, this is your problem. Like it ain't another version of yours problem, no, this is your problem. And you have to look in the mirror and you have to accept that and stop being in denial about where you are. That's the only way for us to get to the next level in our life. That's the only way for us to grow and to cultivate some type of Personal development in our life. But it has to happen, man. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror and to life. But it has to happen, man. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror and to you know, and to and to accept where we are.
Speaker 1:But I think that's the conversation I wanted to have today and I hope, like I really hope, that this conversation was really good for you and just kind of give you just an in-depth look of of of how I got to where I am, just a little bit of my college experience and and how I grew, you know and next week will be something else, next week we'll grow into another story that I have Y'all.
Speaker 1:I'm going to tell you this I have tons of stories in my life, y'all. I have experienced so many different things in my life and I feel like that's a big piece that's been missing in my quest to building relationships with people online is that I have not really told stories about like crazy, crazy stories, funny stories, like dumb stories, like yo, like I did what like, and I've learned a lot from every story that I've experienced in my life. But every experience that I've had, I've learned a lot from it and so, but I'm just, I really feel like it's that time for me to just start telling stories, man, and giving you lessons about how I grew from them and what I'm learning from them each and every day. So I hope this was really good to you guys. Hope you have a wonderful day, hope you start your week phenomenally and be blessed. Y'all Holler, y'all in a minute, until next time.