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Welcome to "An I in the Air? Talk About Tuesday"
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This is a first. Doing an interview with Parker
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who started with the school when he was
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five when the school just started
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and is now graduating this year. So
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Parker, do you have anything to start off saying?
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Hello listeners. James has never done an interview. We've talked many times
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but I don't know what kind of questions he would
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be prepared to ask.
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So you've been through many phases of the school
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Church of Messiah
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St. John's Church, Church of Messiah Part 2
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Aaron Holder and then
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Pandemic Online and you also dabble in being in person.
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So, what do you think of all those different experiences?
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What's your viewpoint on how
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the school has evolved over that whole time?
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When you think about it in like a ten, eleven year experience
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it feels very spread out. It feels like a long, a long time.
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I think certain
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parts of that I have more nostalgia towards like when I was younger
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for one and then at St. John's and then like I can recall
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more vividly memories from a few years ago at the
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building we're at now and you know ever since the pandemic
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it's just kind of a blur and it's all
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it's a very different school. So it's hard to say
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like where it's come to because right now it doesn't feel like school
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in kind of how it would if there wasn't a pandemic you know or if
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it wasn't normal I think. And you've also
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started working somewhere this year?
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Does that also kind of further distance you from the school? Like you're already like
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I'm making money, I'm out there. Yeah, I mean definitely.
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I mean if I was able to make money I can drive myself
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you know and I don't have to be at school every day
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I'm taking myself where I want to go and making money and
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it just feels less relevant you know what's happening here
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to what kind of my everyday life was.
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So are there other workers your age
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at this place? There are people who are like you know 18,
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19, 20 but I'm probably the youngest. There's one guy
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who's 20 now who started when he was 16 like as an intern
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so yeah. And how does that feel? Does it feel
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like do they seem just like you?
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Pretty much. I mean I'm called the kid because I'm
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you know the kid but I'm not like outwardly you know
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like different from everyone else you know and I think
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I mean I always talk to people who are older than me, the staff
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all my friends who are older. I have friends who are the same age like 20,
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21 now. So yeah
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I mean I always feel comfortable even just talking to my managers in like a fun way.
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So no but it all kind of feels
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like there's not like an age thing because that's
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like in real life that's not really a thing. They are more surprised to know how
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young I am like because not all of them you know I don't know everyone's age who I work with
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so someone's like you're 17 you know
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like what are you doing here and like what you know it's just crazy so.
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It also helps with the mask it's harder to tell. Yeah
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my identity is like quite hidden you know like someone
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saw me without a mask and was like you actually have a face and hair
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you know like without that. I'm filling my stuff with yours.
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Okay. Well you also
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let's see
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you've done a variety of clerkships during
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your times here.
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Admissions clerk for a long time
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JC clerk for quite a bit. Can you do school meeting clerk?
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I think I subbed in as JC
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clerk but I never was elected which is strange like I never decided to
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do that. I think I was like
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just insecure about like writing up the agenda and like
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you know reading all this stuff out when I was younger.
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You weren't bothered by running a big meeting or? No I mean
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I think I had run meetings with JC got big at certain points and you know.
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The clerkships that I
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mostly enjoyed you know were JC clerk and like instead of admissions
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clerk or kind of like dabbling in the other stuff
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like it's much more fun to be part of the actual school than to talk with like parents
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which really kind of wasn't as enjoyable.
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You were also involved in the hiring
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processes right? You weren't a hiring clerk though. But I came
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to the meetings and was on the committee. How was that experience?
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That was really interesting to like
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think from the point of view of like just hiring
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someone and like what are we looking for and really judging these people
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like writing and just like ability and then figuring out what
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we actually were looking for and having to change our goals.
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And yeah it was really fun to do that I think and
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I remember we always would have a good laugh in those meetings
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you know like the highlight of the week and also
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yeah it was good.
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Do you miss doing any of that stuff?
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Or is it like that was a great experience? Moving on. Yeah I think really moving on
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you know I couldn't see myself like I mean maybe it'd be fun to
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hire a new staff but like being in JC
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for a few hours or talking to
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parents about it like I just it feels very I feel very weird right now
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to do that because it's been years I mean even before the pandemic
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I think I stepped down because I was like I spent like you know
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like three four years like I was going to every meeting and like
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really holding all this clerkship you know on and off JC clerk
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for all this time and then I thought like you know I had served the school for so long
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like I wanted to focus on myself
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not that I didn't do things for myself when I was a clerk but you know
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I was like I want to take a step back and see what else. Do you have any regret of spending all that time
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during the clerkships? I mean there are other things I could have done
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but it wasn't a waste of time or like you know a bad way to use my time
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there are other ways I would have regretted more you know
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like I'm happy I think I participated maybe just not for the length you know
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of how much I committed. Do you have any
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future thoughts about being involved in Sudbury schools
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like if you have kids or being a staff member someday or anything?
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Yeah I don't think I want to be a staff member. Or starting one?
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Yeah see that's just not what I think I'm passionate about
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I think I used to always say like I was the principal of the school
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I like to run the school but then I would say like I could never be a staff
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because I don't like children like I used to say that and I don't feel like I don't know if I'd say that
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now like you know but yeah it's just really
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not what I think I am called towards
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doing like I yeah I don't think I'll ever be a staff or start a school
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I think if I have kids like if this school is still
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you know an option like that would be awesome to see how it works
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for them.
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Oh you've also been doing a thesis this year?
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Yeah I've been trying to do that. How's that experience?
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I don't know I mean it's been difficult in a lot of ways
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I think more difficult because I've been out of the school you know like
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in past years me and my other friends who's also writing these thesis and we're helping each other
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on each other's teams
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we're talking about how last year we had friends who were writing and they would be in the library
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and they could show us what they're working on and ask for feedback in the moment
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and just have conversations and for us if we're not
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at school it I mean we feel even more kind of detached from that experience
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and you can't just kind of be with someone or in an environment
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where you can just ask for feedback or have people around you
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and so it's been I think different than any other
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Sudbury graduates have never really experienced this
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but I'm managing to write
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something and it'll be what it is
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Looking forward to doing the defense part?
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Yeah that'll be the fun part. It's hard to figure out
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that maybe your writing doesn't sound exactly how you want it to but I feel
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excited you know and like if it was just talking
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to people like you know I've always known how to just talk to people I feel like
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especially Sudbury staff I feel like are very easy to talk to
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so yeah that part's going to be cool
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Do you have any future plans for post school?
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Or do you want to share? Feel free not to share
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I mean it's hard to have plans I think because a lot of things feel
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uncertain about like the future who knows what's going to happen. I know that I really
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want to travel you know like as much as I can like that's just a goal
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you know that I want to make happen. Any particular destinations or just
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anywhere? I would literally travel anywhere I mean specifically. Iowa?
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I would recommend Iowa. Iowa's awesome. They have a tree in springtime
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that flowers. It's amazing. Iowa
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is an option. I lived in Iowa so that's why I can make a joke.
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It's a great stage. But I was thinking like you know
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to a different country you know
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going to I don't know France
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Korea anywhere yeah. Do you care about being able to speak the language?
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Yeah I do. I've also discovered that I really enjoy
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like learning languages and working towards them. Like if I was to travel any place
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and I had enough time in advance you know I'd want to just put in
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a time like every week just to learn some of that. Like you know and that would be
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part of why I'd want to live somewhere longer term to be immersed
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and speak the language. So that's why I've been trying to learn
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Korean and Spanish ever since the pandemic.
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Speaking of learning, you also learned how to
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do piano right? Yeah I started taking lessons
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a few years ago and picked it up.
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And I don't take lessons as much and just kind of play for fun but like
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play in some pretty hard pieces now. I've heard that you gave a great performance
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in the fall. What performance in the fall did I? On the beach.
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Oh yes I played for a wedding that happened on the beach and
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that was definitely the most nervous I'd ever been. But I played
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in like a recital before so I think in a way I just kind of accepted the anxiety
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I was just like this will happen. I'll get past it you know. That's how I do it
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with a lot of anxiousness. It's just like this will be over
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you know just 15 minutes and I just have to do this.
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And I think it went okay. There was a lot of wind on the beach and
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my hair looked crazy but you know
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it was fun. Cool.
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Let's see.
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Any other thoughts?
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Do you have any advice for upcoming
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students? About anything but
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particularly as one gets towards
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graduating and stepping out of the school?
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I would just encourage people to like
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try things you know.
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Like I think one regret I might have had is that I didn't feel like I took
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enough risks or did enough while I was you know here
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that like because I was afraid of like messing up or
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failing you know or like judgment which didn't come from like
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my childhood library because that's not really a thing that we do here. It came from something
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else you know. Just what I was understanding.
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And so I would say like yeah just
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try what you can and feel like free to do whatever you want.
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While you have that ability. Because like you know
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if I could have a few more years you know back of being here
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like I think I would have just explored more stuff
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like I don't know. Technically you would
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have another year. Technically I would have another year. But you mean kind of back in the
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yeah back in like you know. Back when you were younger. Back when I was a bit younger.
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I'm talking to like my brother you know he's like 13. I don't know.
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So up and coming. Like yeah. Just do what you enjoy.
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Do what you enjoy.
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I think that's a great way to sign off. Thank you Parker.
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Thanks Shane. Appreciate having the first interview.
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Maybe this will inspire more. No I think you did a pretty good job. I think
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you know you don't have questions thought out but you can bring them out of you.
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Thought you answered beautifully. We rate this
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as a 5 out of 5 interview. Okay. Thank you all for listening and
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have a good one.