Latest / Everything In Between: a Trinity UMC Podcast / Class of 2026 Seniors: Faith, Growth, and What Comes Next

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Class of 2026 Seniors: Faith, Growth, and What Comes Next · Everything In Between: a Trinity UMC Podcast

0:01
Life isn't black and white. It's not just mountaintop
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moments or rock bottom seasons. It's lived in the middle, in the
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doubts and the prayers that feel unanswered, in the joy you
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didn't see coming. Welcome to Everything in
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Between, a podcast from Trinity UMC.
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All right, welcome back to Everything in Between.
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Today we have some of our freshly graduated high school
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seniors with Melissa and. Josiah, we're.
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So excited to have them, we are ready to share their knowledge,
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everything they experienced in high school and Trinity student
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ministry. And so with us today we have.
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Brady. Saxon.
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And Kira. Welcome and buckle up.
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It's going to be a good time, you guys.
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All right, let's dive on in with our first Not Just Sunday
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question. You ready for it?
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That's it. OK.
1:03
When you come to service, all of you attend our Contemporary 945
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service. Where do you like to sit and
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why? 2nd row because the first row is
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always not reserved, but it's always taken up. 2nd row is not
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right on to to the heat, but I get to see everything and feel
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everything. I'm not there to like watch.
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I want to be in it and that's kind of where I feel that vibe.
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Good stuff. Weird sound bite.
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Got it. I like to sit in the middle
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because I'd rather not be seen and like kind of hide from
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people so people don't talk to me.
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Pretty. Much.
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Yeah, that's honest. No, it's it's your personality.
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You don't like to have to respond.
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You like to partake and serve. But you do.
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You're not. Unless you know someone, you're
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not in a conversation. Probably in the first row
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because my family likes to sit there a lot, so I just sit with
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all my family and the friend and plus it's a good way to see the
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stage a lot better. It's where Christina can make
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direct eye contact with you. It's.
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A splash zone at the Holy Spirit Splash zone.
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Or you can make Josiah giggle while he's playing.
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Holy Spirit splash zone. That's a nice I'll have to add
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that phrase to my repertoire. For those of you who don't know,
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Kira is my niece and so she as soon as they moved to Florida,
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she was immediately plugged in to Trinity.
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So Speaking of that, do you guys want to tell us how you became,
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how you came to Trinity and how you started in the Trinity
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student ministry? August of 2024 or September, I
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was invited to youth Group A couple times, but I never came.
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It sounded just like something fun to do.
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So Jacob Brynearson officially extended the final invitation.
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That worked. And then Morgan Lay gave me a
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ride in his amazing Jeep and I started joining TSM just 'cause
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it was a bunch of my friends. And then I got closer with God
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and then flourished into my present being.
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You are. You are a president.
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I am proudly. You want to tell anyone about
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that? I submit to you.
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Oh, yeah. Oh, man, lots of things.
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I mean, it was great to to be in that room and have people
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confident in my abilities to be president.
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But it really is kind of just the title.
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Doesn't matter unless you you put in the work, put in the
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hours. I am happy to say that I put
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more work into other people than I do myself because I suck at
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getting my own paperwork in, but I will get other people's
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paperwork sorted out for them and stuff like that, and I think
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that's kind of what got me that position.
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Nice. All right, Who's next?
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Like Melissa said, she is my aunt, so I was kind of forced
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into youth group before, before I was even in middle school, I
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went to a youth group event, the Pennington's pool party, and
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that's why I met a lot of the older people like Peyton,
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Annabelle and Kason. And ever since that, I've just
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stuck with youth group my entire life.
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Awesome. OK, so randomly one day at the
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lunch table, Kira came up to me and was like, you should start
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coming to youth. So then I did, and I just kind
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of came ever since. And I kind of managed for
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football. So I kind of came, but one day I
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had to leave. And then I never came back after
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that. But then after they invited me
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at the lunch table, I started coming again.
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Well. Don't answer this question as
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well. Yeah, I'd love for you to answer
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the question. The way I got involved in the
4:15
youth was I met Melissa, I knew some of the kids, but not a lot
4:20
of them. And Melissa was like, Oh my
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gosh, you should. You're pretty sporty.
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You should come and just play football.
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That's all it's going to take. Just football with them. 20
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minutes on a Wednesday. Not not too much commitment
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there. And then from there, it's just
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been in step by step, inching, inching, inching into more and
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more and more responsibilities. Next thing I was leading a small
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group. Next thing you know, I was doing
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this, doing that, and then now. And man and man, and now you're.
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And I'm now the assistant next Gen. minister, so our
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coordinator or whatever title makes you feel more comfortable.
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And eventually I'll retire and I'll just, we're going.
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To end it there, it's. Good placement.
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All right. So Speaking of your time in TSM,
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is there a moment, a lesson, or a relationship that's really
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helped shape your faith? Feel like we should have went
5:12
over that one instead of the church seating before.
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That feels a little deeper. Well.
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The church seating was the IT was the warm up to this right.
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Is there one relationship or moment?
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Or lesson or lesson experience, trip, whatever.
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Whatever it may be, Trinity or TSM related, They're thinking
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right. I'll go OK, I got 2
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relationships. First and foremost Jake Ryan
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Aerson, great guy and I had met him because he was kind of like
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like minded as to me I guess relative to me and he was a
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Christian. I was not.
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So it was certainly interesting for me who I feel like I'm
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pretty open minded and I'm willing to, to hear people out
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on a lot of things. So when I see someone who's kind
6:00
of like me, but has different beliefs and some perspectives
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that I'm like, OK, I can probably get to know this guy
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and relate to him and, and see what he's what he's thinking
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that leads him to this spot. And so Jake for me was the
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person that introduced me to Christianity itself.
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And he also helped me dive into it and he taught me guitar.
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So that and Ben Savage, wherever he is, Ben Savage also taught me
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guitar. But Jake has helped me learn
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guitar to play worship music. He's been a very, very impactful
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relationship. And then obviously my girlfriend
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who I met in youth group, Jillian, definitely up there
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relationship wise. I wouldn't have met her if I
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wasn't coming to Trinity. So that's probably what this
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youth group has blessed me with those two the most.
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Awesome. Yeah, they're really good
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people. I love them.
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One relationship definitely other than my aunt and Josiah
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would be Addie or Braddy. Addie she I met her when I first
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started coming to youth group and we kind of are in the same
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situation of not knowing people except like Peyton and
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Annabelle. And so we formed a really close
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bond over the years and after she graduated, a bond soul
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stayed. And definitely having that
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friend to like talk about God and just real life problems
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definitely helped me grow as a person.
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OK, so one relationship for me other than like Melissa and our
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leaders would probably also be Addie.
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I had a freshman year leadership with Kira and Addie and we all
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kind of just got really close there.
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And yeah, even after she graduated, I still send her
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vlogs on Snapchat just writing about my life.
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But yeah, our relationship has stayed the same and I can
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literally talk to her about anything so.
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OK, so I know that you guys just graduated and you have a couple
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months left and we don't love to talk about this part, but
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inevitably it's coming. What are you going to miss about
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your time here in Chinese student ministry?
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Josiah Definitely Josiah. I don't know.
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I miss a lot of people. The people here are amazing.
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I love all of my younger friends.
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Well, for me it might be unique because I don't know what these
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two are going to do, but I'm leaving town all together so
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it's not like I can't be around the area.
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So like I'm going to be missing like even my college friends
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that are still involved with Trinity like Connor and Hardy.
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My girlfriend Jillian is a year younger than me.
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I got all these friends like Martin, Jackson, Greg, all of
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these people that go to Trinity. I'm going to miss the people are
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definitely going to be the biggest part, but I'd say having
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the the sanctuary of a place that I'm comfortable with and
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that I already know I've never had to kind of experience faith
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without having Trinity as a home church.
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So searching for a church in Tallahassee is going to be, I
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guess the comfort and the friends are are the two things
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I'd say. Yeah, I know that you've already
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talked to them a little bit, but you know, our interns, Addison
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and Peyton are over there. So I definitely encourage you to
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talk to them to get plugged in. Addie talked about in a previous
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episode how that really helped her was having someone where she
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was going to be able to talk to, connect with and plug in.
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So yeah, can before we move on, what do you have steps in line
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of how you're going to find a new church?
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Well, Addie and Peyton did tell me that they have a run club
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that makes pancakes, so that's definitely up there in the the
9:19
front runners of where we're going to go.
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But. Pancakes are key.
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Yeah. And in all seriousness, though,
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I I do know a few people that live in Tallahassee already.
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This seems to be the only class that like Choctaw has ever
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produced where not everybody was going to Tallahassee.
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So it's a really big challenge to kind of find some familiarity
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and bring people in. I know Julissa Lopez shares a
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lot of the same like ideologies that I do.
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And so I think, you know, I, I definitely go to her for kind of
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some mentorship in that she has a church that she really loves
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there. So I'm just going to kind of go
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around to the people that I know are their two senses is worth
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something and has some wisdom behind it and kind of just go by
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word of mouth. But I'm sure those first few
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weeks will be kind of exploratory and feeling things
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out nice. I'm excited to see what you do.
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All right, Madison, what are you going to miss most and how do
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you, how do you plan to plug in and continue your faith where
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you're going? I think what I'm going to miss
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most is just the constant, like the church and the people here
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have always been the like a constant in my life.
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So like Wednesday nights, like I would make sure my nights are
10:26
clear so that I can come here and just hang out with the
10:29
people. But I'm staying here at
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Northwest Florida for the first year, so I plan to continue
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coming to this church and helping out wherever needed.
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You'll have to join the Well, it's our young adult group which
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like. They had such fun trips.
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They do. I mean, they're go on them.
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Yeah, I know that we have a lot of people who are really bummed
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that it's happening while we're at ARM.
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But in July, now that you guys are graduated, I mean they're
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kind of in the you're in the in between, you know, currently on
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everything in between. But yeah, you guys should check
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out the well. They went to Goofy Golf a few
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weeks ago and it was promoted at the Sunday service.
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And I was like, Melissa, how in the world do I go there?
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She said you can't. I said OK.
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All right, for those tuning in online, Noel is our young adults
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group that we have to for people that are in that in between of
11:21
adult age and not adult age to come and hang out with some like
11:25
minded believers. Goes from like graduated high
11:28
school and moving out of youth group all the way until you're
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joining the Oaks, which is our older adults knowing the Savior.
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For those of you guys who thought if you were 30, you're
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no longer part of the young adults, you're you're still
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young, young and. Vibrant Josiah is like 40 and
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he's hanging out. With us.
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OK, clap back. OK, yeah, look for sound.
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Effects. All right, Keeks, tell us what
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are you going to be doing? How are you going to tell us
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what you're going to be missing, what you're going to be doing,
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and how you're going to continue to grow your faith?
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One thing I'll definitely miss is all like the moments we've
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had, like Oakland moments, and then just definitely getting
12:08
like bonding with the young girls that like I once was and
12:11
now like I'm helping them out. I'll definitely miss my next
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steps. I'll be attending Tribeca and
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Nazarene University in Nashville.
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It is a Christian School, and I think how I'll connect to a
12:25
church is definitely the church on our campus and getting to
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know other people there. Help me find my place, that
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church there. Amen.
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Nice. So you guys talked about like
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just the how comfortable you are here at Trinity and the
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community it's given you and how, I mean, it's hard to find
12:43
what you have found here and the family that you guys have built.
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But what are you excited about? I mean, you've got big steps
12:51
coming even even if you're staying in Fort Walton.
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It's a big life change to go from high school and the
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consistency of Sunday and Wednesday nights.
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But what are you excited about in these next?
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Steps I'm more excited than I am sad.
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Let me tell you this I'm really I'm really, really excited to to
13:06
leave and and go live off by myself with a roommate, but by
13:10
myself, I'll be paying my bills like a big kid, which I'm not
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really excited about that a lot, but you know, we'll get it done.
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You know, we got two jobs this summer for a reason and I've got
13:21
quite a bit of money saved up, but I'm so excited to work on a
13:25
college schedule because I signed up for my college classes
13:27
and I am in for a good time. Like I'm in there three hours
13:32
from 8:00 to 11:00 at worst, like on the worst days, I get
13:35
out quickly. I'd love to just get my school
13:37
work done and have the day to just to rest, and I am.
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I'm just so excited to branch off and break out and be
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individual until I'm not six months from now.
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And I realize that it's not all sunshine and rainbows, but right
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now I'm so excited to just get into a new experience.
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But it's exciting. It's strange to say I've I've
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never lived alone, so it'll be a good experience.
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I think. I'm excited to see what you do.
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I can't wait for you to visit home and bring Trader Joe's back
14:07
for. Me.
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Oh yeah, Trader to talkies. I'm going to visit there every
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dude. Oh my gosh, I completely forgot
14:13
about Trader Joe's. Oh.
14:14
It's so good. Shout out to Trader Joe's.
14:16
If you're looking for a place to plant a store, Fort Walton Beach
14:20
is it. Or just if you're looking for a
14:22
more advertisement, more exposure, you can.
14:25
Take sponsorships. We take, we do, we do take
14:27
sponsorships. Contact us at Community
14:30
Communications at trinity@fwb.org.
14:33
Trader Joe's got lost there. Communications@trinityfwb.org
14:39
Hit us up. Trader Joe's also, not just
14:42
Sunday's. We're waiting to hear from you.
14:43
All right, ladies, same question to you.
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What are you excited about in these next steps?
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And it oh, go ahead. I am so excited to not have the
14:55
stress like of moving away from my family because I'm a very
14:58
like home person. Like I don't want to go far
15:01
after my first year here. I just get to live at home and
15:05
work and like all my constants are staying constant right now
15:08
and I don't have to leave. So yeah, I'm excited about that.
15:13
And like already being I did a moment.
15:15
So already being in that college, I already know the area
15:17
I don't like change. So I I'm excited.
15:20
That's kind of staying the same. Do you plan to take a theater
15:23
class with Ellie Boykin? She begged.
15:26
I ran into her at Target the other night and she begged me.
15:29
She was like screaming at me, begging me to take it.
15:31
But I'm just going to visit her class.
15:33
I am not taking theater. I cannot act it.
15:35
Could help with you wanting to sit somewhere besides the
15:37
middle. Yeah, no, Ellie Boykins is not a
15:41
middle. Person can I help?
15:43
Is she? I mean, she'll probably teach
15:44
that, but you can like at Mattie Kelly Arts, they're always
15:47
looking for people to work the Broadway shows.
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Josiah has done it. If I get to be around Ellie then
15:52
I'll help, but I won't be acting.
15:55
I don't want to act. I'm terrible at.
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It she also requested me to take a class really bad I cannot.
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All right, Kira, what are you excited about?
16:05
I'm very excited to move away. I'm like 6 1/2 hours away.
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I'm here and I'm actually very excited to like be away from
16:14
like I love my family, but like to be away from them and also
16:17
have a whole new environment I've never really lived in.
16:20
And definitely I'm on the stunt team at my college and
16:23
definitely I'm very. Stunt cheerleading for those who
16:26
aren't familiar. It's cheerleading, but you only
16:28
do the stunting and tumbling part.
16:29
But I'm very excited to start that season and also just to get
16:33
to know that new team especially.
16:36
I'm also excited for your Trader Chips home.
16:39
It's going to be so nice having so many of you bring in the
16:42
goods. All right?
16:44
Is there anything you're nervous about?
16:51
Nice pre fire. I wish I would have shut off
16:54
with an answer right then and just embarrassed you.
16:58
Yeah. I think I'm embarrassed about
17:00
the same things I'm excited about, like, or embarrassed I'm
17:03
nervous about the same things that I'm excited about just
17:07
because, like, it is really fun to be by myself and away from a
17:11
lot of my family. But it's also really nerve
17:13
wracking because it's something I've never done before.
17:16
So like, you know, it's going to suck whenever I work like 10
17:20
hours a day and then I come home and there's no food.
17:22
Like, that's pretty heartbreaking.
17:25
Can. You cook.
17:27
Yeah, I mean, you give me instructions, I can, you know, I
17:30
feel like it's a very flexible word cook.
17:32
You know, I if you tell me what to do, I'll do it, but I'm not
17:34
going to like. I love an Instagram recipe.
17:36
Yeah, I, I would, Oh my gosh, give me it like a shrimp chicken
17:41
Alfredo recipe and I, you will think I'm on master chef.
17:44
But like, that's, that's one thing I'm really nervous about
17:47
is just like having to do everything for myself.
17:49
And I'm really nervous about my money.
17:50
Like I'm already a pretty bad spender.
17:54
Like I go out to eat a lot. I don't DoorDash anymore because
17:58
like once I got a a grip for how money is and then I started
18:01
buying DoorDash, I was like, Oh my gosh, like I might as well.
18:04
Just go get it. I'm donating to charity, but you
18:06
don't. You're donating to somebody
18:08
already? So I mean, but I just like
18:10
whenever I'm out and about, I'm like, man, I could probably go
18:12
for a bite right now. So I can't I can't really do
18:15
that when I'm in college because like I will have to have money
18:18
at some points of time. So the finances are a stress,
18:22
and I guess the unfamiliarity is a stress.
18:28
All right, ladies. I think I'm more nervous about
18:32
not having everyone like here, like a lot of my friends are
18:36
leaving, but I also do have a lot of younger friends so
18:39
that'll be nice. But yeah, just everyone leaving
18:42
and not having the same support group always, like at arm's
18:46
length, I guess. I mean, we're still here just
18:49
because we're not kicking you like out of the nest.
18:51
We're just moving you to the branch.
18:54
The well. Here we go.
18:56
We're moving you to the well. I am nervous, like I'm excited
19:03
to move away but also nervous because it'll be my first time
19:06
without both my parents around me.
19:08
And I am blessed with the GI Bill luckily and I have a lot of
19:12
scholarships so I'm worried about like saving money for
19:16
after college. So I do want to go to vet school
19:18
but I am blessed with that part. But I'm very nervous like about
19:21
stepping out of my comfort zone, being away from my family, being
19:25
away from a lot of my friends is no one, no one's going to
19:27
Nashville. But that's what I'm most nervous
19:30
about. Probably just getting that step
19:31
and moving away. Yeah, I'm really excited.
19:35
I mean, we're family, so I'm excited to visit Nashville and
19:38
for you to like go do things and go to the Ryman and the other.
19:44
Where do we go? To the other concert.
19:45
It's a concert place. There's a there's an arena there
19:49
that I saw Jonas Brothers in. Like you're in a hot spot for
19:52
concerts and it's going to be so good for you.
19:54
Like all your K pop bands, they have to go through there.
19:58
That's like. Music City.
20:01
You could find Dolly Parton somewhere in the streets I'm
20:03
sure going to walk. I heard she sits around there
20:06
sometimes. I heard she shops at Trader
20:08
Joe's. OK, so you guys have really big
20:11
future plans and I know them and Josiah knows them.
20:13
But let's tell the world about your future plans.
20:17
And I also want you to share how your faith has influenced what
20:21
you're going to do and your plans.
20:25
I plan to pursue sports broadcasting by acquiring my
20:32
prereqs at Tallahassee State College and then graduating from
20:35
FSU. I'm trying to think of what the
20:41
level of graduation it is. What is it?
20:45
It's when you get 4 year degree. What is it?
20:46
Bachelor's. Yeah, right there.
20:49
Bachelor's degree in digital multimedia production from
20:52
Florida State University is what it would require to pursue
20:55
sports broadcasting. How my faith has impacted that
21:00
is that, you know, I've had to make a lot of tough decisions
21:03
over the years to get to where I am now.
21:07
That'll put me in the position to kind of be able to do this.
21:11
Like for this last year, I did radio broadcasting for our high
21:16
school baseball and football team.
21:18
So like for example, baseball, I had to quit baseball in order to
21:24
call baseball. So that was pretty tough for me
21:27
because I like baseball a lot. But I had just as much fun
21:31
calling it as I did playing it. And there were a few times I'd
21:33
watch them play and I'd be like, I wouldn't be having a lot of
21:35
fun right now because I'd be sucking.
21:36
So it took some faith to make those decisions and to kind of
21:41
put myself out there and be ready to speak in front of a mic
21:44
all the time. But that's definitely where my
21:47
faith has helped me and being able to trust in God that my
21:49
path is set and that I don't really have to know what's next.
21:52
That's why I ultimately made the decision to go to Tallahassee
21:55
and leave here is because I know exactly what I will have if I
21:58
stay here. I'll have another year of
22:00
broadcasting for football and baseball, but nothing really
22:04
more than that. And I know that the the the pool
22:07
is bigger in Tallahassee and that there's a lot more
22:09
unknowns, but there's a lot more chance for kind of the unknowns.
22:13
So I'm kind of trusting that those unknowns will supersede
22:17
the knowns. It's really mature.
22:19
Thank you. OK so I am attending Northwest
22:25
Florida State College and getting my prerequisites and
22:28
radiologic technology because I have to like have those before I
22:32
can apply to any program and I plan to go to University of
22:37
South Alabama because their program is pretty nice.
22:39
What was the next question? How's your faith influence those
22:42
things? I think I love, like to serve
22:45
and to serve like and I don't know, like serve people in the
22:50
medical field. What are you pressing button?
22:53
No, no, continue that. I was just turning you up.
22:56
To serve and like in the medical field and I don't know, like
23:01
represent who I am through God is pretty great.
23:06
I mean, in hospitals is one of the places I feel like most
23:10
people are open to faith because that's a time you're asking.
23:17
Yeah, You're. Those are times when people are
23:19
saying prayers they've never said before and talking to a God
23:21
they've never met. And you have the opportunity to
23:23
be someone who helps plant seeds and when they're in times of
23:31
doubt, be someone who can be steady for them.
23:36
I started my life in the hospital.
23:39
Wow, dude, you too. Where's that?
23:42
That would have been the perfect time, yeah.
23:47
All right, geeks. I plan on getting my prereqs at
23:52
to Reckon Nazarene and then hopefully transferring to
23:55
Vanderbilt after to study veterinary wildlife medicine.
23:58
My goal is to be a wildlife vet. Animal Kingdom.
24:03
Or the New York Zoo. Either way will be great for me.
24:09
That I know a lot of people say that is a very hard goal to
24:12
achieve, but I've always wanted to work with animals since I was
24:14
very young and so that is a goal I will try to reach.
24:19
God definitely helped me find where I was going because I did
24:22
not plan on doing any type of cheer in college because of
24:27
things that went on in high school.
24:28
And then coach Kelly, the coach there, she reached out to me and
24:32
said hey you're really good at stunting and tumbling would you
24:35
be interested in going here for cheer?
24:37
And I was like yes sure why not? And I got to know her over like
24:42
5 months and I got to practice with her team and their team was
24:45
so welcoming. It was like a new area, like new
24:48
feeling. I've never felt so welcome on a
24:50
team. And so that definitely helped me
24:52
take that step to go to Tribeca. And then some of my professions
24:56
there actually have connections at Vanderbilt.
24:58
So hopefully I can get close to them and get that step into
25:01
Vanderbilt to become a vet. So.
25:04
That's awesome. So you guys talked about like
25:09
Brady specifically and like how how God has played out and laid
25:13
this path for all of you and how you're really just relying on
25:16
God as you take these next steps into the unknown for the most
25:19
part. Do you think students your age
25:22
feel a lot of pressure to have every single thing mapped out
25:24
right now? Do y'all have everything mapped
25:27
out right now? No.
25:29
I'm trying to you know. How have these pressures
25:34
affected you as you make these choices or as you've gone
25:36
through high school? Because it feels like freshman
25:38
year, right, That you're like, what do you want to be when you
25:40
grow up? And, you know, you've got to
25:42
start figuring things out, but how have these pressures
25:46
affected or not affected you? And how, like, I mean, did you
25:49
trust God through these things or, you know, did you feel like
25:52
you're breaking sometimes? Yeah, I think I've for the most
25:57
part, I don't know. Jillian will tell you that the
26:00
most annoying thing about me is that I'd never know what I'm
26:03
doing at all, and I never know how long it's going to take me
26:06
or where it's going to bring me or anything.
26:09
She calls it unorganized. I call it living life on the
26:12
edge. Availability.
26:13
Yeah, so I like, you know, I'm ready to go at all times.
26:17
I don't really know where. So for a lot of high school, you
26:21
know, I was like, oh, I'm going to go to, to, to Troy University
26:25
and I'm going to do this for broadcasting.
26:27
And then my senior year, I, I make a switch up and I'm like, I
26:30
don't know, like I'd, I'd rather go to a city like Tallahassee
26:33
where I know the platform is much bigger and like there's a,
26:37
a way larger pool of people trying to do the same thing as
26:41
me. And it's not like Fort Walton
26:42
Beach where I'm the best at what I do in the area.
26:45
This is people coming from all sorts of areas where they're all
26:47
the best in their area and we're all pulling up together.
26:51
So I've, I'm, you know, I'm kind of taking that bet with faith
26:54
that, you know, if, if this is something that I got to do, then
26:57
I should be able to beat all these people out for a job if
27:00
that's, you know, what's necessary.
27:02
So certainly making a change when I've had the the the lay
27:07
back of knowing like I got accepted into Troy University, I
27:10
got 2 college acceptance letters.
27:12
Not even acceptance because Tallahassee State, it's like you
27:14
don't have to get accepted into it.
27:16
I mean, you do, yeah. Technically, but man, even.
27:19
If everyone gets the letter. It is really, really gratifying
27:22
to to read 2 gratification letters and I got mine from Troy
27:26
when I was still thinking about what am I going to do?
27:28
Even though for two years I was slammed into Troy University.
27:31
I was thinking this is going to be the thing living in Alabama.
27:34
But now making that switch over to, to FSU, kind of having the
27:38
faith to, to switch something that I thought I'd already
27:40
planned out and letting that kind of to go.
27:43
It's it was a knowing that the the finances, it was going to
27:47
cost more to go to Tallahassee than it was Alabama.
27:51
That's certainly something that was took a lot of faith.
27:55
How Yeah, it's we're talking about the pressure that your
28:00
generation has and have you given to the pressures?
28:04
Have you had breakdowns? How have you seen or allowed God
28:08
to work during these moments? So I'll be honest, my high
28:14
school, I've had a lot of I've had to face a lot of challenges
28:18
through all four years of high school.
28:19
And there were moments where I did breakdown or even had
28:22
meltdowns, but those moments helped me become the person I am
28:26
today. And there were moments where I
28:28
was like, I'm trying so hard to see God in it by fully couldn't.
28:33
It just took me a while to see that like why he had those
28:36
scenarios happen. Hoped we learned how to help
28:39
other people that went through those and then definitely for
28:42
college, I got accepted into a lot of colleges.
28:45
I. Said Humble Flex.
28:47
So I really didn't know what I wanted to do.
28:51
I originally wanted to go to the University of Southern
28:53
Mississippi for cheer. I had a child there, and I was
28:58
going to go to the Trout. But then I was like, I don't
28:59
know. And then when I told Tribeca,
29:03
God kind of like showed me that I wanted to go there.
29:05
So I dropped that child. And then I committed to Tribeca.
29:08
And so having that happen definitely helped me see the
29:12
bright side of why there's so many challenges in how God will
29:16
actually put stuff in your life for reasons.
29:19
I think I experienced a lot of pressure like choosing what I
29:23
wanted to do just cuz there's a lot of factors that go into it.
29:26
The money, the like I don't want to be going to a job every day
29:30
that I hate. So it's like if I felt a lot of
29:33
pressure doing that just cuz I haven't always liked the jobs
29:36
I've done. Like, I dread going to work all
29:37
the time. But yeah, I think there is a lot
29:40
of pressure because everybody's asking you like this year,
29:42
especially this year, every family event, what are you
29:44
doing? What are you doing?
29:45
Where are you going? It's it gets annoying a little
29:47
bit. But yeah, I just put a lot of
29:49
stress in God, knowing that He will always lead me to where I
29:53
meant to be. Definitely like our senior year
29:57
for a lot of people, everybody was like, you should be doing
30:00
this. You need to have your plan.
30:01
You should have all these things played out.
30:03
But it's like not everybody like you can switch your major
30:06
randomly. And I think that's why I was so
30:08
stressed out about money even though I had my GI bro, I was
30:11
like, what if I end up switching my major?
30:13
And I was like, but then I like talked to a lot of people,
30:16
they're like, it's OK if you switch your major.
30:18
And also like throughout high school, as you get older, you're
30:20
going to have challenges of friendships, like losing
30:23
friendships if you have relationships, but those
30:26
relationships like yes, will hurt you sometimes.
30:29
Also the friendships that stuck with you all for you.
30:30
So will definitely help you see the bright side of why those
30:33
friendships stayed so. It's just like Frozen says, you
30:36
just have to do the next right thing.
30:39
Shout out to Anna. I didn't even know what I wanted
30:43
to do until this like early this year.
30:45
I've spent I want really wanted to be a teacher because I love
30:48
kids and I just like, love teaching them.
30:51
But I think spending a lot of time in the school system, like
30:55
all four years of high school, I kind of went back to prior and
30:57
helped a lot. I just, I realized it wasn't
30:59
what I wanted to do and there all isn't always great days
31:03
there in the school system. So I think choosing radiologic
31:08
technology, I can still serve and be there for people and show
31:13
them who God is and give them opportunities just as well as I
31:17
can as being a teacher. Yeah.
31:19
The great thing is it's always possible to change your major.
31:21
Yeah, and some people get a degree and their job doesn't
31:27
even go with the degree. But because you have a degree,
31:29
you can do a job. Yeah, yeah.
31:33
And I think it's very interesting on this side,
31:37
sitting on this side, 'cause we just listened to to college
31:41
students who have changed their major constantly.
31:44
And then like, things were OK. But a lot of times you're right.
31:48
People are always like, Oh no, you have to have all this thing
31:50
figured out. And honestly, people are saying
31:53
the same thing, like you have to be married at 22.
31:55
Like, what are you doing? And it's just like a lot of
32:00
times, like the well, what people's opinions should matter
32:03
very little, but also just those conceptions that we put into
32:07
ourselves of like, Oh, I should have all this figured out.
32:10
And you know, me and Melissa, we talked to people that have
32:14
changed their careers, let alone their, their degree, like their
32:19
careers have taken complete shift and whether or not their
32:22
degree was even something that they're working in.
32:25
But I love that. Like what you said, it's like
32:28
just got to do the the right next thing.
32:30
And I mean honest, the best thing we can do is feel where
32:33
we're called and then give it. Our best is really all we can do
32:36
is give, is do that and then trust in God that he'll lead the
32:40
way. So.
32:40
Yeah, I feel like the pressures of the world have made it really
32:44
difficult to fail. But like, if you don't fail, you
32:47
can't learn. And if you don't take a chance,
32:51
you never know what could have been.
32:54
I have a friend who travels the world, and I've learned from him
32:59
that the worst thing someone can tell you is no because he likes
33:02
to ask, hey, do you have any free upgrades?
33:04
And he always ends up in first class, it seems like.
33:07
And usually he's not paying for it.
33:09
He just goes, you got any free upgrades?
33:12
I'm like, OK, they worse. They can tell me he's no.
33:15
So when my friends and I fly together, I'm like, hey, do you
33:17
have two seats that can come together?
33:19
And if they tell me no, I'm like OK thanks.
33:21
That's definitely Melissa, I've travelled with her before and
33:23
she definitely just goes up to random people and we do.
33:26
We were in the airport one time and she randomly just came back
33:29
with like 5 bakery items and she said she got them for free from
33:31
talking to someone. I did, yeah.
33:33
We got stuck in Atlanta last summer because we flew from DC.
33:37
We had been delayed two hours. They still put us on the plane
33:40
and then we sat on the tarmac for an hour.
33:42
So we were three hours delayed. We had five minutes to make it
33:45
to our connecting flight. And we were so tired from the
33:47
week that when we tried to Sprint, we just couldn't move.
33:52
And so, you know, kindness goes a long way.
33:55
And I talked to the lady at the gate and they had turned people
33:58
away that were being so nasty. And this woman got us two really
34:01
nice hotel rooms. She changed our flights for us.
34:07
And then the next morning when we got back to the Atlanta
34:09
airport, I was like, I'm going to go see what's around.
34:12
And I was looking for food for us in in the airport.
34:17
And I just told people what happened.
34:19
I told them. And then I came back with a free
34:21
coffee and pastries and like a bag of chips.
34:24
And we just hung out in the airport and it was great, right,
34:29
Maddie? Some people are just, some
34:30
people are just highly favored, I guess.
34:33
I just got to tell people, all right, so I've known Kira and
34:36
Madison a long time. Brady and I, we go back like 2
34:39
years now. But I can imagine and I know
34:43
that you guys have changed over a lot over the last few years.
34:47
If you could look back at your freshman yourself, what advice
34:50
would you give either about friendship, faith, priorities,
34:54
stress, sports? What advice are you telling
34:56
yourself? You.
34:57
Don't have to. You don't have to go into all of
34:58
those just. Just pick something.
35:00
Impressing these with you the most I.
35:01
Was trying to let them think so they didn't get crickets again.
35:04
It's. Going to happen.
35:08
It feels like a lot of the things that happened to me that
35:11
were like, like good. The first two years of high
35:16
school were not great. I'm not even going to lie to
35:18
you. They were cool, I guess.
35:19
I mean, there was nothing bad about them per SE.
35:22
I had some pretty bad grades, but like the my favorite
35:26
memories in high school were basically all my junior year.
35:30
And then there was some cool things that happened my senior
35:32
year. But like I tell myself to just
35:35
be patient and enjoy it. I think junior year is when I
35:38
got like my entire friend group was all seniors.
35:42
And so then I learned that like I was kind of going through
35:45
their their last first everything with them.
35:49
And so I kind of got some sort of appreciation or like grasp on
35:53
time. That's when I started
35:56
appreciating it. And so like some of these guys
35:58
like like Hardy and and Jake were like, like, even though it
36:03
was their last first, first day of school, first day back from
36:07
winter break graduation, like I kind of viewed them like they
36:12
were the best friends that I've like had up to this point.
36:15
So them graduating was sort of like a finish line I guess, like
36:21
it was kind of me losing something like in that school.
36:25
So for that I guess I would just tell my freshman self to enjoy
36:34
everything you know, don't look towards the end because the end
36:37
came faster than I thought. So being able to, which I
36:41
unfortunately didn't learn until my junior year, but being able
36:43
to appreciate what you have was, was some advice I could wish I
36:47
could pass back to myself. Yeah.
36:54
OK, I think I would just tell myself to stay true to myself
36:59
because you'll go through friendship breakups, you'll go
37:01
through just life. Life happens and you're who you
37:05
hang around. So I think just surrounding
37:08
yourself with Christ centered people and people that bring out
37:11
the best in you is the best thing you can do for yourself.
37:15
So. Definitely what going off what
37:18
Maddie said, Friendships, friendships, you're in
37:22
friendships. If you get a relationship,
37:23
there's my end. They may not, but it's also like
37:26
those are shaping the person you are.
37:27
And try to stay true to yourself as much as you can.
37:30
Also, I'm still learning how to do this.
37:33
Take time for yourself. Like yes you can help other
37:36
people but take time for yourself to slow down mentally
37:39
and physically. Because I just I might have to.
37:42
I found out stuff about my knee. It's hurt.
37:45
I might have to like have surgery, but that's OK.
37:47
But it's like if I would have took more time physically
37:50
resting, I probably would have. I could have prevented this.
37:52
But it's also like taking that time just to relax with
37:56
yourself, like journaling, coloring, watching TV.
37:59
Doing any of that will definitely help you mentally,
38:01
like relax and not be stressed out during high school.
38:06
I want y'all to remember these lessons even in college because
38:08
you're going to be 4 years later looking back at yourselves as
38:11
freshmen and be like those. All those same things still
38:14
apply, not just in high school. Absolutely.
38:17
Yeah. So this year y'all picked a
38:18
scripture for the Scripture of the year from Proverbs 3/5
38:21
through six. It was trust in the Lord with
38:23
all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and all
38:26
your ways. Submit to Him and He will make
38:28
your path straight. How have you leaned into that
38:31
verse this year? I think it goes back to what
38:34
I've been would have been saying about I'm not knowing what I'm
38:38
walking into kind of and that, you know, if I don't know what's
38:41
happening, it's kind of like like life, I guess, like this is
38:45
just a cosmetized. I wonder if that's a word like a
38:49
smaller version of like what life is like.
38:54
You really don't know what's going to happen.
38:57
Even if you think you know what's going to happen,
38:58
obviously going to College in a new city, you know that you
39:01
don't know what's going to happen.
39:02
So learning, you know, basing my life off of that verse that we
39:08
chose, I am trusting in him because I can't trust in myself
39:13
because I don't know what's going to happen.
39:15
There's nothing else to trust in.
39:17
I just hope that I'm making the right decision by him.
39:21
I've had to put my trust in him a lot, especially the last few
39:23
months. I think I've been through a lot
39:25
the last few months and honestly this whole year.
39:28
But just trusting that everything will be OK and it
39:33
just takes time and to not want everything to hurry up and just
39:38
trust God that it'll all be OK in the end.
39:42
But yeah. For me, I think my junior and
39:45
senior definitely is the most I've ever will closer to the end
39:49
of my junior, end of the junior going into my senior year and
39:52
throughout definitely was the most I've ever given myself to
39:55
God because it was like stuff happened right?
40:00
Like a month into my senior year and I still had to go to my
40:03
practice for cheer and I was like.
40:05
Mentally like trying to figure out a lot of things and like
40:08
giving myself up and fully just letting him tell me what I would
40:11
do in my future. And seeing like what's going to
40:14
happen throughout my senior definitely helped me relax more
40:18
and kind of helped me realize that it is OK to step, take a
40:21
step back and you can't control everything.
40:24
Like my aunt says a lot control the things you can control
40:28
because I don't like, I like to control everything and I learned
40:32
this. You can't.
40:32
So definitely learn. God has definitely helped me a
40:35
lot realized that he will put things in my life for a reason.
40:39
And even if that reason is something I don't want, it's
40:42
going to teach me something. Later.
40:44
So that's good, guys. We could do our best to control
40:48
the direction of the surfboard, but we can't control the wave.
40:52
That's true. Or like the dolphin that's going
40:54
to jump out and just I. Don't know why the dolphin jumps
40:59
out here. What else jumps that at you?
41:01
Sharks are sharks jumping out at people.
41:04
No, they're not fish cans. Fish, definitely.
41:07
OK, OK. Well, all right.
41:09
Rapid fire ready. Oh, gosh.
41:11
Here we go. You guys have kind of answered
41:13
some of these, so we need to make them quick and then we're
41:16
going to wrap this thing up. Favorite TSM?
41:21
Little late. Memory there's.
41:23
TSM memory. My favorite moment would
41:28
probably be SLU. Our first year it was really fun
41:31
and I learned a lot and every year I go back I learn more and
41:34
more. Yeah, we've got a month, a month
41:37
until we go. Back so excited.
41:39
Probably my first and only so far.
41:42
Oakwood obviously. I'd love to go to this.
41:44
My second one this summer. That was really fun.
41:47
Not even just like the faith part about it, but also being
41:50
able to be in the same place like camp as my friends for a
41:54
week. That was awesome.
41:56
Being like seeing them in every turn.
41:58
All right, one word that describes your high school
42:00
experience. Chaotic.
42:04
Yeah, pretty much. I'll say that.
42:06
Chaotic. I don't know, it's a good one.
42:11
I don't want to sound too Mr. Trinity fed up about myself, but
42:15
like I was on the radio like that was pretty cool.
42:17
I'd say like, oh man, I'm going to get I'm going to get clown
42:22
for this when this episode comes out.
42:23
I'd say like stardom. I don't know like.
42:28
OK. I don't know.
42:30
Maddie can go off. Thank you.
42:32
I'll go. Should I get your autograph now?
42:34
Yeah, probably. Well, I don't know how to sign
42:36
anything now so. Great.
42:37
OK. Yeah, you never had to worry
42:39
about me. Shout out to my teachers.
42:40
Never had to worry about me forwarding a signature because I
42:42
didn't even know my own signature.
42:44
All right, Maddie, High School word.
42:47
Fast. Everything just went by really
42:49
fast all. Right.
42:50
What about your Trinity experience?
42:54
Not that it's over, but a word that's described it this far.
42:58
Friendships. All my friends are from Trinity
43:02
now. I don't have a single one that
43:03
isn't. Grateful for everything.
43:07
Sorry, I don't know if you could hear that.
43:08
All right, something you've learned from your time here that
43:13
you're taking with you. Don't be an idiot.
43:17
A lot of the people I've met here aren't idiots, so that's
43:21
when I've been happiest is when I'm friends with people that
43:24
aren't idiots and when I'm not acting like an idiot myself.
43:27
That it's OK to be different. You'll there will always be a
43:29
group like at high school and here or at school and here.
43:33
You'll always have somewhere here to be cool.
43:36
You'll always find your right group of people that kind of
43:38
like off of Brady. I feel like a lot of my friends
43:40
are from here now and it's OK to be different and say no to what
43:44
the world and what people at high school are doing so and
43:47
that you'll always have somewhere else to be that you
43:49
can go home as well. Definitely to be confident in
43:54
yourself, not don't change yourself for other people.
43:58
Amen. Those are good.
43:59
All right, If you could speak to someone that would be in like
44:04
our Oaks groups or our older adults of the church, what would
44:08
you want them to know about your generation?
44:10
Like, I know Brady, you've sat down and talked with Harvey
44:13
Hansen when we visited him. Shout out you should be going to
44:17
the Wednesday men's meeting. I should be 10 AM here.
44:20
But if you could speak to the older generation, what do you
44:25
want them to know about you or your generation?
44:28
Deep question. Let's see how, OK?
44:31
Yeah. Anything.
44:32
Either way, what do you want them to know?
44:34
I feel like in the time of social media, you know, when
44:38
when you hear about the next generation, you hear screen
44:40
agers, you know, all phones, all iPads, which obviously you know,
44:44
too much of anything is bad. But I think now that the there
44:49
are generation or there are kids being born in this generation
44:52
growing up with like these things hooked up to them.
44:56
I'm holding my phone. I know we don't have video yet
44:58
with their phones or iPads hooked up with them.
44:59
They are learning how to live with them and not live on them.
45:03
And that's another cultural thing.
45:04
You need to have people in your life and family and parents that
45:07
teach you how to live with your phone and not on your phone.
45:10
And this could be a tool used for spreading love and
45:13
generosity and just kindness. All right.
45:19
Yes, I agree with Brady in some points, but it's also, I'm also
45:23
very grateful for the older generation because if you sit
45:25
down and talk to them about like things they went through, some
45:29
of their experiences are actually interesting.
45:31
Like when we went to, I don't know if it was two years ago,
45:33
the retirement home to Saint Carol's.
45:35
Yeah. Was that last year?
45:37
That was it was. It was a year and a half ago.
45:41
Sitting down, I remember one of the old ladies.
45:43
That was Bob Hope village. They were.
45:45
I was talking to her. One of the ladies.
45:50
Ladies, I remember talking to her and I, she knew I told her
45:54
to cheer and I got to like see her view of like what cheer was
45:56
like when she was in high school.
45:59
And I didn't know how different it was cheering.
46:01
Like, it changed over a lot over the years.
46:02
And definitely seeing how grateful she is to see how much
46:06
she has evolved. And she is a big, very big part
46:08
of my life. So like seeing that over the
46:11
like seeing how she sees it and how I see it and like combining
46:14
them, we're like, oh, wow, like that has evolved.
46:16
And I do think sometimes older generations can be a little bit
46:20
judgmental, but it's also like we can also be judgmental of
46:23
them sometimes because we don't always want to sit down and
46:27
listen to them. But definitely sitting down and
46:29
learning to listen to them without your phones, without
46:32
anything. Definitely hope she get a bigger
46:35
perspective of why they like are the way they are.
46:37
How would you feel about a Women of Trinity Mixer?
46:42
Like, if we rented out small batches and we just invited the
46:46
women and youth of Trinity to come, would you guys come?
46:51
Yeah. All right, Madison, what do you
46:53
want the other generation to know?
46:55
Other or older. Older.
46:57
OK, the. Other one middle.
47:01
I think mine kind of goes off of both of theirs that I mean, not
47:06
to be mean, but times have changed and sometimes they can
47:09
be a little judgmental, like Kyra said, but they can learn a
47:13
lot from us and we can learn a lot from them.
47:15
So I don't, I don't really know advice that I would give them.
47:19
Just what do you want them to know about you guys?
47:21
I think that was. Well said.
47:22
That's what you want them to know.
47:24
That not all teenagers are the same into kind of what Brady
47:28
said. We're not all the same and.
47:30
Come hang out with. Us, yeah, come hang out with us
47:32
and the devices. Don't be mean to us online,
47:35
please. Don't be ageist.
47:37
Yeah. What do you want people to
47:38
remember you by? Like if you if you had to ask a
47:42
6th grader in the youth group what they remember, Like if I
47:45
walked up to who's a 6th grader this year, Aubrey?
47:48
If I walked up to Aubrey Appleton and I said, what do you
47:52
remember about these kids? What do you want her response to
47:55
be? That was a really cool guy.
47:57
I was involved and I was funny and I was really good
48:02
broadcaster probably. So I'm going to talk to you
48:06
about like anything, even other than church stuff, like anything
48:09
she's going through, definitely. So someone who's there to help?
48:11
Yeah, OK. Someone that always said hi or
48:15
talk to them because Aubrey, I talk to her all the time but she
48:17
waves to me and says hi to me every time she sees me and she's
48:20
amazing and I love you Aubrey. W Aubrey Apple.
48:23
So we want to be known for being funny and cool and welcoming and
48:28
someone who is there to help you.
48:30
I think those are great things, you guys.
48:33
We're so thankful that you were here today and that you stopped
48:36
by to listen to our amazing class of 2026.
48:40
We'll have another group of graduates on here in a couple
48:43
weeks and we hope you tune in then, but be sure to stop by and
48:46
talk to Brady, Madison and Kira. They want to spend time with
48:50
you. All right, you guys sign off and
48:53
say goodbye. Be there, hear about it.
48:59
Looking forward to everything I'll do and everything in
49:01
between talk. To you all.
49:03
Farewell. Farewell, Farewell.