Latest / Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane / The Why Not Today? Podcast - Season 2 - Episode 16 with Dawn Crosson, The Reston Letter.

Transcript

The Why Not Today? Podcast - Season 2 - Episode 16 with Dawn Crosson, The Reston Letter. · Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane

• 0:00
  Hello, my name is Leslie and I am the host of the Why Not Today podcast.
• 0:06
  This is a podcast to celebrate people who have been courageous and said, Why Not Today?
• 0:10
  I started this podcast in honor of my father, Patrick Kane, who often said, Why Not Today?
• 0:16
  I am based in Reston, Virginia, a planned community right outside of Washington, DC, and thanks
• 0:20
  for joining us today.
• 0:22
  And I'm excited about my guest, Dawn.
• 0:23
  Croson, is that how you pronounce your last name?
• 0:26
  It is.
• 0:27
  Okay.
• 0:28
  I've literally just officially met her a few days ago, but I've heard of her and kind
• 0:34
  of seen what she was doing.
• 0:35
  And it was one of those things I have thought about reaching out to you a gazillion times
• 0:40
  in the last six months, Dawn.
• 0:41
  And then, you know, life is just busy and somebody shared something like, you know what,
• 0:45
  I'm just reaching out where I saw something on social media.
• 0:47
  And you know, sometimes those things on social media, they catch you at the right moment.
• 0:51
  Yeah.
• 0:52
  So reach out, met with you, got to know you, and I'm super excited.
• 0:55
  So Dawn is publisher, editor, CEO, founder of the, I don't know all the titles, but you
• 1:03
  can explain as we go on, the Reston Letter, which is a cool newspaper, like physical touch
• 1:09
  newspaper that is published in Reston.
• 1:12
  And since I'm a kid of Reston and grew up in Reston and been here pretty much my entire
• 1:18
  life, it really interests me and caught my attention because I think it's a super cool
• 1:22
  idea to share what's going on in Reston.
• 1:26
  And I know the first issue you came out, one of the things you said is, you know, we'd
• 1:31
  like to wear kids cutting our picture out from our soccer game or, you know, the different
• 1:35
  things and I've got boxes of articles cut out from everybody in my family.
• 1:41
  So I'm excited to have you and kind of share about the Reston Letter and then kind of a
• 1:44
  little bit, you got some other courage things going on in your life.
• 1:47
  So, Dawn, if you wouldn't mind, introduce yourself a little bit who you are, and then
• 1:52
  a fun fact and then we'll get into your courage.
• 1:55
  I'm excited to have you.
• 1:56
  All right.
• 1:57
  Well, thank you for having me.
• 1:59
  I've never been on a podcast before.
• 2:01
  Oh, wait.
• 2:02
  Yay.
• 2:03
  This is your first one.
• 2:04
  Yeah.
• 2:05
  So my name is Dawn.
• 2:07
  I'm actually, I'm from Idaho, but I have lived in Reston, Virginia for 20 some years.
• 2:15
  I have three boys, some a boy mom.
• 2:19
  Everything is very loud and smelly.
• 2:21
  And I'm a teacher.
• 2:24
  I'm an English teacher, have taught English and journalism over the past few years.
• 2:31
  I think about 10 years.
• 2:34
  So I guess a fun fact about myself.
• 2:37
  I don't know that it's that fun, but I love baseball.
• 2:43
  So baseball has been a big part of my life since I was little.
• 2:47
  I used to listen.
• 2:48
  I have such fond memories of listening to baseball games because we never had, we barely
• 2:53
  ever had a TV growing up.
• 2:55
  My dad would be out working in the garage and he'd be tinkering around and he'd turn
• 3:00
  on the radio and we'd listen to the Mariners as the, as a team that was closest to us.
• 3:05
  So collected baseball cards.
• 3:08
  My brother's played baseball.
• 3:10
  My sister and I played baseball.
• 3:12
  So baseball is very much a part of my life.
• 3:15
  That's awesome.
• 3:16
  And did you play baseball or softball?
• 3:17
  I played softball.
• 3:18
  Yeah.
• 3:19
  Okay.
• 3:20
  Gotcha.
• 3:21
  Well, that's kind of fun how it's a very much a full circle moment.
• 3:23
  And I think we talked about this initially when we connected is John Pinkman, who has
• 3:28
  a baseball academy in Reston.
• 3:30
  You don't know him, but his son.
• 3:31
  Um, because I guess your boys played baseball.
• 3:33
  He is the one that originated the first thought about this doing this podcast because he's
• 3:39
  Oh really?
• 3:40
  Yeah, because he shared some social media.
• 3:42
  It was on next door, which I never go on and he had a picture of himself with an eye patch
• 3:47
  on because he'd had some surgery done eye surgery and, um, he picked, he talked about
• 3:52
  every time he looks in the mirror, he thought about my dad and he talked about things my
• 3:56
  dad had done and the community, but he also said, we both always said, why not today?
• 4:00
  And that was kind of, I remember exactly where I was.
• 4:03
  And it was actually, um, it was September of 2020.
• 4:08
  So two years ago, 2021.
• 4:12
  And I remember exactly where I was sitting when I saw that I'm like, huh, interesting.
• 4:16
  So here we go.
• 4:17
  Full circle, baseball.
• 4:20
  Let's talk about courage, Don.
• 4:22
  What does courage mean to you?
• 4:24
  Oh, well, to me, courage is like courage is looking at a decision, maybe action or inaction,
• 4:35
  I guess, um, and understanding why you should be afraid, probably being afraid, um, of,
• 4:44
  you know, making this decision.
• 4:47
  And also, so recognizing the risks, but recognizing the rewards and, you know, basically choosing
• 4:54
  to roll the dice and say, I understand what could go wrong, but I understand what could
• 5:00
  go right and I want to do that.
• 5:02
  So I want to risk that.
• 5:04
  That's awesome.
• 5:05
  And I know you've done several courageous things in your life, kind of burn the boat
• 5:10
  kind of situations we talked about.
• 5:12
  So let's talk about the rest and letter.
• 5:14
  So what motivated you to do this?
• 5:17
  Start this.
• 5:18
  Um,
• 5:19
  Sure.
• 5:20
  So it's a pretty, pretty big undertaking.
• 5:23
  And I don't know if you've done a newspaper before.
• 5:26
  Yeah.
• 5:27
  So I taught journalism when I went to the high school, started teaching at the high school
• 5:34
  that I'm at now.
• 5:35
  There was a small journalism class and it was only online.
• 5:40
  They only did online publishing.
• 5:42
  And then it was got to be so small that they shut the program down.
• 5:49
  And then a few years later, my department chair came and she was like, or said something,
• 5:54
  you know, to everyone, do you anyone interested in this?
• 5:57
  And I said, yeah, I am.
• 5:59
  Um, I, I did minor in professional writing and I did an internship at a newspaper in
• 6:05
  college.
• 6:06
  I was the opinions editor for the college newspaper.
• 6:10
  And I'm just a writer.
• 6:11
  I've done freelance writing, you know, over the years and I love to write.
• 6:17
  So I was like, sure, you know, I'll give it a shot.
• 6:21
  And I was able to get a recruit about, I think it took seven kids to get a class.
• 6:29
  So we got seven kids.
• 6:32
  And what I saw over those four years, we went from seven kids to, I believe it was 30.
• 6:39
  We can't, we, the class closed at 30 the last year I was there.
• 6:45
  But what I really, what I saw from that experience and I learned a ton.
• 6:50
  But what I saw was the way that the, the physical copy of the paper brought the students together.
• 7:01
  You know, they were proud of what they created because it's a lot of work.
• 7:05
  And I just, I just made phone calls, did Google searches and figured it out because
• 7:10
  there was nobody whose place I was taking and the there hadn't been a physical paper
• 7:14
  there for a long time.
• 7:16
  Anyway, so I saw this, you know, this camaraderie among the, and just feeling, feeling of, you
• 7:26
  know, accomplishment for having this in your hand.
• 7:29
  And that was the whole thing too.
• 7:30
  I didn't want to do something online.
• 7:31
  I wanted them to hold it.
• 7:33
  And I wanted them to take it around the school and show off their work.
• 7:39
  And so the kit, the students came together.
• 7:44
  And then the school community related to, because, you know, the, the teachers that
• 7:50
  were being written about and quoted and the athletes and the, you know, different clubs
• 7:55
  and all of these, all of these parts of the, of the school came together.
• 8:01
  And I mean, distribution day when we were, we were taking the papers around to the school
• 8:07
  became, you know, a huge deal.
• 8:09
  I mean, my kids love to do it.
• 8:11
  And, you know, working together just, it takes a lot of coordination to get, you know, pictures
• 8:17
  and just all the articles written in, you know, so it, it was really an awesome experience.
• 8:26
  And I think everything this day is online and having that physical thing to touch.
• 8:31
  I still, like, if it's online, I'm not going to read it, but if I can, and a lot of times
• 8:36
  things that are online, I'll print them out so I can read them.
• 8:39
  Because yeah.
• 8:40
  And so then how'd you jump from a high school paper to your idea of the rest in letter?
• 8:45
  And I know you did some research and cool stuff around that.
• 8:48
  Yeah.
• 8:49
  Well, it was, it was actually, and my husband doesn't even remember this, but it was his
• 8:55
  idea.
• 8:57
  He said something, and this was last summer, he said something like, you should do a rest
• 9:02
  in newspaper, you know, and, and that was very flippant of him and he didn't think about
• 9:09
  it again, but, you know, I was like, yeah, I know.
• 9:13
  That seed was planted.
• 9:14
  I don't like John Biggsman and the why not today.
• 9:17
  The seed was planted and I went down and I went to the computer and I Googled how to
• 9:26
  start a community newspaper and, you know, like 10 things to do, whatever it was, and
• 9:34
  started researching things like, you know, printers and just all kinds of things that,
• 9:43
  you know, I've learned along the way I had to start from scratch.
• 9:47
  So but the thing is, I had the right connections because I'd been in the community for, you
• 9:53
  know, I think it's 23 years and three kids.
• 9:57
  So I know, you know, tons of parents and kids from sports teams and different schools because
• 10:04
  my kids have been in a couple schools since we moved once.
• 10:09
  And then, you know, so you just end up with, you know, you're knowing people on all kinds
• 10:14
  of different circles.
• 10:16
  And so, you know, the more I thought about it, I was thinking, I think, you know, I think
• 10:20
  I could actually do this or even this was a shot at least.
• 10:27
  And then, you know, it was like, well, I did get actually I have a story.
• 10:32
  So before I printed or, you know, actually not before I printed, I printed out a mockup
• 10:40
  of the newspaper just as has to see what the printer was like, the printer I eventually
• 10:45
  settled on.
• 10:48
  And the mockup explained my vision for the paper.
• 10:52
  And you know, my main point was to get advertisers with it because this was, you know, not doable
• 10:59
  without advertisers, of course.
• 11:01
  So I went to a, I won't disclose the place I went to a business close by a bunch of businesses
• 11:11
  close by.
• 11:12
  And I got one specific place I got, you know, and the gentleman was not rude at all, but
• 11:19
  he just said that'll never work.
• 11:21
  That's not people.
• 11:22
  People don't want that, you know, some, you know, I've tried it before and it doesn't
• 11:28
  work, it just doesn't work and so it's like, okay, you know, but every month I bring him
• 11:33
  a copy.
• 11:34
  And the other day I walked into his shop and he looked at me and he's like, we need to
• 11:40
  talk.
• 11:41
  So I think we're going to be, you know, doing a story on him and he might, you know, there
• 11:48
  will definitely be a relationship there.
• 11:50
  So that was a rewarding little experience.
• 11:53
  That's awesome.
• 11:55
  Yeah.
• 11:56
  Anyway, so another thing I wanted to do was I was, I wanted to be, I want to be free.
• 12:05
  And I don't want it thrown on yards and on sidewalks.
• 12:08
  I wanted it in mailboxes.
• 12:10
  So then I had to do all the research about the postal service and the different mail
• 12:15
  rates, you know, and then I sat down with a friend of mine who's a realtor and we knew
• 12:22
  we couldn't afford to ship to all residences in Ruston at least to start.
• 12:28
  So we sat down and we tried to pick different routes, you know, in different places, kind
• 12:34
  of cover Ruston north and south both equally.
• 12:41
  And so we picked these routes out and, you know, so we had to do that.
• 12:47
  At this point, it's not all Ruston yet, is it?
• 12:51
  Oh, it's right.
• 12:53
  It's not, it still isn't.
• 12:54
  No, it's advertisers.
• 12:56
  I do.
• 12:57
  It's a little over half.
• 13:00
  So, and, you know, this was another thing that made this more reasonable or doable,
• 13:06
  I guess, in my mind was that I didn't need much overhead for this, right?
• 13:10
  I just needed, you know, the software.
• 13:14
  I needed to get the LLC, you know, I researched all that stuff.
• 13:19
  And it, you know, the website and the email, you know, there's not much expense there.
• 13:25
  And so as long as I could get the monthly advertising, you know, I could print and ship
• 13:32
  and shipping is what's more expensive.
• 13:34
  Right.
• 13:35
  Well, we can talk about trying to get you some advertisers, but I want to go back to
• 13:40
  the Ruston letter, like where the name comes from, because I know there's history behind
• 13:43
  that, which I love.
• 13:44
  There it is.
• 13:45
  I love history and I wanted the logo to be meaningful.
• 13:53
  And you can see it up here sort of.
• 13:57
  But I looked at the logo and kind of looked at, I looked at, you know, a bunch of old
• 14:05
  stuff.
• 14:06
  I went to the Ruston Museum.
• 14:07
  Which a lot of people don't know there is a Ruston Museum.
• 14:10
  And it's amazing.
• 14:11
  It has all kinds of great things.
• 14:13
  And that's actually, I think I mentioned the other day, George Mason University has an
• 14:17
  extensive area of Ruston.
• 14:20
  Yeah, it's so interesting.
• 14:23
  And you're right.
• 14:24
  A lot of people who live in Ruston have no idea of this rich history.
• 14:28
  That's what I love so much about the Ruston letter and the message is that I think you
• 14:34
  mentioned to me that somebody that lives at Ruston Town Center and those anybody listening
• 14:39
  that doesn't isn't familiar with Ruston.
• 14:42
  Ruston Town Center is the new part of Ruston.
• 14:43
  Ruston is a plant immunity.
• 14:45
  But somebody at the Ruston Town Center said they learn more about Ruston reading your
• 14:51
  newspaper than they did and how many years they've lived in Ruston.
• 14:54
  Yeah, he said he'd lived, he picked it up and he read, you know, the whole thing in
• 14:59
  probably half an hour, 20 minutes and said he learned more during that time than he had
• 15:03
  living at Town Center for five years.
• 15:06
  Yeah.
• 15:07
  So many valuable things in it, which I love.
• 15:09
  So the Ruston letter, that was the original Ruston newspaper.
• 15:12
  I think it was even before.
• 15:13
  So yeah, so I'm there in the archives, you know, rummaging around.
• 15:18
  I sat there for hours.
• 15:19
  I probably really annoyed whoever was there.
• 15:21
  But it was just fascinating.
• 15:23
  And I found that there was a newspaper that was published in Ruston called the Ruston
• 15:28
  letter from 63 to 66, 67, something like that.
• 15:35
  And it was more like a newsletter and it was when the community was being built.
• 15:42
  So it was kind of an update on, you know, like the latest building projects and things
• 15:46
  like that.
• 15:48
  They had a big thing about the dedication of the town.
• 15:52
  But yeah, so I looked up all the copyright, you know, information and the, you know, the
• 16:00
  reddit on the name told my friend who's a graphic designer, you know, kind of go with
• 16:06
  the mid century kind of, you know, lots of triangles, lots of angles.
• 16:11
  And then I went with the red and blue because of the two high schools.
• 16:15
  Oh, I did kind of say that.
• 16:17
  So and I love too what you mentioned is how you're doing this.
• 16:21
  It's not you by yourself.
• 16:23
  And you said you've got a lot of students that you're using as interns, a lot of people
• 16:28
  in community and I think we talked about this the other day, the resting community is very
• 16:34
  community focused and wants to help.
• 16:36
  And I know that in a lot of people, I'll help promote it.
• 16:39
  I'll help you find advertisers.
• 16:41
  I'm not going to write for you though.
• 16:43
  I'll help you with a podcast if you want to do that.
• 16:46
  Everyone has their thing.
• 16:51
  Exactly.
• 16:53
  But yeah, I, you know, for the first issue, I, you know, kind of convinced some of my
• 16:58
  friends to write some things for it.
• 17:01
  And I wrote, you know, an article about a promise to the community is what I called
• 17:07
  it that I'll keep this rest in.
• 17:10
  And anyway, so I, you know, I started with people I knew, obviously just writers I knew
• 17:16
  and that first issue that came out in January after it hit and I print 15,000 copies after
• 17:25
  it hit mailboxes, I got so many people are sending me their resumes, you know, they want
• 17:31
  to meet so they can talk about what they want to write about.
• 17:34
  And that's just kind of been the way it's gone since I started, you know, I mean, after
• 17:39
  that January issue, I met, you know, probably two days later with a couple, two retired
• 17:46
  journalists who live here, you know, and just other people who want and been here for a
• 17:51
  long time and people who are new for one of the retired journalists.
• 17:55
  So it was, she was moving to the area during COVID and she didn't know anything about it.
• 18:00
  And so, you know, she, and she's, like I said, retired journalist, so she knows exactly
• 18:05
  how to go out and find those stories, make those contacts, get the press, press releases
• 18:10
  and the press kits and all that.
• 18:12
  So she has learned a ton and she's been able to write and, you know, similarly, a gentleman
• 18:20
  who is a retired journalist as well, started his own newspaper years ago, like, I mean,
• 18:26
  just people coming out of the woodworks.
• 18:28
  Yeah, there's probably so many more.
• 18:30
  Somebody else that might be a fun connection for you.
• 18:33
  There's a person who's a couple of years older than me, his name is Tom Jackman and he writes
• 18:40
  for the Washington Post.
• 18:41
  But I don't know if you ever said, I'm not sure what, I don't think it's sports.
• 18:46
  I don't remember what he writes, but he writes for the Washington Post and been around for
• 18:49
  a long time.
• 18:50
  But he grew up here in Reston, went to high school, went to Harvard, but he might be kind
• 18:54
  of a fun person.
• 18:57
  Actually doing something I heard this morning, they're doing famous people of Reston, Restonians
• 19:03
  are doing an event the museum's putting on.
• 19:05
  Yeah, I saw that.
• 19:07
  Yeah.
• 19:08
  It's like the top Jeopardy winner who water rubrics with his mom.
• 19:12
  So it's just fun, all the connections.
• 19:13
  Yeah, it is.
• 19:14
  Yeah, I am excited about helping you promote this because Reston is near and dear to my
• 19:20
  heart and sharing what's going on in Reston.
• 19:22
  And I met with somebody this morning, talked all about you and your mission.
• 19:25
  So we're going to find your average person to get to all of Reston.
• 19:29
  But it'd be awesome.
• 19:30
  Yeah, I mean, it took courage to do this.
• 19:32
  But when we were talking, I think the bigger courage part, I mean, it took courage to do
• 19:37
  this, but I think your past really gave you the courage to step out.
• 19:43
  And as you said, because of your past and medical issues, it's giving you the space
• 19:49
  to do this.
• 19:50
  So share, I love the story of, and this is, I think, a bigger courage is how you got to
• 19:56
  Reston from Idaho.
• 19:58
  Yeah.
• 19:59
  So when I was 21, I was in a car accident.
• 20:04
  I was my senior year of college, really bad car accident.
• 20:11
  I was alone on the road.
• 20:13
  It was early in the morning.
• 20:14
  I hit a sign, a building finally stopped or came to total the car on a telephone pole
• 20:26
  and I broke seven bones.
• 20:30
  My left, every limb except my right arm and my skull, my, like the orbital bones around
• 20:41
  my, one of my eyes.
• 20:43
  And so I had to drop out of college a semester before I graduated and I'd been playing softball
• 20:51
  and so that part sucked.
• 20:55
  But mostly I was a semester away from graduating.
• 20:58
  I just finished my student teaching and I had to move back in with my parents and I could
• 21:05
  do nothing.
• 21:06
  I could do nothing.
• 21:07
  Yeah.
• 21:08
  Yeah.
• 21:09
  And so, you know, I spent then, I didn't walk for six months.
• 21:16
  I had several bone graft surgeries and, you know, physical therapy and I mean, during
• 21:26
  that time so many people showed so much kindness and compassion for me that, you know, I would,
• 21:36
  I tried to, I try to replicate that whenever I can because it didn't mean so much to me.
• 21:42
  But I recovered and then I, a year and a half later, I was about ready to graduate because
• 21:55
  I did get to go, I went back to college and I got to minor in professional writing and
• 22:01
  that's when I started working at the newspaper and I wasn't planning to do that, the minor,
• 22:07
  but I had an extra semester so I did that.
• 22:10
  And anyway, I, a couple weeks before graduation, I was in a car accident again, same, pretty
• 22:19
  much the same thing.
• 22:20
  I went through a four-way stop and hit a retaining wall this time and a biker saw me and I was
• 22:27
  having a seizure.
• 22:29
  And so, but you didn't know that you know, and we still don't know why I had the first
• 22:35
  accident, but we can only assume it was a seizure, you know, but also I fractured my
• 22:40
  skull so I could be having seizures from that.
• 22:42
  So we don't, we don't know.
• 22:45
  And I did not break bones in that, in that accident, I heard my back, but mostly, you
• 22:53
  know, I was then diagnosed with a seizure disorder and got on medication and so I couldn't
• 23:02
  drive, you know, and that was a big deal.
• 23:05
  I was living outside of Boise, Idaho and looking for a teaching job and, you know, I could
• 23:11
  probably get a teaching job there, but I had a friend who lived out in Washington, DC,
• 23:17
  and I have, and I'll call him, I live in Richmond and I visited out here, but she was working
• 23:22
  on the hill with an Idaho congressman and she was like, come live with me, you know,
• 23:27
  and I knew the metro and buses are way more effective here than, than in Boise and I know
• 23:33
  that I could get, you know, have a good chance of getting a job, better chance where there's
• 23:39
  the population is so much.
• 23:41
  And so I love the courage component that you bought a one way ticket.
• 23:45
  I bought a one way ticket.
• 23:47
  I was like, you know what, just, I'm just going to buy a one way ticket and my dad thought
• 23:51
  it was crazy.
• 23:52
  He was not a fan, but I was like, well, you know, I'm just going to do it.
• 23:57
  So I did it and I don't think that I thought about it very much really.
• 24:02
  I did know that, well, if it doesn't work out, you know, I have family in Richmond and
• 24:06
  I could go, I'll work it out, you know, it'll work out.
• 24:10
  And that's what courage is, I think, you know, just taking one step and you don't know what
• 24:15
  it's going to look like.
• 24:16
  So did you move?
• 24:17
  I know you got a job before you moved here actually, but did you move initially or somewhere
• 24:22
  else?
• 24:23
  Nope, I moved to Arlington first and I was teaching in Alexandria and then I ended up
• 24:31
  in Ruston a few years later and I've been here ever since.
• 24:37
  And I love, I was going to say, I love how you talked about being in Ruston and because
• 24:45
  I didn't even know you didn't drive until the end of our conversation.
• 24:47
  We're talking about this, how Ruston can support you and help you.
• 24:52
  I mean, there's past, there's things close by, you can walk, there's underpass, but the
• 24:58
  other thing I love the courage piece, I don't know if it's a courage piece, but you've had
• 25:05
  to design your life around your, I don't know if it's considered a disability, but your
• 25:11
  restriction of not being able to drive.
• 25:13
  But what I love too is what she said is that you have the time on the paper and develop
• 25:22
  that because you're not driving all over North Virginia and being Uber driver.
• 25:26
  Your husband, unfortunately, has three teenage boys.
• 25:31
  And so it's opened up, so it's a, it's interesting, the courage, you know, something that happened
• 25:37
  in your life, you've been able to turn lemonade and lemons into lemonade and see the silver
• 25:43
  lining.
• 25:44
  And I think what I love about your story is it gives people hope.
• 25:48
  And I think that's one thing that I really want this podcast to do is give people hope
• 25:52
  that, okay, this happened, but okay, what can I do with it?
• 25:56
  You know, what, you can be a victim or a victor and be able to shine a light.
• 26:01
  And I think that's, I love that part of your story as much as the courage just to start
• 26:06
  the newspaper is.
• 26:08
  Yeah.
• 26:09
  And Reston is just the perfect place to do, yeah, the paths to get around and it has this
• 26:15
  kind of a small town-ish feeling.
• 26:20
  And yeah, I mean, I was telling you this the other day too, what I've learned, I get to
• 26:27
  know the best parts of people.
• 26:29
  I was telling you this.
• 26:30
  That's awesome.
• 26:32
  I get to know the parts of the people who will just, you know, it's raining, let me go
• 26:37
  pick up your kids for you.
• 26:40
  You know, I had a neighbor once drive me to the emergency room because one of my sons
• 26:44
  cut his knee open.
• 26:45
  You know, these times when you feel, I mean, not driving is my least favorite part of my
• 26:51
  life and that dependency on others is my least favorite part of my life.
• 26:57
  And it has shown me sides to people that I wouldn't have seen before.
• 27:03
  I wouldn't have seen if I didn't need them.
• 27:05
  And just to be able to accept help from others, I think is, you know, it takes a lot.
• 27:12
  I don't want to be, you know, I don't like being the mom who, you know, can't just go
• 27:18
  run your, run her kid across town to a friend's house.
• 27:21
  You know, I don't like that.
• 27:24
  But I...
• 27:25
  Your kids have their friends over at your house.
• 27:28
  So you know what's going on.
• 27:29
  What I've heard is important.
• 27:31
  Yeah.
• 27:32
  And I love how you shared that you get to see the better side.
• 27:35
  And you probably, because you're riding a bike or you're walking, you have more time
• 27:40
  to think and you're not like the machine of us being in a car and like, you know, the
• 27:46
  horror stories you hear about people leaving a child in a car and not because they're taking
• 27:52
  people, but because we're so distracted.
• 27:55
  Like after a few places and I'm like, how did I get here?
• 27:59
  I wasn't even, you know, because you're just in a static mode.
• 28:02
  So we could talk forever and ever and ever, but I don't want, I try to keep it concise
• 28:07
  for less.
• 28:08
  So how would you encourage somebody else to live their dream and do the thing to say
• 28:14
  why not today?
• 28:18
  Let's see.
• 28:19
  I think I know that people usually regret not doing things more than they regret doing
• 28:25
  things in their life.
• 28:28
  And you know, it's a short life.
• 28:32
  I don't know.
• 28:33
  I mean, take a chance.
• 28:34
  You have a dream.
• 28:37
  You know, go for it.
• 28:39
  I don't know.
• 28:40
  I mean, you can, you can, you can come up with as many excuses as possible and, but
• 28:47
  also surround yourself by people who are affirming and who will believe in you.
• 28:53
  I mean, I can't say enough about my husband and I really couldn't do, I mean, I've written
• 28:59
  a novel, I've done this newspaper project and I'm all the while working or teaching
• 29:07
  full time and I could never do that without him, you know, driving the kids all over town
• 29:14
  without him, you know, doing the dishes all the time.
• 29:17
  And all of a sudden, I love that you have the support of the community.
• 29:23
  And so, you know, buy the one way ticket.
• 29:26
  Yeah, just do it.
• 29:28
  And that's often what my dad said, what's the worst thing that can happen.
• 29:31
  And when I quit the job, it was the same kind of thing.
• 29:33
  Like if it doesn't work, another job.
• 29:36
  And you know, you just, you got to try.
• 29:38
  And I think that's the thing.
• 29:39
  I really want this podcast to share and the message to people to try it and to get involved.
• 29:45
  And so, you know, if you're listening to this and, you know, you don't get the rest
• 29:50
  in lettering, you want it, let us know.
• 29:53
  And you know, if you want to be an advertiser, you want to help support her if you're a writer,
• 29:56
  which is not me.
• 29:59
  I'm happy to share my story and I got lots of help you with this.
• 30:04
  So I always try to share, go back on my podcast and say, okay, what's the connection with
• 30:09
  my dad?
• 30:10
  Well, obviously you never met him.
• 30:13
  But, or and, you know, immediately when you told me your story of your car accident, it
• 30:18
  was like, oh, that's the connection.
• 30:19
  So my dad, the night he graduated high school, got in a car accident and almost died.
• 30:24
  And that's where he lost sight in one eye.
• 30:26
  And that's why he's always black or an eye patch.
• 30:29
  And so that's the logo of the podcast is an eye patch and a handle on mustache because
• 30:33
  that's how we looked and that was his logo.
• 30:36
  But he, you know, he had to do a similar thing to you, like you, he had to pivot, he had
• 30:41
  to do plan B.
• 30:42
  And actually at his funeral, my brother's talked about, you know, he always had plan
• 30:47
  A and B, C, he was a planner, but the plans often went out the window.
• 30:50
  So he was supposed to play football for USC and didn't happen.
• 30:54
  And he ended up going to Notre Dame.
• 30:56
  And that's where I met my mom.
• 30:58
  And, you know, all these things wouldn't have happened.
• 31:01
  And he wouldn't have been on the path.
• 31:03
  And we probably never would have been arrested because it was in California.
• 31:05
  Yeah.
• 31:06
  That, you know, we wouldn't have been sitting here talking.
• 31:09
  And so there's so many things that just that one pivotal thing that changes the trajectory
• 31:15
  of your life completely, you know, where it's going to take you.
• 31:19
  And I often go back to like, okay, what's that one thing or that one person you met
• 31:22
  that led you to that other thing and whatever.
• 31:27
  So so much cool stuff.
• 31:28
  And as I said, we could talk forever.
• 31:30
  And I know when we talked today, you were talking about maybe one do a podcast and I
• 31:33
  would happily help you do that.
• 31:35
  And lots, lots of people I connect can connect you with for the rest of the letter, but we're
• 31:40
  going to get some more advertisers.
• 31:42
  And I know your dream is to do this full time, which yeah, that's so possible.
• 31:48
  So making a difference.
• 31:51
  So thank you for your time.
• 31:52
  So to find you will share all your contact information, the show notes, the rest in
• 31:56
  letter is that online can people get an online copy or is it just physical?
• 32:00
  Yeah, we've got well, I published the PDF version of the paper.
• 32:06
  So it's not you can't look up an article.
• 32:08
  It's not like, you know, vlog kind of format, but it's all online.
• 32:12
  So you can look at it the way that it's laid out in the rest and letter.com.
• 32:16
  Set your website, the rest and letter.com.
• 32:18
  And you've got a Facebook and Instagram.
• 32:20
  I'm assuming all the stuff.
• 32:22
  Yes.
• 32:23
  Yeah, all of the things.
• 32:24
  Yep.
• 32:25
  So this has been so much fun.
• 32:27
  And as I said, we could talk forever and ever and ever and in closing thoughts on courage
• 32:30
  or encouragement.
• 32:34
  Um, I don't, I don't think so.
• 32:38
  I mean, you know, well, actually, you know what, one thing real quick, one of the questions
• 32:44
  you had, you had sent to me was, is you ever regret doing it?
• 32:48
  And the, and, and my answer is yes, I do sometimes.
• 32:52
  It's frustrating and it's hard.
• 32:54
  You know, but that doesn't mean it was wrong.
• 32:56
  And it doesn't mean it's not worth it.
• 32:57
  So, you know, it's not, it's not always going to be, you know,
• 33:01
  I'm trying to have unicorns and rainbows.
• 33:05
  Exactly.
• 33:06
  Unicorns and rainbows.
• 33:07
  But yeah, but it is worth it.
• 33:08
  And, you know, to see people be able to share.
• 33:11
  Um, and it's amazing.
• 33:14
  Yeah.
• 33:15
  And you just never know whose life you're going to touch by something.
• 33:18
  And that's kind of the motto I live by.
• 33:21
  So the podcast is, you know, on all the platforms, um, we have a website.
• 33:26
  Um, we can get the swag, the t-shirts, the cups, the vinyls, all the fun stuff.
• 33:31
  So spread the word and encourage somebody else today to say, why not today?
• 33:35
  So thanks again, Don, for being my guest and welcome.
• 33:39
  Thank you.
• 33:40
  You're welcome.
• 33:41
  I'm excited to see what happens with the, um, the rest in letter.
• 33:45
  Me too.
• 33:46
  All right.
• 33:47
  Thanks everybody.
• 33:48
  Thanks for listening.
• 33:49
  Thank you.