Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / The Importance of May 19, 2024

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The Importance of May 19, 2024 · OneLegUpAlex Media

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Here's your host, Alex Garrett. All Right, this one's gonna
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: be a little raw.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Thoughts here at one look up Alex Media about how
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: May nineteenth, twenty twenty four was the last day of
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: my previous life.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: You know, we're one look up Alex Media now.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: But back in twenty four I was still trying to
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: find myself and find the confidence to put myself out there.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: As a media outlet, as.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Someone worth giving presider or creditials too. I was still
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: trying to find ways to feel fit in with the
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: REPBX community, with the family that is Yankee fandom.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: And I was sort of just, I.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Wouldn't say trudging along, but I was sort of It
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: was kind of routine with my daily tasks as a
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: production assistant here at radio station. But then something dramatic happened,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: and today May nineteen, twenty twenty four was the last
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: day of quote unquote normalcy, your last day of.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: Routine going up to the.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Yankee Stadium watching the Yanks and White Sox like we
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: always did my dad and I. Tradition continued, if you
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: will a year later, and then May twentieth, twenty twenty four,
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  Speaker 2: the biggest, most dramatic.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Hospitalization happened in my life.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: And I've been hospitalized plenty of times, and I've been
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: under the healthcare microscope plenty of times. But this one,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: this one felt different.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: This one was more feel of it.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: This one was more painful, more intense than any other
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: stuff I've ever felt, And and that hospitalization might have
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: just been the life changer I needed. It gave me
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: an evaluation period. I was saying, boy, life is short.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: And on May twenty second after I passed the gallstone,
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: it looked like I might have been a goner, apparently
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: according to Gabby, according to my mom and my stepdad Vic.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: And from the edge of that.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: To where I am now booking trips, doing my own thing,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: getting out in the world again, that pesky little gallstone,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: that traumatic hospitalization really weighs on my mind. We hit
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: the I can't believe I'm saying this second anniversary of
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: this whole traumatic week. We had just celebrated my mom
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: getting a master's degree in public history two days earlier,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: on May seventeenth. You know, I do the shake it
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  Speaker 2: off sound. By of the week that hadn't been in
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: place yet. Shake it off was not around two years
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: ago at this time, and yet two years later, I
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: think I could say May nineteenth, twenty twenty four, was
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: the last day of my prior life, because look what
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: happened after the hospitalization.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: I got back out there.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: The first thing I did was go to the Giants
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Legends night and I got to meet Lindsay and her
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: brother Jerry.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: And then I get.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: To meet Brian Dable and John Marra and tell John Marra,
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: you know I used to know your dad through this
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: time in this week's That was the first thing that
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: happened after that hospitalization. I put myself back out there
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: on a random June night, and here we are today.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Then the next day, Anthony Rizzo, I get to thank
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: him for winning the World Series for my dad and
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: all the cub fans back in twenty sixty thanks to
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Bruce Beck for Lincoln. That the whole week I got
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: to shake hands with Envy Volpie.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: And Garrett Cole.
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  Speaker 2: But if that hospitalization doesn't happen, I'm not connected as
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: intensely and as closely to Anna Saminu, to Nathan, to
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: Caleb to Madison, to Jake Kosak.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: And the Bronx Zoo.
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  Speaker 2: None of those connections happened, because what happened.
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  Speaker 1: After May twentieth.
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  Speaker 2: Was that I not only passed the gallstone, I passed
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: this fear of being excluded.
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  Speaker 1: I passed the complaining this idea that I wasn't in
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  Speaker 1: the in crowd.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Sometimes I feel like I can work harder to be
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: in the in crowd, if you will, but also.
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  Speaker 3: Like beating to my own drum, if you will.
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  Speaker 2: But if that gallstone doesn't get past, that galstone doesn't
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  Speaker 2: even happen, If that whole month of May doesn't even
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  Speaker 2: transpire the way it did, I would not have been
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  Speaker 2: here in twenty twenty six saying I got a picture
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  Speaker 2: with Cecisabatia the year he was in the Hall of
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  Speaker 2: Fame twenty twenty five, I wouldn't be here saying I've
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: gotten to hang out with great people like Sherry and
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: Yet Madison and Jake Kosak and John Boy Media.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: I also want to add that, you know, getting.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: Ryan into the production department alongside Matt and I. I
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: mean that was a big thing that changed because he
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: proved his worth during those two months I was sick.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: And now look he's a contributor on one like a
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Alex Media life works in incredible ways. God works in
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: incredible and mysterious ways. And I'm always feeling like at
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: home at the Viscardi Center. I'm always feeling like a
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: home at the game's physically challenged. But yeah, thinking back,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Ryan stepped up, Tom Bauer stepped up, Jordan Ansberry stepped up,
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  Speaker 2: My radio family stepped up at the time I needed
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: the most.
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  Speaker 3: And I'll never forget that. Every year this time rolls around.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: I'll never forget that.
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  Speaker 2: I wouldn't be sitting here May nineteen, twenty twenty six
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  Speaker 2: saying I'm going up to Cooperstown as a member of
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  Speaker 2: the media this weekend.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: But that gallstone pushed.
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  Speaker 2: Me in a certain way that maybe I can't explain
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  Speaker 2: right now, but it certainly helped me evaluate life as
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: it was and say, am I.
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  Speaker 1: Really happy in that life?
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  Speaker 3: What can I do to be happier?
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  Speaker 2: Some may say any engagement is extreme, but you know
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  Speaker 2: what it had to That was the culmination. If that
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  Speaker 2: gallstone doesn't happen, I wouldn't have gone after that. D
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: DNZ Digestive Disease National Coalition stipend to cover the Digestive
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Disease National Coalition Spring Public Forum in twenty twenty five,
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  Speaker 2: and my mom was there with me in DC. If
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  Speaker 2: that gallstone doesn't happen, if that traumatic week doesn't happen,
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  Speaker 2: this life I am in now does not happen.
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  Speaker 3: I am one thousand percent convinced of that.
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  Speaker 2: If this gallstone doesn't happen, if this traumatic experience doesn't happen.
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  Speaker 2: May twentieth, twenty twenty four, which tomorrow would be two years.
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  Speaker 1: But I feel like talking about it all today.
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  Speaker 2: Then I wouldn't have gotten that picture in center field
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  Speaker 2: at Yankee Stadium doing the one leg up alex pose.
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  Speaker 1: I wouldn't be able.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: To have that that itch to travel to Philly for
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: the Year two fifty celebrations, the itch to travel to
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  Speaker 2: Chicago for the Yankees and the White Sox and then
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: the Cubs the next day. This year, I'm working on
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: those trips as we speak. But the itch is back,
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: and I think that Pescalina golfstone, oh, and that that
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: glson doesn't happen, maybe.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: We would still be in the World Series at Game three.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: And the playoffs throughout, and the kindness of Rob Gomez
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: extended as always.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Year after year. Very special with that.
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  Speaker 2: But the approach to my life changed when I had
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: that incident in twenty twenty four. The approach to life
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: wasn't stand back and let life happen. It's I'm going
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  Speaker 2: to grab life and make it happen for myself. However
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: that turns out to be.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: But at the core of it, if.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: That galstone doesn't happen, you wouldn't see me hanging out
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: with NYC money three to Zho one Caleb. You wouldn't
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: see me growing a connection with NAR Media fifty.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: You wouldn't see me.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Going to Woodbridge to interview Nester Cortez two months after
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  Speaker 2: I passed that gallstone, and then I was Walda Corbrara
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  Speaker 2: and just in time baseball a few months after that,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: around the same.
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  Speaker 1: Mark August, about three months later.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: You wouldn't have seen me you got a media pass
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: for fanatics Fest last year, or get even the confidence
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: to go to fanacs Fest in twenty four as an
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: affiliate sponsor. By the way, fanags Fest tickets link in
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: the description below were under two months away from that.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Crazy enough, you wouldn't.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Have seen me grow a tight knit community and grow
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: into that community of Yankee fans of baseball fans Jacob
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Barons or Jacob speaks.
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  Speaker 3: That was the push, that was the incentive to stop.
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  Speaker 1: Living in my own little corner of the world and.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Saying I'm getting back out there, and whoever likes it
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  Speaker 2: likes it, and whoever doesn't like it doesn't like it.
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  Speaker 1: But for the best for me is to get back
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  Speaker 1: out there and be that traveler.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: If that doesn't happen, things one transpire the way it has,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: and I probably wouldn't be going to Boston College in
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: November of twenty.
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  Speaker 1: Five to see the Irish.
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  Speaker 3: So this is my new life. This is my new life,
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  Speaker 3: and I love this life.
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  Speaker 2: I appreciative for the first thirty one years of life,
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  Speaker 2: thirty two years of life, but since I've since that
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: life pace level shot up a day after the Yankees
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: White Sox in twenty May nineteen twenty twenty four, and
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: we had just hung out with Tino Martinez a couple
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: days earlier at Viscarti Center Yankee Legend. But up until
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  Speaker 2: May nineteenth, twenty twenty four, I was more waiting for
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: the invites. I was more waiting to be included. My
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  Speaker 2: whole entire life was based around that. But then the
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  Speaker 2: gallstone happens.
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  Speaker 3: And I'm like, f it I'm gonna put.
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  Speaker 2: Claim my mark, make my mark, and get back into it,
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  Speaker 2: step into it.
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  Speaker 1: Own this life I have. That's what this gallstone pushed
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  Speaker 1: me to do, is own this life I have.
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  Speaker 2: Make the connections I want to grow where I want
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  Speaker 2: to who I want to grow with, hang out.
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  Speaker 3: With who I want to hang out with. But I stopped.
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  Speaker 2: Waiting to be asked to be included, and I pushed
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  Speaker 2: my way through. And I'll continue to do that because
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  Speaker 2: that gallstone taught me the life is so damn short.
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  Speaker 2: The loss of Max taught me life is so damn short.
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  Speaker 2: The loss of Danny now has taught me that life
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  Speaker 2: is too damn short to not push through the doors.
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  Speaker 2: Open the doors, and I've only got my life. And
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  Speaker 2: of course, and of course God helps those help help themselves.
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  Speaker 2: I believe that Gallstone was his push for me to
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  Speaker 2: see I have a bigger role in this world than
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: just doing an everyday routine thing. Look what else happened
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  Speaker 2: since this goalzone? I one idea spark. This podcast has
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  Speaker 2: value now.
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  Speaker 3: And I'm so honored by that. This brand has value
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  Speaker 3: now because I went out and went after it.
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  Speaker 2: With support along the way, of course, and I'm not
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: discounting how Gabby's support through.
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  Speaker 3: These times really propelled me.
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  Speaker 2: But I did start to feel like I could be
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: my own person too, and I really stepped into that
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: own person role the best I knew how, the best
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  Speaker 2: I knew how.
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  Speaker 3: And that's the other thing.
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  Speaker 1: The idea spark happened.
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  Speaker 2: I was like, wait a minute, this is a chance
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: for an entrepreneurship opportunity to be recognized by this community
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: as something where we can help others have one leg
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: up on life.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: And then after idea spark.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Came the Gallagher opportunity, the coll screening opportunity for my Gallagher,
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: and of course the conversation was Sherry.
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  Speaker 3: That changed my world.
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  Speaker 2: It was like things were evolving to where they are today.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: I know, along the way in two years, it's been rough.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: It was a transition back to Queens. It was a
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: learning experience along the way. But two years later I
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: can say that Gallstone was the beginning of a new
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: life that I didn't even know was out there, a
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: life I didn't even know. I didn't even know about
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: these signings and how to get myself through the door
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: to go to these different things. I didn't have the
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: wherewithal to find out about these events because I was
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: so focused on the day to day and not my
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: own world, my own desires, and that gallstone forced me
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: to look into my own self and say, what are
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: my desires, what are my what are my goals?
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  Speaker 3: What are my next steps?
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: It wasn't meant to be all right, the gallstones past
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: and that's it. No, it was a life changing moment.
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  Speaker 2: And that's why I'm doing the podcast today because this
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  Speaker 2: is the first time I'm feeling like May nineteenth, twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty four.
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: Was the last day of.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Everything being standard operation and and cope aesthetic.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: In that whole two months May twentieth, I guess month
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: and a half or whatever May twenty June twenty then beyond,
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: I really was evaluating it. And I pray for Gabby
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: every day. We got her through that brain surgery in
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: December of twenty fourth. That was a lot, and I
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: think that Glson also it was like having to get
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: my health christ out of the way so we could
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: support her in her health dealings. My mom getting her
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: public history degree has inspired me to just document this.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: In a historic way. So that's all out there.
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  Speaker 3: But tonight I do want to go.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: To Yankee stadium and start a new chapter as we
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: enter the two year phase of what happened two years ago.
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  Speaker 3: A new chapter that says.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: I can be with someone, but I can be my
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: own person too, A new chapter that says I can
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: own my own be my own person, own my own
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: stake in the world as an individual by it, while
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: loving in a healthy way and being loved in a
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: healthy way. So thank you God, through the most painful experience,
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: you have created a new life that's more inclusive, that's
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: less in the shadows and more out and about the
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: way I always wanted it to be. And that push
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: through that pesky little gullstone has been feeling healthier, has
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: been feeling stronger, has been feeling more aware of how.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Fragile life could be, and that fragility.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Makes me enjoy every moment in the now while I
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: can in this drive to thirty five, and that's my message.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: I won like a Alex Media