26. From Stroke to Success: Empowering Survivors in Their Journey Back to the Workplace

He just a couple of quick notes before we hop into this week's episode of the podcast. This week in Episode 26, we talk again about returning to work, and just how difficult it is, I think, you know, I can kind of compare it to the pandemic. It's, it's hard, it really is hard, it's hard for the employer, it's hard for the employee, you as a survivor, your friends around you, everything changes. It's just it's very, very difficult. I don't care who you are, what happened during your brain injury or stroke, what type of stroke I don't think it really matters. It just is difficult. And that is true. Every time I talk to another survivor. That is true. Every time I talk to other therapists, occupational physical speech therapists. Anybody working in the field, even my neurologist? It just it varies greatly. I know we've talked about it in Episode probably I want to say six, definitely earlier on the year. And I think it's a topic we're gonna talk about probably a few more times, I'd love to have some some guests on this show, whether it's fellow survivors who have also returned to work in any capacity, whether that's maybe somebody who's older, who is in retirement, but was volunteering another survivor, like myself, who's a little bit younger, maybe has a family, I even met a young woman last week, who's in her 20s. And she's had even more things happen than I've had. She's had like a bunch of heart attacks and heart problems. Really interesting. But yeah, I just talked a lot about that this week. I do also mention a couple of reminders. You know, it's hard for all of us as survivors to, to get back into the workforce, there's a lot of emotions, there's a lot of feel. Honestly, there's a lot of tools. There's a lot of support groups, I think a lot of us may not take full advantage of that. And I think it is something to consider. I do want to harp on that real quick before we hop into this week's episode. But take advantage of any resource. Ask wherever you're, you know, wherever you're getting help, ask them for help for resources and getting back to work. As family as friends, ask other people you might know. It is really, really difficult. But the most important part, I would do want to emphasize this. Take stock take the time during your recovery initially. Because if you know you're going to go back to work, just know what you're getting into and know where you think you want to go with your career moving forward. So take the time, give it some thought. Anyways, we'll hop into this week's episode of the podcast and I will see you next week. But for now enjoy episode 26 of levels Herrero podcast. My name is Schmierer. And welcome back to another episode of our podcast this week in Episode 26. We are going to circle back and talk about returning, returning to work again. Why? Because it's important because a lot of us at some point will return to work in some capacity, you might be back full time, you might be back part time, you might ease back in, you might be on your way out into retirement, because let's be honest, the average age of a stroke survivor is typically around 65 Which for the majority is definitely winding down or the end. You may already be retired at 65. So it depends and I think it's a really important topic, people struggle to return to work, they want to return to work and we'll go over all those things more in this week's episode of the podcast. But a weird thing I want to touch on real quick before we hop into today's episode is because it because I had a weird experience last week. I was somewhere I won't say where but I was somewhere where I was interacting with another person. They also happened to be a stroke survivor. They were younger than me. Which you know, I understand the difficulties I'm I'm 40 this version probably was in their 20s and they've been through Do a lot. And you can kind of tell when there's differences in age, obviously, older people generally show signs that they're older, you can kind of tell most of the time about a person just by interacting with them. But the one thing I did want to talk about because it's happened a couple of times to me, and I probably had been guilty of it, too. But as a survivor, we are kind of a small group, right? We are not millions and millions and millions us there are, you know, there are seven to 10 million survivors, babe, depending on the data here in the US. Worldwide, I'm not so sure I think worldwide is actually is a second leading cause of disability. Here in the States, it's somewhere between two and five I've seen, you know, the actual numbers don't really matter. The point is, we're a smaller group. So when you it's just weird, because it's happened a couple of times. And again, I've been guilty of this too. Because when I first had my stroke, I swear to God that I was like the youngest person to ever have a stroke. Turns out that was wrong. Yes, I'm on the younger side. But they're a it's fans all ages, as we know. So two months after my stroke, I got diagnosed with MS. And, for me, that was a lot to come at me at one time. So when I would meet different people, I'd say yeah, I'm a young stroke survivor. And somehow I'd get into it and talk about MS, which I really don't talk a lot about on this podcast. Because of this, one thing that always kind of concerns me is that I don't want to come across as like, I have this, I have this, I have this, I just don't want to be one of those people. And as a survivor, I know it's really hard to get back to a routine where you feel confident where you feel like yourself, again, if that's how you want to feel, not everybody wants that for themselves. But just kind of be kind, like when you meet another survivor. Just remember, they're going through things to really, this is an approach to life, I believe, like just kind of be kind to one another. Share your story, listen to their story, have a conversation. But I feel like sometimes I've encountered this a couple of times. With survivors, they try to like one up other survivors. And to me, that's that's a weird thing. Again, I know, I know, we can get wrapped up in our own stuff. And we have, you know, moments where we get carried away, we're telling our story, we forget to listen to the other side. I'm not talking about that I'm talking about really like, just remember to be kind to other people when you're speaking to them. And again, it doesn't matter if they're a survivor, if they're a fellow brain injury survivor, if they're just somebody on the street at the grocery store, and somebody starts conversation. Now I know that's not always fun to interact with people. I hear you on that. But if you are going to engage with somebody in a conversation, just just take a breath, take a beat. Because this person the other day, I know they meant well. And you know, I think they were trying to she asked me, she saw that I was a stroke survivor with Ms. Because I was in a medical place. So she probably felt, you know, and rightfully so I wanted to hear her story, but I just felt like she was trying to be like, Well, I have you know, she had had a lot of things for a young girl in her 20s Don't get me wrong. Let's overcome. I was happy to hear her story. But I did feel like it was a little bit of like, it's just a weird thing. And I've had that happen before with other survivors. They're like, Oh, yeah, I've been a survivor for 15 years, like, Okay, that's cool. I want to hear what they have to say because they might have wisdom to share or pass on to somebody that's you know, I'm not 15 years into this game. And by game I mean the worst game in the world. But being a survivor is difficult. So again, just reminded a lot about this recently couple interactions. Yeah, not if you've done it, don't feel bad. We all do it. Just be cognizant, I think. You know, it is a lot to overcome. You definitely should feel proud of yourself as a survivor in the progress and work you do. Just try to try to I don't know what I'm saying. Just try not to just try not to like one up other people. It happens a lot with parenting too. Anyways, I digress into Episode 26 this week and returning to work. So I did an episode about this at the beginning of the year. I I think it was, within the first five episodes, six episodes, it might have been episode six, to be honest, we're turning to work is a big, big topic. I know I struggled with this in the beginning, I was very eager to get back to work so much so that I think I did try to jump back in to my detriment looking back. But there's kind of a lot of things to talk about this. Because working for most people, it may not be the most significant thing in your life, and probably should not be, especially if you have children, or you're a parent or your caregiver or your health, you know, work and this is an important part of life, we all want to work. It is definitely linked to our identity in some way. And our self worth. And there's a lot of rewarding things about working, whether you work for yourself or the work for somebody else, there is that desire to feel normal. And I think that is also a lot of the kind of pressure or the desire to get back to work, you want to feel normal in some way. Because a stroke is really, as you know, generally, I think it catches us off guard, if you are a survivor, Nobody's expecting it. Nobody's definitely nobody wants it. But also with work. Depending on where you work, what you do, you know, you might get some social connections, they might not be super deep, but they might, you know, it has a sense of belonging there is whether you work remotely, whether you work in office, there are a lot of things about work that are great. And the company you work for, you know, they may be awesome, there's just so many things on top of all the medical things we're dealing with. And, you know, I will I will fully admit this, I think this is something we're saying from the get go. It's a difficult process. I know it is I've been through it, I tried to go back to work, probably too quickly. And I'm just going to share the lessons that I learned from hopping back into work too quickly. We were all on the same page in the beginning. And I think that is super important. But there's a lot of other things because the size of the company you work for has plays plays an important role. You know, there's medical privacy issues. There's a lot to it. I don't know all the technicalities of it I did work for I would consider a smaller company less than 100 people. Were at my company I was already remote prior to the pandemic, I came out of inpatient rehab, right as the pandemic hit. So there was a lot going on top on top of me having a stroke and getting diagnosed with MS. So I had my stroke, December of 2018. When on short term disability for 10 weeks, that is not a lot of time to recover from a stroke. And that is not a lot of time to get back to work. Period. Now I had the stroke two months later. So halfway into my distance, short term disability leave my back to the hospital got diagnosed with MS went back to inpatient rehab. So I was at a rehab for about two weeks. Right at the jump of the pandemic, and I tried to go back to work slowly. But it was way too early. So we decided I would go part time and slowly ease back in and that was because I was doing therapy, we knew it was going to be a lot of work. I was not ready, that was very clear. They were patient. And I will say this too. Before we get too far. I don't think at most companies really are prepared to really know how to deal with a stroke survivor because it's kind of uncommon, right? Like most stroke survivors are 65 or older. So I worked in the field that is generally considered younger. At least probably 50 and under. So it's not common. To my knowledge had never happened at my company. I don't believe it ever had. Thinking back but you know, I know there's concerns with privacy. So I don't want to get too far into it. So I don't think there was really much not no prior history of like going through this as a company. And again, there's no roadmap for this stuff. It is. As we know, strokes are very individualized. Everybody can have a A wide range of deficits of outcomes, you could have different types of strokes, like it just goes through brain injuries, you could have a concussion, you could have traumatic brain injury, you could have non traumatic brain injury, like there's just so many variations. And although, you know, there is sort of a standard ish of like, commonalities between different brain injuries, you know, it's all very different. We're all very unique. The problems carried right wide, ranging from needing physical therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, all of which I needed in the beginning. But it is a lot. And even if somebody else had been through this, and the company I worked for had dealt with this before. I think, you know, what I'm gonna say is that my situation could have been vastly different from somebody who went through it. At the same company, years before, wasn't the case, we had no, no way, it was the first time for both of us. So when I look back, now, a few years out, I realize wasn't really my fault. It wasn't really their fault. When it came to me leaving, it was just for me, it was time, I think I wanted to, I tried, I think they tried, I think they got frustrated, I think I got frustrated, neither side really knew how to handle things. And I think one of the issues is that you don't know how long it's going to take. You don't know a lot of things are uncertain. One of the things that was certain for me was that I was not able to type as quickly as I once was, I found workarounds. However, as a developer, I think, part alar, even though I was working towards the higher end, and I was, you know, overseeing more people. As a brain injury survivor, it was hard for my brain to process the code and write code as quickly as efficiently. And frankly, I think I just lost sort of the drive and desire to figure out those types of problems and those types of you know, for lack of a better word solutions to problems. I always love finding solutions to problems, whether that's a hobby or something else, like I talked about last week. But I think I literally think I broke my brain coding. And I say that jokingly. But somewhat seriously, because I think I really, I just, I didn't love it enough to want to keep writing code at that level, I would have kept staying there, I would have kept doing certain things. But I think there were there were just, there was a disconnect for for whatever reason, it doesn't really matter. That's why I wanted to do this episode again, on returning to work, because the last one I did, I was not doing video. And so I want to be forthcoming and just kind of revisit that, because I think it is a big topic for a lot of people. The data is skewed, I really, I'm saying a lot of these things based on research that I've done. But I really honestly, I don't think we know how many stroke survivors are trying to go back to work. And that doesn't mean necessarily stroke survivors in their 40s, you could be towards the later end of your career and have a stroke. You might even be of a retired age and just wanting to go back to work as like, volunteer, and you're struggling with that. So I think when I say returned to work, it is sort of broad, and it is a little generalized because the data again is skewed. And I don't want to say it's misleading. But sometimes the data doesn't align up with what I am seeing, hearing speaking to and seeing in my everyday life with other survivors. I'm not going to see that again today. Because this evening, I'm meeting with group of survivors here in Florida where I live. So yeah, I'm interested to see what they have to say. But when it comes to work, you know, we talked about the significant service privacy issues. One of the things I did not utilize, and I did kind of explore some things, but again, I think this depends on what you do, where you live, who you talk to. And what are your goals, I thought I could just go back to work. I didn't think I needed any kind of social worker or somebody kind of in that field to help me and assist me get back assist in getting me back to work. Maybe in hindsight, that was naive. But again, I was younger ish. You know, I was still 37 at the time. Thought I could hop back And I thought when we decided I would go ease back in part time, that seemed like a good solution. I think it was at the time, I wouldn't do it differently. That was actually one of the smartest things I did, if I'm being honest. And so that helped recognize some of my capabilities were I think I fell short. And I think the company I worked for at the time might have, you know, if we're gonna both take a little blame here. Things I didn't think about, or what were the things that I was going to have difficulties with, like, I was pretty upfront about typing in the beginning, which being a developer is kind of a big one. But I thought there was enough that I could overcome, but I think in hindsight, maybe more conversations around that would have been better. Because we could have, we did try to morph my role a little bit. And, you know, I think it just got to a point where neither side really knew what to do. And it was like, we're both putting our hands up like, well, I don't know. And to be honest, I don't know either. I don't fault them. I was I was angry in the beginning, but I am not anymore. I just I see it for what it is. I don't want to like, seem like I'm blaming them or not blaming them. I'm not. It just it was a really difficult circumstance. And I am fortunate enough to have had the ability to really walk away on my own. Probably didn't do it the best way just because I do have a tendency of leaving careers and jobs in my history of working my ass off till the day, I no longer want to work somewhere. And then I just say fuck this shit, I'm out. And I tell everybody that story. And that was certainly the case of this this point. But I was ready to move on. I really enjoyed it. I think they wanted it to work for me, I wanted it to work for me. It just didn't in the end. So. But that was my story. And that was kind of unique to me. So again, significance of work in life, for me was important. I definitely wanted to feel normal, I still want to feel normal. I don't really know what that means. But I know I always feel like I'm making these micro changes to getting closer to where I once was. And I could feel it. I feel like every day I'm like this close this close this close. And if you ever see a cat go after a catnip toy, like, that's how I feel like I always got it almost got it. And so, you know, we'll see couple more years. Looking back now I see I've made a lot of progress over the last couple of years. But you know, it could always be better. And maybe that's just part of life. We're always growing. We're always learning, just because I'm a stroke survivor, and I think I'm gonna get 100% better. Maybe you're just working towards always getting better, and you're always getting better, but there is no, there is no perfect. So yeah. So in my case, again, I didn't work with anybody in terms of a social worker or anything like that any resources that you can take advantage of definitely ask your team that you're working with in your recovery, because there probably are a lot of great resources. I just didn't utilize them and I didn't look for them. We'll be back. Perhaps that would have been wise. Because maybe there would have been an easier transition. I know Ticket to Work is like like a long term thing. You know if you are I guess I am honestly because I have a handicap pass. I'm technically disabled. I don't file for disability necessarily with the government, but I am technically disabled I have been given handicap passes. Ms and stroke are disabilities. Yeah, I mean, I don't see myself that way. But that is the reality. The only time I ever see it is when I get out of my truck and I'm parked in a handicapped spot, rightfully so. Because, you know, I can run I can walk, but like, I feel like I've earned that handicap pass. And so sometimes people give me a weird look because they're like, do you need that? And it's like yeah, I do because I'm going to wobble with my MS all the way to the store because although I can run a lie walk oh, I make a real effort to be in shape and to work at it every single day. As you can see, every episode I'm sweating to death I ran five miles before this recording this morning and I will run later today. And so yes, I can run but my walk like once I'm done i You can see my body is tired. I did that Ms really sinks in. So again, there are opportunities, take advantage of them if you can. I think the other thing That is super important with work is if you don't happen to work from home and a lot of people still work in office, so driving may be a concern I, again, I worked remotely for doing web development. And so driving was not a big worry of mine. Um, at least for me physically doing the driving. But if I had to drive to Office, honestly, I've I mean, I've been driving for a couple of years, but I've been driving very lightly and not far distances. I only recently started feeling really good about my driving kind of back. I wouldn't say back 100% with anything but feeling good about my driving and taking longer drives. I don't think I'd go up 95 for 20 hours, but I think I could definitely go you know, at least an hour or two, I could definitely do some of the driving on a road trip down to Miami with my family. I do feel better. I've been on 95 now so highways, honestly, highways are better sometimes in the back roads for me because too much to do any twists and turns kinda like jostles me a little bit. But yeah, driving driving was a concern, I would have probably some some concerns with going back to work. It'll be you know, I didn't really feel good about driving at all. 2020 21 I started driving. But again, it was very small, insignificant drives. I mean, honestly, I could walk as far as I was driving. So you know, 22 Yeah, late, mid 21. I was deadly. Yeah. Because when I started working full time, and going back into entrepreneurship, that's when I had a little bit more flexibility. And I was feeling better about driving. But it really was only this year that I really feel a lot better about driving in general. And again, I'm not looking to do a 21 hour drive from Florida to Jersey or something like that, but a couple hours is doable now. So driving to work is a concern. And you know, if your job requires driving, it's going to be difficult. So you're going to have to try to work with people who specialize with driving, you know, post stroke driving. There's just a lot of challenges and considerations beyond driving. It's it's emotional, it's financially driven. You know, can you continue to take care of your health the way you need to? Are you going to be able to work full time, are you still going to therapy, I mean, I go to physical therapy, occupational therapy, every year to keep working because I pay for insurance. And you know, I just I want to keep getting better this year. In particular, I'm working on running. So I'm definitely towards what I would consider probably the latter side. But you know, I was thinking about it today, I might run like sometimes I get a wrong sleep at night. You know, my shoulder, my bright side affected from my stroke. Hills, I happen to be right handed. So that's super fun. But yeah, my shoulders, some days I wake up, I'm amazing. Some days I wake up, then yeah, and my shoulders not 100%. And so I know that is so weak, I work on it, I'm getting better. The days it's good, I feel amazing. The days is bad. I feel the very opposite of that. And so you know, for me, this. You just have to factor in these things. Are you taking care of your health? Are you able to be take advantage of your second chance in life? post stroke, and really take care of your health, take care of your family, but also meet the demands of your job? Do you need to ask for a reduced role? Do you need to reconfigure the role you're at do you need? You know so many? Again, other things, there's it depends on where you work, what your role is what you do? Are there other opportunities within the same company? Do you have to potentially move on? Or do something else? Do you know cognitively? Can you handle it? You know, if you're being honest with yourself, I think like I said, I I can write code, I could write code sell. I think the drive really plummeted poststroke I think, you know, towards the end, it got wage weird because I was getting back to coding. And then I sort of took a turn. I was like, man, maybe we'll go a different route. But that again, that's me that's unique to me. And so, time may vary. It may be unexpected, it may not be what you want, it probably will not be what you want. If I'm being honest. You know, not everybody is self motivated, driven. To do certain things or you know, you might find that you were in a career that you didn't love, which I do think is a is a really another really important part that I've kind of skipped over here is that before you get into all this, you really if I were to go back in time and reassess myself, before jumping back into work full time again, I don't think I do it differently. I learned a lot. But I do want to share these things with you. Because are there things I didn't think about? Like? What do I really want? In general, like from life? When I was young kid, being a developer wasn't even like a thing yet, the internet barely. I was born probably take at least 10 years before, like any basic, basic, basic, basic versions of the internet were being released out into the wild into the 90s. You know, I'm talking like AOL, Prodigy Netscape, that far back even further back. So we're talking 9192, like 9394. The internet was not even really great when I went to college in 2001. I mean, think about Google that was really bad popped off in 2004. YouTube really came out more in 2007. Facebook wasn't even public till 2007. So like, I mean, God, we had to deal with MySpace back to being a developer was a new field, even in the 2000s. So like, I was, you know, I was doing it for years, like only a few years into really the web as we know it. I don't want to get into the technicalities, because nobody really cares unless you're a developer, but like, yeah, that we're the I grew up with the web. Basically, it matured as I started to mature, literally in my teens. Yeah, I was my son, Jay. I was my son's age who is now turning tail be 10 this year. So yeah. So yeah, I never I, you know, when I got into development, I got into it. And I loved it immediately, because the architecture world had gotten confusing and collapsing after the first housing crash back in 2008. So I quickly shifted, and I really never sat down and thought about what do I want in life? What do I want from my career. And so all these things kind of hit me at once. After the stroke, and honestly, I just jumped back into work, because I wanted to distraction for myself, I wanted that desire to feel normal. But I really wish I had taken the time to take stock of my life. And I did over time, as I aged my way out, I knew I wanted out and I knew I was going to figure it out. And I have but early on, I really I should have done more work on myself, I did a lot of work. But I did not specifically sit down and be like, here's what I want. Here's what I wanted to do. Here's what I think I want to do for the rest of my life. It has been trial and error and figuring it out. So I do wish I did that. And I would say that's the biggest takeaway when it comes to returning to work, make sure you're doing what you want. Also, you do need to financially take care of yourself, if you're able to. So it's, you know, figuring out what's best for you. How you're best able to help your family support your loved ones, support yourself primarily on health insurance is a big thing. So you might have to go back to work at least part time to, to, to, to keep that insurance to do those things, depending on where you live in the world and how it works. You know, those are real practical tips. And it's just it's hard and nobody tells you how hard it is. I mean, you will hear me say how hard it is I can tell you is hard. other survivors are gonna tell you it's hard. Some don't have that same experience because again, they might be younger, they may be older. It just varies. So I think that's why it's so important to share my story with you all. And, as always, thank you very much for listening. I hope. You know, I don't have all the answers. I know I don't have all the answers. I know I mess up along the way. I'm very candid about that. I'm very truthful. I'm very honest. I believe in sharing my story. I love being funny. I love making people laugh. But honestly, stroke is hard. And my way of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel is making jokes, being funny telling funny stories. You know, just just having that sense of, you know, quote unquote normalcy, whatever that means to you. But I just know it's hard and that's why I like talking about this because I don't I know I'm not alone. I know people have questions. I wish I always you know, I wanted to revisit this because the last time I recorded it was not great sound quality. I was not on video. Ironically, I've been doing this podcast now the last few weeks recording video and audio. Want to try this week without headphones on. And to be honest, I don't think it is really a whole lot different with headphones on or off when you're recording by yourself. If I was talking with a guest, I would probably have headphones on. But I think that is no unique to each and every podcasts are just like stroke. And so I just want to see a recording today's episode without headphones was any different is a little different policy. How it comes out in the video, I have not posted the videos on YouTube. I have gotten all the audio ones I think through episode 20 up so I am backlogged a little bit. I'll be honest, I think I'm overthinking releasing the videos and the podcasts. And it's just like, I don't know, why do I want to put a thumbnail? Do I want to put it in a little bit of ad placement do I want to build in things for ad placement. So the videos are on the way I am going through them at least editing them mildly. You know, not much, but I just want to make sure the audio and video line up because I know there is nothing worse than watching or trying to watch a YouTube video where the audio doesn't line up with the video. It drives me crazy. You might be that way too. So yeah, don't try to get more comfortable in front of the camera. I do have another camera over there that I'm pointing at that is not on. So I'm just pointing to the thing and looking directly at the camera in front of me. So yeah, that's exciting. Got a new camera and we're going to try that out soon. Almost ready with this studio, you can see I have things all over the place. New DJ gear over there. So yeah, returning to work is very difficult for you as a survivor you know, and I think to be to be fair, and to be practical as a lawyer I think a lot of companies don't know how to deal with it, I think it is even if they've had somebody in a similar experience before again not to harp on this but that that that individuals experience is going to be so vastly different because they're gonna have had a different event it's going to have affected them differently they might have a completely different role within the company that you work for it really depends on the size shape all the factors so yeah, it's hard if you aren't and stroke support group in your local town or nearby area or even online reach out you know, reach out to me I'd be happy to talk you can go to hub dot lovable survivor.com book some time with me if you're interested in having a call, there's a paid option, there's a free option if you're at one of the spots every month, I have a couple of free spots. I did open it up. You know if there are no free spots and you don't have the financial means definitely you could send me an email and we'll see if we can work something out. My my goal really is not to help other survivors by making money off you but you know, I do want to I still have bills, I'm sure we also have bills I am an entrepreneur, I work myself now so you know sometimes I do have to charge and if he you know if you're interested in contributing and you think I might be able to help you out? Yeah, take a look. Find a Time and definitely reach out if if finances are a concern. Really, I'm three and a half years into my stroke recovery still figuring it out myself. But there are not the reason I started this podcasts and the reason I'm trying to get more video is because honestly it's been good practice and I believe in really helping other survivors because I just know how difficult that is navigate the journey. You know, you can see my branding, on Twitter, on Instagram on all the socials. It may not speak to you 100%. But like, I know I know what it takes to go from where you are today to where you want to be. And that process. I know I know it's long. It can be lengthy. It's certainly frustrating. There are lots of great professionals a lot of well meaning professionals but let's be honest, not most professionals. I have seen a lot, but they have not been through the same thing. So they're gonna die have a different understanding and opinion and there's a valid, but so as yours. And so your experience may not match up with what they're sharing with you. And I think you can learn from everybody involved. And I think you shouldn't, you should learn from everybody involved. People will give opinions, you can listen to them or not. But I, I would say, generally, for me, is my take people will give you an opinion, and you'll think they'll have no idea. But sometimes their insight is actually helpful, in a weird way. You think they don't understand and they probably don't. However, I always feel like somebody who even means well, and it doesn't come out, right, like you might have first taken incorrectly. And I've done this a million times as well, I know this. It might feel offensive or incorrect, or you don't know what they're, you know, they don't know what they're saying. But then you think about and you're like, huh, that actually is a very interesting take. I wonder if I try XY and Z. And I'm not saying it happens all the time. In fact, probably less than you think. But I just always try to take somebody's guidance, as if they were professional, and at least think it through and filter it through. That's my best advice for that. But again, returning to work is really hard. I'm just giving you my real life experience my my path that was unique to me. And I know it's challenging. So that's why I'm passionate about this. That's why I wanted to do another episode. You know, I got a question about it via email a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully I've answered that question or those questions today in this episode. If you have more specific questions, I'd be more than happy to do another episode on returning to work, it is a difficult thing. Whether you're a professional going back to work, whether you're a company and you need some help, just kind of walking you through it. Now that's not really something I advertised, but that somebody will be willing to help with because I think it is challenging and everybody's going to have a unique take. And I think just getting your ducks in a row. Whether you're the employee or the employer is important because it is challenging. There's no doubt about it. So anyways, that's enough for episode 226 This week, a couple of fun random things before we wrap up this episode I really like and want to mention still finishing Titan because it is the longest book of the year for sure. I'm doing the audible, audible version and I think it's like 30 Something hours. We are very much wrapping up this week so I will be done with it by next episode. Couple of things I'm watching that I highly recommend New York point gods is a fantastic documentary on Amazon Prime. If you are a fan of basketball sports in general. It is takes them back to the 90s in New York basketball. It is a fantastic documentary. I absolutely love it. I was feeling right at home watching it. I watched it three times since Saturday. It is now Wednesday. So yeah, it's really good. I will say there's another documentary on prime I forget basketball County. It's about Prince George County around DC it is with Kevin Durant. It is not the same level as New York point gods. I am from New York New Jersey originally before moving to Florida. I will tell you I love Kevin Durant. I think he's an amazing player. But Don't come at me with this DC Basketball. Basketball and jersey was harder than DC basketball like note now. New York was the Mecca jersey was probably second to that. You know a lot of the greats they will often say they're from like many are from New York don't get me wrong but a lot are also from North Jersey and the part of Jersey that I used to go around to play with I went to a lot of camps in the Northeast in PA New York New Jersey Seton Hall Rutgers St John's like you know these were the places back in the 90s they are no longer the best places but yeah a lot of great camps five star Pocono Invitational a lot a lot of good camps just to be back really enjoyed it. So if you enjoy sports or basketball and their point gods is amazing. I really liked it Jr. Smith also got a documentary on Prime called redefined. I enjoyed that. Of course Jr. Smith is a former New York Knicks. So I I don't know. The Knicks have not been good for a long time. And anytime I can watch a time where the Knicks were good or New York basketball And playing on the streets in New York. It just feels like I just love the 90s New York basketball era. There is nothing like it. And coincidentally, I've been back into DJing as you can see over here. I've got a new small setup. It is not the fanciest equipment but I'm just kind of getting back in the game after 20 years off. It's nice to not be on vinyl that is for sure. But yeah, it was a lot of EDM, a lot of house hip hop. Mostly EDM, mostly house most of progressive house music. You know, probably more of the popular EDM dance that you hear like David Guetta. Hardwell Yeah. So I love all those guys. You know, for me, it was 90s Hip Hop, r&b, basketball, then right into the 2000s in Miami, college and EVM. So DJing is is where it's at. For me right now. I'm loving it. I feel like I feel right at home doing it. I am not the greatest DJ in the world. I just kind of picked it back up after 20 year hiatus, however, I've been listening to it since 2006. week break when I got out of college. Howard went serious. And I listened to bpm which I think had another name back in the day. It was channel 36 Back in the day, but now channel 51 up on Sirius XM, where I got serious really now. But Miami opened me up to the whole world. I love it. I think I'm good at spotting good music. I think I have the capabilities of being an entertaining DJ on top of mixing the music because that is not easy, but it is a lot of fun. And I just feel like it's been part of my life for a long time. So I enjoy it. And yeah, so hopefully I will have more things to say about that next week. Anyways, that is all for this week's episode 26 of the love of Survivor podcast and I will see you next week. Bye for now