Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome. This is the Post Secondary Transition Conversation. We talk about the ins and outs and everything in between of the transition process for families of students with disabilities. I'm one of the hosts. My name is Megan Smallwood, and I'm a public school transition coordinator. As always, I have a co-host, and who would that be?

SPEAKER_02 0:27

My name is Patrick Cadigan. I'm a public school transition coordinator.

Hunter Demarcy

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Thanks for coming back and joining us. Megan and I are back into one of our absolute favorite formats, the interview. A little bit of background. Megan and I have talked many times how we are part of various Facebook groups in our communities that talk about lots of different things that are affecting the students and the families that we work with. So in one of those Facebook groups, there was a parent who posted and said, Hey, my son started a podcast. If you have an opportunity, please go out and give it a listen. So, of course, that's going to pique our interest, and that's what we did. And we found Hunter de Marcy. So Hunter started his own podcast. But before we even get into all of that, we are going to let him introduce himself. Hunter, for listeners meeting you for the first time, how would you introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Thank you, Patrick and Megan, for putting me on this podcast. My name is Hunter DeMarcy. I'm 25 years old. I I live in Carroll County, and I run a podcast called a Talk of Carol Podcast, where I interview people who have connections to the neurodivergent community, or as we like to call intellectual people with intellectual disabilities, where I just talk about them, what they do, like if they run a business, what they do in their business, and how they've gotten connected with the neuro with the neurodivergent community, and also like what they do so that way people in a neurodivergent community can kind of get to know what they do in their business, what they do in the community.

Starting his podcast

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Humter, I love it because that's exactly what Patrick and I have been trying to do as well. So it's nice to see someone else out there doing it. But I'm curious, what gave you the idea to start a podcast? Because I know from our own experience it was not easy.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Well, last year I was part of a project that the Carol Media Center was working on called Thriving Together to Power of Inclusion. And I was one of four participants from it. They had one person from the ARC, one person from Target Community and Educational Services. I was a person for the ARC, by the way. Then we had Belle McCree and then Penmar. And I was the person for the ARC as I get residential services. And I actually get my day program and my other services from Target as well. So I already knew the other participant in that program, who her name was Randy.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

It takes a lot of confidence to be a part of a podcast. What gave you that confidence to do it?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

So like I was trying to like get the answer to your last question. So to answer your your first your your the question you just asked me, I've never really had any problems with speaking to another person or record myself speaking. Maybe public speaking hasn't really been the best for me, but just recording myself talking with another person has never really been that bad for me. But to but to go back to your previous question, I got the idea to start a podcast because just being able to be an influence to other people has been my absolute passion. And being and I felt like being part of that project gave me a platform where I could where I could be seen as a reliable person. And I just wanted to do more and expand on what I what I did with that documentary. So I decided, hey, maybe I'll I'll do I'll do a podcast at Carol Media Center where I can interview people and continue to improve the relationship between a neurotypical and a neurodivergent community. Because that's that has always been a passion of mine. Because as a person who has overcome a lot of obstacles that were put in front of him when he was first diagnosed with autism, I feel like it's my opportunity to give back.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

I agree with you. There's a big difference between public speaking and just having a conversation with somebody. And you forget when you're sitting here talking that thousands of people could be listening ultimately.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

And so it sounds like you've communicated what you hope to accomplish with the podcast. One other question that I have, and Megan had kind of alluded to this before. Being a podcast host can be challenging to say the least. What has been the most difficult part for you in your hosting of these discussions?

SPEAKER_01 5:34

The most difficult thing for me has always only really been scheduling my guests and picking my guests who I want to pick because I my next guest I wanted to interview was our state center, Justin Reedy. His assistant got back to me and he's and they're interking about that he could do it with me. But communication has been I wait like three weeks at a time just to get a response.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

Yeah, it's funny that you should say that because I had told Megan at one point, I am a transition coordinator, I am a podcast host, I will never ever be a scheduler, somebody who sets up scheduling, because that is one of my personally one of my biggest struggles. I am not a time management person.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Well, and when you're reaching out to people like that, Hunter, that's that's even more difficult because you're going through all that red tape and other people to get a schedule, you know, something put on the schedule

Media Support and ideal discussions

SPEAKER_00 6:35

with him.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

And for those people who don't know, our series of discussions are audio only. You actually have taken it a step further. Your podcast is a video podcast.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

That is correct.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Without getting too technical, but the technical stuff really interests me. Do you have a team of people that help you? Are you the only person that is doing it in the recording and the scripting and that like how what does development look like for you?

SPEAKER_01 7:07

So as far as like the in-interview stuff goes, as far as questioning and answers, like scripting, I actually make my questions myself. I don't usually record questions or or write down questions until the date of my interview. Because like I already know on the top of my head what I'm gonna say and stuff like that. So questions don't really come too hard to me. But as far as the technical stuff, uh recording the videos and stuff like that, I do have the staff, the Carol Media Center, that helped me with the video recordings.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

They taught you when you started the project last year, they've continued helping you with it.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

They did. They taught me how to use the audio equipment, but I'm a very fast learner. And sometimes with those kinds of things, I can teach myself sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Yeah, sometimes you just have to play around with it, trial and error.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Yeah. And then in terms of the scheduling, like how often do you try to put out your discussions?

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Once a month. Because I'm also uh busy with other things I have going on. So I usually just try to do that basically. I usually try to do it on Thursdays or Fridays.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

It already sounds like you're going down a really good path. I mean, you're talking about scooping in political figures, but we are curious who would be your dream guest, be it locally or nationally, who would that be?

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Probably if I could get like a local NFL player on my podcast, that would be great. I'm very, I'm very, very into football. So just to have like a someone who has played in the NFL or a current NFL player who has met someone who's autistic and has kind of gotten an understanding of it would be would be a dream to come true

Brainstorming

SPEAKER_01 9:14

for me.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

I'm curious how you brainstorm and come up with ideas of who you'd like to interview next. Do you have a way that you do that?

SPEAKER_01 9:24

There's not really any like real rhyme or reason to it. I just think, okay, I want to eventually have this person on my podcast. So I so I so I put him on my podcast. I I interviewed my best friend Maddie for my for my first podcast because I wanted to start off with someone who I was very familiar with. And then I interviewed my executive director at my school that I work at, and then I did an and then I did a third interview where I interviewed myself, and then I had another teacher who also has her own business with executive functioning coaching, who said that she really wanted to be on my podcast, so I made her my third guest, and then my fourth guest, since I met Justin, since I met Senator Reedy at uh DDA day back in February, I believe, or was it January? I I forgot which month it was, but we had a day where we went to go to uh Annapolis and we and we discussed the importance of keeping our services for DDA. So that's why I felt like I was able to reach out to him because he was very particular about making sure that we get our services. And it really interested me because he was a Republican and Republicans are and I've understand that Republicans are more focused on more individual effort instead of public effort. So the fact that he as a Republican was fighting to keep those services alive publicly, it really meant a lot to me. How unexpected it was.

Connecting the dots

SPEAKER_02 11:04

So then changing lanes into your advocacy, you we heard you talk earlier about building stronger relationships between neurodivergent and neurotypical people. What does something like that look like to you?

SPEAKER_01 11:23

As far as how my podcast goes, just just a mutual understanding of each other, like for example, the community understanding the neurotypical community more, the neuro the neurotypical people understanding the neurodivergent community more, or the virgin community, understanding the neurotypical community, like just a mutual understanding of each other. Like my my fellow participants in my day programs understand that there are people who are wanting to get to know them and are and are under and are trying to understand who they are. It's just basically that mutual understanding of each other.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

If you could suggest anything, is there one simple thing that a person could do to communicate more respectfully with someone who is neurodivergent?

SPEAKER_01 12:17

My suggestion would be to once you get to really know them, speak at their level. Like some some people might some people might communicate very and and just neurotypical people in general, they might speak very loudly or they might speak very quietly. So I feel like talking at the level that they talk at, I think that is very beneficial for them because it might make them feel intimidated if they if they are speaking too loud or or their ears might not be able to understand what you're saying if you're speaking too lowly, speaking too quietly.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

So, Hunter, then how has your understanding of autism changed as you have gotten older?

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Well, back when I was in elementary school, I never even knew that I had autism. So I never really understood it. But as I've gotten but at but like back when I was in high school, I graduated high school in 2019, and I was and I would have panic attacks, and the thing where I would like be like freaking out during class, like or like sometimes like I would like literally scream in front of the class, like, oh no, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? And then I've also come to understood that that's that's because my autism that I have those that I'm so fearful, or that I'm not as mature as my peers are, because when I was diagnosed, when I was originally diagnosed with autism, the doctors had all these things that they thought I was gonna struggle with. The only thing I've really struggled with was maturing at a maturing at a server pace than my peers, which was expected because most neuro almost almost, if not all neurodivergent people mature at a certain pace than neurotypical people. So I think that like as I've matured, I have come to understood that the part of the reason why maturing at a server pace is because I'm different than most of my peers that I see with on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Well, and it sounds like as you matured, you learned how to advocate more and more for yourself. Yes. Was there one specific person that might have helped you learn how to advocate, or was it just all the staff or family that you've had around you?

SPEAKER_01 14:50

My mom, my mom has taught me to be more self-reliant has taught me to be more self-reliant. But as far as as far as the self-advocacy thing goes. I've just been I've just been motivated to to just be myself and I'll and I'll ask my mom for advice on things, uh, on things like certain words that I should say or stuff like that, but but the fact of me being able to do it by myself hasn't really never really come hard for me. I don't know. It's always come easy for me.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

So it's nice just to have mom there just to kind of check in.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Yep, geek just as like just like she she's more of an ideas person of things I can say. But as far as talk, as far as speaking my mind, I've never really had an issue

Moving on

SPEAKER_01 15:40

with that.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Hunter, I am curious. You I heard you say that you had graduated in 2019, and that is something that Megan and I are very interested in because, of course, that is what we do for our work. We work with people who are getting ready to transition from high school outside of high school and essentially to the next part of their life. And I'm curious, was there someone there that helped you with that? Like someone that explained to you what was going on and what things might look like when school was over?

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Honestly, I've nobody really had a one-on-one conversation with me about that. I mean, my I mean, our guidance cancer just gave us like the the basic the basics in general because I was never I was never in any of the special education classes when I was in high school. When I was in high school, I was always in the general education classes because I didn't need the because I didn't need the supports that the special education teachrooms had because I felt like I was very independent and I knew what I was doing. So that transition from c from high school to college was never really hard for me. I didn't really need anybody to really sit with me one-on-one and and describe that process because I was always because I because I knew what to expect.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

And did you go to college?

SPEAKER_01 17:15

I did go to college. I I only did community college. I started I started in the fall of 2019 at CCB C Caitonsville because I went to high school in Baltimore County and then I I did the first semester, the fall of 2019, and half of the spring of 2020 semester. The the second half was when COVID happened. So I so I so I still but then I moved to moved to Westminster in August of 2020. Then I then I did online school completely, did school completely online. And then the next year, fall of 21, I started at Carroll Community College. Then I took a semester off, and then I completed my then I completed my degree in the fall of 2022. And then walked in graduation in in spring May of 2023.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

And what did you get your degree in?

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Just associates arts, which is their fancy way of saying general studies. Because I thought I wanted to be a high school teacher, but I wasn't always so sure. So I just did general studies because my mom thought that I that it was just a better workload for me than actual college than like a university. And I would say that that was right.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

I think that's every mom.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Oh no, no, no. That's dad too. That that's totally that's a dad thing too.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

So you would always love to hear kids telling you that you're right.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

If you were to give advice to a young, neurodivergent person now who wants to be more involved in their community, what kind of advice would you give them?

SPEAKER_01 19:13

I would just I would just say before you start getting involved in your community, make sure that you're very comfortable with advocating for yourself and potentially advocating for others. Because if you go into this and you're and you're not sure how to advocate for yourself, then you might not be able to succeed as someone who is already a big enough advocate for themselves. You it won't for you, you won't, you won't feel because you won't feel as prideful in your work if somebody if if somebody else is also doing it for you than you would if you're fully ready to do this by yourself.

Please Consider Support

SPEAKER_02 19:59

We hope that you find value in our conversations and we'd love your support. You can visit our Buy Me a Coffee page to help support the show. A link is in the show notes. Contributions help offset the real costs of producing our discussions, things like online hosting, equipment, and ongoing content development. So we can keep bringing you helpful, accessible transition information. Now, no pressure at all, but if you're able, every bit truly helps. Thanks for listening and giving our community a voice.

Community outings & living

SPEAKER_02 20:32

So, Hunter, we want to kind of change lanes here a little bit. Now, we have heard you talk about being involved with Target Community and their in educational services. I had mentioned this to Megan in the past, and she knows a little bit about it, but I will tell you that for myself, I don't know anything about it. So, what is Target Community?

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Target Community and Educational Services is a program that helps people with disabilities, which is just like the Arc. They have a day program, they have living, they have residential living, and they have personal supports, and they have employment supports as well. I go there to utilize our day program services. And what about in the day program services? We go we go to places like the mall, we go to libraries, we go to we just go anywhere out in the out in the community and we and we do volunteering, we do all sorts of fun stuff.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

And I know you said earlier that you have residential services from a different provider, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:48

My residential services that I have are from the Arc, and that's where I am right now. I'm actually on my couch in my apartment that I have owned by the Arc. The house I live in has has an upstairs and a downstairs. The downstairs of my the downstairs of the house is my own apartment entirely. So I have my own living room, in my own bathroom, my own kitchen, in my own bedroom.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

And then does someone have the upstairs?

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Yeah, yes. The the upstairs, I have two roommates, I have two roommates upstairs, and they should and they share the living room and the kitchen and that kind of area. But I have my own area down here in my room, and I really love it that way.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

That was gonna be my next question is do you like living on your own?

SPEAKER_01 22:39

I do. I I love living on my my own. I miss seeing my mom every day, but I'm glad I'm glad that I'm experiencing life on my own.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

My question was gonna be, how far are you from mom?

SPEAKER_01 22:53

I'm only about 15 minutes away from her.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

So so we so we try to see each other every single week. That's nice.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Do you have siblings?

SPEAKER_01 23:03

I have two older brothers and a younger sister. But but as far as where they live, they're they're all over the place. So my siblings don't really live nearby.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Do you get to go visit them at all?

SPEAKER_01 23:18

When I have when I have time, I directly could visit my older the younger, my two older brothers, but my sister lives in North Carolina, and my oldest brother lives in South Carolina, so I don't really have so I can't really make a whole lot of time to go see them.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Yeah, that's not really a a weekend trip. Well, it could be, but it's a a long trip to take.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

Yeah, it is. But I do love, but I do love long car rides,

Advocacy for participants

SPEAKER_01 23:45

though.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

So I've heard you now, you talked about Target Community, and earlier you talked about advocacy for the board at Target Community. Where did that come from? Like what inspired you to do that?

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Oh, oh, oh now when you say advocacy for the board, are you talking about the uh committee of other participants who are like me?

SPEAKER_02 24:10

I believe so, yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Yes. So that that actually came in, I think I was in my second year of services at Target. And and I noticed some participants weren't very happy about things. Like like there were there were these uh participants that would argue with their roommates and they would start yelling and stuff like that. And I wanted to improve those relationships to do what I could to make to find solutions to help them with their relationships and their problems. So I felt like if I if Target had a committee that acted like a that acted as a student council at a at a school, then we could help other participants with those issues. That's how it ri that's how it originally started. But as I got older and I got to become more understanding of how much of a gray area there is in a neurotypical community, and that just talking through issues might not for most of my friends at Target wouldn't really solve anything just because of just because the way that their brain is wired, they're gonna be a lot more emotional than me. So that just turned into focusing on specific relationships. It's it focused more on what can we advise what can Target do to help the to help the participant experience? Like what kind of events can we plan? What kind of what kind of things can we add to our to our office, like like adding massage chairs into the relaxation rooms or or stuff like that? What kind of more fundraising can we do? And that's how it that's how it and that's where it got, but it took two years for them to come up to put that together. I introduced the idea, but it took them a couple but it took them a couple of years to to get it together because they had other things that they were focusing on, and in businesses, things dig very slow. My whole focus is how do we improve the participant experience?

SPEAKER_00 26:30

I was gonna say it sounds like you're helping to build up the morale of the the participants a bit.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Someone needs to stand up for everybody and be the voice.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

And I feel like I feel like because of what I have overcome and that I have a lot more experience in a neurotypical world than I do in a neurodivergent world. I feel like I am the best, I am the best person to be that voice. Because I have lots of experience in both worlds. So I feel like I'm a great person to bridge that gap.

Sports networking

SPEAKER_02 27:07

I was curious about one piece, and you've had talked about this before in relation to your living situation. What kind of supports help you or have helped you become more independent rather than like someone else making decisions for you? Like what supports do you need or seek out when you need them?

SPEAKER_01 27:30

The only supports that I really need from my staff at home are just transportation to my events, like my football games, or or if I want to go out in the community, something like that.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

You mentioned football. Are you a Ravens fan?

SPEAKER_01 27:48

I'm an Eagles fan. What are you a Ravens fan?

SPEAKER_00 27:53

No, I'm a Commanders fan.

SPEAKER_01 27:55

Oh, okay. What about you, Patrick? Are you a Ravens fan?

SPEAKER_02 27:59

You know, it's really funny because I hear the two of you, you guys are talking football. I am actually a soccer person.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

So I have to big soccer.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

I have to remind myself.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

Yeah, my fiance is an Eagles fan, so I think I have to start wearing some green.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

When I said my football games, I am actually a high I am actually a hydration manager for football over at Stevenson University. So that's why so that's why I said my football games because I am actually part of the football team of my own. Well, that's a really cool role. Yep. I've been I've actually been I'm I'm actually in my third year at Stevenson, but my ninth year in sports in total because I did six years of because I did six years of high school sports. I I was a water manager for all four years of high school at for for football when I was in high school. Then I did basketball from my soft from my sophomore year to my freshman year of college, and then and then I did baseball from sophomore to senior year of high school. And then after COVID happened, I my employment director from Target got me involved at Westminster High School for their lacrosse program because she had a connection with him with the head coach of that program. And then that led me to led me to doing football with Westminster High School. And then after I went to some McDaniel basketball games, my original plan was to was to check to see with my jobs coach if McDaniel would be an option for me for sports. But my best friend Maddie, who I had mentioned earlier, who's my first guest in my podcast, had a conver and I had a conversation. I got got to know her a little bit. And she told me that her dad was the head coach of football over at Stevenson. And I said, huh, funny story. I got to I actually got to meet the guy because I went, I was invited to attend an adoption ceremony for their person that they have for to team up for one. And he tried to get me involved back then with the team, but that but nothing came off for that. And then Maddie offered to see if there was a to see if there was availability for me on the team, and I took her up on that offer, and that's how I got to Stevenson. And I went back to basketball at Stevenson because I also had an because through team up for one, they put me, I was put on on the basketball team at Stevenson in my freshman year of high school, and the and the head coach back then was still there from back then was still there. So I got involved then, and I got involved in lacrosse, and I was there for a couple of years, but I stepped down from lacrosse because the three-sport commitment was too much for me, but I'm still doing football and basketball for Stevenson.

SPEAKER_00 30:59

So it sounds like you've done a lot of networking.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

Made a lot of connections, and we know that that gets you gets you far.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

I'm a I am a huge sports fanatic.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

Hunter, forgive me. I have it in I have it written in my notes. Was there at some point, did you mention, did you have an opportunity to work with Baltimore Ravens?

SPEAKER_01 31:24

Yes, I did. So my coach, my coach had a connection with one of the athletic trainers there. But before that, I was I was calling him to make preparations about the season for for the upcoming season, about like what he wants wants to see me do. Then I asked him, and then I said, Hey, I'm interested in learning how I can do this in the NFL. Do you know how that works? And he said that he didn't really know how that worked, but but but he said that he'll reach out to one of his connections at the Ravens, and he and he was friends with the athletic trainer, and I and they got me involved and they got me working there for one of their practices. And I got to meet Derrick Henry and a lot of the other Ravens players too. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 32:10

And you liked that experience?

SPEAKER_01 32:12

I did. And Derrick Henry has always been one of my favorite players in the NFL, even when he was with the Titans. So just to get to meet him was absolutely spectacular.

Shifting Interests

SPEAKER_02 32:25

You have communicated before that you would like to become a direct support professional. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Yes, I think at the time where you've where you got those notes, that was my goal. But my goals have shifted a little bit because the only reason why I wanted to be a support direct support professional was because I was also part of was also because of like how influential I could be in that role. I feel like I'm already being influential enough in what I'm doing now. And I also kind of realized that caring for others in that role would would come up with some would come up with different challenges that I don't think I was ready to face. So for now, I'm bagging that goal and focusing more on what I could be doing. Maybe I could work in a school or something like that, like I already am now. So right now, that's not going to be my best fit for me. But if something comes up in the future, maybe I'll take that, maybe I won't. But as of right now, I don't really think anything about that anymore.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

What would your ideal job look like?

SPEAKER_01 33:34

Basically, being any kind of situation where I can make a difference in another person's life. Like where I can be an influential person to another person and also kind of a fun job too. And also while also having fun on the job. You gotta enjoy what you do. Yes, you do.

Preferences

SPEAKER_02 33:54

I kind of want to change lanes here a little bit again. Hunter. Which Marvel, DC, or Star Wars character do you identify with most?

SPEAKER_01 34:08

So are you asking for all three or like or just one over the other?

SPEAKER_02 34:13

I think one over the other would probably make the most sense.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

So out of all the fictional characters that I feel like I identify with the most, I probably identify more with probably Captain America because I make decisions in the moment what I think is okay, maybe it's either Captain America or Iron Man, because Iron Man into Marvel movies, he made a lot of decisions based on what he thought was right for himself, but also kind of what he thought was best for other people. And he has he had kind of like an egotistical ego side of him. I can I have a self-centered side to me too. So I think that the best person that I kind of connect with more would the most would be Iron.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

How about if you had completely free day, nothing on your schedule? What would be your favorite way to spend it?

SPEAKER_01 35:06

My favorite way to spend it would be going out and doing something. I'm not very I'm not very picky about activities, going to a museum or going going to a zoo or going or going mini golf. Like I just have so many things that I'm interested in. So I don't really have one specific. Yeah, just just a day where I can go out and do something that makes me happy. That's what I really like, because I am not at all a homebody.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

If you could visit any zoo, aquarium, or museum, where which one would you choose?

SPEAKER_01 35:47

I would have to choose the the Columbus Zoo in Ohio because because that's the biggest one in the in the country. And it's also and they also have aquatic animals there as well. So it's a two so it's a so it's a two-for-one aquarium and zoo. I've heard good things of that zoo.

SPEAKER_02 36:06

It's funny that you should mention that zoo years and years and years ago before I was even a teacher. I worked with my best friend at his company, and we were doing a training up there, and we had a couple of hours in the morning, so we went to the zoo. I didn't know anything about it. And like you said, it's one of the biggest zoos. We had a great time. It was a nice

Looking ahead

SPEAKER_02 36:26

place. All right, Hunter. So one of our closing questions, or our closing question for you, is what are you most excited about in this upcoming year?

SPEAKER_01 36:38

In this upcoming year, I'm most excited about being able to do more to advocate for other people. That's what I'm most excited for in this in this coming year. What more opportunities could arise for me to be an advocate for others?

SPEAKER_02 36:55

Well, that's really cool. Well, Hunter, we can't thank you enough for taking time out of your day to come and talk with us.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

And I can't thank you enough for having me on your podcast. I I am very appreciative that you got that my mom found you guys and and asked you if you guys want to put me on your podcast. And I'm very appreciative of the fact that you guys gave me another opportunity to to be an advocate for others. And I feel like this was a great opportunity for me to put my advocacy out there. So I very grateful for the fact that you guys have given me another opportunity to do to do this.

SPEAKER_00 37:36

It's all about networking, right? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 37:39

It is absolutely all about networking. And we have several links that we will put in our show notes to your content so that they can be shared out as well. And again, Hunter, we really appreciate you coming and talking with us.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

And I appreciate you guys having me.com.

Outro

SPEAKER_00 38:27

Full of information and links to more resources. Our YouTube channel contains curated videos that revolve around transition, including playlists for guardianship, alternatives to guardianship, able accounts, and more to come. Thanks so much for your time spent with us, and we look forward to talking again soon.