storycorpsgroup2(katie-michael-miah) (1)

Katie talks about her happiest memory of qualifying for state weightlifting in her senior year, despite not making it to the finals. She encouraged another girl who was crying to try again next year, and the girl ended up qualifying. Michael shares a happy memory of laughing with his friends during military training, despite the difficult conditions. He believes that even in the worst situations, there are moments of joy. Maya discusses how her fear of storms was overcome when her uncle pointed out the beauty of rain, leading her to overcome other fears as well. They all agree that finding joy in small things can make life worth living. My name is Katie Dan hop. My name is Maya Barsmith, and I'm Michael Martin Happiest memory I have quite a few but I'm just going to go to like qualifying for state weightlifting my senior year I had to go to last chance which was in Moorhead, Minnesota Went up there and it was my best lifting day ever. I went six for six. I got every single lift and qualified Unfortunately kicking the other girl. I was going against to not qualify, but I ran up to her because she was sobbing I was like you are a junior do this next year kick-ass next year You've got this and then she ended up qualifying the next year, which is cool But qualifying for state was a really big deal for me because it was my first year ever weightlifting No, hell yeah Just a natural How about you Michael? Yeah, I got some I got some good really good happy memory A lot of the happy memories I'm thinking about are Surrounded in the muck. Yep. That's what I figured out over the course of my life that that if you're like Surrounded in muck and just sadness something always comes around that makes you like laugh as hard as you ever laughed in your life Like this one day was right before we left for Afghanistan We were still in Oklahoma when we were training we were doing like our training 10 hours a day 12 hours a day Getting fed. Actually, we were getting fed rotten food. It was terrible. All the food is terrible. The kovat was killing us It was just it was garbage. We wake up at like 4 in the morning go to go to work That's 6 come back at 6 and then they'd feed us rotten food or MREs or whatever It was horrible during one of our breaks for this class We went outside me and my to my like best friends went outside and just were laughing at the stupidest stuff We're sitting on the grass hill just looking out just laughing our asses off There's a bunch of days like that. There's scattered about being in the worst of the worst and then The next day you just or like for like 15 minutes in the middle. You're like having the best time of your life Sometimes it's just the small things that just make everything better or to make things. Yeah worth living Other people around you we're willing to laugh. I think for me growing up. I was Scared of so many things like I had so many fears. I had so many fears and I was scared of storms this small even like a cloud in the sky and I'd be freaking out so I was basically like this for so long and I was probably like 10 11 I Remember and I was at my aunt and uncle's house and at their house in their back room they have one wall is just window and it like goes up so like it curves and it's like beautiful and There was one day it was raining It was pouring and I was scared we were in the back room so you could see the rain is just pouring down And I was so like scared my uncle and the off hand like not even trying to encourage me He was just like wow, look how beautiful that rain is. It's so cool it's shimmery and shiny and it's just like going down there like look how beautiful that is and I like looked up and I was looking at him like You're so right Like you're right like it is beautiful I don't have to be afraid of it because it's not hurting me and it's actually super cool and it's like eating the plants and it's bringing life to everything and it just looks so beautiful and that literally like was just like a switch in my brain and Suddenly I like I wasn't afraid anymore and that like started me getting over other fears as well I'm like, I don't have to be afraid of people breaking into my house like, you know and that really just started my Journey of like getting over those fears and now I think rain is like the coolest thing ever every time it rains I go outside I go to a window or something and I watch and like I love rain and storms So fun another reason why Minnesota's are great because we get some awesome storms, yeah any closing remarks anyone Yeah, no, this is good yeah, we got enough information I think we did we did great all right cool