"Have The Audacity to Dream!", with Melody, on Being an Undocumented American, Higher Education and Research, Using Privilege to Open...

Transcript:
0:17
Hello everyone, welcome to The Intersection, a podcast program about intersectionality, intersectional identities, and intersectional journeys both professionally and personally.
0:33
And as we all know, all these journeys are very interconnected.
And today is very special because it's the first time I'm interviewing someone who's not using their real name.
It's a way to protect someone's safety.
0:52
And I'm going to introduce my guest, Melody here.
Melody is from Mexico and she moved to California, I believe the US back in mid 90s when she was a baby and she grew up in California and have been in the states for almost 30 years.
1:16
And right now she is pursuing her PhD in education policy in the DC area.
And Melody is a both a researcher in academic and an active activist.
1:34
And I'm very, very honored and humbled to have her here today.
I am very grateful for her trust and I don't take it lightly.
It is a risk.
And someone come here to share their story.
1:50
And so without further ado, welcome, Melody.
Thank you for being here.
Hi.
Thank you for having me.
I'm very, very excited to finally have this conversation with you.
Thank you.
So I shared, you know, your general kind of background.
2:10
Would you like to introduce yourself and tell your own story in your own way?
I.
Would love to so hi everybody my name is melody.
I grew up in Mexico and very early on in my life I immigrated to the United States.
2:26
I have been here, I'm 31, so I have been here for about 30 years, undocumented.
I consider myself an undocumented American because I grew up learning English here.
English is my first language.
2:41
I learned Spanish here.
And I have that very stereotypical Dreamer narrative.
I'm good immigrant versus bad immigrant narrative, right?
And so early on in my career, in my life, I knew I wasn't documented.
2:57
And so I ever since I was AI, was in the activism world in California.
I learned how to organize at a grassroots level.
And I also quickly realized the power that the people in Pueblo have right in demanding rights and a space and a voice in California.
3:17
And so now I'd like to tell my students that now I use my superpowers for academic purposes.
And right now, I am pursuing my PhD and education policy, trying to understand the historic and education experiences of marginalized students in education and higher education in the United States.
3:40
What made you and thank you for sharing.
And what made you decide to go into education policy?
It's quite specific.
Well, I never intended to be in the education or in the policy world.
3:56
I kind of just found myself there.
So I always knew growing up that I wanted to go to college.
I always dreamed of getting a PhD without really understanding the pathway there.
You know, I just knew that my mom brought me to the United States to pursue a better life, and that's what I was going to do.
4:19
And I was going to dream big because I knew that if I dreamed big, I would land somewhere in the stars, as I like to say.
But I really just started in the activism section, changing policy in that sense, right?
Which I didn't really realize that's what I was really doing is affecting policy just from the the outsider perspective or the activist and demanding change in that way.
4:45
And so without really, really like realizing it, I was actually in policy my whole life.
And so I went to Community College and then I transferred to UC Irvine.
Along that experience, I was very lucky to bump into mentors that looked at me, saw something special, and they started to give me an opportunity even though I didn't have citizenship.
5:11
And so quickly on I my first, my second year actually in Community College, that's when I started my first research project and trying to understand why students were not going into science, right?
What about the sciences was preventing students of color from majoring or pursuing a science career?
5:30
And that's when I fell in love with with research and the power of research.
Because to me, it was another way of telling the story of, of telling the story of the community of students who are often marginalized.
It was another way to to not just bring those stories to life, but to have those stories touch the the years of very powerful people.
5:54
And, and, and that's when I really fell in love with research and I saw how I could also be an activist through scholarship.
Oh I see, that's really powerful.
What's your study or research has found out?
6:13
Like what's stopping people of a college students from pursuing science?
ETC.
So that study, we learned that students of color who do not go into sciences tend to have what we call negative, positive and neutral stereotypes about the people that do science or scientist.
6:35
You know, we found out that a lot of students who do not pursue science as a career often do not really understand the jobs and the opportunities available for them in the sciences and have a very negative stereotypical view of what sciences are.
6:52
So we would talk to our students, you know, what do you think a scientist does?
What is science for you?
And they had this very idea of like a lonely guy and lonely old white guy in a basement with chemicals and like no friends and no, no life and just being super like antisocial in the corner basement somewhere.
7:13
And that's not what science can be.
Science can be science is everywhere and it could be so beautiful and so cool.
And so that's when we realized that we probably need to start there and start expanding the idea of what science can be.
And so we took a whole year in the class of biology to not just learn about biology, but also learn about scientists that made the curriculum possible.
7:36
And by the end of the semester and even six months after, we found that students were like, well, when I bake a science, when I guarded a science, when I play like pool, that's geometry, that's science.
And so they started to see science in their everyday life and even seeing themselves as well.
7:55
I do science here and I do science there, which was really beautiful to see.
That is so cool and you are so right.
Science is everywhere.
I'm an amateur Baker as well and the fact that sometimes a recipe uses baking soda and sometimes it's baking powder always drips me.
8:16
And that's real science.
Yes.
And you have to follow it to the tier would completely change.
And that's chemistry, right?
Yes, exactly.
I mean, I'm not a science, so I just, I just follow the recipe and so that you just don't so that you won't mess up.
8:33
But I so resonate.
With what you said, Melody, is that if we really kind of broaden our perspective and we go through the stereotypes, you can see so much beauty in the so-called kind of boring, sad, mundane kind of science life.
8:52
That sounds so fun.
So with that discovery, are you already putting your search results or research results into influencing education policy?
9:07
How does that work?
That's a really, really great question.
And it doesn't always like your research may not always resolve in influencing policy directly, but it does always increase the conversation around that topic and, and to always wanting to not just continue the conversation, but shift it, evolve it, center it in different communities.
9:32
I think it's one of the immediate impacts that you may have with your research.
And so for this research, it, this was early 10 years almost, Oh my God, almost 15 years ago.
So it's been a while since we published, but that center has only grown.
9:49
And now instead of just focusing on stereotypical like sciences, we're expanding the term of what a scientist is and also allowing just anyone who's teaching science or any type of, of STEM curriculum to go into the, to the website that we created.
10:07
And I'm very, very careful here for, for me not to kind of reveal who I am, but there is this website where people can go in and learn about, let's say that you're learning about the DNA strand.
You can learn about the women and sciences like Franklin who who helped develop the DNA strand that you probably wouldn't have known that a woman discovered that or the fact that it was a Mexican nurse who actually invented the, the hand sanitizer, right?
10:36
Things like that.
Non stereotypical scientists and non stereotypical stories within science.
And so right now there's thousands of students across the nation learning about these non stereotypical scientists because of this one research that I was part of, I definitely did not leave that I was not the brains of that.
10:54
But this is 1 opportunity that I had early on in my career that someone saw like the the hunger and the want in me, but not necessarily like I don't have citizenship.
And so a lot of the times like just because of who I am and my status, opportunities are closed off to me.
11:13
And so this was really on in my career that somebody just decided to give me a chance and I kind of ran with it.
That's so cool because not only because you went for it, but also you don't.
It is so important for us to get to have a support system, especially when we are not these kind of, to use the word stereotypical.
11:37
We're not stereotypical Americans, right?
Like we don't look like the typical Americans.
And I'm just very glad those people.
I don't wanna say they discovered you because I feel like in order for someone to see you, you have to be visible, right?
11:58
Like they didn't dig you out from the ground.
Like I'm sure you were already out and about and then your path crossed and then that happened.
So I think that's a really cool example of how sometimes in order for something to happen, you just really need to make that connection.
12:16
So I want to kind of like get into you just mentioned because of who you are, like you mentioned an undocumented American, oftentimes or sometimes, you know, doors will be closed off for you.
12:34
How has your undocumented American life been for you in this country, and how has that impacted your activism over the years?
Before I was out as an undocumented person, I did.
12:56
I did hide that status a lot.
And so for the first couple of years of my life up until I was 18, I hid that I was very scared of people knowing my status.
I lived in the shadows as a lot of our community members describe that experience, not just for myself, but because I was just scared of my family's safety as well.
13:20
Well, I always have to really think about, like, I really always have to weigh my dreams to the safety of my family.
For example.
I've been wanting to do this podcast with you for a while and I still want to do that, but I just have to do that in a way that keeps my family safe, right?
13:38
And so there's always that, like I've always have to calculate my dreams versus my safety and, and what makes sense not just for me, but for my family.
So that's one of the first things that I, I always have to think about, regardless of what I'm doing.
13:57
As simple as I want to go on vacation, am I safe to drive there?
Am I safe to stay there?
So little, even little things like that, especially now, you know, from this administration, things have gone really, I think gotten really bizarre and I feel like I'm in the twilight zone and I'm not the only one that feels that way.
14:21
I have a whole bunch of citizen friends that text me every day just like, is this really happening?
Right.
But I think in a more technical terms, like for example, I wanted to go to college, I couldn't apply for FAFSA.
I can't apply for loans right now as a PhD student.
14:38
I have to work extra hours because I don't get the financial aid packages that my other friends get.
And so my story and how I have to get there, it it's not impossible.
It just looks a little bit different than what my citizens, friends, their stories look like.
14:59
For example, in my college, I'm, I'm, I'm probably one of three undocumented students there who are in the Graduate School.
And so there's not a lot of a lot of us.
And, and that means I often have to be 1 of the first to have a conversation with the leader or having to bring up things or when there's a policy happening.
15:21
For example, when the president was elected recently, that same December, January, I started talking to the Dean of like, what policy are you going to have when the ICE agents start knocking out the door?
And at that time they were almost laughing at me, like not they were totally professional, but I could just feel the energy of like, she's super paranoid, she's super stressed.
15:45
This is never going to happen in our country.
And now there is a not just a policy in my college, but a policy in the entire campus of what we will do when, not if, when ice ages are on campus.
And we've had them on campus multiple Times Now.
16:02
So a lot of the fears that I had that I thought were crazy have been solidified.
And so I'm in this era, I'm, I'm still learning what it means to be undocumented in America.
Yeah.
I mean, it keeps evolving, right?
16:20
It's yeah, I absolutely do not want to say I know how you feel because I don't.
But I can in some way empathize on the level of the fear they are trying to generate inside, say, on campus, right?
16:42
It doesn't matter if you are documented or not.
It's like fear, and of course the fear and uncertainty folks who are undocumented experience are very different.
16:58
Yes.
And, and so I'm going to the point where I'm not just a student.
I'm, I'm a graduate PhD student in one of the top countries in the nation.
And luckily enough, I've been able to really work with my leaders to, I guess even though I'm, I'm undocumented, I'm very privileged, right?
17:19
I'm in the privilege in the sense that I'm a PhD student.
I'm privileged in the sense that I go to one of the top universities in the country.
So even though I have a lot of fear and I'm very surveilled and I have a lot of all these anxieties, I also at the same time hold a lot of privilege, which is one of the reasons I really resonated with your podcast.
17:41
And that's something that it's really hard for people to understand because the two worlds that I live in are drastically different, right?
My, the world I live with, with my undocumented community looks completely different, almost opposite to the world that I live with.
18:02
All these like top academics.
It's, it's just completely so different.
So I always have to live those worlds.
I never get to kind of like choose one or the other.
Because in one day where I'm meeting with the Dean of this and the president of that and going to this AI conference and all these meeting like Google people, all these fancy people.
18:20
At the same time, I always have that connection with my community.
And there's something that goes on every day, right?
Every day something new is happening, whether a PhD student in Boston gets kidnapped in the middle of the street or three young citizens when children get deported by accident, quote UN quote accident.
18:39
And so it is a very, it is 2 completely different worlds that are separated from each other that I constantly have to navigate.
So I definitely feel like I'm always living in this intersection with these two different worlds.
Yeah, 100%.
18:56
And I do resonate with that reflecting on my own kind of immigration journey, is that people, when I felt the fear very acutely at times in my life, I would get questions like, oh, you'll be fine.
19:13
You are, you are the good one.
You're one of the good one.
And that always like it's, it's not working the way you thought it was going to work.
You know, it's like as immigrants, when the fear is near, you can feel it, yes, like, or the danger is near like you.
19:35
You can almost smell that in a way.
I mean, the intersection is very, it's very complex.
And I almost want to say unless you actually lived through it, it would almost be impossible to to have that kind of like, I know how you feel, that kind of sentiment.
20:01
Yeah.
Because it's impossible.
It's absolutely impossible.
And I feel so, again, humbled when you mentioned even though you are undocumented American, to borrow your words, you still feel privileged because you do have access to resources, to leadership.
20:24
You're a PhD student.
And earlier you mentioned, you know, your research was about how people of color feel kind of hesitant or reluctant getting into science and STEM.
20:41
And I find that very interesting because as an immigrant myself, so I'm from China and a lot of Asian immigrants actually were expected to get into STEM.
So I find that very interesting.
20:57
You know, for some folks it's, it's, it's an attraction and for others it's kind of like a put off.
And you are in much higher education than most of us really.
21:13
And in your work on campus or outside in today's world, really, how are you utilizing your resources and privilege to still feel like I want folks to get into higher education to, to get that degree, to get that knowledge?
21:40
How?
How do you do that?
That's a really great question because it's something that I probably ask myself everyday, like how can I continue to do this?
I think it's a goal that will be reached within the process.
21:56
I don't think it's a goal that I have to like.
It's not an, there's not going to be like a complete a number of students that go into college and I'm going to say my, my goal is complete.
I think my goal will be reach through the process of me being a PhD student.
22:12
And by that, I mean, my first step in being able to leverage this privilege was to realize I had it, was to acknowledge it.
And I think that because the life of the immigrant is a very tough life.
22:30
It's a very, very beautiful life, but it's a very tough life.
It took me a while to realize that I was standing in privilege because I was just so focused on.
What I didn't?
Have what was going wrong?
22:47
The negative messaging in society about people like me.
And it wasn't until a couple years ago that I really realized that I'm actually so much more powerful that I realized.
23:05
And I think part of the negative messaging in the media against people like me, I think part of the goal is to have them forget how powerful the community can be and people power can be right.
23:25
This narrative that we're hearing has not is not new for US immigrants.
This narrative has has always existed in the consciousness of America.
It is now just being pushed to your like forward to the to the mainstream media.
23:43
But these comments of us stealing jobs and being immigrant and being whatever, I've heard that ever since I was a little kid, like I've always known that I was othered in my own country because California has felt like it was, you know, I, I was home, like California has always been in my home.
24:03
So I never felt like I wasn't in my home.
But I really, I, I think, I think early on I realized that I was in this dynamic, right?
And by the time I got into my PhD program.
My privilege, that's.
24:18
When it started to be fully on in my face and I could no longer ignore it because even though it was undocumented, even though I had all these, you know, oppressions against me through my immigration status, through DACA, which is different actions for childhood I drivers.
24:37
My.
Undocumentedness looks completely different than someone that doesn't have DACA.
And so even though I was an undocumented person, I still had that guy.
I still had so many resources, opportunities to not just get a job, but to pursue a career.
And so I found myself in these seats in these rooms with very fancy important people, quote UN quote and like nobody that looked like me, right?
25:01
Especially I'm going to school here in DCI did assume like Latinos are everywhere.
And then I realized, Oh my God, the people that look like me that are from my neighborhoods, my communities, they're not the ones sitting in, they're the ones serving the people.
25:16
They're the, the cleaning people.
They're the ones that are serving the coffee, the serving.
That's the only time I ever got to see myself.
And and I said.
What am I?
Going to do right what am I going to do with this power because I I just felt so much privilege and so that's when I decided like I was really going to hone in on my research really focusing on the his not just the current experiences, but the historical experience of marginalized students and how we got where we got from.
25:49
And so from here on out as I write my dissertation, my number one goal is to not produce research on the community.
That is not my goal my research.
My goal is to produce research with the community.
26:05
And so I don't want to come in to these communities as this university person who thinks they have the answers, who thinks they know what they're doing.
I want to go into these problems and, and really anchoring what the community cares about and what their lived experience says that we should do.
26:25
And even though that might seem like it's such a small thing to do in research and academia, you never really see that happening.
That's something that is like now just starting, which is participatory action research.
And what is your research going to do once, once you leave the community, right?
26:42
Is it only going to benefit you and your CV?
Are you only going to use the data to to publish and expand your resume?
Or is that, or is that data and research that you're done going to come back and benefit the community in one way or another?
And I think that's my way of not just.
26:59
Centering the community.
'S voice, but also teaching them and, and having them opportunities to be like, look, your voice and your intelligence matters and you could really go wherever you you want to you don't have to pursue a career that's just given to you, right?
27:19
You you can really take your your voice and your experience and all these things that you know how to do and like where you're going to be in society.
And it's a small opportunity, but like, I have seen students that go from like, F this, I'm never going to, you know, be successful to like, I want my own business or I want my own career or I want to get my own PhD.
27:43
And so like, that's my way of, of, of like making sure that I'm not closing the doors behind me, that I'm, I'm not just, I'm like knocking them down, like leave them, them open and, and, and making it accessible.
That's really.
27:59
Really illuminating because I think you, what you just described, which I haven't come across a lot, is that you are actively practicing the abundance mindset in your own community.
You are opening doors.
28:16
Like for me, I can resonate it and I'm guilty of that too.
When I was at grad school, I also conducted some research, right?
Like largely on campus with students.
So but when I got my results, I just kind of like see you never.
28:33
Yeah, but that's that's that's the research world, right?
Like get going every data.
Bye.
I'm going to do my publishing now and I'm going to get my pants and I'm going to live my life and the people that gave you the data or like, OK, I get.
Yeah.
28:48
I I didn't give back.
I just sort of like I'm done, right?
And we see that.
All the time in, in the recent academic world, right.
And what you're really doing is you're taking people's stories and you're taking people and not you.
But like, yeah, no, no, no, we go there I was experts and we take their stories and we take their voices.
29:13
And we'd only just take it.
We go and we analysis it based on our lived experience, and then we tell the world this is what we know about these people.
They're not telling us.
We're telling the world what we think about this community.
29:29
We just did really right.
We take away their voices.
So I think, you know, another point of like I, my appreciation of your story here is the way you practice the abundance mindset is 1 opening doors and two, to help people kind of grow.
29:51
The same kind of mindset is yes, this is, this is the cards you are being dealt with, but they're not the only cards you are being like, you can have other cards too, right?
Like you can be entrepreneurial, you can be creative.
30:08
You, if you want to, you can literally draw a door on the wall and you push it open.
You know, like open.
Right, we can.
Create our path, but just like, but not out of nowhere with kind of study, with information, with data, with resource and with the network we may be able to build and with the help from community, for example, you and folks alike, of course.
30:37
So that's why I feel like that's such a very neat example of the abundance mindset is you, you take something and then you give it back, not.
The same.
Thing, but it's a tool you are giving people 'cause you know, like you said, a lot of folks from the Latino community, right?
30:59
Like they just repeat the past what they.
Are.
Family had done and because they would say this is the only thing I know how to do.
But that may or may not be true but we need to find out.
31:15
We need to find out if that is true.
So I.
Do have a psychology degree and I think that's where a lot of.
For me, that's where.
My understanding of humans come from so I have a bachelor's degree in psychology and social behavior from UC Irvine School of Ecology, and I think the tool that I give people is the ability to think outside the idea they created of themselves.
31:45
Because that's.
What I had to do right, I grew up being told you're undocumented, you're not going to get a job because you can't work.
You have to work under the table.
You can't get fast, but you can't get financial aid.
So you can't go to college.
People like you don't even go to college by the way, you're a woman on top of that and you're Mexican.
32:04
So by like 18 you better start popping babies and get married.
So I was told what my script had to be and and I could not get out of it right.
And it's not because people don't appreciate me or don't love me.
32:21
It wasn't.
It was not that When you're an undocumented person, especially in a place like the US, you're on survival mode 24/7.
You don't know who's going to sell you out.
You don't know if you're going to keep your job or your or your or boss is going to pay you.
32:40
There's a lot of things that you, you don't know if, if you're going to step out of the door and someone's going to be waiting for you outside.
You don't know if someone is going to March into your house at 3:00 in the morning and kidnap you.
So even though it's a beautiful life, it's a life full of fear and surveillance.
32:57
And that's where that comes in the, the, the script, right almost of this is who you are and this is what's going to happen, both out of fear, but also a protection.
But I was the headache of my family.
I was always asking questions and always looking for alternatives and always saying, well, how do you know that?
33:17
And if you did not give me the answer I wanted, I would go and knock on the next door and the next door and the next door, like you said.
And there were times I had to make my own doors and go through them.
I had to, I'm going to give me the space or open the door for me.
I had to barge in.
And there's multiple times I had to do that.
33:33
And so I had to do that just to allow myself to dream outside of the idea of what people thought of me.
I wanted to get my PhD ever since I was in fifth grade.
And I I remember teachers and counselors laughing at me because they're saying an undocumented person will never get a PHDIII grew up knowing that.
33:58
I grew up with being like the honor kid, the AP kid in high school with colleges sending me letters.
We want you all to apply.
I would take these letters to my high school counselor.
My high school counselor would throw them away because an undocumented person doesn't go to college.
34:18
Those people need to be.
Fired if she was honey.
Don't worry about it.
Well, that was the constant story that I had to grow up with, right?
You can't say you're undocumented, you can't make yourself like known and you can't drink too big.
And so I said, no, that's not like I really always felt like my ancestors were like always in my head, like, keep going, keep going.
34:40
And so now I have what's called the audacity to dream.
I have the audacity, the audacity to not just dream, but to be in these spaces with these people who think they're so much smarter and better than me and holding my own right?
34:58
And I have the audacity to want better to not settle, to want happiness and freedom.
I have the audacity to want that.
And so when I work with high school students or, or middle school students or even college students, I give them that audacity to dream, right?
35:16
I, I'm like, OK, well, yes, this is this and this is your situation, but let's move on from that.
And, and, and I think a lot of the times I've been able to mentor students in different levels, I don't and I don't charge for my mentorship.
I always do this from the heart.
35:33
I have different people that I mentor and recently one got accepted to a PhD program at.
And when I first met her two years ago, I will never like who is like I had to convince her that what she was saying was so interesting and that she should be at the table.
35:53
And trust me, it was like almost a year of us going back and forth and she's now in her first year of a PhD program and she never saw herself there.
I feel, I feel like a proud mom and I told her like, I feel very proud.
You did all the work.
36:08
But she did give me the flowers and be like you planted the seed 3.
Years ago and.
That's what I tend to do with all my kids.
I plant the seed and I don't rush.
And I also don't have a script for them.
I don't know if you're going to go to college or do.
I don't know.
But I want you to do something because you like, you're amazing and you deserve to do that, you know?
36:30
Yeah.
So.
I think I give.
Them the audacity to dream.
I love that I.
Think that's our tagline?
Have the audacity to dream like people take audacity as some kind of negative word.
No, I mean, why not, right?
36:48
Right and.
Now I feel that way where I'm like, I don't know how I'm going to finish my PhD, but I have this wild dream and I'm going to do what I always know how to do, which is dream so big because eventually I will land in the stars somewhere, but that's how big I have to dream.
37:05
Yes, well, drink.
Big and drink bigger and I I also want to say take your flowers.
Thank you.
Yes.
I had to learn how to do that, you know, and take your flowers.
I know.
It's metaphorical, but these American holiday Mother's Day is coming.
37:27
Exactly.
Thank you so much.
I think that's.
Probably 1.
Of the conversations that I feel like sorry, why?
Why am I having this?
Amazing conversation, what did I do?
So I.
37:44
Want to?
Maybe wrap up?
Our conversation with this question, I know you're going to continue your activism, you're going to continue your research, you're going to continue mentoring young leaders.
37:59
You're going to continue to open doors for undocumented Americans.
I love that term.
And at the same.
Time it is a.
Not ideal.
Yes, we're in the twilight.
38:16
Zone.
What brings you hope and what grounds you right now?
I think.
There's a lot of things that bring me joy.
38:34
My cats are one of.
Them, my family, my research, my my mentees, my mentors, a lot of things give me joy and and hope.
But I think that right now, like you said, we're we're all going through it.
38:54
Whether you're undocumented or not, we're all going through it is a very.
Special time.
In history, this, this chapter of the history books will be very interesting.
Yeah.
But the things.
39:11
That keep me, give me joy and keep me going and and kind of keep my glass half full versus half empty are the interactions that I do have with my mentees and the youth.
I'm very lucky that every week I get to hang out with middle school and high school kids and young college students.
39:35
And I think that if you allow social media and the media in general to dominate your narrative and your view of the youth, I think it can be very easy to not feel hope and not feel joy, right?
But I get to hang out with them every single day, every single week.
39:53
And now I'll be able to do that more with my new job directly with youth in in housing situations.
But if you talk to them.
I think that that'd.
Be like the easiest and most direct way to touch hope and touch the future because one, they are our future, right?
40:12
The kids are our future, but the kids, the youth.
Now, in my opinion, and I know I'm only 31, but there are so intelligent.
They are not.
They're so emotionally intelligent and they are, they have so much empathy for other people that I do truly believe that they will take care of us and they will help us improve our life.
40:39
I don't know how and I don't know when it will happen, but I think in the United States, we kind of forget that there was a baby boom a couple of decades ago, which has a lot of one generation.
And this generation of baby boomers, it is who holds the power right now, right?
40:59
They're the ones who hold the houses, the businesses, the money and the political power.
All those.
Roles will have to be filled in one day, right?
And one thing that I'm doing is that I'm focusing on the youth, helping them develop not and not, I don't have an agenda, but I get my agenda is for them to just dream and be and be unapologetically themselves.
41:28
And so I think my.
What I'm trying to say in short words is that if you ever feel like there's no hope for the future, that you really do have to talk to the youth and the and the children because they are paying attention.
41:45
And now more than ever, they have the information of the world in their hands.
And I think we.
Think that.
They might not really understand it and know what's going on, but because they're so exposed right now to to, to what's going on in the media, I think they use now more than ever before in history are more up to date of what is happening and what's on the line.
42:11
And so to me, that's what gives me hope.
I love that I.
I totally agree.
The hope is in the hands of the next and the next generations and our job really is to be there and guide them and help them and support them in any ways we can.
42:36
Thank you.
I think that is a good place for us to wrap up.
And I am, I cannot say thank you enough, Melody, for coming here and sharing your story and your time and really your wisdom with me and folks out there.
42:55
So thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you more than anything for for giving me this opportunity and this space, but also by providing a Safeway of me still being able to share my story.
And so yeah, I just want to thank you for for making this all possible.
43:15
So thank you, of course, thank you for.
Giving me the opportunity.
I'm very privileged, you know, so and I hope and I know we will see each other.
Oh, 100%.