In this episode Zeke discusses international business, family and more with his friend Estabon.
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Zeke: Welcome, everyone to another episode of the Let’s Gather Podcast. I’m your host Zeke. In this episode, I have my friend Esteban to talk about international business, traveling family. I want to give a content warning for any strong language used in this episode. I hope you have a nice day. Enjoy the show.
Zeke: What would your origin story be?
Estabon: What would my origin story be? Yes. Um like, based on the on the questionnaire was like, what form you mean? Or like, what would it be like?
Zeke: It could be Like, would it be like a movie or be like,
Estabon: Okay, yeah. So I think my origin story would be a book. And the reason why I would pick a book is because I feel like I live my life very subjectively, and it’s only my point of view and the way I experience life. But I feel like if I were to translate my whole life and a book, people will start, you know, making their own judgments as to what my life truly is, and it will help me better understand myself. So I think I would publish my life in a book.
Zeke: Autobiography? Someone write it for you.
Estabon: Huh? Oh, I could read it myself. I’ll make it realistic fiction. Yeah.
Zeke: Let all this happen then add some exaggeration exaggerations, just to make it. Yeah.
Estabon: Yeah. But um, I wouldn’t be mad with an autobiography as well. But I feel like I’m done important.
Zeke: Hopefully, one day we get there. Yeah. And then with that in mind, do you think it will start from your childhood or do you think yourself when you’re in college?
Estabon: Do I think of stuff when they.
Zeke: Were the beginning point of the story?
Estabon: Oh, that’s a good question. Truth be told, I don’t remember much of my childhood, which kind of sucks. It’s not like I don’t remember anything. But I do remember I grew up in Ecuador. Yeah. I came to this country when I was nine. So I do remember my time in Ecuador spending time with my cousin’s family. But I think the most well all years are important. They will make up who you are. But I think the most impactful ones have been for me, you know, my mid teenagehood to where I am right now. I’m 20. And I’m actually turning 21 the 18th of this month. Nice. So, so yeah, I feel like it start. It started in high school. I feel I feel like high school when I found my first love. Yeah, that’s what I would start.
Zeke: With that in mind, talking about you from Ecuador. How do you, do you use your culture in your everyday life right now? Or like, my culture? Or like juxtaposition of Ecuador culture and American culture?
Estabon: That’s a good question. Um, I feel like since I am studying international business, I have been I’ve become aware of a lot of cultural differences and we study a lot of culture and where it stems from and how it can be dealt with in you know, in a professional setting or public setting or any setting. And I have realized things about myself that have stemmed from my Ecuadorian culture, for example, my my desire to be close knit with my family, and being collectivist in nature rather than individualistic, but living here also you have social forces that push you to be individually individualistic, you know, so I feel like the biggest battle that I have on a everyday basis is whether today I want to be individualistic or I want to be collectivist. Whether I want to spend time with my family or rather judges allocate some time for me to just do my own thing and study or do what I like. So that I feel like that’s, that’s the the main thing that pops up every now and then in terms of like culture.
Zeke: So do you feel like there’s a good balance? Or do you think is one or the other?
Estabon: For sure has to be a balance? Since I am you know, I live here. I was practically raised here, all of my, you know, since nine years old till right now, I’m 20. Those are important years, so I feel like I do, like, individualism is ingrained in me, but at the same time, that family orientation just doesn’t leave. One like that, you know, like, yeah, that was my childhood. That was that was how I grew up. Yeah, for sure, like, I still need to find that balance you.
Zeke: Do feel have conflicts when we use like, I need to do for myself, but I don’t want the back end.
Estabon: Yeah, for sure. Hundred percent. But recently, I’ve been focusing a lot on family. I’ve been being there for my parents, you know, because at the same time, you got to realize that your parents are getting old too, you know, like, You’re, you’re growing up and you think you’re going through changes but so are they, you know, they’re growing up, they’re, they’re going into their, I don’t know, 40s 50s 60s like, yeah, we might think that they’re growing up, they have their shit together, but in reality, they’re stepping onto new ground just like us, you know, we’re turning I don’t know 19 20 21 Um, so yeah, I I have to spend more time.
Zeke: And then you say you mentioned you study international business. So what drew you to that and what is interesting business those two questions.
Estabon: Okay, so, um, shit I Have the textbook definition. I didn’t know this because I just read that textbook like three days ago or something. But um, I international business is basically the like, in simplest terms, the exchange of goods and services across nations. That’s literally international business. And the reason why I chose international business was I remember the day I sat on international business, I was sitting in my dad’s car, and I was alone. And I started thinking about I was still in high school, I started thinking about what I wanted to do and, and I just, I told myself, you know, I really like to travel. I would love to have a job that allows me to travel. So I thought international business was like, the only way to do that. So I went for it. But I’m now being in the major. I feel like it’s, it’s deeper than that. You know, it’s deeper than just, oh yeah, let’s travel this Have fun. That’s, you know, it’s deeper than that. International Business has allowed me to better become more culturally aware how to navigate cultural settings and how to deal with people better. So I do I do see international business, something very important, very important. And now that you know everything, companies if they’re not going if they’re not multinational companies, you know, the chances of them growing or ever establishing something solid is very low. Yeah, like now companies are forced to, to go internationally. Yeah.
Zeke: And then with international business, what kind of jobs or do some use of Do you see yourself doing?
Estabon: The major? A lot of international business majors tend to go either into, like public relations, politics, economics, and then some of them focus on the trade compliance act. aspect. So you can have like, trade compliance jobs, which is basically just making sure that companies that operate abroad are abiding by certain rules and regulations that, you know, trade has to go through. A lot of other popular jobs include what else you do, like international banking, global markets, international investments, but that’s more with like a focus on track. So the thing about Baruch and International Business major is that it lets you minor either marketing or finance. So depending on what you want to specialize in, that you can use that to your advantage to get whatever job you know. But there’s a lot I get a lot of questions as to like, oh, you’re international business, but how are you? You know, working in finance, because right now I’m interning for Bank of America. So At the end of the day like yeah major is important and it does shape the way you think and the way you see the world but it’s not it doesn’t have the last say as to what type of job you you’re going to get into future you know yeah who has the last say is yourself and whatever work you put in whatever knowledge you taken outside of school and how you present yourself because you that’s all I get is all the questions I get like are you in business for you’re in finance and
Zeke: With that you feel like this is helping you interact with people during your finance internship, more like just you aware of people differences?
Estabon: That’s a good question. It’s more of like, I’m aware of people’s differences. But I feel like in a job setting every everyone just is within In one culture, you know, that’s just the company’s culture and, you know, inevitably the culture we live in. So I think there isn’t much differences there. Plus, I feel like all the people I work with have had either born here and grown up here or just have been living here for a very long time. So I haven’t had time to, to really use those. You know, those skills or I guess you could say, but they do come in handy when I like travel abroad.Yeah.
Zeke: How may places have you traveled abroad?
Estabon: How many places Yeah. I don’t know. I’ve been to Canada. I’ve been to the US to Mexico, Ecuador, China, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium. I really want to go to the DR. I was gonna say DR I think that Yeah.
Zeke: So what? What have been your favorite?
Estabon: My favorite? Um, okay, within Europe, I’d say the Netherlands is like the most beautiful country. Um, it’s very, the people, they’re very straightforward. They’re funny, and they speak perfect English. I swear, like, they speak perfectly and they understand every single joke, every single meme. It’s like, you never came out of the US. On top of that, the food is amazing. And the Netherlands, like a lot of people don’t know this, but it’s made up. It’s sort of like New York City. Like when you when you go to a big city, Well, not really a big city, but uh, you know, main city. Um, you find a lot of cultures and you find foods from all over the world. So cuisine is just, we have kind of like the same options as, as we do here in the US, or in New York City. And I’d say a sec. China China caught me by surprise. China’s actually pretty is beautiful it’s it’s huge. You can rent bikes with your phone. Surprisingly food is pretty good despite most people say I’m not picky so yeah oh if you go to China and like everyone loves to take pictures of you like if you look different if you’re not Asian they think you’re a celebrity or something. Everyone’s like taking pictures of you all over wherever you walk.
Zeke: I heard about that. I heard only mixed use with people felt good. I guess they felt like it was an object.
Estabon: Yeah. I guess I mean, I could see why people felt that because like they do ambush you and like they’re like, all over you. But I personally I don’t want to have fun with it.
Zeke: Like Yes, I am famous.
Estabon: Yeah, you start posing you know, grab two chicks.
Zeke: Right. Yes. Because I have never been abroad yet so once I get my money out so go traveling.
Estabon: I yeah, most of these travels like have been thankfully like, because of Baruch like I went to China because of Baruch all paid I went to Spain because of Baruch kind of sort of all paid um yeah there’s there’s a lot of opportunities there to like travel as a young student you know, people understand that you know we’re still getting shit together.
Zeke: And do you feel that it’s like an advantage to have like a second language on the first episode? We talked about how like other countries then mandate English to like do business when America over here we don’t do anything like that.
Estabon: Right? Um Yeah, that’s a good point. Um, I do think that learning a second language is very important not only to communicate, but also see the world differently. Like in one of my Communicate international communications classes we we studied language and how it physically shapes the brain. And it physically gives you the ability to see and understand things that you may not have. So if you speak two three languages, you literally have perspective of three different worlds because with language and and with, you know, whatever tongue comes a whole set of history, a whole set of customs, a whole set of cultures that belong to that language. So, yeah, I think language is extremely important.
Zeke: You only speak two languages?
Estabon: Yeah, but I do want to learn a third. Perhaps even a fourth, but I began Baruch studying Chinese. I took one class, you know, fortunately, I got a I got a B, so it’s not that bad. But yeah. I was like, No, I can’t do this. I can’t be graded on my Chinese skills.
Zeke: Yes. And then we’re traveling. So you grew up, you came here when you was nine, so did you? How does it feel to have like two different cultures? Finally, like having an influence you as you’re going up?
Estabon: Hmm It affects my choices. Cuz like, like I told you it’s it all comes down especially for me, you know, this is my how I see. It just comes down to me being like Latinos are very close knit everything is family first. You can do anything without consulting with your family first. Like you’re not you’re not you’re not I guess sounds harsh really you’re not the owner of your own life I guess. It’s like, you got to always be with your parents and all that. But yeah, it is a struggle. It’s definitely a struggle, especially now that I’m becoming you know, older and I’m starting to You know, set my own sort of values my own sort of views of the world and they vastly different from my parents, like extremely and we get into fights well not really into fights.
Zeke: It’s more like just disagreements,
Estabon: Disagreements about it. You know, all civil and stuff. Yeah. But my parents, yeah, they definitely gave me a hard time. They definitely gave me a hard time and the way I think or like, the way I see the world, but um, you know, it’s all about making a word. Yeah. You know, I also make them understand like, Hey, you know, I, you know, I’m growing up to, I’m starting to, you know, become my own person. You gotta understand that at some point, I just got up, you know, I gotta be myself. But, you know, we’re getting there.
Zeke: There’s a generational thing but everybody, my mom, we also have like, differences. Yeah. They more, they just, we just like, how we interpret people’s like different or more open exploration more integrated into ourselves. And then we have disagree with how we see life and like most like the meaning of life,
Estabon: Right. Are you are you religious or religious?
Zeke: No. Like we I would the way I describe it is like it’s Christian base but we’re not Christians. Like believe in God and everything like that, like never went to church and everything and that would be like all the like the ceremony stuff like that right? Like the values and everything is very Christian like
Estabon: Right so we’re What did your parents grow?
Zeke: Well everybody my family grew up in America.
Estabon: Oh so your second generation?
Zeke: No like from like slavery.
Estabon: Wow yeah okay so you’re American American Yeah. So you have no culture about…
Zeke: Like your family like no. Outside America No. My great my grandmother came here when she was three to From South Carolina to New York. Like the only migration I had. Well…
Estabon: I mean so how does that feel like having grown up with like only one culture like you only know one? I guess you could say one way to live,
Zeke: I think was more like, I never had like identity crisis was more like, I noticed that I didn’t have something else. Like one a lot of my friends. Yeah. How do I get the Caribbean culture and culture? Yeah. And the other side of American culture is more like, just thinking about like, what is American culture then? Mm hmm. And what is black culture? Yeah. Right now black culture is American culture. Because that’s so cool.
Estabon: Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah.
Zeke: Just think about all the things you’re interested in, like, how everybody else interacts? Remember? I don’t think said this in another episode. I think seventh eighth grade I had a immigration paper. About how my family immigrated to America. Now I was like I can’t do this.
Estabon: So what did you say?
Zeke: Um, because the unit was immigration, migration. So did about migration how my great grandmother migrated from South Carolina to New York. Wow. But the funny part is when everyone ask you where you from, and then you say America No, no, where you really from? America, grandparents America. They’re like, Okay.
Estabon: Yeah after after like two generations like you, Sally, you’re basically American. I’m kidding. Yeah. What do you think of the Superbowl?
Zeke: The Superbowl attention but I was like,
Estabon: I love the commercials.
Zeke: The commercials. Some were amazing. But the game itself I wanted Patrick Mahomes to win.
Estabon: I mean, yeah, I don’t know anything about football.
Zeke: Why cuz he’s black.
Estabon: Yeah, commercials were good. The only thing that I don’t use you saw that electric Mustang No, there’s a new electric Mustang like coming I think by the end of this year it looked pretty weird. Other commercial was pretty good huh? Oh, there was one there was one like it was a commercial by like the New York State I think. And it was like literally about being nice to be like loving each other. Like that’s how that’s how you know like New Yorkers are mean.
Zeke: I remember seeing like a meme on Facebook as a New Yorker’s are not rude is that we give each other mental space because we’re so close together that we give each other mental space, but if somebody needs something. We’ll be there because the person was like someone was on the train. And they didn’t know where they were going and somebody yelled out um like, the location where there was going the destination and then he was like, yall got this? Then people started working together to figure out how they get to where to go.
Estabon: Nah that’s true. That’s true. Absolutely agree that everyone’s mean muggin but then you ask him and you know, he goes,
Zeke: Yeah, just go here, here. Here. You go too far. Yeah. No, I always.
Estabon: I mean, don’t do.
Zeke: So what do you do for fun?
Estabon: What I do for fun? Okay, um, I’d like to run. That’s like one of my hobbies. So yeah, running is very important for me because I eat a lot. I don’t diet. So I do see running is important. No, I gotta lose weight. What else I like to do, I occasionally like rock climbing too, as well. I go out a lot with my dog. I have a husky. And eating trying new places. Trying restaurants wines, so good. What else do I like to do for fun? YouTube, Bro, I spend so much time on YouTube. It’s not healthy. I deleted social media actually. I deleted it in October. I was like, I’m getting too distracted. I gotta do my own thing. But I’ve only fallen into the trap of YouTube, only to fall into the trap of YouTube. But um,
Zeke: So what do you watch onYouTube?
Estabon: What I watch?
Zeke: Yeah.
Estabon: Huh. A lot of motivational videos. A lot of videos on how to invest some videos on real estate. But then the fun like the fun content. I watch Joe Rogan Of course. Do you know what Jordan Peterson is?
Zeke: I think I heard his name.
Estabon: He’s like He’s like a clinical psychologist, but he teaches at the University of the University of Toronto. He’s Canadian. He’s really good. He talks about psychology and he gives a lot of tips on how to deal with a lot of things in the world. He wrote a book called The 12 rules of life. I’m not read it yet, but it’s on my list. Um, well, it’s I like to watch on YouTube Casey Neistat h3 recently I got recommended jenna marbles. You don’t think that is? Yeah, dude, her content is so funny. Like Yeah, I made like I watched like lately I was just watching your content literally for like three days straight. And like all she does is like play with her dogs or like some super shit. It’s so funny. Oh, wait, can I curse you? Yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah. So yeah, that’s that’s like, that’s basically my YouTube.
Zeke: Some more business first and then we’ll get into the fun stuff. Yeah. Okay, so how come like finance in numbers, interest you?
Estabon: Interest me? Um Well, I think it has to interest me like I’m studying business. It’s kind of I kind of like just force myself to, to just watch videos or read as much as I can, you know, like everyone else you know you started business school with the desire to you know, do business isn’t that but you know you’re coming in at what 18 17 like not really knowing where you’re getting yourself into. So I think it’s very important to start getting used to that environment because a lot of kids step into Baruch or any other business school and they literally don’t don’t know anything, you know, but they don’t they don’t do anything outside to like work and understand finance or business from another perspective besides school. So I think is just I’ve forced myself to start watching videos on investing. And all this motivational stuff. I watch news a lot like the Wall Street Journal on on YouTube, the Economist. But those are all things that I don’t do. Well I kind of I’m starting to like it so I kind of do it for pleasure now, but at the beginning I hated it. You know, I no one wants to be learning on your commute to work or no one wants to be learning while they’re watching YouTube under bed, you know, but it’s like, I forced myself to do it so I can get used to the lingo to to be more aware, also to hold better conversations when I’m at work. You know, you just don’t want to be caught lacking off guard, you know, like, you get hit with the question and all of a sudden you don’t know it because you didn’t learn it in school. But, you know, there’s a lot of ways to learn know,
Zeke: For me business. Not as much as me. Give me the time.
Estabon: Right now. Yeah, I feel like I feel like we all have our passions. Yeah. Although I do, I’ve had a creative, you know, like personality and sense of being since I was a child like, I began playing the piano. I also used to sing a little bit. I was in my school course like in elementary and middle school. Um, but um, yeah, sadly, those things kind of like died with age. And I just began to like, focus on this more but I don’t want to I don’t want to let my creative side die. You know, I do want to once I finished college and start working and start you know, stabilizing my life. I do want to start developing either some skills. I don’t like playing guitar or something would be pretty nice.
Zeke: Yeah. Just being a barber.
Estabon: Yeah, I mean, being a guitar player, some some creative outlet or writer. You gotta you have to let your ears
Zeke: Start writing my autobiography hear this day. Yeah.
Estabon: Like you just don’t use don’t want to let your creativity die. Like if you haven’t work on it, you know, it’s it’s like learning creativity. Like everything is like a muscle, you know, like you don’t hit the gym, your muscles don’t grow. So is your creativity like if you don’t start putting in the work with whatever you do, like, you know, like starting a podcast like you did? Yeah, you you lose that that muscle you know, like it becomes useless.
Zeke: This idea there’s another podcast you should check out Earn Your Leisure. So this is a business podcast with these two guys. One’s a financial advisor, and one’s a good teacher. And they some episodes of them talking about different stories in the industry like sports industry about like how people make money, stuff like that. And like the story behind different business deals. And then they also have guests that come on and talk about real estate investing. Yeah. And different like how to own a restaurant. Start you own business.
Estabon: Yeah, surprisingly, I don’t. I don’t listen to much podcasts. Kind of like I like to read more, but it’s weird. Now the reason why I like to read more is because I can listen to music while I read. I cannot listen to music while I listen to podcasts.
Zeke: Well it’s good for somebody who’s into business. And they also have different like, big workshops they have, like, where they go into a um city and have people they guess come back on and they go talk to the people having a networking event and an live podcast. Because the one event in DC, the people who went got free tickets to the Wizard game that same night, so it was good.
Estabon: Maybe coming to New York or?
Zeke: I’m not paying attention to what their tours right now. But eventually okay. Yeah. Everyone makes it to… They live in New York. So
Estabon: Okay, yeah.
Zeke: But again to like,with me and reading this I better at visual and like listening. Yeah, that’s all I’m reading. I just remember from elementary hating it.
Estabon: Yeah, no, I hated it too. I mean, I came. Like I told you when I was nine. You know, remember in elementary school you had like the reading levels and the stickers. I was like the lowest one I was, I think it was like a yellow looking letter. It was letter E or something. It was bad. And I hated reading. Yes. hated it. It’s not it was not only probably like two years ago when I really like started actually enjoying it. Yeah.
Zeke: Staying on this a little bit longer. We talked about like, some people not taking the time to learn things outside of school. Do you think it’s up to the person or the thing that should change the school system? Huh?
Estabon: Good question. Um, although the school system in America does need a lot of reform, at the end of the day, you can’t force anyone to learn, you know, like, no matter how good the education is, you just cannot force anyone to learn. So, I do think that outside education does have to stem from the person. But it all comes down to discipline, you know, how disciplined are you to, you know, instead of going out with your friends, you know, stay home and like read a book or do your homework, you know, like, how disciplined are you to instead of, I don’t know, sleeping in like, an hour more to get up and or not attend a workshop in school, you know. But back to the education system. The problem with with education system is that you know, it’s Here in America, it’s public, it’s free, so people don’t really value it, and don’t see the value in it, as opposed to other countries that pay top dollar since, you know, elementary school to high school to attain that education. So I think that’s like one of the biggest problems here. Well, problems and advantages, but it more seems to be a problem. Because you know, kids don’t value education. But I do think that there should be an emphasis and emphasis and education systems since like little to, to instill that desire in kids to want to learn. And also there should be a shift in education system that should not label kids is right or wrong, but rather, you know, learn from your mistakes, type of situation. Like implement implementing grading systems or first second, third place like all that. It’s just, it’s not it’s not valuable in the long Run, you know, because then it just it just creates like this fucking Gary V’s words like it just creates people who like who just are not comfortable with like losing, you know, like whenever they get hit with a failure they just fall. No, but I feel like kids should be made to to be more resilient. For sure.
Zeke: Yeah. So, um, one more question on this then switch to fun stuff. So when you fall, how do you get back up?
Estabon: When I fall? I mean, when I go through stuff you know, it hits me hard, you know, I’m human too, you know, although I, now that I’m more aware of it and more aware of the situation on how to handle it. I cope with it better. For example, like when I got hit with With something, I don’t know, like, a few years ago, I did just an example. Like, or I could say, like my freshman year, right? Like I would sometimes I would fall back on assignments, or like, Miss an appointment that I had or whatever, or didn’t get an offer to somewhere I applied, you know, like, it would literally like depressed me the whole day. Sometimes I wouldn’t be like not even want to come out of bed, like it sucked, you know? And but now you realize that your time is very, very limited. And you know, one failure and being stuck on it, and thinking about it is not going to change it or it happened already, you know. So, the way I tackle failure now is okay, it happened. What can I do to either overcome it or just change the situation because life for me, it’s all about solutions. You know, you can dwell on the past, you can go on what you What you fail that you could just be responsible for the future and where you’re going forward? You know? Another thing it’s like, well, like life, like life is like very long, you know, people people, will I fall victim to this too, but like, we think that we have such a limited time to, like, make a name for ourselves, you know, us, like we think our 20s is the age where we have to make a name out of ourselves. And we don’t come by if we don’t come out of 25 with a certain amount of money or a certain amount of prestige, like we’re just going to be nothing or whatever, you know, like the key is to remain patient and just make failure like make mistakes along the way, you know, it happens you have your mistakes, you have your wins. But um, yeah, just realize that life is long and you Got a shot at everything for a long time.
Zeke: Yeah, nice words, words of wisdom. So go back to YouTube so you sort of like Casey Neistat and Jenna Marbles . Yeah, if you’d like the lifestyle do more like this when it entertaining to?
Estabon: Casey Neistat I got into well I got introduced to him I think probably in 2016 somewhere around there. But his vlogs was like, What interests me the most? I think the way he just films videos, edit stem is like what really grabs attention. But I do I love Casey’s lifestyle like he’s, he’s a runner. He literally religiously runs every every morning. And he like he runs he runs miles. He runs like 10 to 13 miles on a single morning, you know? He’ll be like, Oh, yeah, it’s just a light run. But uh, On top of that, Casey, like, His story is so powerful because he moved to the New York City when he was like, I think, in his 20s like 20, literally my age right now. And he had a kid behind. He had like a two year old kid. When he came to New York City, literally dirt poor nothing. He lives in an RV and I think Connecticut and he started working his way up, you know, he had this desire to make videos make films, and he just weren’t that it weren’t that I worked at it like took took shitty jobs at the beginning, but do those jobs made connections and got to where he is now. Now he has like more than, like 10 million subscribers, I think on YouTube. He’s had he’s made a huge name for himself. And on top of that, like he’s had a lot of he’s a he has made like advertisement for companies. as well. So yeah, I think Casey Neistat like two really, really good guy. Yeah. And jenna marbles. I don’t know I just stumbled upon her. I don’t know much. She’s just funny. She’s super funny.
Zeke: And then jump on running. So you have seen you at the high school track time.
Estabon: Yeah. How was that? Um, I did track for like a year. And then I did wrestling. No, I did wrestling freshman track, but I started doing track my senior year, so I couldn’t continue. Yeah, but I’m tracking track in high school. It was okay, I realized that I’m more of like, like to do my own thing when I run. Um, so I could tell you more about my experience running. I’ve been running since I was like, since 2014, which I was like 15 years old. And then Ever since then, like Sorry, I’m getting a call. Like every every now and then like, Well now I set a goal for myself that I want to run at least once a week. So I’ve been doing that and whenever I run I run for like either five to eight miles. My goal one day is to run a marathon. No, I mean multiple marathons I do want to, but it’s something that I see long term. I really want to keep this up.
Zeke: What goes through your mind when you’re running?
Estabon: When I’m running? Let’s get it literally. I start I have to run with music. I have to make a playlist before I go. I warm up and I start like jumping. And then I just like, take off and when I run sometimes I just be singing like literally I’d be like fucking rapping while I’m like running. Or sometimes I just literally Don’t think about anything but like, my breath because you You have to breathe like in a in a very strategic way in order to like not get tired. Like not get winded, but like sometimes you get pains on your on your rib when you run. Yeah, that way you get rid of those things like you got to breathe deeply through your nose, then out your mouth multiple times, but like hard, and then it goes away. But um, yeah, that that goes on with mine when I run. But um, yeah, I also get runner’s high, which actually I made, I made a paper about runner’s high. Like not a lot of runners get it, but luckily I’m fortunate to get it. Basically a runner’s high is your body whenever it runs, it emits endorphins and these are these are endorphins basically help you like numb, numb your legs. So endorphins are released when you’re in danger. For example, when we were I don’t know cavemen, frankly, yeah, we would be attacked. Let’s say there was a dinosaur right? Like you had to run for from it. You would run so you would run so hard and so fast that sometimes you know, you could feel pain in your legs. But endorphins actually are released and they help you like numb it. But at the same time they give you like this chemical reaction in the brain that feels like makes you actually like enjoy, like, just feel loose. You feel free. That’s that’s the way I can describe it. Yeah.
Zeke: And you also mentioned rock climbing?
Estabon: Oh, yeah. rock climbing. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s a recent hobby that I’ve that I started. I started because I watched Alex Honnold. He’s like a professional rock climber. One of the best in the world. Actually, he climbed El Capitan, which is like a mountain in California. Off of Yosemite without a harness like and it’s a climb that I think sometimes like it takes weeks to do you know like it’s a climb that it’s so big that you have to you know climb thing camp a little bit with like those hanging tents and climb more and then camp climb. But he did it in one go. And he filmed it in one week make one day all in one day. Literally one one day no harness, like so if he if he fell that was it? Yeah. Like That shit is powerful. It took him I think. I think he was like, a lot of years to train. I know it’s more than five. It was insane. Yeah, that that inspired me to like be in rock climbing. But I do it indoor,
Zeke: Like the harness safety gear.
Estabon: Of course.
Zeke: People there to watch you.
Estabon: I haven’t I haven’t been fortunate enough to to rock climb outside. But um, I do want to start doing it sometime soon.
Zeke: So you do more like a challenge as well like just like, like another version of problem solving or are you just having fun?
Estabon: No, it’s definitely another challenge for sure. I like to like I like to have things to work on in my life. So with running, I have like personal records for myself. And with rock climbing, you know, I want to start establishing those. Like when you go to rock climbing inside a gym, there’s different colors, different routes that you can take, some of them are harder, some of them are easier. So that’s how you measure like your progress. But um, but yeah, rock climbing definitely teaches you a lot about like, you’d be surprised like you could be the most ocky dude. And then you could get beat in a climbing competition by the most scrawny dude, because rock climbing is all about technique. And how you use your arms like you’ve can’t, you can’t put too much too much pressure on your on your shoulders on your arms. Like whenever you’re, you’re in a hold, and like you’re not climbing, like you should always have your arms straight. So then you’ll get tired. You know, do all those little techniques that you need to start implementing.
Zeke: And remember when I rock climbed in the convocation. Oh, I almost went to the top but then I got stuck.
Estabon: Where they talk. Yeah, that was like your convocation, right?
Zeke: No, my sophomore year. I was mentoring that year. Oh, yeah.
Estabon: I think 2017.
Zeke: I came in 2015.
Estabon: Yeah, two years. Yeah, that’s that was my complicated. It was Yeah, but I think Hello
Zeke: I got like I stopped going I know what I’ll call me now.
Estabon: Yeah, I mean you should definitely go It’s fun. It’s a good way to bond a good date idea to show you lexicon
Zeke: I want to do another escape the room. Escape the room.
Estabon: Oh escape the room. I’ve never done those. Nevermind life unless you’re phobics. It’s a good idea.
Zeke: Like a closet like sin the one we all went to. It was a sci fi one almost fell because a robot came I robot. Okay, and then excuse me, jump back almost like fell over. Me one like
Estabon: Half an hour six. That’s a lot. A lot of different, like two years ago. Okay. Yeah, I think We have to go to one of those.
Zeke: Yeah. A little bit longer than we don’t.
Estabon: Know for sure, man.
Zeke: Man space. Yeah, for sure. So have you learned lessons in like life? Or like lessons have you been through life?
Estabon: Yeah, a lot of lessons I’ve learned most of them recently. Like one of the one of the biggest things that is always on my mind is, is it’s actually kind of becoming a problem to like, you know, your parents always tell you from little late Be careful who you surround yourself with, you know, be careful who you start being influenced by. And it’s not only until recently, well, not not so recently, probably like a year or two years ago, that I began to really see like, what that meant, and how it begins to unfold. And since I’ve started setting goals for myself as to who I want to be in the future, I know that I have to start working on those things. Now, you know, like, you just can’t become someone overnight, or over a year over two years. It just takes years was a lifetime sometime. But um, I started, like, one of the biggest lessons that it’s always in the back of my head is, you know, be careful who you surround yourself with. And unfortunately, like, it has worked for me like perfectly because I feel like I’m I become more focused, more disciplined. Like, I actually get the things that I have to do or that I want to do done. And that’s very important. Right? Same time, I feel like I’ve pushed a lot of friends away, or a lot of a lot of good friends, but we maybe just bad habits. And I realized that it’s just made me very, like not tolerable to, I guess you could say, bullshit, you know, but I say that’s unfortunate. Because, you know, at the end of the day, like, people are flawed, you know, like, yeah, you can’t make sure you can’t be picky with like, Oh, I want to be friends with this guy, but he has this or this friend has that he has this like, and I started to realize, like, you know, past couple months. Like that’s something that I do have to change. Like, yeah, it’s okay to be reserved as to who you give your time to, and you know, who values you as a person? Because I feel that’s important to me. Like, if I’m giving my time to someone, I want to make sure that I’m feeling valued and that, you know, we’re sharing, you know, time, like quality time, no, like, I don’t want some half assed friendships, um, or like some half as time spent together, you know? Yeah. And I felt like a lot of my friends were giving me up and kind of like maybe back off. But um, you know, I did a big like, you miss them. You miss being social. That’s something that I have to work on.
Zeke: Yeah. I guess my last question would be what would some advice you tell yourself?
Estabon: My younger self? Yeah. I mean, I am young,
Zeke: Even younger. 22 right now, I still I still see the changes of myself. Like I stayed the same person I still see, like an evolution,
Estabon: Right, for sure. my younger self I would say just to deal with people differently. I feel like in my past I’ve like I’ve always been, like I was I was always like, surrounded by people like, you know, and I thought that, you know, like I would never like run out of friends or like run out of people to be surrounded by like, you know, I was kind of popular back in high school and like I had like a lot of friends. So, that kind of like went over my head and it kind of like not made me really value or kind of like make relationships grown and become something good. Kind of like took it for granted and then people you know, started coming and going, but I do wish that a lot of friends trips that I’ve had in high school like, still remained and like I still had them around because it would have been nice to like grow up and you know, see where they’re going and see where I’m going. But um, yeah, that’s what I tell my younger self do.
Zeke: [inaudible] Yeah. So I guess that brings the episode to a close. So the last question is, what would you name name your origin story?
Estabon: What would I name my origin story?
Zeke: Yeah.
Estabon: Huh that’s a good question. I know one. I wanted to be a one word title, but I don’t know which word can be called Becoming. Becoming? Yeah. Just in case I don’t like it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Zeke: No problem anytime you have no commercials, no plugs, no promotions.
Estabon: Unfortunately I don’t make music Yeah, follow me on LinkedIn Connect Aight bro see ya.
Zeke: That brings another episode of the Let’s Gather Podcast close. Again, I like to thank Estabon for coming on the show. And for next week, I will be chatting with my friend Kenneth about various topics of anime music and much more hope you continue to have a nice day and hope to see you there.
[Music]