Roots to Branches
Finding Notes of Wisdom in Inspirational People
Roots to Branches
EP 4 - Noah Tew
Striking a harmonious chord between academic rigor and a fulfilling personal existence is an undertaking that many find daunting. Yet, UT Tyler's own Noah Tew joins us, a beacon of balance, revealing his personal symphony of strategies that keeps his life in tune. With a 4.0 GPA under his belt and a role as both a graduate student and a teaching assistant, Noah navigates the complexities of mentorship in student media and thriving relationships, all while keeping his hobbies in play. His insights into setting boundaries and the art of offering help enrich our conversation, underscoring the importance of a well-orchestrated daily schedule and the pursuit of academic distinction.
Have you ever likened your personal journey to the life of a plant? In an introspective segment, Noah unravels his transformation from a once-guarded cactus to a flourishing succulent, embodying resilience and adaptability. He weaves through tales of speech class triumphs and the liberating shift in perspectives, highlighting the unexpected joy of college freedom and the diminishing hold of judgment over time. This personal evolution echoes the notion that growth is not just about enduring the desert's heat but thriving in it, with friends acting as the rain that nurtures.
The episode culminates with a heartfelt exchange with Garrett Polk, exploring the synergy between student media and academia. Through the collaboration of Roots to Branches, 99.7 KVUT - Ut Tyler Radio, and Talon Student Media, we shine a spotlight on the richness student voices add to our collective narrative.
So so today I'm here with Noah 2. Noah 2 is a teaching assistant and graduate student here at UT Tyler, currently rocking a 4.0.
Speaker 2:Still, yes, yes, after the semester, still rocking that 4.0.
Speaker 1:Just finished the semester. That is crazy, insane. I don't think I've done that since, like 6th grade. Dude, it's rough, that's awesome and it's that's not a new thing for you, though 4.0. It is actually. Oh, so I thought you graduated with honors from undergrad. I did so. I graduated so honors.
Speaker 2:That doesn't mean 4.0. No, honors means this is how little I know Honors at UT Tyler it's like 3.75, believe still crazy. And then you get so there's like cum laude, which is honors, then there's sum laude, which is like a little bit better honors, and then there's maximum laude. I don't even know if I'm pronouncing that correctly, but yeah, there's three types of honors at UT Tyler.
Speaker 1:Good to know I don't have to worry about those kind of things. I'll never be there. So I guess, for context, I met Noah through the Patriot Talon. He's our student media here on campus. He was my predecessor there as editor-in-chief and he is the one who handed off the torch to me and really taught me everything I know about. That Played a huge role in painting the picture of leadership, especially student leadership, so I'm super grateful. He's also a great friend of mine.
Speaker 1:I think that's probably why I took over as editor-in-chief is because we were so close my first semester there and somehow, on top of all of that you do, you still have a pretty active personal life and a long-term girlfriend personal life and a long-term girlfriend, multiple hobbies. The reason I wanted you on this podcast is to understand how do you do it. You are the man of a million things and somehow still are able to walk around campus with a smile and also with an attitude of hey if you need anything, and also with an attitude of hey, if you need anything, let me know. I feel like you and I'm positive this is intentional that you end every conversation almost with hey. By the way, if you need anything, just let me know.
Speaker 2:Is that intentional? Yes, absolutely to some degree. I always want to be there for other people, like people are always there to help me out, right? I think it's my responsibility, in a way, to try to help others as well. Where did that start? I don't know. Like, quite honestly, I just think that's just been a thing that I've done. I think it's a yes, yes, ma'am, yes, sir, type deal. Right, it might have been instilled some time way before, and that's just how I've, yes, carried it forward.
Speaker 1:You've been doing that for forever. Guess, carried it forward, you've been doing that for forever.
Speaker 2:Yes, how often do people take you up on that? More than you would think and, of course, I'm always willing to help people out. Someone one of my friends a few weeks ago was like hey, noah, I'm going to I think it was longview I really need help securing transport for this. It was like a dresser or something like that, and it's people only ask if they really need something, right. Right, that's like what I really especially out of, like my friends and stuff like that. They like truly need something or a coworker.
Speaker 2:They only ask you if they really need help and if someone's asking for help, why not help them?
Speaker 1:You're right, absolutely. But I see I struggle sometimes with that because I've got so much on my own plate that it feels really hard to branch out even more, to take like almost hyper extend myself. But you do just as much as I do, if not more. So how?
Speaker 2:oh, we're post-semester now. Yeah, right, like, right now. Currently I work at the university. I work in our communication department. I just help out with stuff there. Now I'm still a teaching assistant. I'm assisting in some of our summer courses, but during the semester, you're right Like, I have a ton on my plate Every single day. Come into our office, right, we've got tons of classes going on. We've got I TA'd seven courses a semester, which was insane, ridiculous.
Speaker 1:And for people who don't know, first of all, ta is teacher's assistant, correct, and seven is an insane number.
Speaker 2:Yes, Normally it's what like two. Usually you only TA for one professor. I was doing three and I absolutely love each of my professors I TA'd for. I wish I could TA for all the professors in our department, but unfortunately I can't. You would spontaneously combust. I would absolutely combust.
Speaker 1:It's a lot of work.
Speaker 2:Yes, and knowing your limits is like a really big thing. They were asking me. They're like hey, could you also TA for one of our other professors as well? And I had to say no, because you have to know your limit. How do you know your limit? I just think about the scheduling, right, and it's okay. So we have seven courses.
Speaker 2:I know that in one of these courses I'm not going to be asked that much out of. That would be like the PR course. I'm only asked to come in to assist, like with students and stuff like that. But then I look at like the heavier classes, like our 2313 classes, which is our introductory to multimedia class. It's a lot of hands-on work. Multimedia class it's a lot of hands-on work. It's a lot of video assignments, it's a lot of grading as well. So I know that's going to take up at least two days out of the week for four hours, right, it's going to take up the same amount of time for grading each week and basically you just have to schedule it out. I'm pretty good at that. I'm pretty good at scheduling things.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you this question with a follow-up question many during the semester. How many hours a week do you feel like you're busy with either school work or work?
Speaker 2:oh, that's a hard one, honestly. I'm here. This semester it was Monday through Friday, usually from nine to five on average, so if a class was canceled I would go home, but with my grad classes they're at nighttime, so those grad classes are usually from 6 to 8.45. So on Thursdays I'd be here from 9 to 9 for the most part.
Speaker 1:So you're working easily 40 plus. So this is where I'm getting to. You're working easily 40 plus hour weeks every week, yeah, and yet your plate is still, you said, know your limits, right, so you still have enough room to give, to always offer people. If you need something, let me know. Yeah, and as well as I do that there are some students on this campus who feel like they have reached their limit at 20 hours a week, so everyone's limits are different, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so how did you get your limits to be so long? Is the question that's actually. Or did you just pop out and you're like I can do everything in the other.
Speaker 2:So no, absolutely not. It was something that I've definitely had to work at over the years. We've talked about this. Whenever I was in middle school, elementary school and high school, I was not the best of students. I was called an enigma by one of my teachers in middle school. And as a seventh grader. You don't really know how to take that. You don't even know how to spell that in middle school. Yeah, but yeah, grammarly helps a lot nowadays. Facts, facts.
Speaker 1:So middle school.
Speaker 2:You was not this person who was working that much. So I moved to Tulsa in fourth grade and went to public school and the education system in Oklahoma is one of the worst. I met some of my greatest friends during this time, but my parents saw fit to try to send me to private school to better me. But they put me in a very weird situation. Right, it's. All these kids have been like I'm not, they've been.
Speaker 2:There's a level of expectation, so I was went into it being like I thought I was doing pretty good, but like I had to reach a certain point and it took a lot of work to try to just stay afloat. And I think it started there trying to like just meet that expectation. And in high school I did everything in my power to just calculate exactly what I had to do to get by Like bare minimum. Yeah, I was a 3.0 student. I did exactly what I had to do to pass. If I didn't have to do it, I wouldn't do it. But when I got to college, things changed a ton, like so much. I had the freedom to choose what I wanted to do. That freedom in itself was really inspiring to me. I was like, oh my goodness, I can decide what my schedule is. I can decide if I want to eat ramen for the next week. I can decide if I want to do whatever. But I think that kind of propelled me into being able to manage myself a little bit times.
Speaker 1:That newfound freedom is has the complete opposite effect on college students. It's why I always suggest take some time off college, absolutely explore this new independence, because a lot of times people are so trained by the school systems of they tell you when to eat, when to sleep, when to think, when to not think, when to exercise, all that kind of stuff, and they build this regiment for you for 12 years, and so all of that freedom and independence a lot of times can be detrimental to students, but it seems like it was positive for you. Yeah, is that just because you're super independent as a person?
Speaker 2:I guess. So, yeah, I think that being able to decide stuff, just like I said it, was truly inspiring to me. And then I think another big point was actually being able to work for the university. Okay, I came here as a freshman. We were in a different building for our communication department. Then COVID happened. Right, they decided to move and one of our professors, anita Brown they had an opening for being a lab tech and she asked me and I was like absolutely, and then, past that point, I just got super involved.
Speaker 1:Everything became centered around school became like centered around school, you know. So do you feel like the job made you more invested in the college experience, or was it just you spending more time on campus?
Speaker 2:I think it's probably a mixture of both definitely the job, just being here, and being like meeting more people in our department. It most definitely made it more fun, I I would say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it makes sense, yeah.
Speaker 2:If you, it is what you get out of it. If you put in a good bit, you're going to get a lot out of it. Yeah, I started working here. I started applying myself more in my classes because I was a lab tech. I had to know stuff about our department, so I felt like I needed to know information, because if someone came to me and they were like Noah, I'm writing my media law and ethics paper, I need help. I want to be able to help them and be able to provide them good feedback. And you knew the professors too, absolutely, yeah, yeah, and I think that was another leg up.
Speaker 1:As well as knowing our professors, that's helped me a ton with the talent is like, because the professors know me so well, frankly, they're a little more lenient and a little more understanding, and so that helps a student a lot when things problems arise or anything like that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely okay, before we get too deep into it, I want to ask our big old question so I have to admit to anyone listening Noah and I have actually already recorded this podcast episode. Yeah, we did, and then I was in a panic to clear some SD cards and accidentally deleted the episode. This is our second time recording it. This question is coming. Yes, if you were a plant, what would you be and why?
Speaker 2:Okay, so I've thought so deeply about this. I've had time to marinate, yeah, and this is not. I've come to understand why I was told this. So when you asked me this question, this first thing was like I thought I asked my coworkers like guys, I don't know what plant I would be and Anita was like, let's take an online plant quiz. So I took an online plant quiz and it came up as a succulent and that's what Anita had said, and that's what everyone else had said. So I thought about it and I know we talked about it before, but I'm still going to agree with that. I think I am a succulent.
Speaker 1:It's interesting because before, in our first recording, you said that everyone else said that you were a succulent, but you felt like you were a cactus. Yes, a cactus is a succulent, but a specific type right.
Speaker 1:It's one that's sharp. It's one that if you get too close it hurts you. And that was always something really interesting to me when we first talked about it is that it was a little more guarded of a succulent right. It's still resilient right. It still can grow anywhere, still very like self-sufficient both of these plants. The only major difference was the spikes on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've come to realize that I'm a very much an open book, right. If anyone asks me a question, I will tell them that's really interesting. Obviously I'm not. If someone asked me like a super personal question, which I don't even, I can't even think of one, that wouldn't be like your deepest fears.
Speaker 1:No, but yeah, I wouldn't have called you a cactus either, but I just found it interesting that your instincts at least.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what it pointed to, but upon further reflection I agree with that. I don't think I need that much. I can. I like we were talking about last time, right. So when we're talking about like the succulents or like the little plants that, like you can spray with water like once a week and they'll be fine, I feel like that's kind of me in a way, like I don't need, I can be, I can have a lot that's going on right, and I can still stay afloat.
Speaker 1:Let me read into this plant analogy way too much, go for it.
Speaker 1:Go for it, I'm going to take it way too deep, but since you talked about being an open book and this whole podcast is about diving deeply into your past and what you've been through, but knowing about you just personally as friends, I know that you came from a upbringing where you had to be, you had to defend yourself, you had to be defensive, you had to put up those defensive spikes. And so I wonder, as I hear you realize that, hey, maybe I'm not a cactus anymore. Yeah, do you feel like that comes from a place of you no longer need the spikes?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think I I think of being defensive. I think it's a reaction to a lot of things. Right, the older I've gotten, the more it's like why, who cares if someone judges me? Who cares if someone thinks ill of me?
Speaker 1:So did you have those reactions when you were younger?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. I thought everyone would judge me for any of my hobbies that I liked. They would judge me for my intelligence. I just thought that I was going to be judged by a lot of people, which is a super negative way to go about it, so I tried to keep to myself for the most part. Obviously, I still talk to people, I made friends and whatnot, but I did my best to stay back.
Speaker 1:So what helped you transfer from cactus to succulent. I'm going to stick with it.
Speaker 3:I really like that.
Speaker 1:But what made that move? Where you're not defensive, you don't need the spikes or whatever.
Speaker 2:So I think it's a mixture of like freedom and like friends, right? So I think friends can open you up and present to you new ideas, and tons of my friends have shown me that you can be yourself. Who cares if people judge you, what are they going to do? But also, like I said, going into college there's so much freedom and we meet so many people, we're introduced to so many people and then you find out that people don't judge you. They're like you're just thinking too much into it. For the most part You're over, like I figured out that I overthought so much more stuff than it was actually happening.
Speaker 1:You know, what really helped me Was, I realized, even if they judge me, that is such a fleeting thought in their mind that they forget immediately. You're so correct. Like, I'm not going to lie. I hate this about myself, but I'm a judgmental guy. Yeah, I will be the type of person to see someone being strange in my opinion and think, some, that guy's freaking weird, yeah, and then I'm over and I've never thought again about how weird that guy was or what the heck he was doing. And so that's what's helped me is maybe I am weird and maybe people are judging me, but what does that mean? Nothing. They're there, they judged me, they moved on, they forgot it and what's passed.
Speaker 2:So you took the introduction to speech course here, right? Or did you take it at TJC, or yeah?
Speaker 1:I think I took it as a dual credit, but I've had interpersonal. Yeah, is that what you're talking about?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so whenever I went to my speech class here, like I speaking in front of people, I get like little butterflies. I'm not. I think that everyone's going to judge every single thing that comes out of my mouth, and the reality that set in after this introductory speech class was no one. After 10 minutes after your speech, people are focusing on something completely different, unless you just do something absolutely super memorable, right? They've already moved on Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:That's helped me a ton, truly. Yeah, so I do. I want to dive into the roots. We've been talking about where things are at with you right now. I think it's important to highlight the journey that it has been for you to get here, because you're, by very many metrics, at a very successful place right now. You are a leader on campus. You are doing great in school. I don't, I can't speak for your relationship, but at least from an outside perspective, yeah, you're giving me a thumbs up. It looks super healthy and awesome. I know you've got a lot of great healthy friendships, you've got healthy hobbies, but like and you I alluded to it a second ago we know that you came from a very difficult one that people would say was not projecting you in a good direction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just to get into it. So I was raised by a single mother, for the most part, right. My mom is one of my heroes. She's such an awesome person. She also went to grad school here at the University of Texas at Tyler. She got pregnant with me when she was 21 and she was a grad student here. She recalls like whenever she had me she had this biology teacher that just absolutely did not care that she was pregnant and failed her. But she's a big part of my life and has showed me that anyone can do anything. But so I grew up. I was raised. I was born here in Tyler. My dad and my mom had me here.
Speaker 2:They were together for five years and then they separated and my dad decided to go do his own deal for a little bit and it was just me and my mom for a bit, and you would think that that would really upset me or anything like that. For some reason it didn't. Obviously, I was sad. You don't get to see that person who is, you know, a monolithic figure in your life but at the same time, like my mother, was everything that I needed. She cared for me, she took me wherever and I had it wasn't just. I had a family structure that I'm so grateful for. My great grandmother was there for me every weekend. If my mom was busy with school or work, I would stay with my great-grandmother and she taught me about being positive and it was such an amazing thing.
Speaker 2:And, like I said, my dad decided to go do very, very dumb stuff. We all have our past and stuff like that. That's how it was until I was about, I'd say, 12. It was very rocky and then he decided to turn his life around and that's why I'm all about forgiveness. Any person can change. It doesn't matter what you've done. You can make a change. If you really want to, you can.
Speaker 2:He met my stepmother. She's awesome and, like I said, it was rocky whenever before he met her. But after that I have two awesome step siblings awesome step siblings. But he decided to man up and take a more pivotal role and we talked more and I got to actually know him as a person and that allowed me to move past all of that trauma. Right, but I think getting over all that trauma is probably one of the hardest things to do, but it's one that you should just let go of. I think. All that, that stuff that's holding you down, that stuff that causes you so much anguish. You know, I think that and it's hard, it's so hard to let it go.
Speaker 2:But I think it's so important I think that's what's allowed me to be able to do all this stuff is to let go of all that anger and all that. I'm not going to say hate, but just anguish.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I noticed that in you, like, you don't seem to be holding on to some kind of resentment, and that's extremely hard to do. It's something I definitely am not very good at, very good at what is the first step to to letting go and really realizing that a person has changed, has been reborn, or however you want to describe it so you see it through actions, right.
Speaker 2:actions are so much louder than words. And even before that, my father would say a lot of stuff, right, but wouldn't see any of that in action. But, like I said, he started to take leaps and bounds. He's a huge member of the Lindell community now he does food drives. He does so much to help his community, right. He does so much for my step-siblings, my stepmother and for me as well. And those actions have showed me and have allowed me to say I understand what he did was wrong. He knows what he did was incorrect, right, but why hold it against him?
Speaker 1:So do you wipe the slate clean when you start to see him changing, or was it like this? You held onto it for a long time.
Speaker 2:You needed a lot of proof, or it was something that, like, was given over time. Like I said that cactus right, like when it first happened, I, I was like, so we'll see what happens. But over time I wore down, I was like, look, if he was going to do something, it would already happened and he didn't. Obviously you should be weary if someone wrongs you. I think that it's understandable to be hurt and like all the emotions that you feel during a moment of, like, trauma or anguish. Those are all super valid. Yeah, I think that if I was angry and held on to it, I think that's also understandable as well every person's different dude yeah everyone's so different but, like I said, I just kind of I, just kind of just I it was.
Speaker 2:There was so much like reflection, yeah, like why am I angry? Is it worth it to have there's so much energy in being mad, a ton, a ton. And it's okay to be mad for a bit, it's okay to be upset, but to hold on to it for forever, I just don't see the point.
Speaker 1:You mentioned that it was a lot of time thinking about your feelings. Is that something that's a part of your regular life, is like introspective thought, or are you the keep your eyes forward type of person?
Speaker 2:so I think that if you are too introspective it can lead to absolute consequences. I had a very dear friend of mine that they went too far and then they started overthinking everything, single thing that they did. They thought everything was negative. A big thing in the last time that we talked was seeing that the glass half full instead of half empty, and that's part of my mantra is like trying to see the positive in everything. I think that that was also a huge part of moving forward past all of that. But if you're too introspective and then you're negative in that half full, half empty, it's just going to lead to so many problems. You have to be so vigilant about those things.
Speaker 1:You mentioned the mantras. That was going to be one of my questions is do you have any phrases or verses or mantras that you carry with you on a regular basis?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that it's important to do good to others and I think it's important to see the glass half full and stuff half empty. That was something that was told to me by my middle school in that same Catholic middle school. That's that was told to me by my middle school in that same Catholic middle school. That's what was told to me, and it was a very powerful thing. That might have been another turning point as well, honestly, was having Pete Thieben, who was my middle school teacher. I love Pete, but he was an awesome human being. He gave this awesome speech and he literally had a glass. He was like what do y'all see this glass as? Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And he just pushed it out to us. He was like, and we were all like, even I was thinking. I was like it's a half-empty glass, dude, what are you doing with a glass of water in your hand? And he was like if any of you are thinking that's half-empty, that's a very negative mode of thought. I was like huh that's fair.
Speaker 1:Switch to flipping yeah.
Speaker 2:Flip to switching. I think it flipped to switching away. You know, I was like huh, am I looking at things negatively or am I looking at things positively? Because stuff happens, bad things always happen, you know, and I think seeing the good in a situation, I think that speaks leaps and bounds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's the very famous fable of the Chinese farmer. I don't know if you've heard. I've not heard of the fable, have you actually not?
Speaker 1:I have not, did I tell it this last time you did not. Oh, okay, gosh, it's super long. Cliff notes, yeah. So maybe I give cliff notes Basically and I apologize to my philosophy professor who's going to be so pissed that I'm summarizing this, because part of the power of the story is the length of it of this farmer and his son, where circumstances keep happening, a circumstance in which most people would assume this is a positive thing, but instead the farmer says I don't know if it's good or bad, we'll see. And then the next day that thing turns into what most would consider a negative thing and people are like oh, I'm so sorry. And he says I don't know if this is good or bad, it just is what it is. Thing. And it's a super old fable basically trying to explain the perspective of things in life. There's not good and bad in life, things just are and you can choose which perspective you want to look at it.
Speaker 1:I like that, I really like that I'll send you a link to the and I guess for the podcast listeners I'll include it in the show notes to someone who can do it. The full justice of the story.
Speaker 2:It's worth listening to See. Now your philosophy professor is going to be super happy because you're trying to showcase this awesome fable.
Speaker 1:I'm linking people to it. There we are, so I wanted to ask a couple like deeper, get to know you questions, go for it. You should know them because I hit you with them last time. But what formed you most growing up? Was it your parents?
Speaker 2:your friends or your environment? Oh man, I actually remember my answer to this. I think it's a mixture of all three, right? Yeah, I think, with your parents, they can teach you so much. They can teach you what to do and, to be very honest, what not to do, yeah, but your friends, like I've learned through my best friends, I've learned so so much Growing up with them, learning from mistakes, honestly yeah, but environment as well, it plays such a pivotal role. I stakes, honestly, but environment as well, it plays such a pivotal role.
Speaker 2:I grew up here for nine years, right, and Lindell, mineola, tyler I'm not dissing on Tyler, but it is smaller than a super big city. But I moved to Tulsa, right, and most definitely just seeing so many different perspectives. Right, because I mean you're in an area where I'm still in Oklahoma, right, but there were just so many more people, so many more different perspectives. Right, because you mean you're in an area where we're still I'm still in oklahoma, right, uh, but there were just so many more people, so many more different perspectives, and I got to learn a lot from that, just in itself how many times did you move, growing up nine?
Speaker 2:ten times.
Speaker 1:Yes, how did that impact you?
Speaker 2:I just I saw it as an opportunity to just make more friends.
Speaker 1:That is a super positive, yeah, wow.
Speaker 2:I will definitely say because, moving around a lot, whenever I moved to Tulsa, I was very scared in a way, but I met, like I said, I met some of my best friends up there and then, two years after meeting all these new people and being happy, I had to change to a private school, which was definitely like, in hindsight was most definitely the best option for me, but I started to close myself up. At that point I was like man, this is like, oh, like I've changed from so many different schools I've met, and it was during sixth grade.
Speaker 1:you know how it is, yeah, yeah, informative years. What Formative years.
Speaker 2:What's the point in making friends? I'm just, yeah, just all that stuff. And I found and then, years later, I'm like I look back at that. Even a year after that, I was like that's so dumb and that's like such a bad outlook to have, but it's understandable how someone could feel like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what's the point after moving so many times? But you snapped out of it Absolutely how.
Speaker 2:I don't. Maybe it was the glass half full talk.
Speaker 1:Is that when that happened?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think we had that talk in like seventh grade, okay, or maybe eighth, I don't remember, yeah. But I guess I just looked at myself at that point Maybe at the end of sixth grade or seventh grade and I was like man, I really, I, man, I really I'm not moving in the next year or so, I'm here for the rest of middle school. I need to try to make friends, because friends are a huge part of it.
Speaker 1:If you don't have friends and you just go to school, go home, it can be miserable man. Oh yeah, we're social creatures. Absolutely, humans are social animals. We need that, it's so vital.
Speaker 2:And I know people make the argument of introvert, extrovert, and I think that is true. I think there are people that are introverts. I think there are people that are extroverts right, but even introverts have friends. Man, yeah, like you still can have friends and it's a lot easier to make friends nowadays through aspects of like online. Yeah, I know people that have had best friends that are all the way in Europe and they talk to every single day and they're so close. While I might not be able to truly understand that, I can definitely see those two people having like a friendship or a bond.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's interesting to me because there's certainly a perspective out there that internet friendships are not quote-unquote real friends. But you don't entertain that kind of perspective.
Speaker 2:I'm going to reference some of my research this semester, please do I was in this cultural class for one of my master's classes and I wrote my big paper for culture over virtual reality and the perspectives that VR culture can offer, and a big part that in this these vr communities right is like creating friendships. If there are games I'm sure you've heard of some of them vr chat, right, and to me personally, I don't see the point right, but I can understand I think it's interesting exploring it right the relationships that are created in online communities. But vr is such a different. You're not just clicking on Discord and joining a call and talking with your friends. You are literally seeing the avatar that presents themselves and in a way, you can also feel it using haptics, right, weird.
Speaker 3:It makes me very uncomfortable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you could be hugged by a person and feel a hug from a person who is thousands and thousands of miles away. No, but what's different about that? You're having a physical interaction, technically speaking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to me it's just a. I'm not as healed of a person as you are. Noah, I'm very distrusted, it's understandable. I don't actually know who this person on the other side of that VR thing is. I don't want some, especially on VR chat. I don't want somebody in the Hulk avatar, when my hug at.
Speaker 3:I don't need a hug from Sonic.
Speaker 1:I agree, see, I don't need a hug from Sonic.
Speaker 2:I agree, see, I'm of the same mindset. I have friends that I know. I have one friend that I've I know through a friend right, it was from his hometown that I've met before and I've played games with him. Like I play games with him like once a month and I know this guy, I feel like I do, but obviously that inner like being able to like have sit down, have a conversation, see the person, I think that's a component that's missing, right. But I think vr replicates, or at least it tries to replicate, in-person interaction it's closer than any kind of digital relationship has been.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah, I can definitely agree to that and I and part of my research is I going to be looking at the implications of that right?
Speaker 1:Is that the path? Do you think you're going to go research? Is that the career journey? We'll see have you looked that far.
Speaker 2:So currently I'm doing an experiment with Dr Britt in our MCRL lab. It's a media communication research lab, the Media Communication Research Lab and I'm doing an experiment that's looking at the psychophysiological reactions of VR horror games versus regular horror movies. So dumb it down for us, the what reactions. Yeah, okay, so basically I'm going to do an EKG, which is an electroencephalography, right, that didn't help at all.
Speaker 2:You're going to do a brain scan? Yeah, okay, so we're going to put electrodes onto people, right, we're going to measure heart rate. Okay, there we go. So like sweat, yeah, and we're going to try to like I've been looking at trying like how to measure cortisol levels, but a lot of that's too invasive yeah, plug into people's veins and stuff. Yeah, yeah, I'm not. I think that seeing how I would do, in that I just want to see how this experiment goes and then maybe I will, and that experiment's on horror games, right?
Speaker 1:Yes. Vr horror games yes, and how they impact people.
Speaker 2:The actual reaction that your body has watching the two.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's very interesting. Yeah, if you want to do it, dude, I will be one of the people that sweats. Horror games, horror in general, works on me. It does what it's supposed to for me.
Speaker 2:But there's the question which one's scarier?
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm excited for the research, but I feel like it's got to be open and shut VR is way scarier.
Speaker 2:I see, I think that as well, but there's no research that has been done that this is totally scarier.
Speaker 1:I see, I think that as well, but there's no research that has been done that this is totally scarier. To prove it yeah Cool, that's super cool Is horror games. Are you a horror game fan? I'm such a little ninny about horror games.
Speaker 2:I'm not even going to lie to you. I like if any of my, if any of my friends could vouch for I scream like a little girl. I am not a. I can do horror movies. I can do horror movies just fine, because I'm not doing the action.
Speaker 2:I'm not opening the door, the final girl or whatever the terms are, but in horror games it doesn't matter what it is. I played one a few years ago called Alien Isolation, which is from the Alien franchise, and I did not get an hour in that game before I was just like I'm done. I can't do it anymore. Yeah, I completely relate to that.
Speaker 1:So is that, was the horror games thing your idea? Was it Dr Britt's idea? No, it was completely my idea. Why pick horror games if you're not a horror games fan? Or is it because they scare you so much?
Speaker 2:No, because they do scare me, I played, so I do have VR, and I play a game that's called Into the Radius, right and on paper. If I was to tell you about all the things that you do in this game, it doesn't seem scary, right? But the way that VR creates this world and the sound design, all the layers that go into it, right, it makes it one of the most terrifying experiences that I've ever played, and I just want to understand that more.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I don't know. It's interesting, that is very interesting, yeah. So I want to ask you may remember this question as well, but if your life were to be turned into a book, how many chapters would it have? Oh, dude, and what are the chapter titles? The Beginning, middle and End? Brilliant, there's that mass-com creativity, right there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude, Obviously I don't know the end, right yeah?
Speaker 1:And life's a journey. But just so your life so far. If you say you started writing the autobiography right now, what are the first chapters?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it would probably be chapter one, would be tell, moving to Oklahoma. Okay, I think that when I lived here in Texas, I think that was very formative and I'm so blessed to have been around my family for that amount of time.
Speaker 2:And that really taught me a whole lot. Moving to Tulsa, moving to Oklahoma, it was such a different experience, right. I got to meet so many new people and learn a whole lot, and obviously moving back and coming to college has been a big deal. And now I feel like I'm in a new chapter of my life, which is my master's degree, at least.
Speaker 1:And what I'm hearing is Chapter one, two three, four five.
Speaker 2:Five, maybe six, I don't know if I'd separate. Break them, separate the five you got birth to, moving right Oklahoma, and then it would be like, oh man, now I was four, it would be college, just undergrad, and then my master's Master's is its own.
Speaker 1:Yes, completely different experience, so different. Okay, cool, if you were an engine. Another metaphor here I love them. If you were an engine, what is the gasoline?
Speaker 2:I'm trying to change this. I'm trying so hard.
Speaker 1:You don't want it to be coffee. I'm trying to change this.
Speaker 2:I'm trying so hard to be coffee. I'm trying so hard, but it's absolutely coffee.
Speaker 1:What about on an emotional level, like what fuels you, what keeps you from?
Speaker 2:giving up. It's my ambition, I think. I think I want so, so much to just be successful, right and to be happy. So I'm going to do the things that I think that are going to make me happy in the end.
Speaker 1:If you painted a picture of successful what's in the frame?
Speaker 2:I don't necessarily know what the job front would look like. Right, it could be teaching. Right? I love Tiang. It's so fun and I learn so much while I'm doing it. It doesn't matter if I'm working actually in the field, whether it's journalism, whether it's marketing or anything. I feel like I can find happiness in any of those jobs. I think being with the person that I love is a very big part of it, and I obviously like having some financial stability. That's that. That is, that that is. The priority right now is trying to find that financial stability.
Speaker 1:Relatable man, it is tough, absolutely it is super tough. So you could be happy in any job. So what would it take for the job to make you happy, like what would need to be there?
Speaker 2:I think right now it's obviously financial Because of the job market. How it is right now, it's so tough to find jobs, so tough. I think if I were to teach or like lecture or adjunct, like here, I feel like that obviously it would just transition, so I don't Smoothly. Yeah, trying to find a job. I know that's so stressful. My mother is actually trying to find another job right now and so is my girlfriend. My mother has a master's and has 20 years of experience in her field. She's still struggling to find a job. And Hannah, she has all this experience, or she has experience and the degree, but she's still struggling to find a job. Yeah, it's just rough right now that is so.
Speaker 1:The main thing is like finding something easy.
Speaker 2:My last question, to end this out here in a few words what do you hope that 70 year old Noah feels when he looks back on his life? I just hope I feel contentment, I feel I hope I look back and I'm just happy in general that I did everything that I could to try to live a happy life. I obviously try not to look back at regrets, but I'm going to try to get through it with the least amount of regrets as possible. Yeah, interesting, but even so I say that regrets are a natural part. Bad things happen. We all make mistakes, right, yeah? And I think acknowledging those mistakes can ease that regret feeling, because looking back at something that you've done it's not an easy thing. So anything to ease that.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you said that, because I think I agree with you that regrets are natural. I hate the whole. I want to look back on my life with no regrets. There is no regrets. We all want that, but it's not real. Yeah, in fact, I saw a post on Twitter back when it was Twitter, now it was Twitter X, now it's whatever, yeah. But they just said, if you're looking back on your life and cringing, it's good because it means you've grown up from then. And I think that equally applies to regrets that if you're looking back, being like, oh was a mistake, oh, I didn't handle that, it means that you've learned since then, you've gotten better since then. So that has helped me a lot on the whole regret thing. So a follow-up question on what do you hope, 70 year old, you feels when they look back? Yeah, what will it take to get there, to get to that place?
Speaker 2:To reach content. To reach that point Like I said, I think it follows a plan that I'm going on I think that if I marry the person that I love and have a fruitful relationship, I feel like if I find a job that I enjoy doing as well as being happy with helping my community I think finding joy in your community is another big thing as well. I know that you've done that in Mineola as well with Lynn Steele. I think if I look back and I see I've done all that stuff and see what I've done, I feel like that will allow me to reach that level of contentment that I want Cool, so maintain course.
Speaker 2:Just maintain course right now.
Speaker 1:And that's more difficult to do than to say it is. It really is. Well, I wish you the best on maintaining course. Thank you, man. Thank you for being the guest. That's all the questions I have. If you have anything else you want to share to the listeners, oh man.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me on. It was an absolute blast. Appreciate it. Good to talk to you again. Good to talk to you as well.
Speaker 3:I'm Garrett Polk. Roots to Branches is brought to you by 99.7 KVUT. Ut Tyler Radio, a public service of the College of Arts and Sciences from the University of Texas at Tyler. This podcast is also made in partnership with Town Student Media. You can stream this podcast and following episodes on your favorite podcast streaming platforms. You can also follow our social media for news on upcoming episodes and highlights. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are not direct reflections of the views and opinions of UT Tyler or the UT System.