“That burst pipe was flowing… an inch away from …the electrical box”
Adult

“That burst pipe was flowing… an inch away from …the electrical box”

Note: There is language that is excluded in the transcript but not excluded in the audio. Is there a time when a house you were living in flooded? Yes. Twice! Uh, well, three times, I guess. No, just twice. I did have my water heater break in my house  I own now, but it didn't – flood like well it flooded the basement but there was nothing to be worried about. Um, but, there was another time, my parents were on vacation. Honestly, like, I hope this wasn't my fault. Don't tell them if it was, but they were gone for like two weeks in the winter and they left their heat on at like 74 or something outrageous like that. So I turned it down to like, you know, 60. Um, but, yeah, one of their pipes ended up freezing down in the basement that was right along the exterior wall and it burst. And, it had been flooding for like a long -- like a day and a half probably. My brother and I stopped over there to feed the cats and we were, like, in the kitchen,I’m like, “What's that noise? Do you hear that?” And, oh my God, I can't believe he did this, he's so crazy, but he went down the basement and like went to go turn off the power at the electrical box, but he had to wade through the water, and it was, like, over waist deep like it was it was full. And our basement was uh huge. The basement itself was, um, could have been its own apartment, had a doorway to go to it and there was one, two, three, four, five rooms down there. Um, yeah, ‘cause there was, like, the main like Game Room living room area, there was a bedroom, a bathroom, a little, like, middle area where the water heater and stuff was and, like, a workbench and then there's the laundry room and then another storage room and then there was like under the stairs storage as well. Yeah, and then there was stairs that went up to the kitchen as well as stairs that went up to the attached garage. Um, but yeah, he, like, waded -- and I just remember being like, “You're gonna f***ing electrocute yourself and die. Like, what are you doing?” I can't believe he actually went in there.…

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July 10, 2022
“My sister grabbing my hand, the ocean pulling me by my feet…”
Adult

“My sister grabbing my hand, the ocean pulling me by my feet…”

(CONTENT WARNING: DROWNING) I really resonated with the question in the email: “Have you ever been swimming in the ocean and gotten pulled under by a wave?” Um I was actually just thinking about this last night. Um I have when I was, I think I was like four, um one set of my grandparents lives in Florida and we were visiting. And me, my sister and my parents were walking on the beach. Like, in the evening, and the ocean was relatively calm and uh my sister and I were closer to the water and then my parents were like, the same level as us, but, like, further back, not as close to the water. And this totally, just, rogue wave out of nowhere just swept up and grabbed me off the beach and, you know, knocked me off my feet and pulled me out. And I was closest to the water so it was me, not my sister and – and when my mom tells the story she's like, you know, we saw it happen. And there's another couple walking on the beach and they saw it happen and like all four of us just went running. Um but like they were a little ways away, you know. And the crazy thing is that, like, somehow my sister,  who's only two years older than me, so if I was four she would have been six, like, was able to grab me and hold on to me and I remember this obviously from my point of view. Not not, the stuff that they're describing but I have a very strong memory of being underwater, you know like my feet towards the ocean. You know off – having been swept off my feet and just like the pull of the ocean and like the roar of being underwater, you know, seems so loud. Um and it felt like forever, it felt like I was forever suspended, you know, my sister grabbing my hand the ocean pulling me by my feet. And just like not sure who is going to win that tug of war. And the – I think the most bizarre part of it is like how could my sister have won it you know, she's – she was six and I just remember how hard the – the water was pulling on me that tide, you know, and…

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July 10, 2022
“I passed out and hit my head on the floor”
Adult

“I passed out and hit my head on the floor”

Note: There is language that is excluded in the transcript but not excluded in the audio. So a couple years ago, I was making muffins in my friend's kitchen and I passed out. Like, I walked -- I didn't -- my stomach, like, felt weird and then I was like, "Okay, I'm just gonna walk to the bathroom." And I got, like, two paces or, like, three feet from  the door and I, like passed out and hit my head on the floor. And the best part of the story is that my sister, my little sister, was in the living room with her friend because my friend and her sister are friends -- our sisters are friends. And so my friend was in the kitchen making brownies, or, making muffins. Banana muffins. And my -- our sisters were sitting in the living room. And I, like, just passed out, and my head hit the floor. And they just sat there and watched, um, because they thought I had, just, like, tripped and fell or something, or, I, like, was faking. I don't know, they, like, didn't move. And then, to make things even better, I had just spilled banana batter on my foot. And you know how dogs are supposed to be, like, caretakers or whatever and they, like, help people? Well, my friend's dog just came in and licked the batter off of my foot. She didn't even, like -- there was no helping. She just licked it off my foot and then left. She didn't do anything else. And my friend's mom comes, like, sprinting upstairs, and was like, "The f*** was that?" And I was, like, "Yeah." At this point, I regained consciousness because it was just a minor -- minor lapse, um, to where I was unconscious. Um, but, um, at that point, I was kind of just laying there. She's like, "Dude, what the f*** happened and why did nobody do anything?!" I was like, "I don't know! Don't ask me! Ask the people who just sat there!" Anyway, so that's kind of funny. It's -- I don't really know if I was dehydrated but that could have -- that most likely led to it because what happened, what I think happened is we'd just gotten out of the hot tub that my friend has and I hadn't really eaten anything or drank anything.…

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July 10, 2022
“It was like the opposite of a date going really well.”
Adult

“It was like the opposite of a date going really well.”

A guy asked me out for coffee saying that he he just felt like he needed to to make more friends and I was like I took this at face value and I thought to myself. "You know, what? Yeah, I could use more friends. Dang it. I'll go on this date". Wait. No I will not I won't go on this date. I will go to coffee with this guy. Sorry, I have to go in a room because my children just got home. My children are very loud, like most children. So I said yes and I went and you know, it was okay. It was a little awkward because I'm just like, you know socially incompetent and he was a little bit awkward too and I went home, you know, he drove me home and I was like, "okay this is -- that was okay. Um a little odd". I probably wouldn't want to necessarily do it all the time. But he's a nice guy. Um, and then he wouldn't stop calling me. Like I went on vacation to the west coast to visit friends and I was hanging out with friends and he just kept calling me and I told my friend, my best friend, I was like, "I don't understand it. Like I'm on vacation. Why would you call somebody that you know is on vacation visiting people? Like they don't want to talk to you, they want to talk to their friends that they're visiting". And she very kindly was like, "Okay. I'm going to explain something to you. And that's that when a guy in his early twenties asks a girl in her early twenties out for coffee to be friends, what he means is that he is looking for a romantic partner and he would like to -- He would like you to go out with him to see if you could be potent -- like he likes you." Basically. Yeah. Yeah, and yes, I had to have somebody sit me down and tell me "hey if a guy asks you out for coffee, it means that he likes you." And I was incensed. I was like "Well dang it, if he -- he said he wanted friends". Like if he had straight up told me that he liked me, I could have turned him down and we could have avoided this…

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July 3, 2022
“I do a lot of things where not that many women are prominent”
Teen

“I do a lot of things where not that many women are prominent”

Have I ever had a personal experience with double standards? I definitely have. I do a lot of things where not that many women are prominent in the field or women of color. One of those things is chess and another one of those things is coding. And you know, I guess you know even even like this Monday this past Monday, I was playing chess against against this old man, and I won and like his whole friend group was like, "oh my God like you won against you, you lost to a girl, you lost to a girl". But like literally like a half hour before, a boy beat him and none of them said anything like that. And so that's a double standard I've experienced in terms of like woman winning, winning against a man in chess and then the same with like coding, you know. When you when you go to a lot of coding events, there aren't that many girls present and so, you know, you just get like those weird looks. In terms of opportunities, there isn't always equity in that, but I do think that we've come a long way and that we need to acknowledge that. You know, no matter what double standards are always gonna exist. You just need to make sure that people who, you know, apply to those double standards or take part in those double standards, you know. Those those numbers just need to be lower.

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July 3, 2022
“Our sister was leaning up against the water jets…. and she got stuck to it”
Kid

“Our sister was leaning up against the water jets…. and she got stuck to it”

Let's tell the story of Tennessee. Oh, yes. Yes. So our sister she -- we were in a hot tub and she was in a hot tub. And well we were all in hot tub with a so we were sharing a house with my mom's friends family. And so we were all in the hot tub and our sister was leaning up against like the water jets or some filter, The vents! The vents. And what happened was she got stuck to it. And so she was stuck in the hot tub and she couldn't get like out, the suction was so bad. And then when she finally did there was this huge mark on her back and it was so funny. Don't tell her that but it was so funny. And now like basically to this day there's a circle thing on her back. There is not! That is such an exaggeration. No that is not true. She is lying, but -- But there was one for like week. Yeah for a week it was.

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July 3, 2022
“These people were looking at us, I think, that we had dropped in from another planet.”
Adult

“These people were looking at us, I think, that we had dropped in from another planet.”

This kind of does remind me though of another time my sister and I were in the Dominican Republic and we were visiting a friend of hers from college there. And she had planned a day trip for us on a boat to you know - you take this boat out you go to this island, you stay there for a while and then you know, then you come back and it was I don't know if her friend knew exactly what the situation was or if she did and assumed that we would too but my sister and I were completely not prepared for what this trip actually was. It was totally a party trip.Like it was totally you drink from the moment that you get on this boat - probably even before you get on the boat. All through the boat, I mean people were just going crazy. I mean everybody was in their string bikinis jumping off the boat. I mean getting to the beach and you know, just totally, you know, totally a beach party trip. Totally not my sister and my scene at all, and neither one of us had our bathing suits which again, I guess you think okay, you're going on a boat and you're going to a beach on an island, yep we probably should have assumed that we needed our bathing suits. But we didn't, we're not super water people like we just we didn't we didn't even think. So we're - I'm, I was there - I think I even had like capris on I didn't even have like a skirt or shorts or anything. I mean, I think I had like sort of capris that definitely like covered my knee. I think they were black and then like just a t-shirt no tank top. No, I mean really again and I think everybody was kind of looking at the two of us like what is going on and my sister always wears like any time that she knows she's gonna be out in the sun - which again she kind of thought she was gonna be out in the sun being on a boat or at the beach she always wears long sleeves. And oftentimes long pants too with UV protective, um clothing because she burns so easily. So I'm pretty sure she had on like her full UV, you…

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June 26, 2022
“…boys are not taught, “Don’t attack girls.”
Adult

“…boys are not taught, “Don’t attack girls.”

There were many times where I would have a late class, be studying in the library, be doing things in the lab late at night. And you know when school's in session, it's the winter so it gets dark really early. You know, it could be seven, eight o'clock. It's not that late, but it's very dark. And just because Detroit has the reputation that it does, my mom always felt better if I had a male friend who was walking with me to my parking structure or to and from buildings. And what's odd to me is that I spent 10 years in martial arts and have two high degree black belts. So I have the ability to physically defend myself, but I also have the ability, the wherewithal to know who to call. Like campus security, the police department, or the you know the police. I know what to do if I feel unsafe, so the fact that I was specifically told to have a male with me, is also a double standard. Because again, it supports the notion that a woman is a dainty flower that needs to be protected. Rather than teaching people not to attack other people. If that makes sense. So, I think that that would be my experience with double standards. It's a lot of that, and it's very ingrained in conversation, very like a normal thing for a girl to grow up hearing. You know, "Don't dress this way because you're going to attract attention or attract problems," and so on. Rather like we're told that rather than hearing boys be taught, "They're just wearing clothes. They're not quote, 'Asking for it'." If that makes sense, boys are not taught, "Don't attack girls." Rather girls are taught "Don't do this because boys will be boys and attack you if you do." And I have a problem with that.

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June 26, 2022
“But that was the time, I almost passed out.”
Adult

“But that was the time, I almost passed out.”

So I've never eaten food that's made me sweat because I'm not one of those people that chases painful foods. And I don't understand why people do that. Sorry, if something was advertised to me that way then I would avoid that thing. I like spicy food, but not hot spicy. Like I don't need my food to be painful. I have almost passed out from the heat though. Once in high school, my friend wanted to surprise her parents by creating this little patio in their backyard. And so we got all the supplies from Lowe's, like all the brick thingys and then sand. And I don't remember what else but like it was super super hot and like so like unloading these like, I think they're like 50-pound bags of sand. And loading them in another truck and then unloading them at her house and then the same with the bricks and everything was just like super intense. And I got really dizzy and almost threw up and and then like almost passed out and I was like, "Whoa! Maybe you should take a break." This is not a dramatic story. But that was the time, I almost passed out.

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June 26, 2022

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