Hold My Cutter
Bethany Hallam's Victory Over Addiction: From Despair to Council Chair
Settle into your seat as you're about to be whisked away through the intense, yet hopeful world of Allegheny County Council Member Bethany Hallam. In a cozy corner of Bern by Rocky Patel, we unwrap the complex layers of addiction and triumph. Bethany, a figure of resilience with deep Pittsburgh roots, shares her life's stark realities—from an injury that shuttered her lacrosse aspirations to her descent and subsequent uprising from the clutches of heroin addiction. It's a conversation that will challenge your perspectives, inspire a deeper understanding of the opioid crisis, and redefine what it means to listen and engage across the divide of political beliefs.
Could you imagine battling heroin addiction while pursuing a bachelor's degree? Bethany Hallam doesn't need to imagine; she lived it. Her story defies the stereotype of a life tarnished by substance abuse, as she emerged from the throes of addiction with an academic accolade in hand. This episode peels back the curtains on the silent struggles that many endure, offering a raw look at the manipulation of healthcare systems and the societal failings that perpetuate the cycle of dependency. But it's not all despair; Bethany's journey is also one of hope, showcasing the power of human resolve and the profound potential for personal rebirth.
Wrap up your experience with a lighter note as we talk baseball and the curious link between the cutter pitch and lacrosse. With playful jests and anticipation for future discussions, Bethany's story stands as a testament to the unexpected paths life can take us on. This episode serves as an intimate portrait of a public servant's path lined with hardship, determination, and a dedication to enacting change. From passionate debates on the field of politics to the personal victories that shape our leaders, join us for a conversation that's much more than meets the eye.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!!!!
www.holdmycutter.com
Settle into your seat as you're about to be whisked away through the intense, yet hopeful world of Allegheny County Council Member Bethany Hallam. In a cozy corner of Bern by Rocky Patel, we unwrap the complex layers of addiction and triumph. Bethany, a figure of resilience with deep Pittsburgh roots, shares her life's stark realities—from an injury that shuttered her lacrosse aspirations to her descent and subsequent uprising from the clutches of heroin addiction. It's a conversation that will challenge your perspectives, inspire a deeper understanding of the opioid crisis, and redefine what it means to listen and engage across the divide of political beliefs.
Could you imagine battling heroin addiction while pursuing a bachelor's degree? Bethany Hallam doesn't need to imagine; she lived it. Her story defies the stereotype of a life tarnished by substance abuse, as she emerged from the throes of addiction with an academic accolade in hand. This episode peels back the curtains on the silent struggles that many endure, offering a raw look at the manipulation of healthcare systems and the societal failings that perpetuate the cycle of dependency. But it's not all despair; Bethany's journey is also one of hope, showcasing the power of human resolve and the profound potential for personal rebirth.
Wrap up your experience with a lighter note as we talk baseball and the curious link between the cutter pitch and lacrosse. With playful jests and anticipation for future discussions, Bethany's story stands as a testament to the unexpected paths life can take us on. This episode serves as an intimate portrait of a public servant's path lined with hardship, determination, and a dedication to enacting change. From passionate debates on the field of politics to the personal victories that shape our leaders, join us for a conversation that's much more than meets the eye.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!!!!
www.holdmycutter.com
This is going to be a fun episode of Hold my Cutter coming your way from Bern by Rocky Patel, just a couple of blocks from the North Shore, because on this show we talk baseball. Of course, hold my Cutter, baseball cut fastball, the cutter and the cutter of the cigar. But we have someone who is maybe outside the box would describe Bethany Hallam. Is that fair to?
Speaker 1:say that's a really nice way to put it. It's a nice way to put it, so maybe at some point we might get into politics.
Speaker 2:might, because she and I are polar opposites. I won't tell you where she stands or where I stand, We'll just say that, or Michael for that matter.
Speaker 3:But the cool part is is when you were telling me about Bethany and her coming on, that you can actually have the conversation.
Speaker 2:Well, I see, I think, Bethany, no disrespect is almost an old soul. I'm old, I'm an old soul, but in the respect that we respect each other, like we can argue over a cigar and maybe a drink. Now we've got some coffee here, good coffee by the way, take a sip of this, yeah absolutely. Isn't that good coffee here at Burn?
Speaker 1:I love caffeine. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:But anyway, so we have had our. Not we haven't known each other forever, but a couple of times we had some really good knock-em, sock-em debates and arguments.
Speaker 1:Here, even here.
Speaker 3:Oh, this is the reason I love it.
Speaker 2:I think it's so cool. So old school is that she's passionate about, and she really believes it too. I think too many people in politics are phony politicians. She's a real politician who firmly believes in her stuff, and I feel the same way, so anyway, and I respect that, by the way, before you even get started.
Speaker 3:people that have a reason and have a why. You have a background, you have a reality. We all do so we. We know what we know from the context of our life and the knowledge that we've gained. The only way to learn more is to talk to people that know something different, right, or people that are way smarter than you. Exactly, and that's how you come together, yeah.
Speaker 2:Allegheny County Council Member Bethany Hallam. We ask everybody to start with their story. You're a Pittsburgher, you're a Yinzer.
Speaker 1:I love I got the 412 tattooed on my lip Literally does what's on my hip.
Speaker 3:412 on my lip. Wait, wait, wait. You really have it, she's got the tattoo 412 on her lip.
Speaker 2:Did that hurt?
Speaker 3:And then for the TV audience for the visuals she's actually showing All in. I love that she didn't put the star. It's just a true peak. Yeah, of course that's real. That's real.
Speaker 2:So anyway, so your start so uh, your start. She's actually an athlete, a big North Hills High School lacrosse.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, I was the goalie and yes, yeah, I'm leaving my hat backwards, because you said I looked like a catcher. You did, and I know now.
Speaker 2:I know now why? Why you said that and similar to McHenry you. You got hurt playing lacrosse. He got hurt. I did in a major league game. What happened?
Speaker 1:um, I was in my junior year and we were practicing a new trick play, uh. So in girls, lacrosse the, we don't have a pocket in our stick like the boys do, right?
Speaker 3:but the goalie does.
Speaker 1:I didn't know that, so the goalie isn't allowed to score a goal with the goalie stick, and so if a goalie ever so how does it work with the actual position players? They have a flat net that you just cradle up here instead of down here like the guys do.
Speaker 2:My brother played lacrosse, college lacrosse. I never knew the difference.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, so when the boys test their stick they can see the whole ball in the net. So you hold your stick sideways and you can see the whole ball in the net, yeah. Before the game you want to make sure it's regulation.
Speaker 2:Right right the game.
Speaker 3:You want to make sure it's regulation right. Right for the girls. You can't see the ball. I never. So. Is that? Is that because the boys need a ball sack? Yeah, so most lacrosse players that are girls have bigger ones than the guys do.
Speaker 1:So that's I don't get it. That's why they put us in skirts.
Speaker 3:I did, I did try to feminize, but it's tough make it make sense to lacrosse, yeah, but like it should be tough because you don't have when you have to do this the whole time. That's a lot harder. Why don't have when you have to do this the whole time? That's a lot harder. Why don't you have a net? That makes no sense. I have no idea. I have no idea. There's no reasoning.
Speaker 1:No reasoning that I know of. It's just a different sport. The boys are more contact than the girls are, so I always assumed that it was because when you get body checked which you can't do in girls lacrosse you can only stick check, boys can full. It's probably easier to keep the ball in the net whenever you're getting checked.
Speaker 2:You said something about a goalie can't score a goal.
Speaker 1:In girls lacrosse because the goalie has more of a pocket than the other team members do Once again, that's weird. Yeah, and so a goalie stick can't score. So we were practicing this trick play where I would get the ball, I would pass it to one of the players on the field. I would run out of the crease, go and grab her stick, run down the field and score.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:So we're practicing this play and it was just I mean, it seems so inconsequential at the time Like my foot planted and my leg kept moving when we were doing the stick pass and I tore my ACL. I didn't even know at the time what I did. I just it hurt a little bit, you got wobbly, it got really weak, but I didn't have any pain yet. It wasn't until my parents came to pick me up we were on our way home that it started hurting and throughout the night, I mean, I was in excruciating pain.
Speaker 3:The next day you were like uh-oh.
Speaker 1:Went to the hospital, you know they scheduled an MRI, got an MRI. They knew as soon. So I got the surgery, I did the physical therapy and throughout it all I'm prescribed painkillers and I'm taking them as directed, you know, as needed for pain, and I go through all my rehab. I'm getting cleared to go back to lacrosse and I'm in gym class my senior year in high school playing handball and I took gym class very, very seriously.
Speaker 2:I would have guessed that You're a competitor you don't like to lose, do you, bethany? You don't like to lose, no, I don't lose very often.
Speaker 3:We'll talk about that A little bit later you have to define losing, I guess.
Speaker 1:Different people have different standards, but yeah, I tore my ACL again, like nine months later, same my other leg.
Speaker 3:I was about to say it's very rare to do the same leg. It's very rare to do the same leg.
Speaker 1:And so I did it, and so that was like nine more months, it was almost 18 months altogether that I was on painkillers, going through surgeries and rehab.
Speaker 3:So you finished. It's a six to eight month rehab. Yep, where were you at when you were playing handball?
Speaker 1:Oh, I was in about eight and a half months, almost nine.
Speaker 3:Okay, so that's when you're supposed to be full go, but for your sport not necessarily, and it wasn't lacrosse season, which was why I was like preparing for my senior year season.
Speaker 1:I ended up getting hurt right before it started.
Speaker 2:By the way, Bethany, why lacrosse? What made you pick up lacrosse?
Speaker 1:It's a badass sport.
Speaker 2:But what about? Were there other sports, softball?
Speaker 1:I was a swimmer most of my life and so once you get to a certain level, it was a new sport. My babysitter, actually, who lived down the street, who has since passed away she was really inspirational in my life and her and her boyfriend were on the first North Hills lacrosse team. The sport was just coming. When I started in seventh grade, which is when North Hills Junior High starts, that was the first year that North Hills had a middle school team and the boys' team was still club. It wasn't even school sanctioned yet and you stopped swimming. Right, I stop swimming Because that I don't know, if you know their hours.
Speaker 2:Oh insane, it's miserable. It will work yeah.
Speaker 3:The only way you get into it is someone that you really cared about says you should do this.
Speaker 1:And you do it and you're like I can't quit. Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's the first time I swam a mile. I thought I was going to like drown and they were just looking at me. I'm like, does anybody help me if I do fall under? It was awful.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love swimming, I love swimming.
Speaker 3:I do too, but it's so.
Speaker 2:A few years ago. I had to give it up. You had to give it up for lacrosse.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean swimming turned into you have to practice in the morning at 5 am, you have to practice after school at 3 pm. Twice a night you have to do dry, just swimming or everything else. And so, yeah, someone I really cared about got me into lacrosse and I loved it, were you good at it. Oh, I was so good at it. Yeah, I got picked for, you know, national goalie school. Wow, I was really into it. I mean, that was my plan. I was going to go to college and play lacrosse.
Speaker 2:Really, was North Hills any good as a team?
Speaker 1:Well, I was on the team. Yeah, no, but in general North Hills has a good lacrosse team.
Speaker 2:Of course you dig me much.
Speaker 1:I was the team.
Speaker 3:I'm now start talking in third person.
Speaker 1:we'd be set A lot of the players from the North Hills girls team went on to play in college A lot of the guys from the boys team, even when it was club, went on to play in college, as some of the former players or even coaches now. Yeah it was a pretty big thing and it was just getting started, so there was a lot of hype around it because it was a new sport.
Speaker 2:Do you follow it at all? I follow lacrosse stick. I watch college lacrosse sometimes Wow.
Speaker 1:You know I miss it.
Speaker 3:You should play. I know, I guarantee you, there's an adult league Like there's an adult cricket league here.
Speaker 1:I have never, ever, ever. I did some PSL. You know about Pittsburgh Sports League. I did that. I played kickball. It's basically beer kickball. They have other sports though, too. I did some sand volleyball for them, but two years ago I actually tore my ACL again.
Speaker 3:Wow, and so, and it was so. How'd you do that it?
Speaker 1:was on a pogo stick showing off for a bunch of kids at a block party and Everybody said do not get on the pogo stick, you have bad knees.
Speaker 3:I would have gotten on the pogo stick too, I got on it and I was doing tricks.
Speaker 1:So when you jump and you like, spin it while you're jumping.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And the kids were so impressed until I fell. Unbelievable.
Speaker 3:To make her feel a little bit better. I partially fractured my wrist this summer on a skateboard yeah, showing off with my neighbor, neighbor six-year-old. We were having some it's always the kids bad influence. Yeah, it's like I skateboard and then I wasn't paying attention. There's a whatever trucked me, I went yeah so you're what happened to me.
Speaker 1:You're it was traumatic, though, when I did it again, because after those first two times I got hooked on the pain pills so explain that a little bit more like what did they, what did they prescribe you?
Speaker 3:because I've had I've had six knee surgeries oh, my god, I had an issue with oxycontin when they gave it to. I got angry, mad um, and I decided enough's, enough, and that's what they always prescribed me and you were lucky I wouldn't well, my last surgery.
Speaker 3:I did it because, like the acl, they're like you have to take this, it's gonna going to be really tough. The other ones, I kind of stayed away from it after my first one and it's no joke. It's no joke, so go into that a little bit more. I've talked to a lot of people that have dealt with that, because addiction runs in my family and I was really interested to hear how that progressed. But I didn't realize there was three ACL surgeries.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the last one was, you know, separate because I couldn't take any pain medication for it because of what happened with the first two. And so what happened was, yeah, I was prescribed pain pills for about 18 months altogether, from start to finish Regular Vicodin, I mean, and my mom's a pharmacist, right, no-transcript. You know your clearance to your checkup to make sure I was done and able to be finished with the pills and, you know, continue with my physical therapy. The next day I woke up and I was sick and I like I felt like I had the flu, my body ached, I mean, like touching my hair hurt, um, I felt like stuffy, just like. I mean felt like shit, right, and I thought I was sick. I didn't even connect that it had anything to do with, I had just stopped taking these pills every day was it just like the next day, the very?
Speaker 1:next day.
Speaker 3:I think a lot of that had to do with the, the, the I'm not gonna get too scientific, but like the chemicals in your brain and also playing a full body trick, because usually it takes a little bit longer. Do you think that's the first stage that you felt like my brain is playing a trick on my body? I don't know what's going on Because you have hindsight now, obviously.
Speaker 1:Exactly. It's easy to look back, right, right.
Speaker 3:But then you're like what's happening?
Speaker 1:Right now, obviously, exactly, it's easy to look back, right, right, but then then you're like what's happening, right, okay, and so I didn't know what it was. That was all it was was. I knew something was off, I knew something fell wrong, I what I didn't even really think twice about and I was telling a friend of mine and I don't want to act like I was innocent at this point in my life, right, it wasn't like I mean I was drinking underage, I was smoking weed, I mean I was doing things that I think other 16, 17-year-olds were doing. Do you think that played into?
Speaker 3:it. It always scares me with younger people.
Speaker 1:It opened me to a group of people who were also doing drugs. And so when I went to a friend and said I don't feel well, he's like, oh well, it's because you're going through withdrawal. You're starting withdrawal. You were taking these pills every day and now you're not. That's why you're sick. Take this pill and you'll feel better.
Speaker 3:And you did.
Speaker 1:And I did, and I did that regularly. They ended up being his little sister's cancer pain medications. Didn't even know, and at a point once I found out, to be honest, I didn't even care. I was so just like, oh, this is what makes me feel normal.
Speaker 3:It wasn't even high. You were so far down.
Speaker 1:I was so far gone, because the first year and a half of it happened without me even noticing. And you're 17 now 17 years old. Yeah, and so I took that and then I was, you know, getting them from him and then eventually getting them from other people, that you just end up in circles where other people are doing pills too. There were points OxyContin was just starting to, you know, get noticed as a problem.
Speaker 3:All mine were in my adult years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so that's when they were, when they were trying to wean away from that and they were moving to a drug called Opana, which was kind of like Oxycontin mixed with morphine Double as strong that sounds miserable. And yeah, and actually what we would do is we would find little old ladies who were prescribed these strong pain medications and couldn't afford to get their prescriptions. We would pay for the prescriptions for them and she'd give us half the pills, and so I probably had in the years of doing pills.
Speaker 1:I probably had four or five, six old ladies in that same exact situation who, again, the healthcare system failed them. They needed these medications, but they'd rather have a half a pill a day than have none at all, and they could never afford it. So I would buy them.
Speaker 3:You know know different people's grandmas, aunts, neighbors, think, people they'd meet at work and the saddest part about what she's saying about kind of how that all works is they'll move you to another drug, right, and you've been on the same drug, and that that causes another issue it's not the same right, yeah, and how's your body going to respond?
Speaker 3:what's gonna happen? Everybody's completely different, and that's what's sad about the health care system. I think the insurance companies have a huge issue with that, but sometimes paying for it and not using any of that is actually cheaper. I've found I pay for some of my medications early on because the insurance is so high, because I don't hit my premium. I wait until that comes in. Then, all of a sudden, I have a cheaper insurance, but people aren't taught that.
Speaker 1:No, and why would you be? Why would you think that's?
Speaker 3:something people are, but that gave you an open door. Exactly Sad.
Speaker 1:And then one day I went to undergrad at Duquesne.
Speaker 3:So you're still functional, like you're full throttle functional. Oh, when I was doing, pills.
Speaker 1:It was very functional. I mean, it was at the point where even my parents were like suspicious I was up to something, but they didn't think it was what it was. They never thought that it. Oh, I always worked. I've been working almost full time since I was 13, 14 years old.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was 13 years old, the old Highland Country Club. If you remember that that was my very first job. I was the only girl caddy at Highland Country Club. No kidding, yeah, my seventh grade teacher was the caddy master at the time and yeah, it got me a job there. After that I worked at a pharmacy, a little family pharmacy in the neighborhood. I grew up, uh, working selling lottery tickets, working the cash register, um, eventually waitressing there at their lunch counter and uh, yeah, so I always worked and I loved working. I'd babysit on the side. I, um, I like having money.
Speaker 3:I like those two things, usually the addiction and pills and everything and that type of work doesn't go to yeah. Cause it usually does opposite, cause that's a downer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they start to fall, whereas it was very quickly at the point where I couldn't go to work unless I was high, and so people always imagine that you're, like you know, nodding off every time you get high. A lot of the times it was just I was able to get out of bed and function, and by the time I got to college it was definitely that If I didn't have drugs to wake up with in the morning, I could not go to class for the whole day. That was what. Three years in, three years in, and then I went to two years in, and then I went to class all day. And then I worked at the Marriott across from the civic arena every day after school.
Speaker 1:And so I always worked because I had to get money to get high. And then one day in undergrad I gave a friend money to go get me pills and he came back with heroin and it was like, well, you can either be sick or you can do this heroin. And I didn't even think about it. I did the heroin and I never stopped really yeah, like a needle like a needle.
Speaker 1:Wow, literally because I was getting pills to snort up my nose and instead I got a bag of heroin which, by the way, cost much less money than the pill I was buying so I definitely got ripped.
Speaker 2:That's the problem, yeah, the problem. But you spiraled out of control then at that point.
Speaker 1:Really quickly after that, because heroin's cheaper at first and then very soon it's not anymore. You know one bag's 10 bucks, but when you have to do 30 a day you're spending $250 to do that 30 a day. Oh yeah, for most of my heroin addiction.
Speaker 3:Like put that in comparison of when you're taking pills. Like how many pills would you take?
Speaker 1:So a pill would be like $80 a piece, um, and I'd probably take two of them throughout a day, like one would last me half a day.
Speaker 3:I'd had a longer half life, 30 bags a day of heroin. Like explain that.
Speaker 1:Oh, very quickly. But like off with one, and then you got to do that more times a day than you have to do pills.
Speaker 3:And it goes through your system faster. Exactly, wow.
Speaker 1:And pills and it goes through your system faster. Exactly, Wow, and that was when. So people talk a lot about fentanyl now. Back then, like when I was, when you were looking to buy heroin, you were looking for fentanyl. Like you didn't want bags of heroin that didn't have fentanyl in it, Cause it was such a better high than just regular heroin. It lasted longer, it was a stronger high and, again, more economical. If you're lasting longer, you're doing fewer bags a day. You're last, and longer you're doing fewer bags a day, you're saving money. And so you know all this talk about fentanyl today. It's like, no, that's been around. That has been around. It's just knowing and being able to prepare and keep yourself safe from it.
Speaker 3:There's no regulations. Obviously there should be.
Speaker 1:We can talk about that. I think the only way to end the overdose epidemic is to legalize all drugs the same way we legalize the drugs that we're consuming right now.
Speaker 3:Tax the living daylights out of it.
Speaker 1:Legalize it. Stop people from dying.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, we'll get into that down the road. I don't know, I don't know, but I do know this Brownie.
Speaker 3:If I was going to ever talk about it, I'd want to talk to somebody that's been through it.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that how often decisions are made in every aspect.
Speaker 3:No doubt, and this isn't just politics, every aspect, and it's like where's the person that's actually going to be affected?
Speaker 2:No doubt. That's why I respect all this?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So at some point we definitely want to get into that. But I want to ask what did you go to school to study initially?
Speaker 1:Public relations and a Spanish minor.
Speaker 2:Wow, what did you want to do?
Speaker 1:I had no idea. I knew I liked people was the best way to do that, but I truly I don't remember. I mean other than being a little girl and wanting to be the president or a lawyer when I grew up, both of which I'm kind of doing now, but I never, I don't remember in my like, getting to adult life, ever having a career in mind.
Speaker 2:Did the situation you know did that become?
Speaker 1:You know it was all you think about, I wake up thinking about it, I spend all day working to get money to be able to go and get it so that I'm not sick.
Speaker 2:So do you ever wonder, like what you would have done had you never touched it Every single day? Where you would have gone?
Speaker 1:There's no way in the world I'd be doing what I'm doing now. No way, Because I wouldn't have the passion, the motivation the experience.
Speaker 3:But why do you say that? Because I would have just lived a be into public relations or be a lawyer. Be the president prior to that.
Speaker 1:I mean when I was a wee little kid. And it came back around and then, once I was in my recovery and I started seeing the things that I care about, I realized that those things were actually how I wanted to help people.
Speaker 2:Now I wonder just as you're a sophomore junior at North Hills High School, you're considering colleges. I'm doing.
Speaker 1:Future Business Leaders of America. I'm doing Debate Club.
Speaker 2:I see oh, so you were in all right, yeah, I was doing stuff.
Speaker 1:I was in all the gifted programs. I took all the advanced placement classes, the college and high school classes. I went to CCAC half day my senior year and got some college credits and I was again using drugs. While this was all happening, it was very early on. It was just pills at that time. It was just pills at that time. It was like low doses of pills. Um cause. I also have very strict parents, so my parents were on me like a hawk. It wasn't until when I went to Duquesne.
Speaker 1:I lived there, even though it was 15 minutes from home, and I had all this freedom that I had never, ever, ever had before, and so it spiraled pretty quickly.
Speaker 2:So Bethany Harlem then now you wind up literally on the streets.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it was mainly in the back of a car, sleeping in rest stop parking lots, walmart parking lot, adrienne, so like you, started taking heroin in college. Oh yeah, in college heroin.
Speaker 3:Sophomore year freshman year.
Speaker 1:Freshman year.
Speaker 3:And then now take it from there. When did you end up?
Speaker 1:As soon as I graduated. Oh, I graduated. I have an undergrad, I have a bachelor's from Duquesne.
Speaker 3:Think about that Brownie. It's all good.
Speaker 1:I would argue that heroin was one of the reasons why I was able to get through Well at that point maybe yeah.
Speaker 3:But like thinking about, how did you go to class? You're sitting in class for an hour and a half. I don't know how long this stuff lasts. Did you spend more time at home? I'd get high in between all my classes.
Speaker 1:I'd get high in the morning before I went to class Just anywhere. Oh, I'd carry a little bag. I had a little Crown Royal bag that I kept my needles empty stamp bags. If I didn't have any bags I could scrape them and do the leftover powder in them. A spoon cotton swabs all the tools.
Speaker 2:I mean, you're a major outlier. Why? Because could anybody else have done this?
Speaker 1:Many people you know could have functioned as well graduated.
Speaker 2:I think that you would be so surprised how many people do Really oh yeah, and succeed, and succeed is the biggest thing People maintain a lot. You were a good student.
Speaker 1:In college. You can literally look at my transcript and see the downhills. Oh really, oh, absolutely, college you can literally look at my transcript and see the down. Oh really, oh, absolutely. I was a great student in high school. I started off beginning of my freshman year in college really strong, and so I'm back in school. Now I'm in law school again at Duquesne, and so I'm. I can still look at all my old transcripts in the same portal that I'm now looking at my grades now.
Speaker 2:And I watch just this, oh.
Speaker 1:Semester after semester grades I mean by the time I finished. I barely finished, so I was retaking classes that I failed. I graduated barely. There was no requirement other than passing Four years.
Speaker 3:So once again, you're four years younger than me. I believe Five years was most people. So once again to your point, brownie, you're high functioning and you finished the race, and I think that speaks to who you are. But that doesn't happen. I don't think with addicts that well, because when you get that far gone, even if you're falling off the table, the fact that you got through it means that meant something, because that's incredible to me.
Speaker 1:And I think I even thrive better in situations like that. Like I noticed, even now, I like to have a million things on my plate.
Speaker 3:I love chaos. I love the chaos, it works well for me.
Speaker 1:The hard part is it doesn't work well for other people.
Speaker 3:All the time, so I'm careful in which environments I bring Sustainable.
Speaker 1:It is also not sustainable.
Speaker 3:It's not sustainable. Short spurts, but not sustainable. But.
Speaker 1:I noticed as soon as I finished college and that major responsibility was on, like the one thing my parents had beat into my head over and over again my whole if you have to go to college it was not an option in my house, you had to go to college, you had to get a degree. Now no-transcript, you know, in trouble for like underage drinking in high school. But I had never anything else like that before. I'd get caught with needles or empty stamp bags. I'd be driving without a license. So I lost my license for 10 days, got caught driving right before I got it back and I ended up losing it for 10 years. I got caught over and over and over again. They add a year every single time.
Speaker 1:So I lost my license from 2010 until 2020. Dang.
Speaker 3:So did you have a Greyhound pass? What'd you do then?
Speaker 1:No, and this was before, like Uber was big and stuff too. So people, you have a Greyhound pass. What did you do then? No, and this was before Uber was big and stuff too. So people didn't know. And I drove without a license as you can tell by how many years I got added on I just kept driving and kept driving and kept driving.
Speaker 3:So it didn't really matter.
Speaker 1:Right until I got a DUI and I fell asleep in a 7-Eleven parking lot. And when I say caught driving on a DUI, suspended license, you can actually go to jail or house arrest for getting caught doing that. So you know that was around the time.
Speaker 3:Now I'm like hiding right, so Westview police always had it out for me, so I just wouldn't drive through Westview.
Speaker 2:The Ross police would sit at the top of my parents' street. I knew where to go. What did your parents think during this time?
Speaker 1:At this point they're pretty disgusted with me, pretty disappointed. My mom and dad had very different approaches to how they handled it. Both, I think, worked out and complemented each other, but very different approaches.
Speaker 2:Which one was more strict?
Speaker 1:My mom.
Speaker 2:Really, oh yeah, Like wouldn't talk to me.
Speaker 3:You're a daddy's girl.
Speaker 1:My dad's my best friend in the whole entire world Unbelievable.
Speaker 3:So your mom had it tough.
Speaker 1:Oh, my mom had it tough. Like my mom would tell me I couldn't come home and my dad would unlock the basement door.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, I probably shouldn't say that, in case they watch this and they're going to be fighting us Real talk.
Speaker 3:due to their marriage, are they still together? That's amazing.
Speaker 1:How many times? 43 years, 43 years?
Speaker 3:That's amazing, because how many times the love of a child breaks up that marriage?
Speaker 1:The loss of a child too. I've seen breaks.
Speaker 2:Which, to a degree, is almost losing a child.
Speaker 3:It is At that point you feel like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. Well, how proud are they of you now?
Speaker 1:I think it's still kind of unbelievable to them. I think they have a hard time grasping.
Speaker 2:I can't imagine what they must think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they feel like they know me too well to be as proud of me as other people are. So that's kind of what they maintain, just shaking their head. Yeah, they're like oh, do you guys know her?
Speaker 2:though Keep them off the campaign trail.
Speaker 1:Oh so my parents are not political. That's a unique thing in politics.
Speaker 3:I've realized that's probably where you get your like reasoning and understanding and and want to to debate.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh, my dad and I will have debates because my parents are the same way.
Speaker 3:My dad's now political, but I grew up and I knew nothing until 2020. I didn't even pay attention to the news or anything else. It was baseball. It was doing stuff in the community. I like to be active, but then all of a sudden I'm asking questions and both sides are destroying me Right, cause I just wanted to understand, cause I never got any of those conversations.
Speaker 1:People don't answer questions.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I grew up the same way, I didn't ever have that conversation and being able to talk to you, rob King different opinions and having some arguments and some people didn't want to deal with it. Other people's you know were willing to sit and have a great conversation. It changed my world. It helped me understand a lot of things that I needed to understand, but, no matter what, I always was willing to say. Well, tell me why. Let's see why.
Speaker 2:As the lights go on, this is almost like we're in the bottom of the first inning of a nine inning game.
Speaker 1:Almost like it With Bethany.
Speaker 2:Hallam, this is just a teaser on and she loves the name, by the way. The podcast Hold my Cutter. Oh, cutter's my favorite pitch in baseball.
Speaker 3:She did it with her lacrosse stick. I heard yeah.
Speaker 2:Join us, for the next episode might be with Bethany Hallam on Hold my Cutter.
Speaker 3:Great, have you beth. I said beth you were a little mad though you're a little bit you're getting ready.
Speaker 2:Next time we're on with bethany howell only beth when I'm in trouble, right?
Speaker 1:Thanks for watching.