Homeroom with Sal - Thursday, June 4

Hi everyone! Sal Khan here from Khan Academy. Welcome to our daily live stream. Uh, this is a way we've started this a couple of weeks, actually months ago now, as a way for all of us to stay connected during times of social distancing and school closures. It's a time to just have an interesting conversation. We have a lot of interesting guests, and today we will just be doing an ask me anything, where you can literally ask me anything.

For those of y'all on YouTube or Facebook, start putting your questions in! I have team members who are helping me out, uh, surfacing questions to answer, and I'm literally happy to answer anything. Uh, before we start, I want to give a special thanks to several corporate partners who have allowed us to do what we're doing, especially with our response to COVID-19.

Especially thanks to Bank of America, Google.org, HD, Fastly, and Artist. We were running a deficit even before this crisis, and you can imagine our server costs have gone up dramatically. We're trying to accelerate a whole series of programs, and so this support has helped a lot, and special thanks to the many other foundations and corporations that have helped us, uh, well beyond before COVID. But I do like to emphasize that we are still running a deficit, so if you're in a position to do so, uh, please think about making a donation to Khan Academy. Every donation makes a difference.

So with that, uh, let's just jump into, uh, asking me anything. For whatever that's worth, it looks like there's already some questions that have come in. So, uh, Jason Dunlap from Facebook asked, “Hey Mr. Khan, member of Khan Academy since 2011. So Jason, you've been with us since near the beginning. Is there a particular subject matter with which you struggled? How did you deal with it?”

Um, I think the first time that I really found myself struggling with a class, you know, I was a student that tended to do really, you know, I was academically doing fine most of my career. But then once I got into high school, I got really, I wanted to accelerate even more. I got very, I guess you could say mathematically ambitious. I think I was my sophomore year when I went to the local university and I started taking classes there.

And the first few classes I found quite, you know, they didn't cause too much trouble. But I remember when I took that first real analysis course. For those of you who aren't familiar with real analysis, that's kind of the first real, like mathematically rigorous course where you go really deep into proofs. You go really deep into the analysis of, you know, the real number system and functions and all of that.

I think that switching gears from what you typically do in most of your math in your high school career, where you're learning about for sure a lot of concepts and procedures, but you're not as mathematically rigorous, uh, as I guess you could say real mathematicians are. That actually did cause a little bit of like, you know, I remember there's a couple of weeks where I just like, you know, of course A leads to B, uh, why do I have to prove it?

But then, once I got over it, I definitely started really enjoying it. And you know, that's part of the reason why I eventually became a math major, because I thought the beauty in that kind of real formal logic. But that was definitely a time that I, at least, you know, for a period struggled a bit.

Uh, let's see if there are other courses that I really had difficulty with. You know, as I went, you know, in my Khan Academy mode, part of the fun of my job, uh, is being able to refresh or learn new subjects to be able to teach it better. And you know, organic chemistry is interesting because I did take it in college. And when I took it in college, I learned it, I did fine in the course.

But when we were going to cover it on Khan Academy, I really wanted to be able to do it in a way that was as intuitive as what we could do in math or physics or regular chemistry or any other subject. And it did take me a little bit of time to get that intuition for organic chemistry because the way it’s typically taught, the way it’s typically surfaced in textbooks, it just feels like a bunch of random mechanisms that a lot of students just go through and memorize.

But when you really start to think about it, there are some very beautiful themes or concepts that transcend all of organic chemistry. It's all about electronegativity. Which atom in a molecule is the one that really wants to hog those electrons, really wants those electrons closer to it? And from then you could actually deduce a lot of the mechanisms.

You don't have to memorize them all. Or even if you do memorize some of them, you can kind of see the intuition of why the universe does what it does because of the electronegativity. But that was definitely, it took me a little bit of time to start to see that thread line. Um, there's other things, you know, there's, there's definitely parts of biology where I'm like, well why does that lead to that?

And I would start calling up friends and people who are professors in the subject, and they would say, “Oh, well actually that's an open area of research.” And so I often times said, well why don't they just tell everyone in the textbook that we don't know? That that's an area of research because I actually think that is more satisfying to know that, okay, no one actually has the intuition for exactly why that leads to that.

And by the way, if you're asking the question, you're already at the frontiers of research, which I think is a pretty cool idea. Uh, but yeah, let's see. Facebook Miguel Hernandez asked, “What is your biggest challenge now as the leader of Khan Academy?”

Um, great question, Miguel. I, I think there's a lot of layers to that. I think, you know, my, I would say the overarching question that sometimes keeps me up at night is, you know, if I were, if Khan Academy from 10 years ago saw Khan Academy today, Sal from 10 years ago would have said, "Wow, that thing that started in this walk-in closet got much bigger than expected!"

To see that we’re over 200 folks, employees around the world, we have translation projects, we’re across subjects of grades. That Sal from 10 years ago would have been overjoyed. We’re like, wow, Khan Academy has kind of had escape velocity! It's able to have the impact that it was, you know, just a delusion, just a dream 10 years ago.

But I think now, you know, I feel like I guess you could say a stress or an urgency that we don't squander the opportunity that we have. It’s great that Khan Academy has 100 million registered users and it serves tens of millions every month, but there are billions of people who need to be empowered.

And, you know, not just on a superficial level, but you know, we want to be able to empower them deeply across subjects and grades and create ways for them to plug into the broader system. There's just still a lot of work to do. You know, even with this COVID crisis, there’s a lot that’s negative about this crisis. The silver lining is that there’s an open-mindedness to thinking about all things, but especially education, in new ways.

And so I sometimes, you know, there’s a tension between this is a marathon at the end of the day, like, you know, the world isn't going to change overnight. But there are moments where there’s openness to new solutions, and I'm always thinking like, well how can we, Khan Academy, really serve people right now, right when the need is urgent?

So I think that's kind of the high level. The biggest tension is how do you balance between moving fast and being scrappy and ultra-entrepreneurial with there’s a lot of, um, you know, Khan Academy has a lot of users now, you have to bring them along. We have a large team, we got to make sure that we're aligned, that we're all kind of marching in the same direction.

So that, so that we can use the resources that folks are donating to us as well as possible. I think one double click below that is making sure that we have the resources to do what work we want to do and that we can treat it as a marathon, uh, that we do have visibility over not just this year or the next several years, but we have the visibility to be able to plan and actually create what the world needs and not just follow, you know, the latest trend or whatever seems to be hot at that moment.

I think that's another, uh, thing that I think a lot about. And then you double click below that, and that gets a little bit more to the tactical level at Khan Academy. And this is, you know, every year and every few months we have spirited conversations about prioritizing, and that's hard because when you have a limited amount of resources and you think about the scope of what Khan Academy is trying to do, there are things that you know we're able to do and improve on every year.

And then there are things that are super valuable that we just don't have the resources, we just don't have the capacity to do every year, and that's always a little bit heartbreaking, and that's always hard to, um, to kind of thread the needle, uh, on that level. Uh, but when you really think about all of the dimensions of Khan Academy, I mean, I have to remind myself sometimes too because I'm sometimes in the mindset, oh yeah, it was the thing. We have the software, but if you think about, you know, we're trying to cover, you know, 13 or 14 years of grade levels.

We have Khan Academy Kids; we're covering now not just math, but we're doing, uh, English and language arts, reading, social emotional learning, uh, the sciences, uh, the humanities. We're doing things like test prep for the SAT, for the LSAT, and we want to explore ways to work deeper with districts, give them things like district dashboards, run efficacy studies, uh, and you know, each of these things you can double click on and have a bunch of things that you have to figure out to do right, all while tens of millions of folks are using the platform.

Uh, uh, you know, it can get complex sometimes. So I think navigating that complexity, but with that said, you know, no one should feel sorry for me. I, I consider myself incredibly lucky to work with this team, to work with all of the community at Khan Academy, to work with the hundreds of thousands of folks who’ve donated to Khan Academy, uh, to be able to work on, you know, what I think is, uh, kind of the central issue.

It's an issue of education. You know, even some of the issues that we're dealing with in the world right now, especially in the U.S. right now, you know, I talked at length about it on Monday. You know, education can empower those who are oppressed, and it can enlighten those who are oppressors because I do think that most people in the world are good or can be good. But they've, you know, might have had weird thoughts or programming or experiences that maybe, uh, maybe make them deviate from what would otherwise be their good selves.

And I think education is the way to really unlock and enlighten people and to see the humanity in others and to give everyone the critical thinking so that they can help navigate their own lives in a positive way, but also participate in a democracy. And, and you know, democracy isn't just a magical thing that's always going to lead to good. In order for democracy to work, the people voting and the people that they're voting in need to have, be educated, have really strong critical thinking skills, be able to see issues from multiple dimensions, be able to empathize with folks who are not like themselves.

And, and so, you know, it's a long term, it's a marathon. It doesn't fix everything overnight, but if in the long term, if Khan Academy is able to reach billions of folks and really empower them, I think we can, uh, you know, we can make our positive dent in the universe, so to speak.

Let's see. So, Tina Liu says, “How many books do you read every year?” Um, you know I'm not, I'm, yeah, I'm not like, uh, you know, there's famous people like Bill Gates who are known to, you know, kind of speed read, consume books, that is voracious. I, I’m, first of all, I'm not that fast of a reader.

Uh, and you know, I'll say that just so other non-fast readers feel comfortable with saying that they're not fast. I have very good comprehension, but maybe that's a byproduct because I actually don’t read. I'm probably the slowest read, you know. My wife reads faster than me, my mother-in-law reads faster than me, probably many of y'all read faster than me. But I definitely, uh, immerse myself. When I'm in a book, when I'm in a book, I definitely like, I'm in it, like, you know, I'm in that reality.

And that's probably why I read a little bit slower. But, you know, depends. I probably read a handful of books a month, maybe, you know, right now I'm reading Shantaram, which is a 900-page book, and you know, I'm reading maybe, you know, 30, 30 minutes a night. So that's taking me more than a couple of weeks to get through, but I'm really enjoying it.

Um, but sometimes there’s quite, yes, I would have probably about two or three books a month. It sounds, it sounds about right. Sometimes it's less, maybe one, sometimes it's at the high end of that, but that's about what I do.

Um, so let's see, we have a question from John Cheryl from Facebook. “Any suggestions to get a 13-year-old boy hooked on reading?” I have ideas! I'm not a, I'm not the expert here, but I could even try to channel my own 13-year-old self because I, and you know, it even goes to the last question. I actually was not a strong reader when I was in elementary school.

Uh, when I was in second grade, up until second grade, I was actually in speech therapy because I couldn't even communicate properly. It was funny, my sister was in the gifted and talented program where they took her out of class. She was three years older than me, and when they started taking me out of class, I assumed that surely I'm Ferris's brother, I must be in this program as well.

Now it turns out that no one could understand what I was saying. So I remember going to these rooms where they would just play these tapes and make me repeat what they were saying, and you know, people still didn't understand what I was saying. And so that communication, I had gaps in communication, I couldn't, I wasn't that strong of a reader.

I actually probably didn’t really read a full, you know, proper book until I was near late elementary school or even in middle school. So I, you know, no one who knew me when I was eight or nine years old would have thought that I would have become a voracious reader one day or maybe probably been surprised that I would have even gotten into education.

Um, but in middle school, you know, I think, you know, there's, there's a lot of great books that you're exposed to in middle school. Uh, but they do tend to, or I don't know, I'm sure things have changed a bit now, but when I was in middle school, they did tend to, you know, be a little bit more of the Victorian era classics, which now as an adult I really appreciate.

I mean, I said one of my favorite books is Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. But I think for middle school boys especially, some of the great science fiction works, you know, not to stereotype or generalize because I think a lot of girls, young girls like to read these as well, but you know, when I first read, uh, the Foundation series and I read that in middle school.

When I first read some of the Arthur C. Clarke, I read Dune in high school. You know, I always appreciated the Victorian era, like the way to observe the nuances of society and all that, but also to have this other dimension of like space opera and like how epic the universe could be and our roles in it, and to just think about reality in different ways.

I think that just gives you another dimension. So my advice, a long-winded way of saying expose your son to more types of books and see what he resonates with. And sometimes, you know, there's this gravity to doing the very high-minded academic classic stuff, but I think there’s just a beauty in just getting started reading.

And once you start immersing yourself in books and you realize that it’s the best form of virtual reality and probably the cheapest form of virtual reality, uh, then I think you can get your son hooked, and then he'll start exploring things that might be a little bit, um, out of his normal comfort zone.

Uh, so that’s my, my best guess. Let’s see, there’s a Nikhil Govinder. “Do I enjoy computer sciences? So what’s my favorite programming language?” Well, I do. I mean, I was a computer science major in college, and the reason why I did that is, you know, this was before it was obvious that computer science was a very pragmatic field to go into.

It was because, you know, I originally went into college wanting to be a physics major because I wanted to understand reality, and I still do. But what was captivating about computer science is that it's kind of a world where you can create a reality and you can create tools that can scale arbitrarily to millions and millions of folks.

And so that's what got me into computer science and obviously to some degree helped me get Khan Academy going and kind of those early prototypes of our platform. I don't, I don't say I have a favorite programming language. I always view the programming languages as a means to an end. You know, it's not like I have a deep love for Python over Java over, you know, C++ or whatever else.

For me, it’s a mean to an end. Which language is a better tool for what I’m trying to accomplish? Uh, I’ve, I’ve always programmed more for the sake of trying to create something that could be useful or interesting versus kind of just the programming for programming's sake. But I could definitely see how people are attracted to the beauty of the programming itself because there is something very beautiful about kind of the logical structures.

Uh, and I think it does really help you learn to think critically and logically, regardless of whether you end up becoming a programmer or not. Let's see, from YouTube, Kevin Braza says, “Hi Sal, where would you say your optimism come from? I've always admired that presence in your live streams and videos. Also, my background is middle school science. I would love to help.”

Uh, well Kevin, thanks, thanks that you see that optimism! I mean look, I, I think, you know, we all have a choice in life. Things are going to happen to us for sure. Um, and you know, and I consider myself lucky that when you look at the whole spectrum of the things that can happen to you in life, I for the most part avoided most of the really bad ones.

And, you know, knock on wood! Uh, but no matter what happens to you, a lot depends on how you choose to look at it. You know, and there's the same, you know, cliches: glass half full or glass half empty. And I have found that no matter what life throws at you, or at least it goes in me, if I take it from a kind of a more optimistic point of view, it’s more productive, it’s more constructive; it puts positive energy out there.

You know, I've said it multiple times on this live stream for students going to college and saying I’m, you know, I need to go to this college or that college, or I need to go into that career. I was like, it’s really what you put out there that comes back. Regardless of where you go to college or what you work in, if you put positive energy out there, if you have a sense of curiosity, if you genuinely care about other people, then they will generally care about you.

Things will be interesting, you will get a lot of the out of the experience. So, I think when you, when you, that clicks, they're like, wow, I should be optimistic. And you know, I’m sure, you know, who knows? I don’t know how much of this is hardwired into folks. I would say in high school, you know, in certain circles, I was probably optimistic. In certain places, I was probably a little bit angry, I was probably a little bit angsty.

I said in the past I was the lead singer of a heavy metal band, and you know, if I were to see some of the lyrics that we had, it probably would make, in fact it would make me cringe today, uh, because we were, you know, I was angry, I was frustrated for, you know, who knows how much of it was, you know, teenage angst, how much was it just context that I was in.

Um, uh, but you know, when I reflect on that, I realize it's much better to be, uh, not, not as, not as angsty. It's a better way, it’s a better way to approach the world, and the world kind of tends to reflect that back, uh, when you do it. You know, one piece of advice, and I do this to myself all the time, is for smiles. You know, for smile you might say like that seems forced, like literally, like smile!

But I actually have read research that, you know, just as if you’re happy, it makes you naturally smile. It’s almost hard not to smile if you’re happy. The other way around, if you force a smile that looks a little bit sinister, uh, that it can, it can actually make you a little bit, make you a little bit happier. It's, it's, you know, so I try it out. Everyone who’s watching, try to try to force a smile.

I know there’s a lot going on in the world right now that’s stressful and should not make any of us happy, uh, but, uh, you know, you, it doesn’t help you or the world to, you know, be down. Uh, we should always be kind of like, hey, you know, look, this is the, this is the data. These are the, this is what we have to deal with now. What, how can we put one foot in front of the other to make positive change?

I think is always the question we should be asking ourselves. And we have this one life to live, and so as we try to make that positive change, even when we fail, even when we get knocked down, how do we live in the moment and appreciate these moments we have to even sometimes fail, uh, and, and make the most of it?

So let's see. Elliot H says, "Dumbledore Sal." Well, thank you for calling that. As many of you all know, I've always had the secret aspiration to be a Dumbledore-like figure one day.

Um, did you always have a Buddhist, flash Hindi, Hindu detached philosophy? When did you start forcing yourself to smile and enjoy the process rather than frown worrying about the result? Um, you know, it's interesting. I mean, a lot of these ideas are often associated with Eastern philosophies, like Buddhist or Hindu, you know, Vedic philosophies, but if you look at, um, almost any philosophical system, even many from the West, stoicism, famously, you know, from the Greeks and the Romans, it’s essentially the same general idea of not becoming attached to the outcome.

And really just doing what is right, not only will you be a, in some ways, a better human being, but you're also going to be a happier human being, a more peaceful human being. And if you look at some of the especially the mystical traditions in, you know, some of the major religions, um, you know, you look at some Sufi traditions, you look at Gnosticism and Christianity, um, there’s definitely the mystical traditions in Judaism.

They also, uh, kind of go into some of these same ideas. You know, in Hebrew, the word sin, uh, we have this notion that sin is, you know, when you go against the laws of, you know, the divine laws or however you want to define it. But the original meaning of sin is to miss the point.

And, uh, you know, there are interpretations of many religions where, you know, notions of evil are much more about getting sucked into the illusion of power and materiality and, you know, comparing yourself to others and, you know, status.

Uh, and that, that almost constructs, you know, not to get too philosophical, but that almost constructs a hell of its own sort in your mind because that obsession, that anxiety over, you know, keeping up with others, comparing to others, I’m not where I should be, I want to be richer, I want to be more powerful, I want to be better looking, I want to have better things.

That almost, that missing the point almost creates a form of, uh, of a hell even in your own mind. So I think this is actually a thread that, that exists throughout, uh, pretty much any, uh, any religious tradition or any philosophical system like, like the Stoics.

Uh, but you know, I, I think I kind of, uh, personally, you know, stumbled into this. I've always been intrigued by making sense of the universe that we live in, uh, and I think, you know, I think it was really when you're a teenager that you really, you know, a lot of teenagers out there think that, okay, you know, people who are 50, 60, 70, or 80 years old must be way deeper than I am because they've had so much more time to think about it.

But I think it’s actually middle schoolers and teenagers that are the ones that are oftentimes the thinking the most deeply about some of these like why do we exist, why am I here, what’s the purpose of life. And then what often happens, you go to college, you get a job, you have a family and you’re just like, okay, I gotta pay my mortgage, I gotta make sure my kids learn how to swim, I gotta, you know, I have all these social gatherings, I gotta make sure that, you know, I get that promotion.

And so actually, I think a lot of adults have almost that, that muscle of thinking deeply about the universe we live in and what it means to be a good person, etc., etc. Oftentimes atrophies.

Um, so, uh, anyway to answer your question, probably in, in middle school I was drawn to some of these things, and I continue to be. And I think now that I'm middle-aged, um, you know, and I realized that, you know, that the time goes by very, very fast in life.

Uh, you know, it feels like just yesterday I was in college, but that’s literally 20 years ago. And, you know, another 20 years I’m going to be in well into my 60s. Another 20 years of that, if I'm lucky, you know, I may or may not be around. Uh, and so I think it is that, you know, you can't, you can't.

I, a lot of times, people think it’s a distraction to think about these philosophical ideas or our purpose in life or, you know, how we fit into the cosmos or, you know, the nature of however you want to view it—God, the universe—but I don’t think it’s ever too early to think about that.

If anything, you know, a lot of the other things we have in our life is a distraction from that. You know, there's, I forgot who said it, I forgot which philosophical system it came out of, but you know, when you meditate and you still your mind, it's much more about, it's not about forgetting your kind of problems. It’s more about remembering what you really are, that you aren’t defined just by your name, your persona, your gender, your status in the world, your education—all of these things that, you know, frankly our egos identify very strongly with.

But when you, when you really still your mind, you realize that you're an awareness, and that’s all you really know. And, and, and that when you kind of strip away some of those other things, it can give you, it can give you peace and clarity on a lot of levels that, um, you know, not just kind of a spiritual level but, but to engage with the world as a whole.

But anyway, I'll get off of my soapbox, uh, on, on philosophy. Um, John Corley from Facebook says, “You are aging, Sal, just like me. Silver fox, unlike me.” Yes, I guess I am. I have to say, you know, all this high-minded talk about, you know, not being, um, not having vanity and not having, not being connected, you know, not letting your ego run.

There is something that hit me when I hit 40. I’m now 43, gonna hit, you know, be 44, uh, where it was, it, it, it didn’t hit my wife as bad—it hit me. And maybe that’s, maybe I do have more vanity than I’d like to admit, uh, but it was that realization, you know that I'm, you know, my wife and I’ve been married 16 years and when we got married, you know, we were in their 20s, we’re, you know, we're young.

16 years kind of went by super fast. I think that's a reflection of my wife being a very Obama, being a wonderful person to share a life with. But I’m like, wait, another 16 years I’m going to be 60. 60 is like, I never imagined myself being 60. And, and so, yeah, no, there is something about aging that definitely starts to hit you, at least hit me when I'm 40.

And, um, and uh, yeah, but we're all aging. You know, the beard isn’t helping because my beard is is grayer than normal, but you know, I’m resisting any temptations to use any, uh, dyes or anything to try to be something that I’m not. But I’m sure those words will come to bite me back when I show up on this live stream with, you know, jet-black beard in a few weeks.

Um, let’s see, we have maybe time for one or two more questions. Um, let’s see, see how it, let’s see. There’s a lot of, see Atara Lepets asked from Facebook, “How would I maintain mastery-based learning in university?” You know, what I would say when you’re learning things in university, don’t just cram for the test.

Yes, try to get good grades, and if you need a cram sometimes because you kind of let things fly a little bit, do that. But always review it and learn and try to learn from mastery. And if you do that, what you’re going to find is if you really master those introductory courses in college, the rest of the courses actually end up pretty intuitive.

If you don’t master those introductory courses in college, the rest of the courses in college are going to continue to be a struggle, and you’re going to continue to have to cram and you feel like you’re not really learning anything. So I would say especially those introductory courses—get really deep mastery of them, and then you’ll be pretty unstoppable.

I mean, I know people with PhDs in biology, and they're, you know, it’s, and, and if they, and they'll tell you if you really master that first year biology course, you can, you can have a very deep conversation with, with them or with your professors or whoever else. That’s my best advice.

Um, let me one more question. Tina Lou, “Do you like teaching?” Um, yeah, I mean if it's not obvious, I love it. Uh, you know, I consider myself very fortunate because, you know, to be able to, in, you know, to be able to have the opportunity to learn material in a non-stressful way where I'm not being evaluated, but I can just learn it for the sake of learning, but then have a reason for learning it so that I can digest it in my own mind and then help other people get to the same place, I think it's an incredibly powerful thing.

And I remember when I was a kid reading textbooks from, you know, some, you know, great thinkers so to speak. There’s a certain connection that you form across time and space when you’re able to go really deep in especially intellectual or philosophical subjects.

And you know, I feel very privileged and very lucky that, uh, hopefully, you know, I can help and the Khan Academy team can help form those same connections with people that we might not know across time and space.

You know, there might be some young girl in a village some place in 300 years, and hopefully, Khan Academy’s still around, and maybe some of our existing content is con hopefully still useful for her, and she’s just like, oh wow, I feel connection with these folks, uh, back in, you know, the 21st century.

I think there’s just something really cool about that. And, you know, as I was just saying, you know, we're in this puzzle called life, and to understand it, learning new things is the best way I can think of to really trying to make sense of this puzzle we’re in this universe we’re in, um, and our purpose in, you know, the fairly limited time that we have.

So I’ll let everyone go. I, I got a little bit more philosophical. Maybe, uh, maybe what’s going on in the world is making maybe all of us a little bit more philosophical now. Um, I hope, you know, I, I like, I pride myself that Khan Academy, we're, you know, we're non-political.

We definitely, you know, I try to keep, you know, any kind of clear religious or spiritual beliefs to myself because, uh, we're not, you know, we're not about condoning one side or anything or one, one, one spiritual view or another.

So I hope I didn’t cross any lines, uh, but I just, uh, I want to thank everyone for joining. And as always, I enjoy this, and you know, these, these really stressful times obviously, uh, you have everything going on, uh, in the U.S. which is, um, you know, the, the, the, I was, I, I was, I’m trying to pick between the words fortunate or unfortunate.

It’s good that finally it feels like there’s energy behind making change. Obviously, the unfortunate thing is the context that are forcing folks to have to take a lot of action here, but you know, between that, um, and obviously what’s going on COVID-19 and being socially distant, I know it’s a hard time for a lot, a lot of folks.

So just encourage yourself, you know, don’t, don’t take it easy on yourself no matter what life stage you are in. Um, and try to enjoy the moment, give yourself some moments of stillness, try to force a smile every now and then, and hopefully those smiles become a little bit more automatic and adorable.

And I will see all of y'all on Monday!