WEBVTT

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One little act of kindness can go a long, long

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way Two little acts of kindness can brighten

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anyone's day Three little acts of kindness can

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make a beautiful sound Many acts of kindness

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Hi, and welcome back to season two of Tell Me

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What Happened, the podcast that features people

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from all walks of life talking about childhood

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experiences that have impacted them as an adult.

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I'm your host, Jay Rehack. And like you, I've

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had my share of childhood experiences that have

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impacted who I am today. Some of them great,

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some of them not so great. Tell me what happened

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is sponsored by Sidemind Ain't Publishing, publishers

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of quality books, including Susan Salador's classic,

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I've Got Peace in My Fingers. I have as my guest

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today an old friend of mine. Actually, he's a

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student of mine from 35 years ago. I met him

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at St. Thomas of Canterbury when he came to our

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school as a sixth grader. Many years have passed,

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and I'm going to let Lawyer Darfor tell us his

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story. Welcome to the show, Lawyer. Thanks very

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much. Glad to be here. I'm really looking forward

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to hearing your story, Lawyer. I'm so happy that

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you're willing to do this, kind of reconnect

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with me after all these years. I haven't talked

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to you since whatever, probably eighth grade

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when you graduated, I would say. I don't know.

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It's been a while. And I'm hoping you're doing

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well. Yes, I'm doing good. Fantastico. Well,

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are you ready to tell your story? Yes. All right,

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I'm going to get out of the way, lawyer. At the

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end, I'm probably going to ask you how what you've

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told us has impacted your life as an adult. But

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take it away, lawyer. OK, so my name is lawyer

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Darfur. And as Jay said, I was a former student

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of his. back in 1986, in the sixth grade. And

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basically, I just wanted to tell my story of

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what's been going on in my life. So at the time,

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I was a transfer student to St. Thomas at Canterbury.

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So it was my first time at the school. I didn't

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really have a lot of friends. I was trying to

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get used to just a totally different environment.

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I had originally grown up on the south side of

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Chicago in Hyde Park, where it was predominantly

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black or white, not too many other nationalities,

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races. And I came to St. Thomas and living on

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the north side, I was all of a sudden thrust

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into a situation where I was around many different

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people that I never... you know, had any type

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of contact with. So, you know, I had, you know,

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I knew or I should say that there were classmates

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who were Hispanic, who were Asian, Indian. So

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it was a new experience for me. Kind of hard

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to all take in as I guess you would say a 12

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-year -old who had never been exposed to any

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other different cultures and nationalities to

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be thrust into a classroom with people of many

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different nationalities. So I think that was

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an adjustment for me. It took a lot of time,

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I would say, at least probably about three years

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to understand and feel a little bit comfortable

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with the people that I was around. At the time,

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during the summers, I would go off to a summer

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camp in Wisconsin. And when I aged out of being

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a camper, they had a program for campers that

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wanted to become junior counselors. So I was

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signed up for the program and I did the years

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worth of training. And at the end, I was officially

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a junior counselor and my job at the time at

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the camp was to be a cabin floater, which meant

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that I was going to be assisting counselors with

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the kids in those cabins. That same year that

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I started as a junior counselor, They the camp

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itself decided to start a pilot program of international

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staff. So they had people coming from many different

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countries, basically to learn what it's like

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to live and work in America and just basically

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dealing with with American kids. So they were

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counselors and we were tasked with helping them.

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It was. an eye -opening experience for me at

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the time because up until that point, I had never

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met anyone from Australia or from England for

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any different country that I had seen on television

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for that matter, except the kids in my classroom.

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So it was a different experience for me. And

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at the time, I thought it was kind of unique

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and cool that I could be around those people

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and kind of learn what it was like for them growing

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up and how they did things and just hearing the

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way that they spoke and learning their slang

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and nomenclatures for a variety of different

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things that we have in America. At one point

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in life, I thought that I wanted to become this

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world famous architect and It was actually what

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I wanted to do was become an architect and just

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build, you know, design and build buildings.

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But after meeting people who were from different

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countries, I decided, well, maybe I don't want

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to just design and build stuff in the US, but

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I want to be able to design and build stuff all

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over the world. Well, going into high school

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and doing an architecture program and realizing

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that, okay, after I graduate, our instructor

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told us, well, this is the same stuff you're

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gonna see in college, so just be prepared. We

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kind of scoffed it off and said, yeah, whatever,

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we know this stuff, they're not gonna make us

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do it over again. But it turns out that we did.

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And at the time, I was not too thrilled about

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that. I remember reading an article and it was

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talking about construction management as a new

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emerging career field. So right then and there

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I decided, hmm, maybe I want to actually be involved

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with the construction process and have more freedom

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and liberty to move around the world basically

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and manage projects. So I switched over to construction

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management and During the time that I was in

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the program, I met a girl who was part of an

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exchange student program and she was from the

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Philippines. So we started dating and when college

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was done, she was going back to her country and

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she invited me to come visit. So I decided, yeah,

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I'll go and visit. Well, I went and visited.

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I loved the environment of the Philippines. I

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thought it was something new and different. And

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her parents at the time owned a construction

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company, a fairly large one in the Philippines.

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And I asked her, would you be able to get me

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a job? So she spoke to her parents, and her dad

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offered me, I guess, a pseudo internship. And

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the rest is history from there. I worked there.

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And upon returning to the States, I got to work

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for a number of different companies. doing a

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variety of different projects. And I basically

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got to travel the world and meet a lot of different

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people. I would say that I also got to experience

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a lot of different cultures. Just from my career

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experiences alone, I've had the opportunity to

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build projects in 10 different countries and

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four different continents. I've worked on projects

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in 22 states and in six Canadian provinces. And

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so in all my travels, I learned a lot of different

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things. And one of the things I can really take

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away from my experiences is that no matter where

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you're from, what your background is in life,

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anywhere in the world, people still hold the

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same values that I would say all of us seem to

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share, and that's family values, friendships,

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life, kids, the cultural environment. It's all

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the same no matter where you go. Sure, people

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might be from a different country and we might

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think that you know, well, because they're from

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here, they don't seem to hold the same values

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for a family or for kids or whatever, because

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of, you know, let's say how they might raise

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them in a certain particular sense. But that

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doesn't mean that we don't share those same values.

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I mean, everyone, regardless of where you are

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in the world, still fundamentally knows, okay,

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my parents are here. It's my job, my duty as

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a child that when I get older, I should take

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care of my parents. It's also their duty and

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their responsibility to take care of their own

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children as well. We go to work, we socialize,

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and I don't think that there's any differences.

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I would say the one thing that I've learned throughout

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my journey, though, is that it's important for

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us to understand each other, regardless of what

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our religious beliefs are, regardless of the

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color of our skin. We're all people. That's pretty

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much it. There's no difference. And we're friends.

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And I think we should try and treat each other

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as friends all the time because I've made tons

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of friends in my travels. Some of them I still

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keep in contact with, I still see them, or we

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exchange phone calls, birthday greetings, everything

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under the sun. And I personally think that it's

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nice that regardless of where I go in the world,

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that I know that there's someone I can contact

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with, I can contact and ask, hey, would you like

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to grab a bite to eat for lunch, meet up for

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dinner, do? little outings with them and their

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families. And I think that that is important

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for us as human beings to have these social interactions

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with others and to value others in their personal

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opinions and in their lives. Now, that's well

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said, my friend. Well said. Listen, I got to

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ask you one question. You've already answered

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how it's impacted your life because you're a

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guy who started off on the South Side and sort

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of within a two cultural world maybe. And now

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you've gone all over the world and you've experienced

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a tremendous amount of multiculturalism and variety

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of different human beings in terms of that and

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understanding how close we are to one another.

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But the one question I gotta ask you is, are

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you still in contact with that? With that woman

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from the Philippines who sort of got you on your

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international journey or is that over? No, so

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actually we're still in contact with each other

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with the pandemic. I can say that we haven't

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actually had a chance to. You know, just hang

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out in the past four years, but we still do keep

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in touch. Will exchange emails. Chat regularly.

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And. That's about it, really. That's great. Well,

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listen, I want to thank you, lawyer, for coming

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on the show. I do want to especially thank you

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because, to be honest with you, I messed up the

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recording last week when we were doing this,

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and you were kind enough to come back on and

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do the show again. So thank you very much for

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being on the show. I'm really happy that you're

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doing well. Where are you right now, by the way?

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You're not in Chicago, are you? No, I am currently

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in Granger, Wyoming, which for those of you who

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may not have a clue as to where Granger is, it

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is on the southwest portion of Wyoming. I am

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about two hours west of Salt Lake City. Oh, wow.

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Wow. And then with your job, you travel all over

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the world, you know. Where you go next or you

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just wait for somebody to tell you hey, we need

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you someplace else. How does that go? Most of

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the time I would say that it's Hey lawyer, we

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need you here on X date So I will get a little

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bit of a heads up and other times it will be

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Hey, you know, we have a project that's going

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on just outside of Salt Lake City It's about

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an hour east of Salt Lake City or an hour, sorry,

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north of Salt Lake City. And since you're already

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in Wyoming, could you shoot over there and take

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a look at that project and possibly stay there

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for a week or two? So usually that's what happens.

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Well, thank you so much for coming on the show.

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I really appreciate it. I really appreciate reconnecting

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with you. It really brings me a lot of joy to

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know that you're doing well. And I knew you would

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because I knew you back in the day when you were

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in sixth grade and you are a very, very intelligent

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young guy. And now that you and I have talked,

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I do remember you kind of transferred in. Truth

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be known, I started at St. Thomas the Canterbury

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approximately the same time that you transferred

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in. So we both sort of were new to the school

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at the time. And I'm glad you're doing well.

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Thank you very much, and I'm glad to be a part

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of your show. I hope that everything is going

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well for you as well. I'm sorry for the technical

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difficulty that I had on my end with my iPad

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overheating and basically kicking me off and

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trying to get back on again, hoping I didn't

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screw everything up. Not at all, not at all.

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Well, that's our show. I'd like to thank my former

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student, Lawyer Darfur. for taking the time to

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be on Tell Me What Happened. I'd also like to

00:16:25.009 --> 00:16:28.309
thank our sponsors, Sidelining Publishing, publishers

00:16:28.309 --> 00:16:31.429
of quality books. And finally, I'd like to thank

00:16:31.429 --> 00:16:34.529
our listeners for tuning in. If you have a childhood

00:16:34.529 --> 00:16:37.009
story you'd like to be on Tell Me What Happened,

00:16:37.289 --> 00:16:43.289
just contact me at j -a -y -c -r -e -h -a -k

00:16:43.289 --> 00:16:48.070
at gmail .com. That's j -a -y -c -r -e -h -a

00:16:48.070 --> 00:16:51.639
-k at gmail .com. I'd love to hear from you.

00:16:52.299 --> 00:16:54.399
Well, I'm going to end this show, as I often

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do, with Susan Salador's one little act of kindness.

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Until next time, this is Jay Rehack asking you

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to stay safe out there and try not to hurt anybody.

00:17:16.009 --> 00:17:22.569
of kindness can go a long, long way. Two little

00:17:22.569 --> 00:17:29.049
acts of kindness can brighten anyone's day. Three

00:17:29.049 --> 00:17:33.829
little acts of kindness can make a beautiful

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sound. Many acts of kindness help the world go

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round. One little loving word can go a long,

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long way. Two little loving words can brighten

00:17:55.309 --> 00:18:02.069
anyone's day. Three little loving words can make

00:18:02.069 --> 00:18:09.410
a beautiful sound. Many loving words help the

00:18:09.410 --> 00:18:18.380
world go One little seed zone can go a long,

00:18:18.460 --> 00:18:26.500
long way. Two little seed zone can brighten anyone's

00:18:26.500 --> 00:18:32.859
day. Three little seed zone can make a beautiful

00:18:32.859 --> 00:18:57.730
sound. Many a can brighten anyone's day. Three

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little children's laughter can make a beautiful

00:19:02.549 --> 00:19:08.730
sound. Many children laughing help the world

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go round. And many