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 Tell Me What Happened,

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the podcast that features folks from all walks

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of life telling us stories from their childhood

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and how those stories 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 were

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sometimes good and sometimes not so good. But

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all of them, I'd like to think, have helped make

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me who I am today. Tell Me What Happened is sponsored

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by Sidelining Publishing, publishers of quality

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books, including Susan Seller's classic, I've

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Got Peace in My Fingers, available on Amazon

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.com and all quality independent bookstores.

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Tell Me What Happened is also sponsored by Laughsaver

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.com. Visit laughsaver .com and record your laughter.

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Your children, your grandchildren, and your great

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grandchildren will appreciate it. It's free.

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That's laughsaver .com. Go there now and record

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your laughter. Today I have as my guest, Timothy

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Troy. Timothy is a filmmaker living and working

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in Chicago. He works both the crew side for an

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NBC television show. and he directs his own short

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films as well. Tim is a husband and a father

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of two young children. He's also a former student

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of mine from Whitney Young, and it was great

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to catch up with him. How are you doing, Timothy?

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I'm good. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate

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you taking the time. I know you're a very busy

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man, and it's good to reconnect. So are you ready

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to tell your story, Timothy? Sure thing. All

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right. So my story is... is in theory, it's about

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baseball. It's a little more than that, which

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I think you'll get to when you ask me your question

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at the end. But it starts when I'm 15 or 14 in

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the summer between sophomore, junior year, high

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school. A little background is that I had never

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been athletic at all in all of my life. I never

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tried out for sports. I never did anything even

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remotely like that. And I never really showed

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much of an interest in sports either. And One

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day my mom comes up and she says, you know, I'm

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going to take your brother up to a Cubs game.

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Do you want to come with? And my brother was

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a huge sports fan and he'd been into sports ever

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since he started moving. Basically he was into

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that thing in typical sibling fashion. He and

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I are completely opposite. We go in different

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directions on just about anything you can think

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of. Well. You know, I could have stayed at home

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and just watch movies or whatever, which is what

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I did most of my time, but. For whatever reason

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that day, I decided, you know what I'm going

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to go with. And we got up to Wrigley. And like

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I said, I'd never, never seen, I'd never been

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in a baseball stadium. I'd never really had any

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kind of experience with it before. And mom had

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gotten tickets for the field boxes, like the

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first rows. So when you come up into Wrigley,

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instead of like going up through all those stairs

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to the upper deck or something, we just walked

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up one little flight of stairs. And the first

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thing you see is the Ivy. and just this gorgeous,

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gorgeous stadium. And I fell in love. It was,

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it was like a light switch went on. It was like,

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oh, this is just, this is just wonderful. It

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was magic. It was like something out of a movie.

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Like you could stage that scene just perfectly

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and see the, I wish I had a camera on my face

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to see what had dawned on me when that had happened.

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Cause it's, that moment was truly magical. And

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From that moment on, I was a Cubs fan. I'm still

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a Cubs fan today, even though, you know, there's

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some stuff with the rickets that we won't get

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into. But I remain a Cubs fan to this day. I

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still like baseball. It's still the sport that

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is most close, near and dear to my heart. And

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the thing is, this is like this is all the background

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because what happened next was Tim Troy, who

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had never been interested in sports at all, took

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this one trip to Wrigley Field as inspiration.

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And that year in high school, I decided I was

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going to try out for the baseball team. Never

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had picked up a baseball bat before other than,

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you know, like gym class in school. Talked to

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the coach and said, yeah, you can try out. There's,

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you know, tryouts are in the spring. So the tryouts

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were coming up in a few months. And he said,

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you can certainly come try out. We've got no

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problem with that. He said, you can even do the

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conditioning in the months leading up to it with

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the team. So, you know, do your weightlifting

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and your training and you're running around and

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get yourself in shape for it. I was like, this

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is great. So I spent months with these guys that

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had played baseball for years and years and years,

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and they all were in much better shape than me.

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You know, I was, I was a chubby kid. And so this

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was also part of the time when I was like growing

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taller. I was going to puberty. I weighed the

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same basically in eighth grade all the way up

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till high school. but I shot up like six inches

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in a couple of years. So I got taller, I got

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skinnier, and I got myself not in great shape,

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but at least I got in a little bit of decent

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shape as I was doing all this weightlifting and

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physical training, which was something else that

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I'd never done before. So it was a really neat

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experience doing that. It was neat doing it with

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the other guys. They were very welcoming. They

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kind of looked at me sideways sometimes because

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there's this nerdy guy that's... trying to do

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weightlifting and trying to do baseball and trying

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to learn a bunch of skills that he's never had

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before. And so long story short, I go through

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all the conditioning and we go through the tryouts

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and I did not make the team. I completely failed.

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There was no chance I was making that team because

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there was, you know, I'm complaining, I'm competing

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against people that have been doing this for

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years and I just wasn't up to it. And it was

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a bit of a disappointment, right? Like I had

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built myself up to like, okay, well there's this

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arc to this, right? Like, okay, so you go to

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Wrigley and you enjoy this and it changes your

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outlook on something. And so it motivates you

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to do this thing. And then the classic story

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is that, okay, you're gonna make the team and

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then you're gonna play baseball and that's gonna

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be a new part of your life. And I didn't. And

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I remember being... disappointed with it. And

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I talked to my mom a little bit about it in preparation

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for this and she was like, yeah, you were, you

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were kind of wrecked about it. You were, you

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were not happy. But what did happen was instead

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of being on the team, I don't remember if it

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was my suggestion or it might've been coach Cassidy's

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suggestion, but they said, well, why don't you

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come be the manager, right? Why don't you keep

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the books for us? You still get uniform. You

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still get to come out with the team. You go to

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all the games. You can still be a part of this

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world, even if you're not. playing on the field

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and I thought about that and I thought that you

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know that actually kind of works for me because

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it's it's analytical it's studying the game it's

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being it suited my interests and my abilities

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and I could still participate and so I said yeah

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I'll do that and I ended up spending two years

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doing that for the baseball team and it was that

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was a really good experience for me too I really

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enjoyed having that time as part of the team

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and learning a different side of baseball that

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way. And it got me more interested and more knowledgeable

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about the game. So that's kind of my story. I

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was kind of hoping you made the team, but glad

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you got to be the manager. Glad the coach was

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smart enough to offer you that job and you were

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smart enough to take it. Yeah, that's great.

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All right. I appreciate that. So can you tell

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me, Timothy, how do you think that experience

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has impacted? How have you carried that with

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you as an adult? So, you know, I learned a lot

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of things from that, I think, and a lot of stuff

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you only learn in retrospect. One was just the

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experience of actually trying to do something

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physical and working out and, you know, like

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physical conditioning. That's something that

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I could carry forward and at least have a knowledge

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of, you know, if I need to go work out now or

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if I need to get myself back in shape or just

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take care of your body. That was a neat thing

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to learn, but on a more psychological sense.

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I learned the way to make the best of a situation.

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I think people don't talk about it much, but

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I think you actually do need to fail at things

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in life too. You need to not succeed at something

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in order to learn how to pivot, how to make better

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choices, or just how to make choices that are

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more appropriate for you, I think is the right

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way to say that. I think if you fail, you learn

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how to make choices that are right for you when

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the first choices might not have been. and you

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learn how to deal with disappointment, right?

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It's all of those things factored into this experience

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for me, and I think I've taken them forward in

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a lot of different ways. I love it. So let me

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ask you one question I usually don't ask follow

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-ups, but one other question. I think you told

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me you have a couple of kids. How soon are you

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going to take them to Wrigley Field, do you think?

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You know, I've been thinking about that in preparation

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for this interview, and I think Maybe next year

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I could take Addie. She's my daughter, she's

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three right now, and maybe she might sit still

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for a game next year. She's a little young for

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it now, but my one -year -old definitely, he

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doesn't sit still for anything, so he's got a

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little ways. But I think in the next couple of

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years, I would do it. I need to start watching

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some more baseball on TV. It's been tough since

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Cubs went to the Marquee Network, and you can't

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actually watch it without having the special

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apps and everything. But maybe next year we'll...

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we'll cough up the money for it and have some

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covers on the TV for them to watch and get acclimated

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that way too. Yeah, well Rickets makes money

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on that, so you might want to think about that

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one too. Yeah, I know. Maybe I'll just borrow

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somebody's password or something. Well, thank

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you for coming on the show, Timothy. I really

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appreciated telling your story. You look like

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you're doing well. I'm glad to know that everything's

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worked out for you so far. Yeah. Just as an aside,

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you're a former student of mine from what year

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did you graduate? I graduated 2001. Holy smokes.

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I can't believe that. 2001? Yeah. Oh my gosh.

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Well, you look great. Thank you. And you look

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a lot younger than that. And I would have said

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10 years, but it's 20. OK. Thank you again, Timothy,

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for coming on our show. We really do appreciate

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it. I'm glad to be here. If anybody wants to

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check out my stuff, you can find my films on

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YouTube at YouTube slash crazy little monster.

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I know I've seen some of your movies and I really,

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really enjoy them. And what I really like about

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them is that there's an arc that's easy, easy

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enough to follow and they're relatively short

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movies. Is that right? And what's your longest

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movie? Longest movie I've made so far is called

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Abby. It's nine and a half minutes. So I'm. trying

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to work up to doing a feature. We've got a script

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I'm kicking around with somebody so that that's

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in the planning. It's the next step for me, but

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until then, you just keep making shorts because

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they're fun. We're doing actually a bunch of

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short films that we're going to start releasing

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on Halloween this year. Pretty much everything

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I do is horror or sci -fi. We're going to start

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a series of them that are about a minute long

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each, maybe two minutes tops, and they're all

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just going to be quick, fun little short horror

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films. Love it. I got to tell you, my thesis

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is that people's attention spans are getting

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shorter and shorter. And so I think one minute,

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two minute movies are the future, personally.

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But that's what do I know. But thank you for

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coming on the show. Thank you for having me.

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

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again for spending a little time with us and

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telling us his story. And I'd also like to thank

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our sponsors, Sidelining Publishing and LapSaber

00:12:36.440 --> 00:12:40.840
.com. And of course, I appreciate all of you,

00:12:40.980 --> 00:12:44.019
our listeners. Thank you for tuning in. I'm gonna

00:12:44.019 --> 00:12:47.500
sign off now with Susan Saldar's classic, One

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Little Act of Kindness. So until next time, stay

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safe out there and try not to hurt anybody. act

00:13:02.409 --> 00:13:09.049
of kindness can go a long, long way. Two little

00:13:09.049 --> 00:13:15.529
acts of kindness can brighten anyone's day. Three

00:13:15.529 --> 00:13:20.309
little acts of kindness can make a beautiful

00:13:20.309 --> 00:13:27.350
sound. Many acts of kindness help the world go

00:13:27.350 --> 00:13:35.279
round. One little loving word can go a long,

00:13:35.399 --> 00:13:41.779
long way Two little loving words can brighten

00:13:41.779 --> 00:13:48.539
anyone's day Three little loving words can make

00:13:48.539 --> 00:13:55.860
a beautiful sound Many loving words help the

00:13:55.860 --> 00:14:05.440
world One little seed zone can go a long long

00:14:05.440 --> 00:14:12.980
way Two little seed zone can brighten anyone's

00:14:12.980 --> 00:14:19.320
day Three little seed zone can make a beautiful

00:14:19.320 --> 00:14:26.899
sound Many seed zone help the world go around

00:14:30.250 --> 00:14:35.029
Two little child's laughter can go a long, long

00:14:35.029 --> 00:14:40.990
way Two little children's laughter can brighten

00:14:40.990 --> 00:14:46.649
anyone's day Three little children's laughter

00:14:46.649 --> 00:14:53.649
can make a beautiful sound Many children laughing

00:14:53.649 --> 00:15:01.559
help the world go round And many see it so Help

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the world go round Many loving words Help the

00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:15.440
world go round And many acts of kindness Help

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the world go round