The Motivation Declaration
The Motivation Declaration is a podcast that takes a look into people’s life stories. We’ve all had to examine our life and make changes. I want to look into those decisions, the Motivation behind them, and the moment we decide to Declare the change.
The Motivation Declaration
Brady B High School Highlights
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Our opening episode of Season 3 we sit down with recent high school graduate Brady to discuss the process from start to finish. From freshman sports to senior coursework and all the crazy in between, Brady breaks down how his experience in high school prepared him for what's next. Tune in as Brady breaks down his experience and offers tips and advice for students everywhere.
We're here. We're back. This is I don't know, maybe season three, maybe season four, year five of the Motivation Declaration Podcast. First episode in quite a while, but I felt compelled, inspired by my guests here today to to get back on it and start recording and start sharing sharing stories. So Brady, thanks for coming on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. No problem.
SPEAKER_02I feel like in eighth grade you may be asked to be on it. Oh. As a joke. Oh no. Yeah. Nah. You're just no. But it's nice to be able to, as an adult now, have you on and kind of hear your story of where you've been the past four years. I think I think your brother too. Yes. Yes. Several, several times. So maybe in a couple years I'll have been on too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, after he graduates, sure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, so I guess outfurt, we'll jump right in. Do you want to kind of introduce yourself and who you are and what you what you got going right now?
SPEAKER_01Sure. Uh my name's Brady Bohat. Uh I was with Mr. Havron in eighth grade. Uh, he was my counselor. Uh, I went to Case High School. Um, yeah, IB student, uh, student council president. I overcommitted a little bit, but we can talk about that maybe a little bit later. Sure. Um, yeah, I guess that's that's me.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So right out the gate. And like I we kind of talked, a lot of my listeners are like eighth grade kids who will go to Gifford still. So this might be helpful for them, might not. I don't know. Explain the IB pathway or diploma. What explain what you did.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so so I B, it's it's a set of classes that you'll take. It's kind of like AP or advanced placement if you're familiar with that. It's basically just the advanced classes that you're gonna get. Um, and those classes give classes give opportunity to get college credit. Um and that's done through testing, right? So for IB, uh they're two-year courses, and um yeah, they just prepare you for what college is like, and they also have the opportunity to test into college credit. Uh the IB diploma itself, uh there's a few requirements that you have to take for that. Uh so what I had to do is I had to do six IB classes. Um I had to do an extended essay, so a 4,000-word, uh really extensive research paper, uh, a prescribed essay, which is a philosophy paper, it's only a thousand words, um, and then a creativity, activity, and service portfolio. Uh excuse me. And uh that one is it's kind of just like making reflections on your everyday life like once a month. Like something that you've done with that fits into those kind of aspects. Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_02So ex I've never been able to say this, but what does the B and I B stand for? What is this what is how do you say it? Baccalaureate. Baccalaureate or International International Baccalaureate. Yeah. Essentially it's a advanced placement type of program that gets you just college ready. Okay. Do you feel mo overall? Like we don't need to whatever, but do you feel like IB pathway case got you ready for college? Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. What types of things would you would you say, slash would you recommend for kids coming through to do to get yourself ready?
SPEAKER_01Um, I mean, this one I feel like should be a little bit obvious, but don't procrastinate on your schoolwork. Like freshman year and sophomore year, it might be a little easier to procrastinate because those aren't going to be like your like full IB classes. Like you're gonna be in the MYP program or the middle years program. So that's just kind of like your like introduction to what IB is, or just kind of like getting you through the first year, two first two years of high school. Uh, but then once you get into like junior and senior year, right? Like you're not gonna want to procrastinate because that's like college-level classes. Uh, and I found that that out the hard way in the beginning of the junior year when my grades started to slip. I was like, whoa, I need to kind of get on my stuff. And I started to lock in. I got Google Calendar because paper planners don't work for me. Same. Um, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Uh two great minds think alike, I suppose, right? Yes, sir. Um, and then yeah, so that's my first point. Uh, don't procrastinate. Second point, really just organizing yourself and organizing your notes. Uh, for me, in between junior year and senior year, I kind of had like a crisis whether I didn't like like I don't even know how to explain it. I didn't think that my note taking was very good in junior year. Uh, and granted it wasn't. So I started taking notes on the computer in senior year, but then when I needed to go back and study for the tests in senior year, all my junior year notes were gone. Like I had thrown them out. Um, because I like was like, these are garbage, I don't need these anymore, goodbye. And I kind of threw myself in the hole. So just make sure that you're organized from the beginning and have a plan on how you can keep yourself organized throughout the entire four years of college or a high school, if not just the IB program.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so going through that, you said junior to senior year was a a big like turning point you had to get get yourself ready. A lot of times I hear, and a lot of times I just kind of tell eighth graders and and ninth graders when we talk, like, is freshman year the hardest year in terms of adjusting, or would you say like you adjust fine to the whatever, and then when you get into your you're deeper into your program, it it gets harder?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, I think freshman year, at least looking back on it, I felt like it was kind of a breeze. I felt as though it was just very very much so like eighth grade, and they kind of structure it to be that way. Like they structure it to be more of an introduction to what the course level and like the coursework could be and like the workload. Uh, but it's nothing that can't be done like within a class. Like you I don't think that you'll ever have extensive homework in your freshman year. Uh that changes uh in sophomore year. So I really feel like sophomore year is like the real start, freshman year is just like the tutorial. Uh, but sophomore year, you start getting the homework, you're gonna have to start dedicating time out of school to doing schoolwork, uh, and then junior and senior year just just kind of blows up.
SPEAKER_02So you so you say I'm wrong then. Freshman year isn't the hardest. It's it gets as you go it gets hard as you go along.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, definitely. And I actually I don't even think that the senior year is the hardest, uh, at least for me. The only reason that it was hard was because of all the studying and all the testing that I had to do. Otherwise, like the coursework and like the workload was the hardest in junior year.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01So yeah.
SPEAKER_02Is that just because you kind of started those eight IBE courses? You said they're two-year courses, and you kind of started them and you have to finish in senior year, so it's like kind of flipping a switch from more college prep type of courses or pretty pretty much. Pretty much, okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean like for the for the IB courses themselves, like you're done like learning new content after the first semester of senior year. So you're basically done learning new things, and then the rest of the semester is just based on solely studying for these exams, just to make sure you can get a good score so you can get college credit.
SPEAKER_02Sure. Okay. So when you say the IB program, I get you college credit, where does that get you?
SPEAKER_01IB credit specifically is very nice because it can get you into most places. Uh I say most places because it won't get you in everywhere in the US, uh, but it will get you into most places overseas. Uh, for example, some of my classmates have been uh getting into colleges in the UK uh or in France or Italy. Uh a few of them plan to go to school in the UK. Um, but most UW system schools, uh actually I think all of them take IB credit. Uh I actually want to say majority of schools in Wisconsin do. I don't think that there's a school in Wisconsin that doesn't. I can't say that for some other schools. I like I know some big state schools like Nebraska uh will take IB credit and they actually look for IV scholars. Um, but I mean in my experience in college applications, most places will end up taking IB credit.
SPEAKER_02So how many college credits are you going into freshman year college with?
SPEAKER_01Um right now I don't know. Uh we'll find out in July. I'm I'm hoping to go into college with at least 16 credits done, um, which is what, uh for me, five classes of time plus an extra credit worth of time. And money. Yeah, exactly. It's a lot of money saved. Um so we'll see. Uh I mean that calc exam was pretty difficult. But uh otherwise, I think I'll I have a good shot at least 12 credits.
SPEAKER_02All right. That's nice. I mean, that's you know, we've spent the past couple years, like pretty much after you guys left, we started doing this middle school transformation, whatever the hell they called it, where they kind of structured the middle school curriculum to look like high school curriculum and kind of be like a um a survey, a survey of what you what you kind of learn in high school. Just kind of get kids uh ready for it and kind of understand where they they stand as it comes to college credits and and the the programs they can take. We're going away from that a little bit next year, but the the core is staying there. Do you feel like in eighth grade you were prepared to start? Because they it started the year after you left, of course. Looking back on your eighth grade, whether it was the courses you took, the teachers you had, whatever it might be, do you feel like you're relatively prepared for high school?
SPEAKER_01I I don't think that the courses as much helped. I thought and I felt as though that the teachers that I had uh were really the reason why I think I succeeded so much in my first two years. Um I don't know. I felt like the way that I was taught by the teachers I had just made everything in freshman and sophomore year just seem seem simple. Um and like don't mean to say that it's not, like it's very like complicated work, but the ways that the teachers prepared me, like for example, like say like name drop Mr. Strutz, right? Um when we went over geometry in his class, and then I went into geometry in freshman year, the advanced class, I was like, whoa, we already covered some of this, like I already got an easy AA on this test without studying, right? And that's because I learned it all in eighth grade, right? And I felt as though it was just very, very easy because of the way that the teachers were teaching us.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so not to not to brag or whatever, but just like a control for this experiment. When you talk to kids who maybe didn't go to the same middle school as you, do you feel like maybe they had um the similar experience, or do they struggle like maybe your specific middle school, your specific teachers prepared you better, or how would you or not like you tell me?
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean something that I did notice is that a lot of the kids who were in the advanced classes, like I want to say over 50% to over 60% of that population came from like my middle school. Okay, uh, in comparison to like the four other schools that funnel into my high school, right? Um, so I want to say just in general, just by that statistic, that our teachers prepared us better than some of the other middle schools. Um, but also I felt that like performance-wise, like if you were to make everyone like like an equal amount of like people per school, okay. Uh, I felt that my middle school ended up doing better, and I think that a lot of people from my school or for like my middle school and from other schools ended up agreeing.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Yeah, you know, like this year I think three of the five valedictorians were from our school, and then a couple years ago, like all three of them, I think two or three years ago, all three of them were from Yeah. So like maybe it's a kid, maybe it's a preparation, but either way, you know, you know, brag about a little bit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there th there's definitely something to do with middle school and yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so so kind of we're gonna backtrack a little bit, and I'd like to hear, um, if you can remember, feel free to like say I don't quite remember four years ago, but like what courses you took. Obviously, we we all take span or Spanish, English, social studies, science, math. Um, but what other courses you take that were like interesting to you or or kind of helped get you in the right direction for your your c collegiate studies? In in middle school or in high school? In high school, I'm sorry, in high school.
SPEAKER_01Um That's a good question. Um, I want to say, I mean, besides from just like the standard IB courses, I took orchestra for four years. Okay. Um, and not not that it necessarily helped me more than any of the other courses, but for me, it it helped me realize that like I was overcommitting myself to other things that weren't as important to me. Um, and it helped me realize um and how to utilize my time more efficiently. Sure. Um, which I think is gonna help me in college more because um like at Marquette where I plan to go, there's this festival right in the beginning of the year where all the clubs and all the organizations are out trying to drag everyone in, right? Uh they call it OFEST uh or organizations fest, but everyone else calls it uh overcommitment fest. Alright. But so I think that the orchestra by like showing me like where to like put my time is gonna help me make sure that I don't overcommit myself and spread myself too thin in college.
SPEAKER_02So orchestra, yes. Took four years of that. Were there um other like electives that you took that weren't like I B courses? Did you were you able to take any like fun electives that you wanted to take?
SPEAKER_01Um I I B um was difficult in that sense because I didn't get much like wiggle room in terms of electives, especially if I was taking orchestra. Now that would be different for anyone else who wasn't like taking orchestra throughout the four years, because you're only required to have I think two art credits, maybe three. Yeah. Um yeah. Um I mean the only the only real elective class, I mean, besides like gym and orchestra that I ever took was in my sophomore year, and I somehow wiggled my way into junior year criminology. Nice. Uh, and I was like the only person in that class, uh and there was or not the only person, the only sophomore uh in that class, and there was no freshman or anything, but there were seven total people in the class, and there was juniors juniors and seniors in there, and I was just like, whoa. Um, but then I I think it prepared me by like I don't know, I just kind of felt like I was the only person in that room actually doing work. Everyone was kind of like goofing around. So I guess that just kind of helps me realize not to like I don't even know how to word it, like to focus on myself in that sense and not focus on what other people around the room are doing. Sure. Just to make sure that I can get through no matter what other people around the room are doing, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So one to ten, ten being happiest, highest, best. How do you feel like rate your not satisfaction with your education or the course you took, but just and your enjoyment? Like obviously IB is a shit ton of work. We know that. Like anybody can tell you that. But like, are you happy you chose the IB pathway instead of like a traditional pathway where you could learn maybe more business or biomedical or what have you like? Are you overall are you happy with that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think I think that IB in the way that they structure the classes, not just even like the core classes, but like the elect of the um like the pathway course uh TLK theory of knowledge, uh, I think that they force you into like well-roundedness uh in terms of like like for example, I mentioned the creativity access activity service portfolio earlier. Like that forces you just to go beyond schoolwork and to make sure that you're doing other things, whether it's in the community, uh, whether just taking your time and drawing a little photo uh or playing sports, right? It it forces you into that well-roundedness, and even if you don't do those things regularly, it encourages you to try new things and go beyond what you're comfortable with. Um, so I think that that really just kind of kind of speaks to that.
SPEAKER_02Sure. It's kind of like that's kind of what I always tell kids, like I'm you don't nowadays like you don't have to go to college, like there's different ways, there's different, like two years of technical stuff. But like the college education, like it purposely puts you in a place where you can be uh you can change your perspective, you can open your your eyes and your surroundings. It kind of sounds like maybe the IB program kind of helped you at least start there, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I mean and I mean for other people too, like they they benefited greatly from what they chose, right? Like people people who chose construction who knew that they wanted to be in construction, they're already working in construction right now as we speak. Uh, but the people who changed their mind about construction were able to choose a different pathway, and now they are flourishing within that pathway right now, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know that's funny because I always say, like, when I talk to parents about this, um, like it's a very like how do I put it low risk, high reward type of deal. Like you you gotta sit you gotta fulfill whatever X amount of credits for that your C E CTE pathway credits. So if you like it, you keep going. If you don't like it, you change and and look into something else. But like I always tell people the same thing when I was uh when I was at Horlick a couple years ago before I got uh got to Gifford. Um there's kids who were starting their senior year, their second semester of their senior year with job offers in hand from construction companies. They had their schedule pretty much worked out where they were done at like second period or whatever, and then they went and started working right away. So like those kids who wanted to be in construction pathway knew they wanted to do that, like it's just that beneficial for them. So 100%. I I I do like the way that this pathway system is starting to gear kids up for what they want to do, regardless.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I agree, and I think even so with like the certifications that the pathways give you, um, like they require a certification every single year, like through the classes. And I mean, like just to talk about like health uh pathway, just for an example, right? Uh I I think it's senior year, uh they get their EMT license if they want to get it, right? And that's that's a huge thing if you don't want to go to college and they just want to be an EMT. You already are there. Yeah, you don't have to go uh and spend more money elsewhere to get that certification elsewhere. You already got it in high school and you're ready to go into the career field.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like I saw some some kids that were in your grade that I like follow on Instagram or whatever, like they were wearing their scrubs like at the beginning of senior year, like, I got a job ready working, like shoot, man, like you're not even a senior yet, and you're already like in that field learning, so it's awesome.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I mean, yeah, to speak to that too, like there's people who are CPR certified through the uh pathway system. I mean, there's people who are poking people with needles, uh, I mean, professionally, yeah, because they have that certification through high school.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's that's amazing. Um, so I'm gonna shift gears a little bit here. At the beginning, you said um student council president. You were my student council president in eighth grade. Yes. It was all because of me, right? Totally. Totally no. Um, so so tell me tell me a little bit more about your extracurriculars. You played tennis, right? Yeah. So would you consider can orchestra an extracurricular?
SPEAKER_01Because did you have concerts or yeah, uh I mean yes, yes and no. Okay. Um it depends on how far you get with orchestra, but I mean, just to list everything that I ended up doing over the four years, whether I continued doing it or not. Sure. Uh student council, uh, ambassadors, uh, orchestra, tennis, volleyball, uh, black student union. Um, I also did uh what else did I do? There's a few other things, I just can't think of them. Um I mean some of them are like related to orchestra too, like Pit Orchestra with like the musicals I played for the orchestra or for the musicals. Um but yeah.
SPEAKER_02So do you feel like your your spare time, all these things that you did, do you feel like your spare time in high school was like well spent with with your interests and your your extracurriculars?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean I mean I definitely thought that I was using my time well. Um and I thought that I was having fun while doing it while also learning because these extracurriculars are meant for you to learn. Sure. Um and I thought that my time was being used really well.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So I'm just curious personally, what was student council like for you in in high school? Before you were president, and then when you were president, and what was it like for you?
SPEAKER_01Okay, so freshman year, freshman year. Uh I walk into student council uh and I was just like kind of intimidated. Like there's all these upperclassmen, and I'm assuming that they're like super special because they're in student council. Uh then the next week, uh I think there was only two seniors out of the nine that were there who didn't get cut. I majority of the senior class got cut, and I was like, whoa, what just happened? Cut how? Like, uh like they got kicked out they got kicked out of student council. Oh yeah, the advisors were like, you guys aren't doing anything, goodbye. Uh which I mean is fair looking back at it. Uh so I was just kind of like, whoa. Uh but continued doing that. At that point, uh, our student council didn't have any office or anything like that, any system. It was just kind of like a this is what needed to get done, we're just gonna go do it, kind of kind of thing. Uh sophomore year was pretty much the same thing. Um, but then junior year. Um, well, sophomore year I had been kind of pressuring the advisors. I'm like, hey, we should do this, we should really do this. It looks good for resumes for people who wanna wanna go to college or even not go to college. It's just a good resume builder to have that leadership.
SPEAKER_03Sure.
SPEAKER_01Um, and they're like, okay, okay, we'll think about it. Uh then it's junior year. Uh I finally got it, and uh, I got the elections to happen and stuff. Uh, and I tied for president uh with my co president Pedro, name drop, uh, and that was fun. Um uh we didn't really feel like we wanted. To go through and do a rerun on the voting. Sure. It just kind of felt like it would be like a waste of time for one and two, like we already had gotten to the tie. Why throw that away? Like it's like that clip. There's the Olympians, they tie perfectly. They both get the gold medal, right? We both wanted that gold medal. Yeah. So we continue. And that was that was fun. We got a lot of things done, made a lot of change within the high school. I think that our junior year was really when we started seeing like school spirit coming back. Like, for example, like after COVID, we felt, especially like in the student council, um, that at Case there was like a lack of school spirit. Um, I mean, there was in freshman year for like football games, but like like after like inside of like the building, there was like a lack of participation and stuff, and we felt that the junior year really kind of transformed Case into like participation in in these school initiatives. For senior year, um I ran for president again and got it. This time I was president on my own. Um and got a lot of things done as well. Um, I think I think my favorite thing that we did was and will always be my favorite thing was the pep rallies for the homecoming game. Uh I I think it really like fostered, like I wasn't ever expecting to like do this kind of thing, but like going in front of like the 2,000 or whatever kids that are in the building and just speaking and making sure everyone's having fun, but also like building that public speaking skill was just like a ton of fun. And I was like super duper scared. I think I the first time I did it in a pep rally was my sophomore year, and then going and keeping going with it was just kind of whoa. So yeah, I mean that's just to sum up my student council experience.
SPEAKER_02So then do you think um do you think some skills are transferable from the things that you learn to talk about public speaking and getting comfortable in that sense? Like you think some of those skills are transferable into college and beyond?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, totally. I mean, I mean personally, I w I plan to get into politics, um, and I think that that public speaking aspect will be really, really good. Um not even just for like doing speeches, but I think that public speaking really teaches you how to talk and not just like in general, but like how to talk to people and how to keep them engaged engaged. Um, but I mean not just for like student council but for like all my extracurriculars. Um I felt that there was um like a really big sense of community that was built, and I thought that that kind of introduced to me how to build community within whether it's gonna be in like you know, my career or in college, and I think that's a very important thing to bring with me.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So speak on a little bit more about your other um extracurriculars. Like you said, you did tennis and volleyball. What was that like?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so freshman year I did tennis and volleyball, and same with sophomore year. Uh it was sophomore year, I was the uh captain for the JV team for volleyball, but I was also a captain for varsity tennis. Okay. Um same with um sophomore, you were a captain for varsity tennis? Yes. You're you're like you're pretty good at tennis. I'm I'm pretty decent. Okay. Uh there's there's a there's a little bit of a story with that, but we'll we'll get into that in a second. Uh then I decided after sophomore year, um volleyball, I just couldn't continue it because I was like hurting my knees and stuff with like you know, like the hard landings. Um and uh um so I just played tennis after that. Okay.
SPEAKER_02What position did you play in volleyball?
SPEAKER_01I was kind of all around. They kind of just forced me everywhere. I was primarily a setter, um, which meant I also played right side, but when one of our middles got hurt, I ended up playing middle because I was the only one who knew the rotations. Sure. Um I also played a little bit of outside, uh, but they swapped me for the back row because I could not I could not receive. Um and I could not do any of that bumping or anything like that. Okay. But but yeah, tennis primarily I felt I felt um was a really, really interesting time, right? Fresh freshman year. Um it was kind of a similar story with uh um student council in terms of like the people. They didn't get cut, but like it was just some interesting characters on the tennis team. Um, I mean, my foot got ran over by one of these characters.
SPEAKER_02In a car?
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah. So what was happening? Uh I was trying to put my backpack in the car because we're going to go to a meet, and it was like an inner city meet, and the district doesn't get buses for inner city meets. Um, so they were gonna drive me, right? Uh, and they were talking, like the two people in the front seat were talking with each other, and I threw my backpack into the car and they heard thud. So they thought that I had gotten in. Uh, but my foot was right under the tire, and they go right over my foot. Ow. I told I told them, hey guys, you ran over my foot. Okay, they continue driving, and then we get to our match, and I show them my foot. And they're like, hey, what happened? You ran over my foot. Uh so that happened. Uh, but that was that was that was I mean the summary of freshman year time. Okay. Uh sophomore year. Um there's a story for every year. Uh I was in subsectionals, so like postseason. Okay. Uh, and uh we weren't playing, like it was like in between points, uh, and we got to the uh third set tiebreaker. So like it's pretty close uh to see who goes on to set uh to sectionals. Uh and we had made a run, me and my partner, uh, for some points, and then the other team got a little bit upsetti spaghetti, as I like to put it. Uh and uh it was not pretty. They uh they spiked the ball uh out of anger, uh, but they didn't really care about what direction they were going. I don't think that they were trying to hit it at me, uh, but it it hit me uh in the nice crown jewels. Um so so that happened. Uh junior year. Uh me and my partner had almost gotten to state uh and then we got put against the best team in our region. Sure. And like we just got like destroyed.
SPEAKER_02Are you gonna play uh tennis in college? Do you think at least try out?
SPEAKER_01I think probably not. I mean, Marquette, Marquette, um, D1 program, right? Yeah, uh, and they they get guys from overseas, and I mean they get some of the best players in the region as well. Sure. Uh so I mean that competition's it's among like the state champion for singles is going to Marquette to go play, right? And like I probably could maybe get five points off, to be completely honest. Right. Uh so I mean definitely not D1 level. Uh I might try to play club. We'll see how much time I have. Sure. But the club tree the club team travels around uh like for example, like Marquette tennis for the club team plays Ohio State, Wisconsin. Uh they played Florida. Um, so I mean we they get around. Uh it's still travel, but you also have to pay for all those travel expenses with a lot of money. Sure. So maybe maybe maybe I'll be an intramural champion at some point. Right. But we'll see.
SPEAKER_02You'd be a ring around someone's intramural team, right? So overall, you'd think tennis was a a good experience for you then in high school? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, being a three-year captain, not to like, you know, hype myself up or something like that. Hype yourself up. But I felt that that really I mean, besides like the student council leadership aspect, but it taught me leadership in a different way, more so like like the teaching side of leadership. Okay. And like how to teach people like new techniques or like where like they're supposed to be positioned. Okay. Um, I wouldn't I don't even know if I'd call it servant leadership, but like quote servant leadership-esque type thing. Um, and I thought that that was kind of beneficial um coming from tennis.
SPEAKER_02So were you a fiery leader? Do you ever have to like get on the kids?
SPEAKER_01You know, I threatened to do laps a lot, and those laps never ever happened. Sure, yeah. But uh uh more of a charismatic leader, actually. Sure.
SPEAKER_02Okay, I like that. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. So you did a ton of stuff in high school. Now that it's over, now that you're moving out of the next stage, like look back and reminisce on it, and like and what's what's funny is that this has been like ever since you guys walked through the end of May through Gif Gift again. I've been like, I'll just think of like a heavy, like heavy chest. Oh my god, this happened, these kids grew up so fast. Like, and I just I just watch some of you guys from afar, like like us you you know, some of you guys come through visit the school or on TikTok or Instagram or something. Just kind of and just kinda witness what you guys did and grew up so fast, like from afar, four years. Like, how does it feel to like just be done and be moving on?
SPEAKER_01Uh it feels so good. Yeah. It feels so good. I uh after the I don't even know how many years it's been, what fourteen years of being in public schooling and just like having to go to school every single day and take what is it, eight hours of my of my day away for school. Uh I'm so ready to throw it away and have my two-hour schooling days. Right. Uh oh. Yeah, I'm just very excited.
SPEAKER_02So you so you earn the you earn the uh the college experience from grinding so much for 14 years.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, oh yeah. And I'm definitely like, I mean no, just just I'm just ready. I'm just ready. I'm just ready to be living on my own uh in a dorm. I'm ready to be making my I'm actually not ready for that. I don't want to be making my own financial decisions. Um but I'm definitely ready to be living on my own, definitely ready to be taking some responsibility for myself. Okay. Um I mean, definitely ready to definitely ready for the new challenge.
SPEAKER_02So what's the thing you're gonna miss the least about high school?
SPEAKER_01Oh school lunch, school. I mean, I mean the lunch ladies, they're so nice, but I mean the food that they get to serve us just isn't very good quality. Okay. Um, in like comparison to like other places, like college.
SPEAKER_02I'm sure the food's gonna be banging in college. Oh, it's gonna be so good. And and I mean, I don't know, I'm not familiar, like super familiar with the campus, but like I'm sure you could just like walk down the road to uh like an actual restaurant, right? Like it's gonna be great.
SPEAKER_01I mean I mean downtown Milwaukee is full of brilliant restaurants. I mean, there's a public market, there's third street market, and then I mean we get meal swipes for a lot of places around Marquette.
SPEAKER_02What's a meal swipe?
SPEAKER_01Um, so the meal swipes, um, you basically get like so many dining dollars that you can uh expend elsewhere other than like Marquette for like dining halls or like the Marquette dining hall-owned facilities.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um, so I could go to like say like Third Street Market, spend I think I get a hundred dollars a semester, which is a lot in register. Sure. Um, and go to Third Street Market, get myself some sushi, walk back to campus.
SPEAKER_02So is that part of your dining plan that you have to chew? Okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. So the the plan for anyone who lives on campus at Marquette specifically, uh it's in they call it like the unlimited uh meal dining plan. Okay. Um so Marquette has any time dining in three other dining halls, um, which is there's a lot of dining halls for how many students there are. Um, and they're pretty, I mean, they're pretty spread out, which is nice because you're always pretty close to a dining hall. Sure. Um, but those are unlimited swipes and buffet styles, so freshman 50, here I come. Um nothing to joke about. Yeah, I know. Uh, but then you also get those swipes if you say you just wanted like a cup of coffee uh from like the brew, which is like the Starbucks of Marquette.
SPEAKER_02Sure, the Starbucks probably brewed here type of thing.
SPEAKER_01Yes, exactly. Um you could get some coffee there or like Einstein's bagels, like what an institution that is. Right. Like getting some bagels, yeah. Um, among other things, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So you're excited about the food then?
unknownOh, yes.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, I'm so excited. Uh I'm very lucky to be living in a building with a dining hall. Um man, you didn't gotta leave to go. No, I don't. And there's also a gym, too, which is nice. I mean, the only downside to the gym is they just closed the pool because there was some infrastructural issues with the pool. Uh, so I guess thankful that you have to better find out now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um, but the amount of ice cream I'm planning to eat from the soft service machine is unreal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you're gonna you're gonna ball out. That's all you're gonna ball out. I gotta get my money's worth. Absolutely. You're gonna go to this incredible private institution that's gonna be a pretty penny. You're gonna get your your soft service worth. Yeah, as long as it isn't freshman 500. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah. Okay, so this started on what you're gonna least miss. What are you gonna most miss about high school?
SPEAKER_01Um, definitely the people. Okay. Um I mean, I have a lot of people who I call friends at case, um, and seeing them go elsewhere, it's like nice to see them hit their goals. I'm also like, hey, don't leave me. Like, especially like the different people. I like I've known them my entire life. Um and now like I feel like that change um is gonna be like big. Like I'm not gonna have these people who I've literally spent my entirety of my life with. Um and just kind of like, well, now I have to make new friends. Right. Like, that's kind of scary. Like I've always had these people. Do I have to go really go make new friends? Um, but I do. So that's I'm And you will. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. Um, but that's just kind of like uh I'm just gonna miss them a lot. Sure.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, one of these damn Tic Tac videos or they got me real tight in the chest was someone from your your group at your grade. I I forget one of the but it was like God, what was it? It was a picture of like the four girls, and like before it was it was like a map that was like five minutes away. Next year it's gonna be 1400 miles away, and then the thing was like, please be the longest three months ever. I'm like, oh god, that hurts me. I can only imagine. Yeah. College is gonna be so it's gonna be so amazing. Like, uh but yeah, the people I'm sure spending your whole your whole career so far with these same people, it's gonna be tough to miss. It's gonna be yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I think and I think it also speaks to how the structure is for the like K8 school that like Gifford is, or like majority of the middle schools in RUSD. Um, like it it it does foster those relationships that do last. Um, it just sucks that they aren't gonna last at least they will last, but they're just college happens, yeah. Essentially is what I'm trying to say.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, college happens.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, I mean people do go their own ways, which is it's a good thing, but also a bad thing because it's like, oh, you're succeeding, great. Now I have to watch you go away, sad, right? Yeah, but but yeah.
SPEAKER_02Alright, so you're going to Marquette, you've wanted to go to Marquette since I know you in seventh grade. What's your goal at Marquette? What do you plan to do afterwards?
SPEAKER_01Ooh. Um Okay. Uh right now the plan is double majoring, possibly triple majoring. Um what do you mean triple majoring? Like, what do you think? Okay, okay, there's a reason. Okay. So my plan is political science, international affairs, and economics. Okay. I guess the political science and international affairs, uh, they overlap so much. Sure. Like I only have to take one extra class, I think, to get that international affairs major complete. Um, so like that's why not just do it, right? It's basically just taking one major. I'm just taking an extra hour or three hours a week of classes. Um, and then the econ also overlaps pretty decently with political science. Um, I'm actually taking an econ class freshman year because it's a requirement of political science. So I'm already getting that stuff out of the way. So like now I can also learn about the economy and how it can help the political side of like the United States or even the world. Like it's just it makes sense to me and what I want to do.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Okay. So yeah, so like the way my you know, when I went to college, it was criminal justice and sociology. There's a couple extra courses. It it makes sense, but so political science, international affairs, economics. Yep. To do what do you think would you like afterwards?
SPEAKER_01Well, I I really want to serve an elected office. Okay. Um I I I've always just had an appeal to serving people. Um, whether that was like early in, I think, eighth grade, I wanted to become like a surgeon or something. Um, and then I decided I couldn't do blood. I wanted to serve people by helping them be healthy, but I can't do blood, I can't do guts, like I don't want to be digging inside people, no thank you. Um I think that making legislation legislation that could help people on a more grand scale um is a another good way of serving people, and I mean I hope to do it. So are you hearing that too?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I heard something up. Yeah. That's weird. Oh well. We're home. Well, I mean, we're alone, so I don't know what that is.
SPEAKER_01It's the ghost.
SPEAKER_02Fuck the ghost. I gotta sleep alone with nobody now in this house with a ghost. Okay. So someday we're gonna see your your face on a political sign somewhere. Yeah. Vote for Brady Bohat. Yeah. Bohat.
SPEAKER_012025 for president.
SPEAKER_02I'd vote for you. 100%.
SPEAKER_01Uh 2055. 2055, yeah. That's all right. It's one of those years. It's an even year, I think.
SPEAKER_02I think you only have to be 35 or something.
SPEAKER_01Maybe in the 2040s, I'll be in there. Something like that.
SPEAKER_02I could see it.
SPEAKER_01I'll be the next uh I'll be younger than JFK when I get in.
SPEAKER_02There you go. So he was young, he was young. He was only like 36.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think I think he's the youngest we've had to date.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's okay. Um, all right, so last little bit here. I'm gonna just last acknowledgments or shout-outs or advice you want to give to anybody who might be listening. This is your forum to tell us how you feel and shout out the people that supported you.
SPEAKER_01Oh boy. Okay. Uh well, first thing, I'd like to thank my parents. They probably might end up listening to this. We'll see. Uh probably. Maybe. Uh so mom, dad, Ben, name drop for him. Ben. Uh uh, you guys are awesome. Uh, thank you for calling me out on my BS when it needs to be called out. And uh thank you for uh uh always believing in me. Uh same for all my teachers and counselors, uh Mr. Havron, um, for also always believing in me and always helping me to make sure I can reach my goals with academics and my future. Uh shout out to myself. That's I was gonna say that. Shout out to myself for putting in all this hard work. Uh shout out to all my friends. Uh you guys are pretty awesome. Um, and I guess my last little parting advice, uh, you know, for the people who are listening, uh the younger generation, uh just don't stop trying. Because when you stop trying, you won't be able to get to your goals. If you keep on trying, you will be able to get to your goals and you will be able to get to succeed.
SPEAKER_02I don't know how to follow that up. Like that was perfect.
SPEAKER_01It wor it worked. There you go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was gonna say you better shout yourself out because like I don't know, the time I saw you when we were doing one of the tours with the eighth graders, you're like, I'm gonna be I'm going for or I am, or I'm running for student council president. Like, yeah, I I I can imagine you are. Like, that just that seems like a thing you're gonna do. You're seeing your face on a political advertisement or a vote for me thing is something that you're gonna do, something you're gonna see someday.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so maybe I'll have a sign with my face in your front yard at some point. You know what? I would do that. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02I would. Um sky's the limit, Brady.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.
SPEAKER_02All right. I'm glad to see you. You I'm glad to see that you did a lot and learned a lot and you grew. Truly am.
SPEAKER_03Thank you.
SPEAKER_02Oh, you're my first student council president I ever had, so it's good to see you moving along. Thanks for being on, Brady. Thank you for gonna be gonna end this episode here. It's been awesome talking to you again. Like I said, it's been awesome watching you from a very far, from a very far, and watching you guys grow and do what you do, but it's awesome. Congratulations and sky's the limit, dude. Thank you. Thank you, thank you for having me. All right, thanks everyone for listening. This is the Motivation Decoration Podcast. I'm Andy, your host, as always, and we are out of it.