 Hi, everyone. Welcome. Special welcome to any students and teachers joining us today. My name is Reuben and I am a librarian for the San Francisco Public Library. Before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge that I am in San Francisco, California on the unceded land of the Ramatush Aloni peoples. We acknowledge that the land where we are gathered today is the traditional land of the Ramatush Aloni people. We must give thanks and respect to the Aloni people by taking care of the earth, the animals, and one another. We acknowledge that non-Aloni residents are guests in this occupied land and we are grateful for the opportunity to live, learn, and play here. We promise to uplift and respect the Aloni people, their history, and their work. Thank you for being here with us today and celebrating Women's History Month. Check out the San Francisco Public Library website to see our upcoming events, find great books by inspiring women, and more. We're so happy you were here with us for our monthly virtual program with Linda Calhoun of Career Girls. Linda is an entrepreneur, activist, and community leader based in San Francisco. Linda is also the founder and CEO of Career Girls. Career Girls is the largest online collection of career guidance videos focusing on diverse and accomplished women. We also have a host of a phenomenal women inventors, innovators, and change makers. Without further ado, I present you with Linda Calhoun of Career Girls. Thank you, Ruben. I'm delighted to be here today. I'm going to briefly introduce our panel members. You can read their full bios in the program descriptions. First, we have Dr. Selena Richards, who is a director within Abbott Laboratories, Global Finance Function, focusing on commercial strategic initiatives across multiple business units. Then we're joined by Chloe Davis, who is a Broadway performer, choreographer, and debut author who works in the entertainment industry in New York, and she has centered her creative platform on amplifying the narratives of Black culture and heightening the awareness of LGBTQIA plus community. And some of Davis's credits include Broadway's Paradise Square, which we're going to learn and hear about later. Then we have Jamila Mohamed Ingram, who is a lead structural engineer and deputy project manager in the Washington D.C. office of WSP USA, and serves as president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the National Capital Section. And then we also have Nicole Daley, who is the director of the Division of Violence and Injury Prevention at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and her expertise is in the field of teen dating violence prevention, healthy relationship promotion, program and partnership development. So thank you. Three of these interviews were filmed in 2011 and one was in 2017. And I remember vividly to this day how each of these women brought their vitality and joy to the interviews. So I'd like you all to just take a look at the samples of the videos that we filmed with them. Taking care of your body is incredibly important. One of the things that I do is I drink lots of water. I've actually cut out pops or sodas and kool-aids and other non-water drinks essentially from my diet. So essentially I try to drink about two liters of water per day, because it's really important to be very well hydrated. In terms of diet specifically and what I eat, I try to eat fairly healthy. So I try to eat chicken, fish. I try to limit the amount of beef and pork that I eat in my daily diet. And I try to make sure that I'm getting vegetables each day as well. My favorite vegetable, I would have to say is actually broccoli. A healthy relationship is definitely one that's filled with support. You know, making sure that you have a partner that's going to support you in the things that you want to do. And especially if you're trying something new, because when you're in middle school and when you're young, you're trying out new things for the first time. So you want a partner who's got your back and even if things don't go the right way, they're able to support you. Communication is key. So I mean, you can talk to about anything. Healthy conflict resolution. So yeah, sure, no relationship is perfect. But you should be able to resolve the conflict in a way that's not derogatory, meaning the person's putting you down. So you should be able to, you know, focus on the issue at hand and come up with solutions. Also trust is a huge one too. You should be able to trust your partner. You trust them and that they trust you. So I would say those are the key ingredients of a healthy relationship. I decided to study Japanese in high school because I thought that the characters that they use to write out the language, I thought they were beautiful. I thought they were creative and artsy. That's why I chose Japanese. I decided to continue studying Japanese in college because I learned and heard that the Japanese were extremely advanced in technology. Since I was a civil engineering major, I thought that the Japanese and the engineering would be a great combination and would serve me well at some point. And lo and behold, it did when this engineering internship notice came out. I applied and no one else had that combination of skills. I lived in the middle of Tokyo. So I had great access to their train system and every stop on the train system had a different personality or flavor to the area. For example, I would go to I believe it was Shinjuku where there were large shopping centers and you could get any kind of fashion that you imagined at Shinjuku station. The most rewarding part about being a professional dancer, I want to say is to get on stage and to be whoever you want to be. A lot of times in life we are scared to be who we are, number one, but also to be something that we're not. So to be able to create a character and display that on stage is so rewarding and to just dance in front of an audience and to hear their applause at the end is just magnificent because you know that you did your best and they appreciated that. And also just being able to meet people from all over the world, we get to travel, which is amazing, learn different languages, learn different cultures, and meet different people as far as the ones we dance for and as far as the ones we dance with, like my fellow company members. It's like we create a family. So it's just great to be able to share what I do, my artistry with someone. I think that's the most rewarding. So that was then and this is now and I'd like to bring all of our panel members, our role models, into our conversation. It's been a minute and so if you could please give our audience an update on what's happened in your life since we last filmed you and I'm going to start with Chloe because we're not going to be able to have her for the whole time. So Chloe. Hi, Linda and hi everyone out there. Wow, my heart is just kind of beaming looking at these clips, these videos that were filmed 11 years ago. And just to hear my outlook on how sharing my dance and my artistry was so rewarding then and I just feel it's so rewarding now. So where I am, I'm actually about to start a tech rehearsal in in a little bit, but I am a Broadway company member of the new musical called Paradise Square. We actually start previous March 15th, so right around the corner. So a process that we're doing it's called technical rehearsal. So it's an element where all the actors and musicians and lighting, you know, set design, sound design, projection design, producers, directors, everyone's coming together to make sure that this show is success. So the update is that I am still creating and being an artist and being able to perform in front of an audience, which I think is amazing, particularly because of, you know, what was happening during the pandemic and how and there is as you spear technical rehearsal, but just to remind us that of course that, you know, there was a pandemic right and it shut down theaters everywhere. So I'm just really, really excited to be able to be back on stage to have to be able to perform in front of an audience. I love this virtual space, but there's something very special about that tangibility of feeling each other's emotions and being connected. So yes, I'm on my way to do this Broadway show when I've ever since then I've continued that journey of being an artist and performing and being in film and television theater and also writing. Thank you, Chloe. Hopefully we'll get to hear more about that too. So I'd like to bring Selena into the conversation. What's been happening with you since we did our interview? Yeah. So thank you very much for for having me and for the invitation to speak while the I agree with Chloe those clips brought back a lot. I was like, oh my goodness, some things, you know, remain the same. I'm still drinking lots of water, but definitely a lot has happened since the last 11 years. So I've moved twice at the time of the interview. I was living in St. Louis, and I'm now back in the Chicago land area. I changed companies since that interview. And so I'm with my current company, Abbott Laboratories, and I've been here for a little over 10 years now. And I've had multiple roles within this company. So that's been awesome. And probably the most important change for me is getting married. So I got married during the pandemic, which was its own unique experience, having a essentially a virtual wedding. So my husband and I and the officiant and our witness were there and literally everyone else was either on Instagram or Facebook watching our nuptials. So that was that was pretty, pretty exciting. So yeah, that's that's a short clip of what I've been up to since our last conversation. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Jamila, bring us up to date with you. Sure. Thank you again for having me. It's such a pleasure to be with all of these ladies on the panel. So since we last spoke, I let's see, I flew from Chicago, Illinois to Toronto, Canada to attend a National Society of Black Engineers conference to recruit for the company I work for. And I actually met my future husband. He's from Washington, DC. So after our wedding, I moved to the nation's capital. And since then, I've assisted a team to acquire real estate for a light rail transit line in Maryland. I serve as deputy project manager for a rebuild of a bus maintenance facility in DC. And also I've worked with the team to design a pedestrian bridge in Virginia. So I still enjoy traveling to see bridges, like my visit to the Akashi Kakeo Bridge in Japan years ago. And I launched a website about bridges and the fun places they can take you to call bridge diaries. Awesome. Thank you. Appreciate that. And Nicole, bring us up to date. Hi, everyone. I know mine is a shorter span, but a lot has happened. So I have left the world of exclusively team dating violence. I now work at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. And so I oversee the division of violence and injury prevention, which means I oversee a program that does suicide prevention, injury prevention and control, child youth violence prevention, and doing public safety reform. So I've been at the department. I started shortly before the pandemic. So most of my like 10 year has been virtually, but really thinking about the citizens of Massachusetts and really helping them to kind of weather the pandemic and, you know, start to reclaim some of the normalcy and some of the, yeah, just some of the world that we used to live in and making it a better place, right? Because we've talked a lot about this, not going back to where we were before, but like trying to become a better version of ourselves. And so I am the mom of a nine year old. And so he keeps me really busy, you know, I've been co-parenting with his dad. And so that's been going really well. But, you know, again, weathering the pandemic as a mom and someone who's working has always been a challenge. But I'm really glad to be here. I'm really glad to hear questions and just chat. Great. Thank you. So my next question, thank you for that cue, Nicole. And I'm gonna catch Chloe before we lose her. How is joy showing up in your life? And what does it mean to you? You know, there's so much that we're all dealing with and particularly in the black community. So tell me, how are you nurturing joy? How is it showing up? How are you expressing it, Chloe? Hi, I put my earphones in. Can you hear me okay? Okay, wonderful. Well, I spoke a little bit about this before, but to be an artist and to not have the ability to perform was a big thing, right? So when, you know, COVID was in its peak, Broadway and all theaters literally were shut down for a year and a half, right? So I didn't realize the type of impact that it would have to know that what I love and what I feel like my passion is and also my purpose to tell stories to, you know, create experiences for people to feel beyond what is normal and to expand their mind and idea to see that the world is just larger, greater, more diverse, more complex. That had a toll on me. So just to be here now and sit in my dressing room and just to know in just a few days that an audience that I will have the ability to perform again in front of an audience that's so welcoming and so ready and vibrant to see live theater that let alone brings me so much joy. I'm getting little tingles because I think that's so imperative and maybe the world didn't understand that, you know, some there were some people a whole industry that just was not able to work and that and those were that's the industry of theater. So just to be able to do that, that's just joyful. Also, the show is called Paradise Square and it's a historical piece. It's set in 1860s in a place called Five Points here in New York City and it's considered one of the first places where, you know, what we see as America now that diversity and that integration of cultures and races, we saw that back in 1860s and we know American history, we know the type of segregation that was happening during that time. But to acknowledge that in New York City there was a place where immigrants, those were Polish, Irish, German, as well as those who were Black, whether they were free Blacks or whether they were runaway slaves, were living together and communing together and even more so just finding culture and marrying each other, right? But I think it's really important that we understand that there's so much history that hasn't been told particularly when we talk about Black American history. And the lead of our show her name is Nellie O'Brien and she's a fictional character but based off real life that it was a Black woman who had ownership of real estate. She owned a bar and it was a place called Paradise Square where it doesn't matter who you are, your race, your gender, whatever your other beautiful identity and complexity is, you belonged in this space, you were welcomed into space. And just to know that that a Black woman was in charge of that type of community and that type of care of humanities is quite important. And then the other aspect of just knowing that, again, as a Black creator, as a Black artist, as a Black woman, being able to perform on Broadway, stand on the shoulders of Catherine Dunham, of Effelwaters and all these wonderful, Josephine Baker, all these wonderful people a century ago, right? And to know that I'm now standing on their shoulders and being able to tell the truth of what Black identity looks like, to the truth of Black social dance, what that looked like from a Black perspective and not from a more white or whitewashed or white affirming perspective. And when I say white affirming, it's sometimes a lot of our history is written in a way of power and those in power were white, so then they had a perspective of how they wanted things to look. And it didn't always represent Black identity in its more most fair and authentic way. And so to have the power to stand on stage and make sure that my stories and my ancestral stories are told in such a powerful, authentic and celebratory way, that brings me joy. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. And I just want to say thank you so much for having me and thank you to all of the ladies on this wonderful panel. Thank you for what you're doing, how you're inspiring me and so many other young girls and women all over the world. Just continue, I just say continue to stand on your purpose because you're doing it so beautifully. So thank you, Linda. Thank you for having me. Thank you to the library. Thank you. You all have a great, great morning. Thank you. Appreciate you. Bye. All right, ladies. So we're going to keep this going. And I'd like to hear Nicole, you're spotlighted on my camera. How is joy showing up in your life? How are you nurturing that, especially given the pretty heavy areas that you work in with violence prevention and those sorts of things? How is joy expressing itself for you? Yeah. One of the things I came to a realization that as a Black woman, joy is revolutionary, right? In itself, like capturing joy, maintaining it, expressing it for other people so that they can hold on to it and they can find their space of joy is just mind-boggling in a world that's created in a sense to rob us of that joy. And I found, though, that not pushing so hard for it is what brings the fullness of it in my life because you're right. I deal with heavy topics every day, so for me, a lot of the joy is that balance. What are the things that I love to do? Making sure that I'm finding time for that and making sure I'm bringing other people along for it, too. Making sure I'm bringing other young people along, connecting with people, especially after this pandemic, that's been one of the biggest challenges. They're so isolated, so now we're moving through it. It's like, how can I go garden again and meeting people at my garden and doing that together, really connecting with my son? He is something and a person that brings so much joy and just relishing in that, relishing in silliness, right? Because we have to be so serious and show up every day for work. And so what does it mean to be silly and just allow that laughter, that belly laughter to kind of roll through our households, right? And one of the spaces of joy, too, is making sure that the household feels really great and welcoming to people. And so I really am very conscientious of what home feels like, to be that space to move out into the world. So joy has been showing up in getting back to different activities and just connecting with people. Thank you. Appreciate that. Jamila? Joy. Yes, well, joy, for me, it's a steady feeling of contentment, whether things are going well or not so well. And that's something I learned from my father. I mean, he actually suffered many health challenges, but he was the most optimistic person I've ever known and just extremely cheerful. You know, when you enter a space and there are just some people who transfer this positive energy to you and, you know, you could just soak it all in. And that's what I try to learn from my dad, whether things are up or down. Just try to find the fun and the happy in things. Whether it's simple pleasures like, you know, a hot cup of tea, beautiful work of art, or really just laughing, laughing at even your mistakes. Awesome. Thank you. Selena? Yeah, so for me, joy is really around the the sum of choices that I make in order to be happy or delighted or, like Jamila said, have a state of content. You know, and life things happen all around us and they happen to us, right? And there are things that are out of our control and those things bring up lots of emotions, right? Like they can make us happy or they can make us sad or they can make us frightened or they could make us concerned or whatever. But it's really, you know, how we choose to react to those things that allows us to continue to manifest our joy. And in a lot of cases, how we proactively, you know, whatever decisions we make in terms of things that we decide to do or decide to say, that really impacts us in terms of, you know, kind of creating that joy for ourselves. And so, for me, it really is something, you know, Nicole said in terms of, you know, reflecting and finding the things that I love, right? And the things that I really enjoy. And those are decisions that I make to do those things. Those are decisions that I make to prioritize those things, right? And for me, that's really kind of how I maintain my joy. It's really about what am I doing, right? I can't control the things around me. I can't control what others do, but I can control what I choose to do. And that's really how I maintain and manifest my joy. Awesome. Thank you for that. You know, Nicole, I'd like you to, you know, because part of the title for our panel today is Black Joy and Friendship. And, you know, so much of the work that you do is focused on relationships. So if you could talk to us, you know, about friendships and how to cultivate them and, you know, how to show up as a good friend and how to demand good friends. Yeah, definitely. I think especially having been so remote for so long, like friendships look very different. Now as we're back to school, but at the same part of it all, like we were staying connected through social media, you know, through platforms, like through school, showing up virtually. And so there's still so many ways that young people were supporting each other throughout this pandemic. And I think what's so important about friendship is making sure that you're authentic with who you are, and then also allowing the other person to be authentic with you, right? And so, you know, lots of people have had hard feelings, you know? And so being a good friend is like allowing your friend to express themselves and, you know, and supporting them in, you know, whatever it is they're going through. So there are going to be some moments when you guys are laughing together. There's other times when their family might be going through something and you just sit with them, right? You just sit with them and you're like, I'm here for you to talk through whatever it is that you need to express. That piece you were talking about, like, how do we also make sure we're being treated well? I think that's the crux of it, right? Like, how do we make sure we're being treated well? And so, you know, if you find yourself in a friendship where you feel that things are in balance or the person is not taking your feelings, your thoughts, your words into account, I think, you know, if you value them as a friend, you know, it's definitely important to, you know, talk to them and share, you know, exactly what you need and make sure you're clear with yourself about why I need this, why it's important to me and express it to them. But it's also like one of the hardest things about life in navigating middle school and high school is that friendships are evolving and they're changing and you're going to like a new sports event and so, or it's new club. And so as you're in that club, you might start meeting other people. And so it really is like this space of trying to figure out who your people are and being clear with them about like what you need, but and also showing up and saying I'm here for you too in whatever it is you need. But then if something also isn't serving you, it's tricky, right? Because we have social media, there's all these platforms, you can't just be like, Hey, I'm never talking to you again, because you're in the same school or but you can still start to say like, Hey, I respect you. I respect so much about you. Maybe we're going to spend a little less time together, right? And if you need to bring in another adult to kind of help support that decision that you've made, you know, it's you there's ways to do it without feeling like you're snitching or like you're but if things start to get a little bit overwhelming and out of hand, right, you need to be able to to say, Hey, you know, I stopped talking to this person, but now things have gotten crazy on social media, things have gotten crazy here. So you might need other resources. But but authentically, like when we think about friendships, it should feel good, you you should be able to express yourself whether you're up or down, sad, happy, and really be able to communicate that with people and and have those moments where you're laughing and talking and having joy. So I think, you know, as we come back from being offline to being in person, I know it's going to look different ways. But at the heart of it, friendships are the same, like who's showing up for you? And who are you showing up for? Thank you. And, you know, Nicole, I want to bring Selena into this on that point. You know, one of the things I loved about, you know, what we got in our interview from you is this habit of self care, Selena, you know, talking about diet and staying hydrated. You know, to my mind, it's helping people understand that notion of of standing up for yourself, of taking care of yourself. Can you can you talk about that? You know, how your diet is creating joy in your life and and how in your words, it fits in with this overall notion of self care. No, absolutely. You know, when we talk about self care, I think of something that one of my fitness instructors says, which is self care is not selfish, right? And a lot of cases, you know, sometimes people are like, Oh, you know, you shouldn't be taking that extra time to do X, Y, Z. And for me, it's completely the opposite, right? Like self care is self love, right? And you really start to take care of yourself when you love yourself. And so for me, again, you know, kind of in terms of that joy and manifesting it, right? Like one of the things I absolutely enjoy is exercise. And I've been like, I've been doing, you know, some type of activity since I was in middle school, actually, or probably even before that, like an elementary school, like I've been doing something. And for me, you know, diet is so important in terms of being able to actually have that type of active lifestyle, right? So if I want to be able to walk and run and bike and do all these things, I need to be eating correctly. I need to have lots of water, right? I still drink lots of water. Actually, if you can see this big bottle, this is what I bring to work every single day in terms of drinking water, right? And it's so crazy hearing that clip. I'm like, Oh, wow, like, I guess I've been doing this for a while. But it does, it really makes me happy. And it gives me energy, right? And I think, you know, that's part of when you don't physically feel well, it's difficult to stay in a good mental place. Certainly, it's not impossible. But I think when you feel well, right, you think better, and you just, you know, you're happier, right? And so again, making those choices to say like, This is what I'm going to eat. This is what I'm going to drink so that I feel well, and so that I can bring that, you know, feeling to other people and share that joy and that love with other people as well. Great. Thank you for that. And, you know, Jamila, early on, you know, you had your interest in Japan and Japanese culture, Japanese language. Did you, you know, I mean, you had your interest early on, did you have friends that, you know, supported you in that? How did you, how did you sort of navigate the fact that, you know, you were, you found something that, I mean, it's a very embodiment of what we know at career girls to be true, you know, that if you nurture what you're passionate about, and, you know, you couple that with education and subject matter knowledge, you can create both a life and career of your dreams. And so, you know, I want to know, go back to the being 10 to 13, how did you nurture that interest? And what role did friendships play in that process? Well, you know, I nurtured my interest through exploring and talking to people. When it comes to exploring, my parents took my sister and I to art festivals and museums, and I also participated in a lot of science fairs. So, and actually, one of my best friends, her and I, we both spent a lot of time at the library researching topics, and she actually ended up winning, I remember states that year. And, and I speak so highly of her because I've known her since kindergarten. And she also moved to Washington DC, right before I did. So, now we still get to connect when she was one of my best friends, which she is actually outside of my sister. So, lifelong friendships, I mean, you can't ask for more than that. Other than that, I also went to museums and took a course on architecture when I was in eighth grade. That's something that really opened my eyes to the built environment and I think helped to set me on the path that I'm on now. And I expressed those interests to my teacher, my physics teacher, in fact, and he gave me some knowledge about engineering. So, it's like, once you start or have an interest in something, if you can't plan how it starts to grow, like when you just let people in on your interest, you'll be surprised at how many people will start to give you great advice. You know, whether that's your friends, your teachers, or your guidance counselor. So, yeah, be open about the whole process and just let it let it happen. Thank you. That's wonderful advice. You know, I've got a question that's come in from the chat. You know, one of the questions is, they're a high school for pregnant and parenting teens, and, you know, they have some proud black mothers and young women that are about to graduate high school. And for the panel, whoever wants to jump in, do you have any specific advice for them as they embark on this next phase of their life as young mothers and young women? Sure, I can jump in. Speaking, you know, as a mom who is co-parenting with her son's father, it's been a lot of work to, you know, develop a relationship. But, you know, we've worked through it. And I think there's a couple of pieces when you think about balancing motherhood and balancing working. When I look back on that point in my life, I would definitely say, like, making sure your friendships are solid and thinking about your network and who you are and, like, who's around you and who's in your child's life and who's helping to kind of further that. Like, I have a really strong group of mom friends that I have. And so, like, if I'm thinking of switching jobs, like, I'll talk to them about it. I make the decision, but I bounce that off of them. And so, like, having that network of people who are really championing you and your child is so important. I think definitely continuing to be educated and continuing to educate yourself is so important. As you think about how you're moving through the world and the resources that you'll end up bringing into the life of your child, the further up and the more you become educated, because my son, similarly, I love to travel and actually, Jamila, I wish we connected more because I spent time in Japan as well in college. I did study abroad, you know, in Japan. And so, like, I have a love for Japan, too. And so, like, you know, now I take my son on trips. And a lot of it's because I'm educated and because I have a career that's allowed me for that. And so you're a teen starting to embark on this journey of figuring out college and figuring out what the next steps are. And so, you know, I hope you're inspired to find what you really love to do. And it might not be college, it could be a trade school, right? There's so many other avenues to do after you get out of school, but that piece of continuing to educate yourself to get really good at your craft and think about, you know, how that's going to impact your life and your child's life over the years. And really just finding those people, those other mom friends, those other single friends is not just other mom friends, but those champions in your life and really give to them and have them give to you because that's what it's made my single mom's journey, along with co-parenting, but that's what's made my single mom journey so fruitful. It's like literally the network of aunties, mommies, right, grandmas, like all of those women who've been in my life, who've like been part of my network that've held me up so that I could, you know, be the best mom to my son. Awesome. Thank you for that. You know, you were really good in terms of, I think, sharing a lot of tips and strategies and hacks or whatever you want to call it for people in our audience to nurture what brings them joy. And I'd like to just go around the panel and any strategy, any tip that you can share with our audience on how to nurture or find what brings them joy. I'm just going around. Selena? Yeah, I'll start off. I think one of the most important things is identifying or really first identifying and reflecting on what it is that makes you happy. What are those activities that you do? Who are the people that really make you happy? And that's a key point because I think after that you want to, you know, you want to understand and reflect on how do you make more time for that, right? How do you make more time for those activities? How do you make more time for those people? I think, you know, one of the things in terms of the pandemic for me, it brought upon this opportunity to really reflect on so many aspects of my life that I hadn't just kind of stopped or paused really to take time to think about, right? And it kind of forced all of us, right, to stop and to really reflect. And I think it is so important in terms of manifesting that joy to say, you know, hey, here are the things that really make me happy. Here are the things that really I enjoy here with the people. And, you know, maybe I need to figure out where my time is being spent, right? If I don't really know kind of where is my time going, then maybe I need to stop and reflect on how am I spending my time? And maybe some things that really don't make me as happy need to get less time and these other things and these other people, right? In terms of these relationships, these connections, they need to get more. And so that's one of the things that I would say for anyone trying to kind of figure out how to manifest that. Thank you. Well, yeah, I'm getting so much advice while being on a panel. She really has a lot of high notes that I need to apply for myself. I would say, you know, create a vision and put it on paper. You know, I do believe in in manifestation and writing things down. And something about that just sets wheels in motion. And now I do say plan your route, you know, with this vision board and whatnot, but you have to be willing to embrace the detours because there may be detours. And you can't always predict, you know, what those things will be. And pandemic is, you know, a case in point of that. And the last thing I'll say is don't let anyone else talk you out of your dream. It is your dream. So as you're out there seeking advice, no, I love to listen. But sometimes you just have to pluck and take, you know, what works for your situation. So thank you for that. I appreciate it. Nicole, do you have more that you want to add on those strategies and tips for really discovering that thing that's inside you? Yeah, I would say, especially being younger. It really is there's probably multiple things that folks will find joy in. And it's really good to explore all of those, right? Like, don't seal something off just because you've gotten older, right? Because that's the thing that might end up coming around and being your career. You know, like I mentioned going to Japan, that was a detour. I didn't think I was going into public health, you know, in high school, like I didn't even know public health existed in high school, but it was through like exploring and doing things, you know, and then I realized I like to teach. So one of my first things that I did in public health was teaching, right? So there's so many ways that you can just move around and kind of pull from all parts of your life. So just be open to exploring all the things that make you that give you joy. And I think what Jamila said was so amazing about picking things, because I was going to say, like, articulate your dream, tell people, you don't need to tell the whole world, but tell people and then pick and choose from what they say, you know, about what will get you to where you want to be, right? But I just think it's an amazing place to be in middle school and high school and just be exploring different clubs, different activities, you know? It's great. Great. Thanks. And one last go around in terms of telling our audience, like, what's the most important thing that you look for in your friendships? The most important thing. So I would say for myself, the most important thing that I'm looking for is I would say probably like authenticity or really just a person who is themselves. I'm not interested in trying to kind of guess or figure out who they are or determine, you know, whether or not the person they're showing me is really who they are or somebody else. So I think, you know, for me, it's really important that, you know, you are who you are and I can be who I am. And we have that trust in that relationship to both be the person or the people that we are. Jamila? I think, sure, yes. You know, I kind of, I've had a similar conversation with my grandmother before about this and she says, you know, it's about how people treat you. And you really do have to just take a look at their actions sometimes and see how it's affecting you. And if it's not on your path to joy, then sometimes, you know, you have to distance yourself. So, you know, just sometimes you have to be a little discerning and you'll find yourself surrounded at the end of the day. It may be a small circle, you know, I have a small circle of like my husband, you know, as a best friend, my sister's here, my mother, you know, and the young lady I mentioned earlier, Kelly. So, be discerning and watch people's, you know, actions, I would say. Great. And Nicole, the last word before we end our panel. Yeah, I would echo everything that was said. I would just add reciprocity around it because, like, a lot of times we give to friendships and we're showing up for people and so, like, how folks are showing up for us and just making sure it feels very balanced, right? I think that's a piece. And when I think about my friendships over the years, it's, you know, women have that prayed for me. I've prayed for them, you know, we've been going through, you know, so many of life's journeys and we're all over the place at this point being adults. They're not all in where I am here in Massachusetts. So it's like, but we make sure we stay connected on what's going on in the biggest moments in our lives and we're the biggest cheerleaders for each other, right? Like, I know folks, if I'm like this great thing happened, I'm gonna get a whole bunch of texts like happy dancing, right? Like, because it's how we show up and celebrate each other. It's so important about friendship. Great. Well, Nicole, Jamila, Selena and Chloe, thank you so much for being, as I said, the very embodiment of Black joy and friendship. And there's nothing I enjoy more than highlighting your amazing stories and journeys. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Wow, thank you all for today's amazing conversation, Linda, team. Thank you all for joining us today. If you love today's program, check our calendar for future virtual Women's History Month programs. Next month, we invite you to join us for our next event with Career Girls, Women Environmentalists and Advocates, working at the local and federal level. That's all today. That's all for today, folks. Take good care of yourselves, stay safe, and we hope to see you at another library program soon. Thanks.