 Welcome to another show of Celebrate Life. My name is Gary DeCarlis and I'll be your host today again. The inspiration for the show, of course, is all about the present. It's all about aiding folks in Vermont and some from outside Vermont who are living life to their fullest. I, like many of you, have read many an obituary over the years and wish that I had met that person while they were alive. Well, this show is dedicated to do just that. Meet wonderful people who are very much in the fullest of their life today, so you have a chance to meet them, learn from them, and even ask them questions. If you do have any questions for our guests, please write me at celebratelife0747 at gmail.com and I'll make sure those questions are gotten to the host and we'll get back to you. I'm a strong believer that everybody has a story to tell and this show is about telling those stories so that we all can benefit from people's lives. So without further ado, let me introduce our guest for today, Josh Popri. Hello, Josh, welcome. Hi, it's my honor to be here. Great to have you here and we're going to celebrate your life today, Josh. So let's start by telling us, telling the audience a little bit about your early life. You know, was there anything that stood out for you when you were a young boy? All right, ready, Mom? Okay. I had a rough start to life. I was born with Bullying Syndrome but wasn't diagnosed until I was three and a half years old. Bullying Syndrome is a genetic condition that presents at birth and can affect anyone. It is a micro deletion that randomly occurs during development of the foetus and occurs on chromosome seven. There are only about 25 genes that are missing. It's characterized by medical problems, including cardiovascular disease, developmental delays and learning challenges. Those often occur side by side with striking probabilities, high social personalities, and the family from music. Bullying Syndrome occurs equally in males and females in all cultures worldwide. I was a little peanut with the birth weight of only four pounds, six ounces. I was pretty much full term. I was only two weeks early from my mom's due date. Babies with Bullying Syndrome are born with low birth weight and are slow to gain weight. I would only gain about one pound per year. At just one week of age, I was rehospitalized as I was having a difficult senior thing from the breast and dropped down to three pounds and 11 ounces. My mom had to pump her breast milk to include bottles into bottles and feed her. Feed you a certain amount every three hours. The hospital doctors had my mom adding two packages of fortifier extra calories to her breast milk because they didn't feel I was gaining weight. Quickly enough, if I didn't drink all the bottle, the hospital staff then put a tube going through my nostril right down into my stomach. I was finally discharged two weeks later at five pounds. When I was just a few months old, my doctor heard murmur and he sent me to a cardiologist for an echocortogram when I was diagnosed where I was diagnosed to have narrowing and pulmonary that went from artery that went from my heart to my lungs. The cardiologist took my mom told my mom that she expanded expected that would get bigger as I grew bigger and wanted to see me back in two years. So we expected that your artery the narrowing of your artery would get bigger as you got bigger. Yeah. During my first five years of life, I had lots of upper respiratory and ear infections. I eventually had to have tubes put in my ears. I had five surgeries for ear tubes because after they fell out, I was still having issues. So they had to keep me keep putting the tubes in my ears. If you're to my wins and don't diagnose this, my doctor had me going through all sorts of tests to try to determine what was wrong or rule out other things because I was growing. You weren't growing. I wasn't growing currently to the normal according to the normal growth chart. Thanks mom. Yeah. Hacker wasn't even on the growth chart and I also wasn't meeting typical developmental milestones. For example, I didn't crawl until I was one year old and I didn't walk until I was two years old. Some of the tests have done was a bone age studies sweat test to rule out cystic fibrosis and lots of blood tests. My doctor even sent me to Boston Children's Hospital to see a GI Nutrious Nutritionist to see if I had an issue with proceeding processing complex carbohydrates. Well, I was there. They tried to have a geneticist see me as well, but the clinic was too busy and said I would have to come back to Boston to be seen at the genetic clinic. When I got back home, my mom talked with my doctor about the doctors in Boston with the doctors in Boston said what the Boston said. And he told my mom there was no need to go back to Boston as we had we had a good geneticist. We had a good geneticist right here in Vermont. I saw the Genesis, but at that time, she didn't disclose what he was thinking and said he wanted to see me back in four months. Four months later, she told my mom about one syndrome and gave her brochure that explained all the different characteristics of one syndrome. My mom said the brochure described me to a T to the Genesis Genesis explain the reason for wanting to wait the four months to tell my mom about one syndrome was because she wanted to see how my facial features developed. This is because people with one syndrome have similar facial features and fragile features and the facial features facial features become more prominent as a person. The geneticist said he was more sure than the first time he saw me that it was one syndrome, but he wasn't 100% positive. He told my mom about a blood test we could do to confirm one syndrome. So my mom told him, yes, let's do it. Three weeks later, we had a diagnosis of Williams syndrome. About a month later, I had my two year follow up with the cardiologist and he found that my heart murmur had changed. They did another echocardiogram and found that I had narrowing just above my main heart artery valve. It was called supra, supra, valvular, aortic synosis. This is a common heart issue for people with Williams syndrome. The doctor told my mom that this type of narrowing would require open heart surgery. At age three and a half, I went to Boston's Children's Hospital and had the open heart surgery to correct the narrowing. If I didn't have that surgery, the narrowing would have continued to get worse and would have eventually closed completely, stopping my heart from beating, being able to pump blood through my body and I would have died. One side of my heart was already enlarged from having to work harder to pump blood through the narrowing. While at Boston for my heart surgery, I developed complications after the surgery. My mom told us that I was fussy, which was not normally for me and that I didn't want to eat much. So they did an emergency echocardiogram right in my room and found that I had developed fluid around the heart. I had to go back into ICU to be treated for this. Luckily, they were able to treat it with medication and didn't have to go back into put into drainage tube. The hospital was only supposed to be about seven to five days, but ended up having to stay for two weeks due to the complications. During my school year, I had the full-time paraeducator who helped me with all my schoolwork. With the paraeducator's help, I was able to get on the underwall several times. This would not have been possible without that help. My mom always made sure that I had what I needed in an advocate for me to get what I needed to be successful. In my high school years, I was the school mascot A.C. Horace as some of the high school football, basketball, and field hockey games. It was the first time a student was allowed to be the mascot. Prior to that, a staff member did it. I also helped give recognition of the school mascot by attending several mascot events in the community. I did University of Mount Eastern Mascot March, attended a Champ the Lake Monsters birthday bash, and UVM's rally birthday party. I also attended a mascot Hupapulusa one year at City Hall Park. My senior year, my fellow classmate, dedicated the yearbook to me. This was the first time in BHS history that a graduating senior class dedicated the yearbook to a fellow classmate. Prior to that, it has always been dedicated to a staff member. This is what my fellow senior class member said about me. To some of the C. Horace may not seem like a fearsome mascot, but for the students and faculty of BHS, A.C. Horace represents much more than a costume. If you want to see A.C. around the BHS community, you don't have to look far. Whether he's cheering on a sports team posing for the cover of the yearbook or welcoming new students to our school, A.C. is an integral part of expressing our school's pride. A.C. also made appearances outside of the BHS community at events such as Hupapulusa, Raleigh's cat birthday party, and the Easter mascot merch. When the class of 2012 was asked to have made the last thing impression of their four years at BHS, the choice was clear. For the past four years, a member of our class has given a personality to the character of Ace. His spirit and dedication to our school has just has sent him apart an icon in a role model. The class of 2012 would like to dedicate this year's on-read Oryad to Josh Bubbly for representing and encouraging school spirit as Ace. I was also a volunteer puppeteer with puppeteen education. I was their bully expert and over my four years in high school traveled with them to different schools to perform the bullying skit. I put on thousands of hours in volunteer time while the staff members of puppeteen education nominated me for the United Way hometown hero award and I won the award in the youth category. Okay, that was that was the year leaders. Nice. Well, first of all, wonderful reading, Josh. And second of all, my goodness, you've been through the ringer. So tell me, you're very positive. Like you're just a positive person. How did you get to be that positive person? Well, it took me like a while to figure out how to be in that situation because I learned it from entertainers. I learned it from other prospective people's way to see how they feel about themselves. I also learned it from my mom. So I learned it from everyone, I guess. Yes. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree as they say, huh? Yep. Now, now when you wear the the mascot for this high school, and there's a lot of entertaining that goes along with that, right? Yes. Is that when you really caught the wave of enjoying to be an entertainer? Absolutely. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. It took me a while to figure out what mascots really do. And that got me into thinking if I would become a mascot, I would. And so I did. Wow. He always had the, you know, it comes with William syndrome, the musicality and want loving music. But he's always had, you know, never been afraid to get up in front of a group of people and do a dance move or anything. He's never been shy like that. There was a story from elementary school. He was in elementary school. One of the teacher said, during the lunch, lunchtime, they had music playing in the, in the cafeteria. And he like got up in front of the whole lunch group and started dancing. And did they applaud? I don't know. I don't remember what they said. I think you remember doing that. I do remember doing that, but I don't remember what each of them said. I think they said, wow, that's amazing or something like that. I can't remember. Yeah. There's also a staff member in elementary school that she used to run the after school program there. And she had told me one time that if she was having a bad day, she would seek out Joshua because he always had something good to say. Like, oh, she was wearing a pin like, oh, your pin's really beautiful. Or, you know, and it would, he would just cheer her up. So you bring joy to a lot of people, don't you, Josh? Yes, I do. Yes. Yes, you do. Josh, do you have, is there any, and I know that you like to do, you're an entertainer. And is there any one particular person that you model yourself after that you really gravitate to and really look like who he or she is? Absolutely. What'd that be? My mom. No, the entertainer. An entertainer. Who's the entertainer that inspires you? The entertainer. Oh, the entertainer. I would say... Has kind of the same name. What's your maiden name? Michael. Oh yeah, Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson. Okay. Why do you like Michael Jackson? Well, it took me a while to learn what he actually did in real life. So I was, you know, listening to some of the songs on the radio and I thought, I don't know if Michael Jackson really danced, but then by watching his videos just really inspired me to get that feeling. So that's why I, you know, I started to learn to dance like Michael and perform like him. When I went, as an example, when I went to the Champaign Valley Fair, I got to see a Michael Jackson impersonator that was there at the fair and really saw me dancing with them. So they really enjoyed that. You went up and danced with him? Yeah, not up on stage, but he went up on the lawn in front of the stage. Oh yeah. He was doing the same dance moves and Josh didn't see it because his back was to the stage. But the performer came up and pointed to him and went like this and he loved it, you know, because he was doing the same exact move. How cool is that? It's like a connection and I've been meeting a lot of great impersonators that do Michael Jackson and I aspire them. The people in the fairgrounds too were also like cheering him on and people coming up to me saying, wow, he's really good. People were videoing him with their phones. So it would be nice when, as a part of the show, if we could have a little film clip to put on the TV show of you doing Michael Jackson. I can probably send you one of those. I'll have to probably do a little snippet of it and send it to you. Or send it and we can snip it over, you know, that. Oh yeah, that's true. I could do that too. Excellent. And you've actually, you've gone out and performed as Michael Jackson, Josh? Yes, I have it. I started up my MJ Impression Nations at a school, a high school. I did a town show and there was a thing called Bass for Cash and I was hoping to be one of the person there, but they didn't pick me. So I was kind of like, yeah, I know. So then I kept moving on and moving on until things changed. And I did more Michael Jackson when I was doing dancing with my friend Lois at the Flynn Theater. Yeah. He did some of the Flynn dance classes. One of when he was still in high school, there was one of his teachers that told him it was right when Michael Jackson passed. And so there was a teacher at the Flynn Theater that was doing a whole class, tribute class of just all Michael Jackson songs. So he knew how much Joshua loved Michael Jackson. So he told him about it and we signed him up. And then he continued after that to still do for several years after the dance classes. And at the end, I forget how long the dance classes were like eight weeks or something. Maybe 15 weeks, I'm not sure. But at the end, they actually get to perform on the main stage at the Flynn Theater. And anybody can go and watch it. They just ask for like a monetary donation, like $5 or whatever to support the dancers. So it was like a free concert dance show. And I was really so performed at the Flynn Theater and I loved it. It was incredible. Love the dancers and I love entertainers that do some of my fair artists. Wow. That's fantastic. So you not only like Michael Jackson's music, but you like his dancing. Yes. He's quite a dancer. No question about that. Yeah. So great. So tell us a little bit more about your life. What are some of the things you love to do? Okay, so go into the next. I love my family very much. There are my worlds. In August of 2015, I lost my father due to suicide. He was 51. That was a very difficult time for me. But my mom and friends were there to help me get through that very difficult time. I miss him a lot. When I graduated from high school, I first wanted to start my own mascotting business. But instead, I'm doing big-chain entertainment instead. After being out of high school for several years, I went back to school and attended the Think College program at UVM. I graduated from the program two years later. While still in Think College, I did an internship as a DJ at Big Heavy World. As that is where my next career focus went to, I currently work part-time at Marshalls and work three days a week. I worked at Marshalls for eight years. This will be my ninth year. This May, this coming May. This May will be my ninth year anniversary with them. I love music and I love to entertain people and make them laugh. I can play pretty much any instrument by ear just by listening to us on the radio or streaming on Spotify. Some of my favorite travel experiences have been going through the Woodland Syndrome conventions in different states. I got to go, I got to do a lot of fun things like going to First Gardens Amusement Park, seeing a Detroit Tigers game at the home stadium and seeing my most favorite entertainment of all, the Blue Man Group. A favorite part, family, a family vacation, a favorite family vacation was going to Bethany Beach in Delaware. I also like going to Arizona to visit my aunt and do lots of fun sightseeing things there. This spring being my mom and stepdad and one of my close friends are planning to take an Amtrak train to New York City for the weekend. We're planning to see, of course, like I mentioned, the Blue Man Group, visit the 9-11 Memorial and do some other fun things. My hobbies are doing Michael Jackson impressions. I have several outfits, I've energized different music videos. I also like to do voice impressions. Are you guys ready for them? 51, give me a couple. Okay, I can do Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, and many Star Wars characters, such as Chancellor Palpatine. Y'all know it. 3 CPL, Dolph Retall, Anakin Skywalker, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Hello there. I also like playing on my Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality game. My favorite sports are Boston Bruins, Giants, I can just name you Yankees. I can name a few. Sounds like you have a very rich life, Josh. Yeah, my life model is to spread peace, love, and joy to all. Isn't that nice? How do you do that? How do you spread peace, joy, and love to all? Oh, that's a good question. Well, I think you do it naturally, you know, with your entertainment, you know, you're wanting to entertain people, you know. Yes. And your positivity. That's wonderful. Anything else you want to say, Josh, about your life? How old are you now, these days? I am now 30, and I'm turning to anyone this November. Fantastic. Fantastic. So you've been, you went through a lot as a young boy. You've come through that, and you've won the admiration of your peers through high school, for sure. And then now as an adult, you also are doing some amazing things that bring joy to a lot of people. Like, tell them what you're going to be doing in February. Oh, yeah. In February, last year I got to do this, and this year I'm doing it again. I'm performing at higher grounds with the Mir Dancers, and I'm performing at Winter as a Drag Ball hosted by the House of the May. And they do a lot of fun things around there, too. Wow, amazing. Other things you've done is you have, so we used to, I don't know if you're familiar with the band Mango Jam. So when they, back when the spot on the dock was called Breakwaters, they would play there a lot. And Joshua was always up there in front of the band dancing, and he was mimicking the rubboard. And then Emily, she's one of the leaders of the band. She invited him up on stage, you know, and gave him the rubboard, and he just started jamming with him. So now, periodically, she has invited him to be their rubboard player at different times. During Mardi Gras one year at Red Square, they were playing, and he went with his rubboard, and he did the rubboard. He also has a melodica, and he played that a little bit for us. Wow. For one of their songs. I can't remember what the name of it, but I enjoy playing that tune. Such a good beat to it. Yeah. So, and Emily didn't didn't know, you know, that when she when she realized, you know, how good he was just by listening, it's like that's when she started, you know, inviting him as a guest, you know, rubboard player at times. He hasn't done it in a while, but yeah, my legacy moves on for that. When he was real little, we went to see, we went down to New Hampshire and we saw another Zydeco band, Terence Simeon, and he must have been, I don't know, he must think it was over five, but maybe maybe six years old or something. I don't know. He wasn't that old. And doing the same thing playing and Terence Simeon invited him up on stage, gave him the rubboard, and he's jamming with Terence Simeon. Yeah. And Terence even put his hat on you, his hat off and put it on you. Oh my God. And the guy who played the rubboard was named was Ralph Funtlou, and he taught me everything about rubboards. So that's what got me into playing with Mango Jam and other Zydeco members. So he has his own rubboard. He has a lot of different instruments, you know, collection of some of my favorites. He played cello all through all through school years through middle school and high school. I'm not kidding. That's amazing. Yeah, the orchestra. Yeah. So the idea that people with Williams syndrome have a tendency to enjoy music, Josh, you're a living example of just embracing music. And I know that it's something that brings a lot of joy to people as a musician. You bet. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That's wonderful. One of the, I'll tell you a little story when we were meeting with the geneticist the second time after the four months going back, he had, he wanted to word this question to me very carefully. And he, and he worded it because he didn't want to prompt my response. And he had asked me, he said, does Joshua have an unusual attraction to music? And I instantly said yes, because the house that we had before it was a raised ranch, his bedroom was at one end of the house, one side. And then our living room was on the other side. I had MTV, back when MTV was all music, had MTV on. He was intently playing with a toy in his bedroom. He heard the music. He crawled out, sat his butt in front of that TV through the whole video. When that video ended, he started to try to crawl away. And then a new video came on and he sat there for that whole video. And I'm like, for a baby to keep their attention that long on one thing. Wow, amazing. So Karen as a mom, this has been quite a journey. Oh, yes. It sounds like Josh has opened up a world to you that who would have known, right? Right. Yeah, I know. It's like, it's, it's not been easy. It's been hard, you know, at times and, you know, but I've had lots of support myself with family and, you know, helping out and stuff. But yeah, it's, it's been a journey for sure. That's great. That's great. And Josh, you know, you mentioned earlier, the love and support you've gotten from your mom and family has really made a huge difference for you. Absolutely. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. They're close knit family for sure. Yeah. And strong family. You know, his pediatrician, his, you know, when he retired, he, where this is a place where he used to dock our boat, he was telling my husband one time he was talking, it was before Joshua had hearing aids and stuff, but he was talking to us at this party, you know, the Marina was having. And he said to my husband, Dave saying, strong women in this family. And he looked at, he looked at Dr. Murray and said, I know. And you benefited greatly from those strong women, right, Josh? That's great. That's wonderful. So is there anything that we haven't touched on in your life that you would like to mention? Well, last year, he, you want to tell him one thing that you tried. I got into dragging boating. Oh, yeah. And the, the, my coach had invited to bring, one time my mother brought him down just to watch. He wanted to watch us. And so the coach had invited him says, Hey, bring him, bring him along. You know, he, he knew Joshua had a disability and he says, you know, I'd like to, you know, help, you know, people with disabilities to enjoy the sport too. And he tried it and he did pretty well. Yeah. So I went on this dragon boat for the very first time and I had Jenny at the time, but we both went to that experience and I couldn't believe how incredible these people are when it comes to dragon boat. Cause that's my new favorite thing now because I got to go watch dragon boat festival and that just requires me to see something like that happen. So on that boat ride and I tried, you know, it was something like the paddle. Yeah. You have to have like an A frame and you're paddling and you have to really rotate. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. Yes. It's a big workout. Yes. Isn't there's someone on that boat that's beating a drum to keep the. That's during the festival. Yeah. During the festival, they do that. Yeah. So they, the drummer watches the first two people in the boat at the front of the boat, set the pace. So the drummer watches those people. So as soon as their paddles go on the water, the drummer starts drumming so that everybody else, you know, can follow. But everybody else was supposed to be looking straight ahead anyways in the following and we're, and everybody's, it's all teamwork. You know, it's all teamwork. So, but it's, it's a, it's a fun sport. It's really fun and he enjoyed it. Yeah. I'm looking forward to watching it again. Yeah. Josh, I know that Special Olympics has been a part of your life for years, right? Oh, absolutely. I'm a very strong and tough competitor. Yes, you are. Tell us about what Special Olympics has meant to you. Oh, that's a very great question. Special Olympics means to me like meeting new friends and experiencing their careers with Special Olympics. It's like an extended family. Yeah. And way back in 2013, I represented Team USA to go to South Korea. No way. You do. Yep. And, uh, Coach Kaczyskiin. Wow. Wow. That was a super experience for me. I'll never forget. Wow. That's wonderful. Yeah. He did, uh, he got fourth and fifth place, the fifth place should have been a fourth place. They kind of messed up on that. But, um, but he, yeah, he did during the preliminary races. He skied the fastest he's ever skied. It was one of the shorter races, like 100 meter or something. Yeah. But he skied the fastest he had ever skied. And the competition there, oh my Lord, it was, it was tough, really tough. I mean, these, it was amazing to see what these athletes can do. I mean, and how fast they can go. It was just totally amazing. The competitions, the whole world, right? Oh my, yeah. We had seven competitors back in that. Yeah. In his division, he had like seven to eight people in his division. And, and he came in out of all of those, like, and, and, um, the preliminary, he came in third in one of the, you know. Wow. Beautiful. So to come in fourth, you know, he didn't get a medal, but, you know, it still, it was, uh, still a good experience. And, you know, even the people from USA really gave me a huge, strong support of winning those. That's wonderful. And I couldn't believe it. It was, it was just a gathering of new friends and new family members. So special. And what sports do you do with Special Olympics? Um, well, I like to do balling, basketball, bachi, swimming now. And you've done swimming. Um, I said swimming. Yep, you did say swimming. Uh, you've done, uh, Oh yeah, track and field. Do you have any medals to show for your efforts? Oh yeah. He's got lots. Yeah. I do have lots of medals. I'm not wearing any of them, but yep. Very good. But let's see, what else did you try? Softball? Softball, yeah. Yeah, you've done softball. You tried soccer one year, but didn't like that. Yeah, soccer was unsuccessful. Okay, well, yeah. So that's been a big part of your life, too, is Special Olympics. Absolutely. Yeah. How's work, when you're working at Marshalls, what's that like for you? Do you enjoy that? Oh yeah, the staff and everybody is wonderful. They treat people right. And I'm like, I'm not the workplace I need to be when someone treats me that way. And if they're not nice people, then I won't work for them. Yeah, they're very, it's, I was very impressed when he first, um, I had gone there with him to, um, help him fill out the paperwork for employment and all of that. And, um, we, when we were asking questions like what about Special Olympics, you know, because then we didn't know what his schedule was going to be. And, and there were, there was thought that he might be working on the weekends. And I'm like, well, weekends, he's got Special Olympics during certain times of the year and this and that. And they said, they were very supportive of that. And they would work with him, you know, so that it's a good company. They're really good to their employees and, and they're very understanding that the employees have lives, you know, and things that they like to do. And so they're supportive, supportive of that. Yeah. That's wonderful. That's great. And, and they're natural, you know, there's, they provide a lot of natural supports too. He does have a worker that goes with him a couple of days and stays with him during his shift. But there's one day he's there just himself, but he has some nice natural supports from his colleagues. That's great, Josh. So, Josh, what, what haven't you done yet in your life that you want to do? If you had a magic wand? Oh, boy, there's lots. There's a lot. Like I want to, you know, travel to new places than there have been to like where? Like Orlando. Want to go there? Want to visit Dublin or Australia? Ireland? You said you want to go to? I said Dublin. Dublin is probably Ireland. Yep. I love to explore those countries and, and of course, you know, visit Las Vegas and see all kinds of stuff. Going, you've been to a lot of places with the Williamson and conventions we've gone to. So we've been to California a couple of times. Yep. And did, of course, Disneyland had to do that while we were there. And I recently had a meeting with my group that I'm in with Winston and there's a lot of people that have the same things I have. So it's called Aventure Seekers. And what that is is that it's a William syndrome Facebook group. And it's all people with William syndrome. And they get together on Zoom and different things. Yeah. Yep. And they're talking about, you know, always, yeah, they're planning a Orlando trip this year, which we don't know if we'll be able to go to or not. Mm hmm. I already told them that I'm planning on going for now. So. So that's these are people from around the world around the country. Yeah. Wow. It's like wonderful. Yeah, it's like being in a convention where you get to do fun things while my parents are in the classes. Yeah. So they're like little, little mini seminars for the parents. You know, we haven't gone in many, many years now. They're only every two years, but we haven't gone for a while because he's no longer in school anymore and the cost to go is, you know, expensive. But yeah, we've been to California. We've been to Michigan. That's where their home office is based out of is in Michigan. We've gone to, shoot, where is it? Boston. Boston. That's where I first met the Blumen group. Yeah. We St. Louis went to St. Louis, Missouri. Got to see on top of the arch. We got to see the arch and go through the arch. Nice. Yeah, the elevator ride was kind of scary. Yeah, the elevator ride was very unique. It just keeps on going and then it changes. They have these pods that you sit like, I don't know, five or six people in and because it's an arch, it's, you got to, they talk about the mechanics, the construction of how they thought and how to do it. But it, it kind of turns and rotates as it goes up through the arch, you know, because you stay, you stay sitting, but it's kind of like a pod. It's just really, really, it's cool. It's different. I get a little nervous on something like that. And of course, you know, if I were to go to the Disney World, I'll conquer myself through the Honored Mansion, which is a, you know, great ride. Yeah, I can see you having a wonderful time at Disney Land, Disney World. Yep. Disney World, the place. Yeah. Yeah. And he talked about when we go this spring, we're thinking early May to taking the Amtrak train to New York City. Yeah. He talked about some other things he wants to do like top on the rock. Yep. On top of the rock and visit this place called Pizza Barn because this is a big challenge that I decided to do is, you know, a lot bigger than we have pizzas here, but instead of being that small, it's a two foot pizza. So I'm going to be challenging myself to eat something that big. Two foot pizza. Okay. Pizza is one of his favorite foods. We haven't talked about food yet. Pizza is big, huh? What kind of pizza? You like anything on it? Cheese. Just cheese. Cheese and extra cheese. Cheese and extra cheese. That's one thing he's been a finicky eater, which is very common with people with Williams syndrome also because they have issues with tech texture. Okay. Yeah. So when he was little in preschool, he did preschool for a few years at the Y. He didn't used to like like silly putty or finger painting. He didn't like the texture of it. It took him a while to get used to that stuff. Same with food. Certain textures of food. He doesn't like like cake. He won't eat cake. He doesn't like cake. He doesn't like the texture of cake. Okay. Yeah. Besides pizza, what's your favorite food? Besides pizza, I would just say my favorite now is cheeseburgers. Oh yeah. Good. And one thing that we never talked about is sensitive sounds. Oh, that's right. One of the characteristics of Williams syndrome is they have very sensitive, acute sensitive hearing called hypercosis. And so there's sounds like blenders, vacuum cleaners. He's gotten used to that, you know, vacuum cleaners at least are very, so their hearing is so hypersensitive that things that are normal for us that don't hurt our ears hurt their ears. So like blenders, sirens, you know, fire alarms. All fire alarms were the worst, but I'm used to that. Yeah, he would have, he would just have, if we were in a building and there was a fire alarm going, he would have his anxiety would just go through the roof and he would cover his ears and be like, ah, get me out of here. Yeah. I would just calmly, okay, let's go. We just, let's get out. And as over time, it does get better, you know, with some of those sounds, but there's still some sounds that are loud that he doesn't, doesn't like to hear. There's a sander. He doesn't like, you know, doesn't like the sound of sanders, you know. I like belt sanders, but not regular sanders or palm sanders that have, they sound like bees buzzing around. When in those scale until more sounds the same. I really hate. Yeah. Very interesting, because even though he has a hearing loss, he still has that acute sensitive hearing for some, like, I remember being in the car one time, we had the radio on and he's like, oh, hear the bells in that song. And I'm like, what bells? I don't hear the bell. I had to really listen. And then I'm like, oh, yeah, I hear it now. I took him to mention for me to stop and listen and hear it. You know, hearing aids, I can listen to things even when there's sirens around then I know how far they can be. Josh, if you were to, if you were to meet a parent that just had a daughter or son with William syndrome, what would you tell them about what life's going to be like for their newborn? Wow. That's a good question. That's a loaded question too. I would say to them, to those of you out there that do have one syndrome, it's a fun disability to me. And whatever your career goes, just have fun with it. That's great. Go with the flow, huh? Go with the flow. Go with the flow. Yeah. That's great. The other things that you could say too is it'll be tough in the beginning, but people will get through, you'll get through those tough times and it'll eventually be okay. It'll be okay. You both seem to be thriving here, mom and son. It's one thing, the William Syndrome Association is a good resource for families of people with William syndrome and for individuals with William syndrome. They're very supportive and lots of good information. All the seminars that I went to would talk about because people will leave syndrome, they have a certain way of learning and they've come across from research and learning how they learn what are some best approaches on how to teach them to learn certain things. Going to those was very helpful for me as a parent and I'll never forget my first experience going there, sitting there because here, a small state of Vermont, run into it that many. And now, since he's now 30, we have a good number of people we know here in Vermont, but when he was first diagnosed, we didn't know anybody with that diagnosis. So to go to, I think he was five, about five years old, the first convention we went to, go and be sitting in one of the seminars and sitting there looking around, the person is talking about and you're sitting there, you're relating to what they're saying, you're nodding, like, yes, yes, yes, and you're looking around and all the other parents are doing the same exact thing and I'm like, wow, I'm not alone in this. That was heartening, I'm sure. That's great. Well, we're about ready to wrap up the interview. Any last words that mom would like to say, Karen or Josh? Well, you know, a month ago, one's told me this phrase and I love saying it to most people out there, what makes you different makes you special. Hey, that's a beautiful quote. I love that. It makes you different. Yeah, one thing I will say about someone with William Sunim and their musicality is, you know, like he can't, first of all, he can't read music. That's why he, but he can play by ear and a lot of, not everyone, but a lot of them do have like perfect pitch. So they hear, like he can pick out, like I said, the different sounds and the song and, you know, the different, you know, like the bell and I couldn't even hear it until I listened to it. But that's why I think they're so good at music and why they can, you know, like he can pick up any instrument and just start playing it pretty much. I mean, it's not 100% perfect, but it's still, it's pretty good, you know, it's pretty good. And one, but one of the things with them is that they so they emotionally feel that music. It just goes right through them. Like one person on it was on a 60 minutes segment where they interviewed a few people with William Sunim and one woman said it was like music is like soup flowing or something like that. Yes. Yeah. But it's they so emotionally feel it like there's certain songs that will just make him break down and cry because he just that emotion coming from that. Oh, wow. It's right in your soul. Yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm. Here. Yep. Yep. Well, I love that quote, what makes you different makes you special, Josh. And you are very special. No question about it. Absolutely. And I think I think that person to the left of you is pretty special too. Thank you. Absolutely. Yeah. And you're pretty too, Gary. Thank you for doing this today, both of you. And I think we're done for the day.