It sounds like it was a, a tricky place to be.

Yeah.

It was a place where talent was everywhere.

You know, humor was everywhere, good people was everywhere, but access and opportunity was not.

What you see in Chicago is what happens when have-nots must have.

People join gangs to make money.

Through that, there was a lot of violence, fights over territory.

Mm-hmm.

And, you know, it's a really hard story, the upbringing on the West Side and just kind of what it was like growing up then.

Yeah.

You know, I grew up, like you said, you know, on the West Side of Chicago and a historically neglected community, meaning I haven't really opened a new book.

My four years in high school, they all been very old books and, you know, talent was everywhere in that community, but not a lot of access and opportunities.

And we had great programs like the YMCA, Boys and Girls Club and different organizations like that.

But a lot of those programs lost funding.

So it was hard to find that mentorship, that counselor, that coach in some of those places.

But go ahead and share how you found rowing.