Rebuilding After A Setback

A trip you take for healing can turn into the exact kind of stress your body can’t afford. After a month away from the mic, I’m back to explain why I disappeared, what happened during my 12 days in El Salvador, and how chronic acid reflux and breathing issues from chronic sinusitis shaped every part of the experience. I also get honest about health anxiety, the whiplash of building up hope, and what it feels like when the plan you counted on simply does not work.

Things took an even sharper turn when I got hit with traveler’s diarrhea (Montezuma’s Revenge) and had to manage nausea, dehydration risk, and a total gut reset far from home. Once I’m back in the U.S., I walk through the practical steps I take to recover: urgent care, antibiotics, probiotics, and returning to lighter meals while my GI system stabilizes. Underneath all of it is the mental side, fatigue, loneliness, and the faith questions that show up when your body keeps testing you.

From there we pivot into what I’m building next: World Cup content in Atlanta (including fan interviews), Call of Duty League plans, and more sports events that help me stay excited about life. Then we go full space nerd with Artemis 2, the moon, and a simple explanation of why rockets don’t launch in a straight line. I also share a personal story I still feel in my chest: getting hired by NASA, turning it down because I didn’t feel peace, and the career twist that followed.

If this hits home, subscribe, share the episode with someone who’s rebuilding, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Motivation Dies, Discipline Remains

Traveling To El Salvador For Healing

Lonely Days And Fading Hope

Traveler’s Diarrhea Derails Everything

Home Reset With Urgent Care

Faith Tested By Ongoing Symptoms

Returning To Content And Routine

World Cup Plans And Atlanta Interviews

Artemis 2 And Moon Talk

The NASA Offer I Turned Down

When Plans Could Have Destroyed Me

Artemis, Apollo, And Rocket Physics

Final Thanks And Subscribe Reminder

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to my channel. Welcome back into another episode of the Carlos Granados Podcast. It's been a minute. It's been a minute. It's been about a month since I've done a podcast episode. But a lot has happened in the last month. A lot. And at the same time, not much. Stick around to find out what that means. But before we get started, I want to thank you guys as always for supporting my channel. For always showing love. Thank you guys for subscribing to my channel. Don't forget that you can listen to this podcast and all the audio platforms you can think of. And also you can watch this video in 4K on YouTube. But without further ado, let's get into what has happened in the last several months in my life. And we're going to discuss some interesting topics and what's been going on. And uh I'm excited to do another podcast episode. Let me tell you, after taking about a month break of not doing episodes and podcast episodes and not much YouTube, it's hard to get back into the routine. It's just uh it takes a minute, you know. I well, specifically, you know, the reason why I was going through and what I was going through recently, but it just is hard, you know, to get back to get motivated, to start doing it again. This is why I always tell people content creation is hard, right? Once the motivation dies down, then the discipline kicks in, right? Regardless of the amount of views that you may get, regardless of the the likes, the support you may get from your friends or not, you have to stick it through and you have to have a lot of discipline, right? Because this is one of the reasons why I tell people it has to be a passion. It has to be a passion. If not, it's always gonna go downhill. Because once the the motivation, uh the the beginner's high ends up going down, then there is nothing that you can rely on to keep you going, right? So if you're always caring about what people think or the support that you're getting or the numbers and stuff like that, it is just always bound to just bring you down. In my case, though, last um month around March 12th, I went to El Salvador, and I think I mentioned this on my channel. Um, or actually, I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but I went to El Salvador. Uh, and if you keep up with me in my social medias, you'll know that I was in El Salvador for about 12 days. Now, let me tell you, going to El Salvador, unfortunately, was not what I thought, and the hope that I had um was not really positive when I went. One of the main reasons why I went was because of I was going to go see a doctor so the doctor could try to help me with my health issues, right? Well, I wanted to see if I could get healed with medicine, but not take medication for acid reflux and things of that nature for years, you get me? So kind of just heal uh with medications and medicine uh for the root cause of my issues, right? That's what I was hoping for. Now listen, traveling because of my health issues was a struggle. I mean, the first day, um, it's a long day, right? I get up about five in the morning. Um, actually, yeah, about five in the morning, and we leave the house around 6 30 or so, you know, and then the the plane takes off about 11, um, 11 a.m. And you get to El Salvador around 2, 12 p.m. actually, because it's two hours behind and the flight's like three hours and some change. So about 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. actually in El Salvador. Then from there, where the doctor was located, was in the farther side of the country. So it took about three hours to get there. So I didn't end up getting to wherever I needed to get to until about six, right? And I already was having a lot of health anxiety, especially with my breathing issues, right? I'm suffering from chronic sinusitis, which haven't been able to cure yet. And that was one of the reasons as to why I was going to see the doctor as well. Uh, long story short, though, guys, unfortunately, it did not pan out. There were some personal things that happened that I prefer not talking and disclosing here in my um in my YouTube channel, but it was not what what what I needed it to be. And uh, for the reasons that I truly can't believe, like at one point, let me tell you, maybe this is why I haven't got into content creation in a little bit, um, or at least for the past month, it got to a point one day where I'm in a in the other side of the country where I have family, but it's my stepside that that stepdad's side of the family. So not necessarily anybody particularly close to me, you know. And at one point when everything happened, um in the first several days that I was there, I felt very lonely. Um, I feel like they're like all the options that I was trying to do, all the options that I was trying to look into were not working out. And I was very hopeful that this uh uh set of treatments could help me. And it and and it didn't pan out that way. It was not what I thought in mind. And when I got there, I felt very motivated. I felt hopeful. I always tell people here sometimes hope is what gets people through. You can feel very bad, you can feel like crap, but having that hope in your life for whatever the reason may be, it makes you feel like there is a chance, right? It's just like the word describes it, there's hope behind that. And I felt hopeful that maybe something could get started with trying to feel better, right? At least get back um my GI track back to to where I wanted it to be. And uh unfortunately that didn't pan out. I ended up going to an Airbnb that was really beautiful, by the way. If you guys saw um uh on my social medias, uh the place that I was at, it was so beautiful, right? It was a hotel um in like I think this is the east coast of El Salvador, uh, with a wonderful beach view. It was so beautiful, man. And um had it had a little bit of everything, you know. It was perfect, it was brand new as well, uh recently built, I should say. And you know, you get to see the the sunset, you know, the beautiful art of what God made in this earth. It's just so beautiful, right? But being there, I just remember feeling so um, so down, so alone. Uh I feel hopeless, hopeless, you know, and it's a very sucky feeling. I didn't want to tell uh too many people about it. I just kind of was just processing it's processing things, right? And I just knew that the reason I went to El Salvador, one of one of the reasons I went to El Salvador was did not work out. And it didn't seem like it was gonna work out, unfortunately. And now I kind of have to start from square one again, you know, uh trying to see if I can find some type of solution uh to managing my acid reflux and my um the burning sensation that I have in my stomach, in my chest and stuff. And then of course my sinusitis, right? I feel like it's all uh related, you know, one thing triggers the other, or because of you know how long I've been suffering, it probably is messing, you know, around with with all my tracks and and you know, I'm trying to get that squared away. So I went back to my side of the country, right? Um, closer to the capital, San Salvador. And uh I met my mom there because she went with my my mom went with my grandma. So when I saw them, you know, I felt definitely felt better. I got to see uh people that I love, friends that I love, and um I got to feel a little better. Um, but it was just very it's a very lonely feeling, you know, and starting from a square root. And then I started talking to family about my issues, and they recommended some doctors that are um more are on the natural side as well to see they try to look that look for the root cause, what is causing something, so they can try to fix it, and they that they fix that, they hope that it fixes something else in the body, because that's how the organs function, right? If you're one of if an organ is is is is failing, or that's extreme case, but if it's not um working well, let's say, then it's gonna affect other organs in your body. So they have to overwork, and then you know, maybe another organ starts um acting up, right? And that that's how beautiful the body is, right? But one organ can also heal another organ if you're doing things right. So it's it's complicated, but at the same time, if if you really look into it, man, it's very beautiful the where the way we are created and the way um our Lord created us. So uh they started talking to me about all of that, and it gave me some hope. Um, I called in uh one clinic and one doctor uh to see if they could help me. They said it could bring me in. So I was like, okay, cool. Let me go try that option to see if you know that helps. But unfortunately, several um that same night, I started feeling really uh off in my in my in my stomach. And long story short, I ended up catching uh traveler's diarrhea, which also is known as Montesuma's Revenge. And man, that thing, I mean, almost took me out. And not just myself, but my mom as well. My mom caught that. I don't know from what we we still trying to figure out what is it that we ate or drank. Because when you go from America to Central America, you know, Mexico, even South America, you're very exposed to catching traveler's diarrhea from the water, uh, from the things you may eat if you eat anything in the streets. Uh, people, you know, that same hygiene is not the same. So they can carry germs of bacteria, um, you know, viruses that can affect your stomach. And we are not immune to that. The people over there, they're used to it. For us, it takes us out. So for three days straight, I was literally, um, if there's anybody at the younger age, close your ears. But I was shitting water for three days. Excuse my language, but that is how I can describe it. I was going to the restroom, number two, and it felt like I was doing number one because I wasn't even peeing. That's how much liquid I was just passing, right? And then on top of that, traveler's diarrhea, you know, it gives you chills and fever, um, stomach pain, uh, nausea. And then, of course, you're constantly going to the restroom. But the worst part is when you're feeling very nauseous, nauseated. Is that a word? Nauseated. When you're feeling nauseous, there you go. When you're feeling very nauseous, you don't want to drink or eat anything, right? But you have to force yourself to drink something because if not, you'll get dehydrated, right? And we weren't at a clinic or at an urgent care or a hospital, so it's not like we can get IVs and and stuff like that. So we knew that we had to stay hydrated. So every every day I was changing the flavor on liquid IVs I was getting, on electrolytes I was getting, because if I had the same taste for the whole day or going into the next day, I it made me not nauseous and it made me kind of want to throw it up. So I had to switch flavors because one day was enough of it, you know. And then, of course, drinking a lot of water. And I believe by the time I got back, um, it I would lost like over five pounds maybe from from that. And catching travel's diarrhea while I was trying to work on my stomach uh and my GI track, right? Just completely took everything out. Any benefit that I made up to uh any um progress that I made up to that point in my travel, um with anything I did with the doctor over there, even it was just even if it was just a little bit, the the travel diarrhea just wiped everything out. So I'm over here already feeling hopeless, feeling down, um, and and and just you know, sad. Then that this happens, and I feel like I'm dying. And I'm like, I can't believe this. I truly couldn't believe this. And I'm in another country, it's so hot over there, it's so humid. Uh, even though in our house we have AC and our house is built, but it's not the same. It's super hot all the time, every day. And I'm just like, man, I couldn't believe it. So remember the doctor that I made an appointment to that I was going to go see? Well, I didn't end up going because I caught the the the traveler's diarrhea and I just you know didn't change my flight and came when I was supposed to come because I was supposed to extend it originally, and I didn't. And and I said, I'm going home. I'm just gonna go home. I gotta go reset. I gotta do something. So I came home, and as soon as I got here, I started feeling feeling a little bit better. I knew also it was a mental thing because I was in my mental state, it was actually also off, right? From everything that I just said. Very off. And I got back here, uh, started eating a little bit of a salad with chicken, you know, the first night. And then the next day I was eating as light as possible. And then when the within the next several days, I started getting back to normal, you know, and and and everything was okay, right? I made sure that I started taking uh probiotics um for your stomach, for your GI tract, because that's always important, because I was on antibiotics for a while. I tell you this though, I didn't I did end up going to the urgent care the following day, actually. I I don't want to forget to mention this, but the doctor gave me another set of antibiotics because I showed her what I showed her what antibiotics I was taking. And she's like, Yeah, these are good that you were taking these, but I'm gonna give you another set of antibiotics because sometimes there's two different types of like bacteria or viruses that you can catch. Well, in this case, should uh she she believed it might have been a bacteria because if I'm getting antibiotics for it, right? And she told me to take it for like five days just to make sure everything is wiped out and everything is clear. And I said, All right, cool. So after that set of antibiotics, uh, I ended up taking probiotics for my stomach, right? I ended up taking uh probiotics that help with the GI tract. It has like 16 strains uh of different um um probiotics, and of course, just a billion something units of you know, whatever you get where I'm going with this. Oh, and also that one helps with your prostate, which is pretty cool. And you as you guys know, I've suffered from prostate issues for a while. So after um taking those antibiotics, I make sure that I also take something for my prostate and my gut, right? Because even though I don't think there's official studies, but there might be a um correlation between stomach issues and prosthetitis issues. So if you want, you can do more research on that or watch more of my videos of my prostate issues. But so I'm doing I did that for a while and I'm still taking some of those because I want to just take the whole 30 days and then um you know the I went back to work when I got here. Uh I tried to get back to normal. Um, it's just been really tough mentally. Uh, it's been definitely really hard. Um, try to stay as close to the Lord as I can. I I I know I've suffered enough um with my health issues to know that this is one of those down moments, you know. Um one of those moments where your faith is really tested, where you have to put one foot forward even if you take a three steps back. And in El Salvador, I took a lot of steps back. Not everything was negative. I don't want to make it sound like everything was negative. Experiencing my family, um a special person, you know, it was beautiful, but it's tough, it's definitely tough, and uh it makes me having that feeling of being alone, just so alone, and trying to remind yourself that God is always with you is really, really tough because in that moment it's almost like I don't want to say supernatural, but everything that's happening, you're not even paying too much attention to. It's just you and your thoughts and your feelings and your emotions. And it gets to you, you know, and that's part of the reason as to why I haven't created that much content in the last month. Because every time I wanted to create this episode, because I was gonna make this episode by myself to to to have this uh for you guys, uh, so you guys can can see where I've been and what I've been up to. And every time for like about two weeks, I was just like, you know what, I'll just do it next week. It's because I first of all lost the the that that's that motivation side, and then I was just I'm just fatigued, you know, I'm just tired. I just don't want to do it because my body took a toll in the hit so hard for the last several weeks, and it's been tough. So I found it up, mustered up the energy to to make the podcast episode. I've I have people lined up um to make YouTube episodes. I want to keep creep um bringing a lot of content that I enjoy, but also that you guys enjoy, and things that I'm into, you know, and people that are interesting, and it's just really fun to do. I love content creation, but this is one of those moments where I've always tell I've always told you guys there's some times where I take just breaks. Sometimes it happens naturally, sometimes it doesn't, and that's something I can't control. Um, but it's part, you know, it's part of a part of the process, and uh, and yeah, so we're not giving up. We're gonna continue to see. I'm planning on again on going back to Osavoro and trying those doctors at least. The good part about it is they're less expensive than they are here, you know, so much less expensive. So the only thing I have to pay a lot for is you know the flight going over there. Other than that, though, I think you know, I'm gonna give them a try and see what happens, right? Maybe I learned something and I can bring that same to you and uh and see what happens. But at the moment, I had to go back to PPIs and started taking medication. Um and that's what I'm doing now. So that's where we're gonna be probably for around the summertime, uh, just because the World Cup's coming, of course, so many events that are happening. Uh by the way, I I'm a huge Call of Duty fan, and um uh there's Dream Hack happening in Atlanta this year, so major three for Call of Duty. Um, the Call of Duty League is happening here in Atlanta, and I'm planning on going, so I'm excited for that. I'm planning on making videos. Um, I've been playing Call of Duty for shoot, I don't know, ages um for a long time and a huge fan. And I always like to watch pros and um it's it's awesome. So I'm planning on doing that. I'm planning on making videos, by the way, for the World Cup. I'm not planning on attending every game. No, at least watching it live. I'm not planning on attending like the Fan Fest, uh, the world, like the close to the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. I'm planning on going around. And what I'm thinking is about maybe interviewing people, uh, talking to people from around the world on like that specific weekend or those specific days for a game, and just going around and talking to people, you know, just where are you from? And there's eight games set here in Atlanta. Eight. So I'm planning on making eight episodes for the whole World Cup. Going every time there is a game and just talking to people and showing you what it looks like. So if you're listening to this, if you're watching this, you know, don't forget to subscribe to the channel because I want to show you what World Cup vibes are like in the United States and my first World Cup ever, you know, that I will be very close to and that I will probably be able to attend at least one game, right? Because you gotta get it out of your system. You gotta at least say you went to a World Cup game. That's in the bucket list, you know? And um it might not be the best financial decision, I will admit, but that's okay. It's uh it's part of the bucket list. I wanna I wanna make sure I enjoy. And to be honest, to some extent, sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes it helps me uh just kind of kind of move away from from the issues that you have going on in life, you know? It just kind of helps me uh enjoy things and and and and try to to at least have fun, uh, keep enjoying the beauties of life and things that I love. Uh, so I can it can keep you going, you know. It's part of the motivation, it's part of the journey. You have to do things uh to to that you like. And in this case, it comes at an expense, uh uh, unfortunately, but it's okay. You know, we we're gonna keep it a day at a time. But I I I want to make sure that you guys know that I'm planning on doing that. Let me know if you have ideas for that. Um, because I'm gonna go around just talking to people, you know, just being me, having somebody record on my phone and just going around and just. Talking to people, saying what's going on and talking to them. Who knows who I'll meet? Who knows who will be there. Uh, I'm also planning on going to hopefully the fan fest for the UFC white card. Want to go to DC and and see how that's like, see what the vibe is like. It's I think it's pretty interesting. As you guys can see, I love sports. So I want to see if I get a ticket or two to go to the fan fest, not the actual fight, because there's no way I'll get tickets for that. But the fan fest is a fan fest itself, you know, and um and press conferences, the way-ins and stuff. I would love to attend and be part of that. I think that would be pretty cool. Uh, and it which is more doable than anything else. So yeah. Um, oh, another news. Hey, um, what about Artemis 2? Yeah, what about the moon? We went back to the moon, chat. We went back to the freaking moon, bro. That's so awesome. Like, we got to say that in our laugh lifetime, right? There were so many different uh things that I saw on um on the social media uh sites and stuff. Uh, you know, some people were wondering why we didn't go back, why haven't we gone back to the moon? Um, you know, in like 40 plus years or something like that, 50 plus years. I heard a really good explanation though. I heard the reason we haven't gone back to the moon is because there wasn't a necessity, right? We've already gone so many times that there isn't a necessity to go anymore and explore it. There's nothing you can explore because the moon is just a rock, right? And um it to me that made sense. What while what is the purpose of doing it? Unless you're planning on going to the moon, maybe setting up a base, and then from there seeing if people can take off to go to farther planets, which that is the case, apparently now um that they're working on. They're planning on going back to landing on the moon and then one day building a base. So then it's it facilitates um everything else that you're trying to do uh around the the uh the I was gonna say the galaxy, but the thing around uh our our solar system. That's that's a better way of putting it. And uh all of this fascinates me, as you can see. I love talking about uh space and the moon. Um uh well, not just the moon itself, but space uh in general. Uh I love it. Um and I thought I also saw uh it's funny that they were taking pictures on their way to to the moon, and you know, the earth is round. So I made a comment and I made a uh a post on social media saying, hey, just to confirm and for your awareness, the earth is not flat. And people laughed at it because you know there's flat earthers, which to at this point, man, it's just a losing battle. There is no way, especially after this mission, you think that the earth is flat. Um I can't, I can't even, I can't even go there no more. It's just, you know, but some people still think that in uh gets to each her zone. But it was beautiful to see new updated images of the earth, uh, updated images of uh the moon. And I heard the purpose of just going around the moon and not landing, it's because again, we haven't gone to the moon in a long, very long time. So what they're doing is just testing to make sure that the current uh astrophysicists and the engineers and everybody who works for NASA, SpaceX, and everybody else to make sure that they have right um the right path and see how they want to the to go to the moon and come back, have the numbers, half the data. Because probably all the people that work in the moon landings back in the 60s and 70s, most of them are probably gone, you know? And they probably don't work for for NASA and SpaceX anymore. So the the the new generation of astronauts and everybody else, they have to really, you know, make sure that their the numbers line up, that the data less up lines up right in order for them to go and come back. Like it just makes sense. That's the reason they're testing it, that's the reason they tested this whole uh situation, and then the next step would be to land on the moon and then go from there. Just to answer some of you guys' questions that I know if you may had uh about what's going on with with with um with space. And by the way, um I don't know if you guys know this, and um, my friends are probably tired of hearing this, but I actually got hired um by NASA. Um I always wanted to work for NASA as one of my dreams. Um, I don't know if I've ever said this in in the podcast, and I ended up getting hired uh back in 2022, I believe. Uh 2022, 23. Uh, but I didn't take the job. Um I didn't take the job um because I prayed about it, and unfortunately, I never felt at peace. And these are one of the moments in my life where I don't understand and I didn't understand, but I knew I wasn't at peace. And I asked the Lord and I prayed, and I said, Lord, excuse me. I said, Lord, if if if if this is where you want me to be, and this is where you want me to go, let me have that peace. Put that peace in my heart and my mind. And in the mornings, just wake me up feeling at peace. And I never did, never felt at peace about the job. Um, and I had to come into agreements that it wasn't my time. Who knows it wasn't if it wasn't my time yet, if it wasn't my time ever. Um, we don't know yet. But ever since then, of course, I've been wanting to to give it another shot, right? Because I'll tell you the the thing that came out of this. I said no um to the job precision. But six months later, I ended up getting a promotion at my job. And I got a crazy pay jump. Uh, on top of that, I got performance awards, which I used to increase my pay even more because there's something called the federal government quality step increase. So my pay jump went crazy. And um, I got into a role where now I am able to work um in my profession, because I work with federal contracts, to roll to work on both sides in the full life cycle of a contract. So I have so much knowledge and experience of knowing from how to work a contract from inception to up to the point of awarding, and then from uh awarding to managing. I know all of it now because of this role. Uh, I wouldn't have had that if um I would have taken the the NASA job. And then on top of that, then a lot of that put those positions that that you know NASA was hiring for, and then obviously other agencies were hiring for, which is contracting specialists or contracting officers. Um when Trump signed uh the executive, I don't know if it's executive order, but he signed the orders uh in order for for those positions to to decrease, then a lot of those people got let go from the federal government. And I always thinking to myself, I'm like, that could have been me too. Because I know in our office we lost a lot of people like that. A lot of contracting officers, a lot of uh, you know, a lot of uh contracting specialists. That series, I mean, it got almost wiped clean. So I would have lost my job essentially if I would have stayed. And at the moment, I never I didn't understand it. But looking back, God knew what he was doing. You know, uh maybe it wasn't my time, and now I believe it probably wasn't my time. But I'll tell you this though, I still have dreams of working for NASA, and um it's very long, it's very hard. I mean, to give you a long story and turn it into a short one, first of all, you have to apply, right? Then on top of that, they have to select you to have an interview. And then when I got selected to do an interview, it was one of the hardest interviews in my life. Now keep in mind, I am not the smartest cookie. I'm not very, I don't think I'm naturally intelligent. I'm not book smart. I work hard and I take pride in working very, very hard and trying to outwork people. I think that is where my knowledge comes from, right? But for me, um things don't come that easy in and you know, the being able to speak very eloquently, um, even though I use a big word right now, but that's because I I try to learn as much as I can, right? But I don't speak like that, you know. I'm not the best interviewer uh or interviewee, I should say. Um again, I'm not book smart. So when I got asked questions for NASA, let me tell you, man, I mean, the hardest interview I've had, and it took so much out of me because I was nervous, of course. Then on top of that, you have to answer the questions, you know, correctly. But I have a formula on how I interview, and it's worked out pretty well so far, thank God. And you know, I've used a couple things that I've learned along the way, right? And uh, you know, a week, maybe a maybe two weeks later or so, I don't remember how long after, they sent me a notice through my email saying, hey, we would like to uh get uh you know recommendations from from people around you, sir, maybe your team leads, your bosses, or mentors or whatever. And I sent that to them. You know, they wrote great ones. I sent that to them. And I got a phone call in the morning several days later, like, hey, you know, is this Carlos Gernado? I was like, Yes, sir. Um, are you still interested in working for NASA? And I was like, oh my god, yes. And they're like, all right, well, congratulations. You received your uh you received the job, and you know, this is your your pay, this is what your pay will be. Uh, you know, this is when you, you know, when you when you when you were able to start, let us know, all these things. And I just I couldn't believe it. That I started crying. I was like, my dream job, my dream agency. Um it makes me emotional to this day. And um, I thought I was leaving, I thought I was going from Atlanta to Houston, Texas, and working for NASA, and sometimes God has different plans for you. Um, sometimes your plans um are not his plans. And um it was a very hard pill to swallow. It was very tough to accept, but I prayed about it for three days because the guy gave me three days to accept his notice uh on my email, right? He sent me to a site to accept it and accept the role. So since I got the job notice, I prayed and it's just never felt that peace, man. I never felt that peace. And I tell my my my friends and family, some of them couldn't understand. They're like, dude, this is your dream. It's NASA, like, and I understand, you know, it I this is the way I look at it. If I am able to work for NASA for several years, it's hard for me not to be able to find a job later on in life. It's more like a security thing, right? Obviously, I don't think I'll ever want to leave, first of all. But if I were to, imagine on your resume saying NASA and then the CDC. Like when it comes to federal government agencies, there is not too many that you can put above that. If any, you know, depending on certain things. But I knew when I told my mom, I was like, man, if I have that on my resume for several years or anything like that in that nature, I mean, where would I not, you know, at least get looked at? Maybe even have an interview, open doors for me, you know, like job security almost, like, you know. And even with all of that, and how proud I would have made my family, how proud I would have made friends around me, all of this wasn't even just about me. It was all about my friends and family, and uh, you know, making my mom proud that a son could work for such a um such an agency, um, where it's looked upon as you know, some of the smartest people in the world. And me, you guys knowing what I just told you, that I'm maybe not um the smartest, but I do have certain skills that keep me up there, you know. I do have certain skills that I know how to use and maybe when to use, and I knew I could have been successful. And it's tough. Um, but the the book's not closed, you know, because a lot of good things happen afterwards when it comes to my career. Great. I just mentioned those to me, you too. Great things, man. I'm in a really good spot in life. Um, when all the the rift notices started happening in the federal government, I still kept my job, you know, even after thousands of uh federal government employers, employees, you know, even after they got let go, I'm still here, you know, and and uh God was doing and working behind, you know. There's a thing that I heard one time that I think stays true. Um sometimes the reason why your plans don't happen is because those plans could have destroyed you. That's the reason sometimes God doesn't allow your plans to happen. Because those plans could have potentially destroyed you. And this is when you have to apply the faith and say, God, your will be done. Even it's not, even if it's not what you want, even if if in this case it's your dream job, your dream agency. Um, look at the passion that I've been having in my face for the past you know 20 minutes that I've been talking about, NASA, the moon in space. It's just always been my thing. Uh, and just the amount of joy and you know, pride that I've would have gotten from that. Not pride in the sense of like being proudful, but more pride in the fact that my friend, my family, my mother could have said, Man, look where my son is at, look where he made it to. That is where my joy and pride would have came from, right? All the sacrifices that that people around me have made. And now look at what happened. So I don't want to keep getting more into emotional to this, but yeah, I I turned it down and um, you know, God knows what he's doing, but I'll continue to pray and say, Lord, if if another opportunity opens, um, let's let's run it back. Let's try and see if we can do it again. And and maybe this time, if I feel peace, then uh I'm gonna pull uh the trigger and and go ahead and do it, you know. And it's probably gonna be the proudest moment. If not, if it doesn't happen, I still have to be content. Um, again, maybe the Lord didn't allow my plans to happen because it could have um uh gone wrong for me. So uh I have to look at it in that uh outlook. So regardless, I'm still blessed, I'm still continuing to fight uh outside of my health, to fight for for my life, to leave a legacy behind. Um, because once I leave this earth, there's not much that's gonna be left of me, but you know, my legacy and and uh people's legacy, right? So we're gonna continue to do that. And by the way, Artemis 2, talking about going back to Artemis 2. I learned that Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo, which was Apollo back in the 16s and 70s that NASA was using, right? All the missions that were Apollo's. How cool is it that now we have Artemis, which is the twin sister of Apollo? Isn't that cool? Isn't that so cool? Like, uh, and by the way, this is Greek mythology, so they're using uh Greek names, so now it's just in Greek mythology, this all makes sense now, right? Which is cool before it was Apollo and now it's Artemis. Um, you know, it's like a new generation thing happening. So instead of using continue to use Apollos, now you use a new name, and it's so cool. I thought is you're talking about that is really, really cool. Another fact before I leave you guys that I learned about this that the reason a rocket flies when you see a rocket, it never flies straight out of the orbit, but it flies in um in a diagonal shape almost, if I may I think that's the right word. It doesn't fly straight. A rocket doesn't fly straight, it goes sideways to break out of the earth. Um is it the atmosphere? Now I don't want to botch this, um, but I believe it is to break out of the atmosphere, and then when it breaks out, right, it continues to go at a certain speed because if it's not going at a certain speed, then it's gonna go fall again and essentially go back into the to the atmosphere. That's where we can that's the reason it takes a lot of rocket fuel to do that. So then when when it continues to go at a certain speed, they continue the astronauts continue to fall, but because of the speed and the rotation of the earth, they never fall into the atmosphere, into earth. Isn't that cool? Like you, if you that's the reason satellites never fall they into um back to earth, because they continue to rotate, even though technically they're falling all the time, they're falling, except they're missing earth because of the way earth keeps rotating. That's crazy, right? Is that not cool? And then they use the earth's gravity, so then uh at a certain point they accelerate and use it as a slingshot to give them more boost, right? So then they can send it to to to um to to the moon. But then I learn that it has to go fast enough to keep pulling away from the earth's gravity. Because if they were to, for example, you guys know this, right? If if you go to a certain speed in space, you stay at that speed until you hit something or something makes you stop. But in this case, because uh Artemis um is still very close to comparable to to our to our solar system, it's still very close to the earth. If it were to stop or not go fast enough, then it will just continue get to get pulled into the into Earth's gravity, right? And then obviously it won't reach the moon. So it has to go at a certain speed to get there, right? And it's almost like an eight that it makes, right? You take off, you take off from the earth, you slingshot, you go around the moon, and then you slingshot, you slingshot with uh the moon's gravity to come back to earth. How crazy is that? Listen, and I think I completely bodged some of this, but you get what I'm saying. It takes so much knowledge and so much science behind it, you know, to make things happen. And you think it's just like a path, like a straight path. I used to think that that it was from the moon, from the earth to the moon, straight. That's it, you know. But the earth, remember, is spinning around. I mean, the moon is spinning around the earth, right? And there is a certain angle that they approach, right? To get to the moon and then come back uh to earth. And it's just it's just amazing. And then coming back down to earth, going into Earth's atmosphere and crossing, um, and going down to Earth, that's another whole process. And I'm just like, dude, how far have we gotten as humans? You know, imagine what would have happened if NASA and and and everybody else would have not taken a break from space exploration from like the 70s or so till now. Like, imagine how far we would have gotten. It's crazy to think about, right? But I'll let you stop with my yapping, guys. Uh, thank you guys for watching this episode of the Carlos Granados podcast. As always, don't forget to like, comment, subscribe on this channel. Uh, want to continue to bring great content to you guys. Um, life content, if not really cool uh guest in my podcast. I'm planning on having um I got I got plans. Uh hopefully you guys get to to to enjoy the people that I'm planning on having on and enjoying uh the process. So at this point in my YouTube channel, I'm posting almost everything about my life because I think um a lot of people enjoy it. A lot of you guys have enjoyed it, and it's a great way to grow uh as a content creator, right? So I appreciate you guys for liking, commenting, subscribing. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to the channel. You know, that's how you support my channel. Uh, you can listen to this podcast in 4K on all the audio platforms Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, all the above. And of course, you can always watch this video on 4K if you are listening in the audio platforms. So, thank you guys for watching. Take care of yourself, take care of each other, and as always, familia, peace and love, baby. See you guys in the next one.