Intro to Just. Friend Talk

Two friends, Akio and Chris, talk about how they met on a social app called Wink. They became friends and decided to start a podcast together. They discuss their reasons for starting the podcast, which include wanting to fill their time and see what impact they can make. They also talk about their backgrounds, where they live, and their interests in sports, particularly football. They have different favorite teams, but enjoy watching and playing Madden. Hello everyone. Welcome to Just Friends Talk. My name is Akio. I'm Chris. And we're here today to talk about how we became friends, why we're doing the podcast, and like what is the podcast. I'm sure there's lots of questions. I guess I can start by explaining what the podcast is. It's basically just a place for us to talk because we're friends and have unique perspectives on a lot of different things. We're Christians. We're young. This was like two years ago. No, it was three. Three years ago. We were on the app Wink. It was like, yeah, it was called Wink. It was like Tinder, well, for like teenagers. It was weird. But I was on it because your boy was lonely. I just wanted friends. So I honestly was like, you know what, let me just download apps. And I just swiped in, swiped in. I didn't care who it was. I was just like swipe right, right, right, right. And then you popped up, added me back. I think it took us a couple times to add each other because it was, I don't know, something wrong with the app. It's like you get a notification and it just like takes such a long time to receive a message. So then you have to physically like check in. So then, you know, we went back and forth checking to see like, oh, how are you and stuff like that. And I was like, do you have, I think at first it was Snapchat. And then, of course, we migrated to other social medias. And then, you know, we got to know each other a little bit more, you know, about like our day-to-day, what we do, how old we were. August babies. You know, find out colors. I was like, oh dang, another August person. I was like the fifth or sixth person. So yeah. Yeah. And I think the reason why I downloaded that app was same reasons. I think that was COVID, maybe one year out. That was a long time ago. Yeah. So I was like, man, I need some friends. I need to try to figure out this thing out. So I downloaded it for some reasons. And then, kind of like Chris, I was like just continuing to swipe through and be like, oh, okay, yeah. I literally, I texted everyone like, hey, hey, hey, hey, and just trying to figure something out. But then I ended up meeting Chris and I was like, okay, cool, cool. He likes Disney. Bro, I can get down with some Disney. I like Disney. And then I was like, okay, okay, cool, cool, cool. And then I was like, hmm, let's see what we can talk about. And yeah, so two, three years, almost three, close to three. Yeah. It's been crazy. It happens. Yeah. Yeah. So here we are. What's up, fam? I guess we'll jump into the next question, which is why we're doing the podcast. For me, I'm like, I need something to do with my time, really. I just started school today, actually. Well, today is August 12th, but I don't know when this is going to be out. So that's the main thing that's filling up my time out of school. But other than that, I didn't have much going on and I wanted to see what impact I could make and to see how far this could go. So that's me. Yeah. She texted me, what was it, like two days ago? If you want to hear, I was like, okay, this ain't the first, but you know, I wanted to hear her out. She was like, we should do a podcast. I was like, huh? I was like, why? It's like, oh, well, we always like talk about a lot of stuff on the phone and, you know, just even random stuff. And even if we're like off topic, you know, we just, we go there for like hours and hours. I was like, yeah, I can see that happening. So I'm just like, you know, I might just give it a try. I have nothing else to do with my time either. I start school on the 26th and I start working on my birthday, which is on the 30th. So I was like, whoa, but it's like, whatever. So I was like, yeah, we can do a little podcast, see how that works. And if it works, it works. If not, we'll see how that goes. But yeah, I accidentally extended the little start date because I took a nap. I told myself not to take a nap. And then, yeah, I was like, oh, shoot. My bad. I did not mean to take a nap. I told myself not to, but you know, I did anyway. But now here we are. You know, here we are. And it's okay because you got rest. So that's great. I still went to sleep on time yesterday. So kudos to me. Oh, boy. I guess we can talk about ourselves. I'm from Charlotte. Charlotte, where? Charlottetown in North Carolina, you know, and we don't call ourselves Charlottetowns. I just came up with that and I want to stick with that. So we're going to make it a thing. But you end up getting popular. Exactly, because we're Charlottetowns and that's what it is. I went to high school and now I'm in college. I have dogs and I love dogs. I love music. I play the trumpet for a little bit. And I was actually pretty lucky, you know. And let's see, what else, what else? I love family and I love God. Yeah, that's pretty much me. I also have a sister, a twin, Shiv. They're dead. Where have you been? Let me stop. Okay. Fine. All right. I'll go next. Well, I'm originally born in Delaware and I moved from Delaware to Arizona when I was four. And now I live in Florida about like eight years later. So, I mean, here it's hot. Of course, it rains a lot because we're in hurricane season, of course. Good thing it's not like a bad hurricane. It's just a lot of rain. And then in the morning it's just humid and hot, which I don't appreciate that. I keep telling people, it's like, if y'all want to come down here, you're going to have to prepare. All right. Don't get scared when you see a Category 2 hurricane. It's not a big deal. At first, when me and my mom moved here, of course, we started going out of town once the hurricane starts coming in. But now we realize it's like Category 1, maybe a Category 3. It's just like regular thunderstorm rain. It's no biggie. Anything higher, they'll be like, yeah, we got to bounce. We got to go. But yeah, Florida here, specifically, I live in Jacksonville. It's not that bad. It's just it's nothing here to do at all. But, you know, you can make it work. I mean, downtown, they got some places there, some venues, and you can just look at the city. It's pretty nice. You'll see a lot of homeless people. But, you know, it happens. I am also in college, sophomore year. And yeah, I graduated last year in high school, which is thank God about that. But also it's like, you know, you miss all your friends, you know, the people you talk to over there. I talked to one of my old friends that I graduated with a few weeks ago. Like, yo, like, how are you? You know, it's been a while. It's like, yeah, I'm good. And so he's doing a lot of good things for himself, which I'm proud of. Yeah, that's a little bit about me. Nothing too crazy. I think Charlotte definitely is better than Jacksonville. Not gonna lie. Because there's more stuff to do in Charlotte. And we have a whole, like, transit thing. We have O-Town, which is great. You know, a whole bunch of different stuff. You know, there's, like, lots of stuff to do in Charlotte. I'm sure there's a lot to do in Jacksonville, too. But I think Charlotte is, like, a little more on fire. Just put that out there. Yeah, I agree with you with that. Absolutely nothing. But those who live in Charlotte, then go ahead and go to O-Town and have all these fancy festivals that we don't even have. At least they're remaking the Jacksonville Stadium. That's fun. Basketball. I mean, football. You know, it's good. But, you know, Charlotte just got a new soccer team. And they play at the Panther Stadium. What? I mean, I like soccer. I didn't like soccer either. Don't hate us for that. Don't hate me for that, guys. Because I went to a game, right? I was really trying to sit down and really get it. I could stay into it. I was trying to ask around. So it's 100. They're going to what? What are they going to? And what's the time? What's going on? Maybe it's just because I don't understand it. Maybe it's not. I don't have a love and appreciation for it because it's just not me. I never grew up watching soccer. So maybe that might be the reason. But I didn't vibe with it. I mean, it was a beautiful day. It was a beautiful day. And I really love the sun. Like, the way the sun was hitting on the on the ground and like a place and everything. It was so beautiful. But I was trying to watch him and figure it out. And I was like, I can't. I don't. I don't know what's going on. So. Right. But that might be for my lack of intellect on the subject of soccer. You know, it happens. It does. One day. One day. Just know that people get injured a lot in soccer. So. Yeah. I like football. Like, like American football. Because your dad watches football. Exactly. And the Giants. Not too much on the Giants. Because I know everybody's going to be like, I don't care. The Giants is who I go for. And if y'all have a problem. I mean, don't fight. I met. I respectfully disagree with you. And we can talk about it. I'm an Eagles fan. Philadelphia. All day. When they won the Super Bowl, I was so excited to meet my grandfather. You know, me and him, we were both fans of it. Because originally I was a Cardinals fan. Because, of course, I lived in Arizona for a long time. So I was like, oh, I love the Cardinals. Like, Arizona all day. And then my grandpa, like, of course, I looked up to him. So it's like, maybe, maybe the Eagles are better. So I just switched over to the Eagles. Now, some football fans will be like, you're not a true fan. Then you're just hopping and skipping. Honestly, you're OK. Partially, that is true. But at the same time, I still enjoy it. I still love the players. I think I used to play Madden. It's bad now. The games are bad now. But I played Madden 20. What was it again? It was Madden 16, I think. And I used to play it all the time with the Eagles. It was a fun time. I played all the time. But now it's stopped because it's old. Yeah. I played Madden 2, the mobile app, just because I went to school in the north. I did that in middle school. I was like, if I can talk the way that everybody else talks, then I can be a part of the conversation. And I think that's when Aldo Belcum Jr., he was on the Giants. And everybody was talking about the Giants. And I was like, you know what? I like y'all because y'all know what's up. So I had stuff to talk about and I felt cool. But I was really good too. I was really good. But then I was like, no, I'm not. This is too much taking up my time. And I didn't have time for that. So then I stopped. But I did play Madden for a little bit. Yeah. I played a lot of the sports games on my phone. It was in middle school. I had a small phone that can download only about four or five games. And Madden and 2K was on it. So I played with my friends in any game that they suggest me. I'd be like, oh yeah, I'll try it. I'll play Madden. I'll play 2K. I just play with them. And I had fun with that as well. Because it's like, you feel included. I'd be like, oh, I don't know about football that much or basketball. I enjoy the game, of course. But I would love to learn more about it. At first, I wasn't a sports fan at all. Of course, gaming and anime and stuff like that, that was my niche. But of course, I put in sports in it too. Even though a lot of people say, oh, you're so tall, you should do sports. I'd be like, no, not for me. I like that a lot too. I'm pretty tall. I'm pretty tall. Actually, I'm staying on that. I'm like 5'9". It's crazy. I'm 5'9". On a great day. Always. I mean, you're more of a talker. So I was like, oh. So what does that mean? What does that make me? Talk. Exactly. Expectations. Anyways, my point was that people weren't really coming up to me like, oh, my gosh, are you going to play basketball? But whenever it would come up in a conversation, it would be like, oh, so what do you play? I'm like, I play games on my phone. And that's about it. But I did do the Marching Band for the last two years of high school. And I count that as a sport. Because everybody came to see us and not the football team. Of course, they were putting in a lot of work and running up and down the field. But we were marching in those hot uniforms, up and down the bleachers, and did a whole show. So I beg to differ. All respect to those in the Marching Band. All respect. I always have a lot of respect for people in the Marching Band. But long story short, I did not do sports. Because I wanted to, though. I wanted to. But my father was very keen on us staying in those books. So that was nice in middle school. And then he gave us the choice of do you want to go and play sports? I'm like, not really. So not anymore, dad. Like, not anymore. But yeah. So that was me. But I wanted to do sports. I always loved basketball. My friend did basketball for a very long time. She did it like all throughout middle school, high school. I think she stopped in college. But I was like, if I can just be like her. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Marching Band is definitely a sport to me. Because I went from the Marching Band back to the Super Bowl. How they do all those performances. Those were so cool back then. And now they're just celebrities. It's like, okay, cool. But just seeing them practice and making all types of shape or choreography type stuff, I was like, that is actually pretty cool. And the fact that they got rid of it kind of sucked. Because people working hard, practicing every day until the Super Bowl happens, and then they got to perform. Yeah, I gave people Marching Band. Huge respect for that. I've had a lot of coaches come up to me about, well, one coach came up to me for wrestling. I was like, yeah, you're tall, man. You should do wrestling. Come up to me when you want to do wrestling. I turned around. I was like, I'm not doing no wrestling. And even if I wanted to, I feel like I will break my body. And of course, that's natural for any sport. You're going to break a bone or two. But I wasn't a huge sport fan to do. I'm not very competitive. Clue was like basketball. And if I wanted to do soccer, yeah. I'm just not super competitive of doing sports specifically. So I just do it for fun whenever I get the chance to. But yeah, sports, it's so fun and interesting to watch here and there. I would agree. I did not watch as much of the Olympics as I would have wanted to. Everybody else in the household was watching them. But I followed the people I wanted to follow. And that was like Simone Wiles and Sha'Carri Richardson. And they did their thing. They did a great job. Sha'Carri got her first gold medal. And of course, Simone Wiles got like all these medals. Because she deserves it. And what a beautiful comeback too. It is. Especially she's like, is she in her 30s? She's 30, right? She probably just turned 30 or closer. She's not 30. She's like 28. I think so. Let me see. How old is Simone Wiles? 27. Oh, okay. I thought she was like either close or somewhere in between. But that's still not a bad age. You know, because people be like, oh, once you're at a certain age, you start slipping. And my mom told me, someone interviewed her saying like, I'm starting to feel the repercussion of my age. Like I can't stretch as I used to. I can't do things like I used to. So, but I'm glad she's getting like, she got the gold medal. She got that one silver medal. Like that is super great. Proud of her for that. And all the little commotion with her husband and all that. So, I mean, leave the man alone. Let's keep it real. Leave the man alone. Now, of course, not a lot of people know him. I don't know him either. But still, he has a name. He has, of course, people follow him. People know who he is, but still like respect him. No biggie. A lot of athletes, because people are getting on them about the whole, him holding her medal and stuff like that. I'm like, Steph Curry did that. LeBron did that. A lot of NFL players have done that, too, with the Super Bowl. Like, it's not the first. So, y'all getting on them for holding her medal, even though countless of others have their partners right next to them holding their trophies or, you know, awards and stuff like that. It's no biggie. I didn't know that. That's cool. Yeah, he plays for Green Bay. I only know this stuff because I watched the documentary on Netflix of Samoa. Yeah. And that was pretty good. Yeah. I think my mom watched that, too. And she was like, they don't get paid a lot. Or was it the cheerleaders? No, that was the wrong Netflix series. Anyways, yeah, that was the wrong Netflix series. Another documentary was about cheerleaders not getting paid enough, like teacher payment. And I was like, oh, that is really bad. But yeah, already, I know we jumped into many topics and many things. But, you know, I can move on to the next one, if you want. Sure, we can talk about that in just a minute. Okay. So the next one that we added was, you know, God and the work of sin. We were thinking about this for the past couple of days. And we've been talking about, you know, our faith and about God and how our relationship is with God. I don't mind going first on that topic. Let's see. Well, I would say it was about four years ago, so probably around COVID era. I was very, very depressed. Gone through a lot of stuff. You know, 2019, I lost my grandfather. So that was hard. I was still in that healing process. And this was before I met Zakiya. But I had to kind of go through that, which was honestly tragic for someone who was I'm 18. So I was like 14, 13 years old. And, you know, losing someone that you care about a lot can take a toll on you. So it's like, you want to go up to God about a lot of things. And although he knows your heart, you can't speak it out loud. Sometimes, you know, he knows that he's listening to you every day. You know, the moment you're sleeping, the moment you wake up and, you know, do your day-to-day, he's still with you at all times. So for the past two years during COVID, it was just me being isolated, going through stuff and, you know, personally, like family-wise and relationship problems. God was there for me, you know, and I'm glad that things changed for me as a person. And things really started picking up better when I got off the online classes for school. I was like, all right, it's a new semester. So it was like, my mom was like, do you want to stay online or do you want to go in person? I immediately was like, in person. Like, I cannot be isolated. I need to see some people. And I'm pretty sure, you know, all of us have felt the same way, those who were in high school or in college age at the time during COVID, just wanted to meet new people. I don't care who it is, new, old, I just want to see people. So when that started, of course, everything changed. They had these stickers on the floor. Basically, it was like a line for us to try to be six feet apart. And it worked for the most part until they changed it. They were like, yeah, this won't work. You're just going to have to wear your mask the whole time until you get to class. I was like, all right, that's no biggie. But I think I actually started wanting to have a relationship with God after COVID ended. It's not an end, but the whole pandemic era. You know, I went through my therapist and I had a live session with him until he invited me to church. I was like, hey, you want to come by my church? He's like, yeah, where's it at? And the church is Lineage. And so I was like, oh, yeah, that's the church I went to for Christmas holiday, a big one too. I was like, oh, yeah, that's the one I did not attend. I was like, I didn't feel like going because I was so sad. I didn't want to go anywhere, you know, whatever. So then when we first got to church, I was like, yo, this church is actually so welcoming. Everybody wants to know your name. You know, very kind and very genuine about things and how other churches are like, yeah, they have your breeders and stuff like that here and there. My old church was like, eh. It was iffy. It was good for me back then, but for mom it was like, eh, I think we can find better. So I'm happy with my church now and it actually helps me a lot. Like, I'm being spiritually fed with my pastor. The songs are great. Like, I love the songs. I love singing them. And, you know, there's times where my faith is like, a little ups and downs. Like, you know, sometimes I'm like, oh, God, what is this happening to me? Or like, oh, God, like, what am I supposed to do? Like, are you even listening to me? It's hard for, you know, being a young adult, you know, trying to know yourself and get around the world here, you know, knowing people and meeting people outside from school or, you know, if people are working, you know, seeing the same faces every day. Like, it's hard. But I think the beginning of this year was obviously the peak of me. Like, I was reading my word every day. I'm slacking a little bit, but I'm reading the word, you know, praying more. And honestly, I feel carefree. I mean, I know I'm like a carefree guy and so you can tell you about that. I'm just carefree. Like, I'd be in airplane mode like almost half of the time. And I just like, I try not to stress about everything. Yeah. Being a young adult and getting to know myself is definitely hard without God being with you at all times. You know, I would say anybody out there who is listening, just like, you know, stay faithful the best you can. I know it's hard for us to remain faithful and always keep our heads up. And that is totally fine. Like, don't put so much pressure on me. But at the same time, have your time, moments to yourself to feel, you know, the sadness or anger if you're going through a bad day. Like, if you feel like you can't talk to God right now, you can always talk to him the next day because every day is a new blessing, a new, you know, he's very merciful. And that's so great for us. He's a merciful God and he always loves us no matter what. And he'll give us our time to come to him about our problems. You know, it's not wrong to tell your friends or your family member what's wrong, but it's also the best option to tell God first as well. Yeah, definitely. The second everything he says, like, God is so good. And like, I know it can be really difficult. Sometimes if you're like, really down, like my, my aunt passed away in 2019, 2020, I think those are the dates, my grandmother passed away. So it was back to back. And so kind of you, in a way, I'm sure it was much different, but, uh, that same kind of depression kind of got to me too. And, and being in the house all day and like, it just was crazy. I would say like for other people to take away, and I'll probably talk more about my experiences later, but, um, God is good. Like every day I try to start off with like a devotional and starting off with like different things to help me seek my eyes towards God. And like what I've been praying recently is just for God to continue to be with me in this, in the, in the newness of everything. I'll talk about that later too, because there's a lot to talk about with that. But, um, just for God to continue to be with me, I know God is always with me, but like, just to ask again, just see what's up with God, I guess. And also just continuing to lean on God. I think a lot of people think that it has to be perfect, like a relationship with God has to be perfect, but there's no such thing as a perfect relationship with God. Like just for you to go to him, just talking to him, like how I'm talking to you, and just be like, Hey God, what's up? Um, today wasn't the best of days. God, I pray that you'll be able to give me a sound mind and just give me the things I need for tomorrow to make tomorrow be smoother. That's okay. And like, I feel like God hears all prayers and God sees your heart. And just to continue to go to God, even when things may not seem the way that you want them to be, especially as young adults, especially in this world. Like I think there's a whole bunch we could talk about for that, which we probably will talk about it in the next episode, but just like goodness gracious, like this world is crazy. The things that are going on politically, the things that are going on socially, uh, different people who are in power that people are supposed to trust things like that. Fire really like just burning, but it's not that bad, but it feels like crazy. Um, this world is crazy. And I feel like being young and in this world is crazy. You're, and you definitely need to have something protecting that armor of God, the word of God protecting you over you, you know? Cause I don't know, I don't know what life would be like without God. Like it would be crazy. I know it would be crazy. I don't even know. I always, I grew up in church, so I always kind of had an idea of who God was, but I think like in this last year, I've been building my relationship with God. There's a difference for you to grow up in church and to be like, okay, I know the story. I get it. And there's a different thing of putting your relationship with God. And I've been like through this past year. And I think even to the year to come, this is going to be like the closest I've been with God. And like, I truly feel like God knows my name. So I feel like that is where I'll leave off more, more to that in the next one. Definitely. Any final things you want to say first? I would say this was a good discussion. Definitely a nice way to kick off the first episode of your work. Yeah. I'm glad to be a part of this. Maybe other people can join, you know, if I get sick or I don't, you know, don't feel like it, or you can't. Other people can definitely join in. Like you don't have to just be God, it's like there can be other people here. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad to do this. Yeah. Same here. I'm glad there's something we decided to do. So to end out, you guys can follow us on Just.RenTalk on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, Spotify, all of those. That's probably where you can listen to this. You should see this on Friday, but give me till Monday. And it'll definitely be up by Monday. But we appreciate you guys for listening. Thank you for listening. And also you can DM us on any of those and we'll get back to you. And let us know if you want to be on a podcast.