Stay Tranquilo - Life After Tragedy: The Power of Faith, Resilience & Purpose | Jordan Almendral

Episode Date: October 28, 2026

What happens when life changes in an instant? How do you find the strength to keep moving forward when everything you once knew is taken away?On this episode of the Stay Tranquilo Podcast, we sit down with Jordan Almendral, a former Christopher Columbus High School baseball player whose life changed forever after a devastating car accident in 2010 left him with a traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury.After spending six weeks in a coma, Jordan faced a reality he could have never imagined. But rather than allowing his circumstances to define him, he made a decision that would shape the rest of his life: the accident had already taken enough from him, and he wasn't going to let it take anything else.From graduating from Florida International University with a degree in psychology to founding the Quad 13 Foundation, Jordan has dedicated his life to helping others overcome adversity and providing access to physical therapy for individuals living with spinal cord injuries.In this powerful conversation, we dive into:- Jordan's journey from high school baseball to a life-changing accident- The mental battles that come with overcoming adversity- Why perspective, gratitude, and resilience can change your life- The importance of faith and the meaning behind Philippians 4:13- How Jordan turned his personal struggles into purpose through the Quad 13 Foundation- The importance of making physical therapy accessible to those who need it most- Why even 1% of progress every day is worth celebratingJordan's story is a reminder that we cannot always control what happens to us, but we can control how we respond.No matter what challenges you're facing, there's always a reason to keep moving forward.Stay Tranquilo. Trust the process. Keep the faith.🏓 Support the Quad 13 Foundation: Learn more about Jordan's mission and the upcoming December 5th pickleball fundraiser.🎙️ Subscribe to the Stay Tranquilo Podcast for more conversations about life, mindset, personal growth, and finding purpose in the journey.0:00 The Power of Mindset2:44 The Grind of High School Sports7:36 Facing the Unthinkable12:51 Choosing Not to Give Up21:55 Turning Purpose into Action29:17 The Role of Faith in Healing#StayTranquilo #JordanAmendral #Quad13 #Resilience #Faith #Motivation #OvercomingAdversity #Mindset #Podcast #InspirationalStories Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We can accomplish anything on our life as long as we put our mind and our true power and energy into what we believe that we can do. And you are a testament to that. Yeah, a lot of people see the physical, the okay, he can't walk, he can't grab, he can't grip, he can't do this, can't do that. But it's, people don't think about the mental side of things. Right. Or people just giving up and unfortunately, I've seen it. Fortunately and unfortunate, because I've been able to, I try to. help people because the mental battle is the unseen and sometimes worse or stronger than the

physical battle. All right. Welcome back to another episode of Stay Tranquilo. Today we have a very, very special episode, a good friend and a gentleman that I've known now for a while. And it's been great to be able to reconnect. Jordan Almondraw today will be joining us on the show and really being able to share his story, right?

He has an amazing foundation. He's doing amazing work. here in the community, but Jordan, pleasure to have you here. I know long overdue for sure. Thank you for having me, Andre. Absolutely. Stay that stay tranquil, all of you guys. Thank you so much for having me on board.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I know we've been having this discussion for, you know, for a while. We run into each other at Columbus events, which is, you know, where we met. And we'll definitely jump into that. But it's great to see, obviously, everything that you've been doing. And you're really an inspiration to a lot of people, including myself. So I'm really excited about today.

and let's jump right into it, right? I graduated Columbus 2013. You graduated Columbus, 2011, right? Both played baseball at Columbus. And I vividly remember meeting you, right? You were, if you're 2011, I got in 2009, so you were probably like a junior at the time, right? Yeah.

And yeah, you were on varsity. I was just, you know, the freshman on the baseball field trying to make a name for myself. And we crossed past, you were a pitcher. I was a pitcher. And I was like, I don't know why, but I gravitated to you, right? Like, obviously there's a lot of guys out there that were very successful pitchers on that team. Obviously, Columbus has done a great job of building a program there.

But for whatever it was, I was like, I want to learn from this guy. Like, what did he do? How do I make it to varsity? And we did webball and summer ball. And we were there in the dugout. But talk to me about like that experience for you, what it meant to be a part of, one, you know, Columbus and everything that we've seen the growth there. But two, you know, being part of the baseball program there.

Well, like you said, it's a grind. You have to start from the bottom and work your way up. Freshman year. It starts before that. Even in middle school, you start going to web ball. And then you keep going at it. And freshman year, you look, if you make the freshman team. I remember my freshman year, there's so many kids we had two freshman teams.

We had the white team and the blue team. Then it went off to JV. We stuck with two teams, white and blue. Then if you made it to varsity, then there's just one varsity. Right. And then luckily, luckily, I was able to make it to varsity my junior year. And then my, I only played varsity in my junior year because my accident happened in the summer going into my senior year. So my last, even though my graduating class was 2011, my last year, actually.

Columbus was 2010. Yeah. And I definitely want to touch on, you know, the accident and everything that that occurred during that time. But you talk about like the hard work and like the discipline that went into, you know, being a baseball player there, right? Obviously, it's a competitive program. And for those that don't know, Columbus is a high school here in Miami, very big in sports.

Obviously, we've seen the growth of the sports like Fernando Mendoza and the Boozer brothers, right? And a lot of very successful athletes that come there. It's a testament to how. competitive is there, right? So for you being someone as a, you know, a junior being on the varsity team at baseball, like that's not a small task to achieve, right? Like that is, that is real, right?

You have to be very talented. You had to have worked hard. What did that hard work teach you in that era of your life? For me, it was more knowing my place because I knew, I mean, I'm 5, 7, 5, 5, 8, I'm going up against,

I know I'm not going to throw 90. Right. I think I topped out at 84 miles an hour. So I just had to accept my position, whether it was going to be coming out of the bullpen, a closer, a starter, but I knew I was going to have to wait my turn because I think of my graduating class of 2011, I think nine of the guys got D1 offers and played D1. And a majority of them being pitchers, maybe about five of them went pro to the majors,

if not the minors, we had even more. So I knew I had to accept my place and wait my turns for my senior year because we had one of the best pitching staffs my junior year in 2011, which I believe three or four of them ended up pitching at the University of Miami and some going pro. So it was just more accepting my place and learning from the guys ahead of me and just working my way up and learning from them. Yeah.

And I think that really puts things into perspective, right? It's like understanding where you're currently at and how can you maximize that opportunity to the fullest, right? It's like you said, a competitive, landscape, you got nine guys going D1. I think it was like a state championship team at one point as well. But understanding, like, you still have a role in that team. And I think that's the beauty of sports, right?

And like a team atmosphere specifically is everybody plays a role at one point in that season, per se. The year, my sophomore year, we made it to a state championship. And funny enough, we ended up losing the state. I was on JV at the time. but the varsity team made it to state championship and we ended up losing to Tampa Alonzo and the pitcher that pitching against us in the state championship

state championship game was Jose Fernandez. So it was like, all right. Yeah, I mean, hats off to him. Yeah. He was already good enough at that point. And then I don't know how many times we've gotten state runner up. We've won, I believe, two state championships.

Yeah. But before we got good, like you mentioned, with the Boozer twins in basketball, Mendoza, Josh Uche, C.J. Henderson, all these guys in the pro in the NFL. Baseball was our number of sport. We had John Jay. We have a number of people that played professional in the MLB.

So now it's flipped a little bit, but I think now we're a three-fair. They're still competitive. Yeah. It's tough. It's tough. Obviously, like, especially down here in South Florida, Baseball is as huge, as big as football is.

Really the one that's surprising is the basketball scene, how much like that's grown, right? Because South Florida was never really known as like the basketball town. It was always football and baseball. Yeah. You had like all the Latinos that come into Miami and they're very good ballplayers. And then just like South Florida has always been known to be arguably the best as far as talent for football, right?

And Columbus has been one of those people to like really lean into, obviously the academic side, but also the, the sports side as well. Definitely. Yeah. But I want to jump into, you know, now that transition from junior to senior year, right? When that accident happened, right? Obviously, it was a shock to you. It was a shock to your family. It was a shock to the school. I remember when it happened. Like, and being like, shook, obviously. But what was that moment? And obviously, it's created a new path for you, which I really want to lean into that more than anything, right? And faith and, you know, purpose that comes with it, right?

But it's a miracle that you're here today for sure. 100%. Um, I'm going on a lot of directions with this question. Um, well, from the, I don't remember anything from the actual accident itself. Because I was in a little background. If you don't know exactly what happened, I was a passenger in a, SUV, one of those SUVs that has two back rows, and then I

wasn't wearing my seatbelt, and the driver of our vehicle made a left-hand turn, we got hit, and I got ejected out the side window, and as soon as upon impact on the gravel, I was in a coma, I was in a coma for six weeks, and then

they did an operation called the craniotomy where they removed my bone flap to reduce the swelling and bleeding in my brain, and they froze that for six months where I was completely lost and didn't recognize anybody or anything until they put it back six months later which ended up being January 2011 my accident was July 10th of 2010 and then once they put the boneflap back in and then I remember I started remembering things and remembering people like I was they said okay Jordan's back but um no I couldn't do without my support group and

family friends Columbus played a big role as well helping my family get through. And even though I wasn't playing baseball, I still made the varsity team my senior year. I went to opening game and they gave me my jerseys, my home jersey, my way jersey, and the team came out and gave me a hug. And it was a very special moment.

But just have to accept your new reality and adapt to your new life, which isn't always easy, but it's possible. and it all depends on how you look, your outlook on life. Of course, yeah. And it's, you talk about like support system, right? Obviously how great Columbus was, how great your teammates were, the people around you.

That obviously plays a big role. But no one really obviously knows like what you deal with internally, right, during that moment. And I'm sure even, you know, today, right? But you talk about perspective and how you have to make that conscious choice like, this is my scenario, right? Very similar to how we started the show, right, about how you're saying, hey, I'm 5-7, I throw 82 miles an hour, everybody else throws 97, but like this is my situation. And I'm going to find the way to make the best of it and provide the most value possible given the circumstances, right? Obviously, very different situation considering, you know, what happened to you. But it's always about trying to find the positives in really dark moments, right? And I think someone like yourself provides, you know, an opportunity for people to really understand what perspective is, right? I think a lot of us get trapped in these thoughts and, you know,

kind of like victim mentality, right? When reality is like our health is so important. Like we should be grateful for our health every single day, right? And we should be grateful that we have a roof over our head and that we have food in front of us, right? Like those are the things that are really, really important in life, right? Everything else will take its shape and it take its form. but what really is the importance of your health?

What really is the importance of having your family and your friends around you and everything that makes you be able to live today, right? Like that is ultimately what life is all about. And you are a true testament to that, right? Saying, hey, this is my situation. While it is unfortunate and that is the truth, I am going to make the most out of this.

And I am going to be a leader. I am going to be an advocate and a voice for people to see me and look at me as inspiration. But for you, right, you talk about that perspective. Talk to me about how you were able to build that strength and really shift that perspective. Because it's not easy, like you said. No, it's definitely not easy.

But it's like I tell people, everybody has a good day and their bad days. So more than others, but we need to make sure that our good days outnumber our bad days because we're human. It's impossible. live on a honeymoon every day. Exactly.

Yeah. And always have a great day. Things happen in life, whether we expect them to happen or not. You're driving down the street. It's somebody hits you. That's out of your control. Yeah. But we need to make the most and do our part in what's in our control, what we can control.

And what's in our power, we need to make the best of that. So going back to, so after I ended up getting homeschooled in 20, 2011, graduated from a whole school. Thankfully, I still got my diploma from Columbus and graduated high school 2012. And then I had the mindset where I was thinking the accident already took enough from me. I'm not going to let it take anything else. So as soon as I finished homeschool, I applied at FIU. I got in and I started college right away.

So I started at FIU in 2012. And I ended up graduating with my bachelor's in psychology in 2018. Wow. And like I said, I was like, it's already taking enough for me. I'm not going to let it take anything else. Yeah. I started doing physical therapy from even when I was in a coma. They tell me that the doctors and nurses were doing therapy on me.

And then as soon as I woke up from the coma, I flew out to the Shepard Center in Atlanta, Georgia, started doing therapy there. And I'm still doing therapy. I just never stopped. Right. And it's pretty incredible that, you know, that accident happened. And then you're saying, I'm going to university, right? Like, I'm going to get my bachelor's degree.

I'm going to continue on with my life, right? Like, I'm not going to allow this to stop me and say, you know, like, this is my life. I'm not going to do anything. You did the complete opposite of that. No, because I've, you learned throughout the journey. Like, I still take STS with special transportation services, which, you meet all kinds of people in there and all kinds of different situations

and it's like this person is a worst situation this person wishes that they were my situation as bad as I think my I'm in my conditions they pray and wish that they be my situation they're mute they can't talk they can't think they can't rationalize

I can so it's like I'm blessed to be in my condition in my situation so I pray and I think Thank God that my situation is not worse. I suffered a traumatic brain injury and a spinal cord injury, which is rare. And thankfully, I'm healed from my brain injury because I've met people in worse conditions. I just suffered a brain injury.

Right. And not a spinal cord injury. But here I am. Yeah. And, right, you talked about that perception, right, in perspective. And here you are kind of like in the same room with people and seeing them deal with their situation. like you said, like they wish that they were in your shoes, right? And I'm sure that is a moment for you that that allows you to realize like,

okay, I could do something with this because of the fact that, you know, I still have the ability to think, right, and to speak and to do the things that ultimately a lot of other people in your situation wouldn't be able to do, right? And that's powerful, right? And I've seen you now for the last couple of years and I've seen how. you've really leaned into that, right? And you're leaning into understanding that you do have a power, right? And you do have so much ability to impact people.

And I think that's the beauty of, you know, life, right? When you get knocked down, it's how do you get backed up? How do you get back up, right? And I think it's what's Floyd saying that he says, like, what's the saying that Floyd says? It's not about how many times you get knocked out. Right. It's how many times you get back up. Exactly.

Yeah. Right. and I think there's a lot of truth to that. Yeah, no, definitely. It's, we're all going to get knocked down in some point. Sometimes we'll get, some people get hit harder than others. But it's not only how you get back up, but with what mentality you get back up

and what are you going to do about it? It's like, okay, you get hit in the face. What are you going to do? Get back up and walk away or get back up and hit the person, the situation. Right. Whatever it is, doesn't have to be a person that hits you. It can be a circumstance or a situation,

something that just hits you harder than a physical. Right. physical blow can affect you. Yeah, definitely. And that's where that mind really takes over, right? Yeah. Hey, guys, thanks for tuning in, and I hope you're enjoying this episode. But before we get back into it, let me tell you how a good night with my family starts.

Nobody in my family has ever sent a calendar invite, not once. It always starts with, I'm just swinging by for five minutes. And somehow it's 1 a.m., the dominoes are out. Diti's pulling out the family stories from back in the day, the one that nobody's supposed to repeat. And no matter whose house it is, there's always ice cold Coca-Cola. You open the fridge, it's there, you walk in the door, and somebody's already handing you one. That's the whole Tranquilo philosophy. No agenda, just tu hente, the same old jokes, and someone talking trash over the domino table,

and five minutes turning into five hours. So next time you're just stopping by, do it right. Bring the coax. Stay tranquil. because when stopping by for a moment becomes the moment, Sienle Coca-Cola. I'm watching dances with the stars right now, right?

And I don't know if you've seen it, but there's a gentleman there that he's, I guess he was born, I believe he was born like this, right? Where he's kind of got, he has an arm, but he doesn't have like a hand. It's like kind of like a couple fingers or something like that. And then he's completely missing, I believe, is right leg.

And he's crushing it on dancing with the stars. Like the way that he moves is, is honestly astonishing and incredible, right? And I bring that up because, you know, again, someone like him could be like, you know, this is my life. I can't do anything, right? You know, I'm missing an arm. I'm missing a leg.

Like, that's it. I can't do anything. And when you see people like that and people like yourself, and they say, no, it's a complete opposite, right? Because you reshift the way you think. He was like, I could do anything, right? And that, to me, is more powerful than any of us, right? Is the fact that, like, everything's fine, right?

Yet I'm telling myself, I can't do things. That's us tricking ourselves to say that we can't do anything. We can accomplish anything on our life as long as we put our mind and our true power and energy into what we believe that we can do. And you are a testament to that. Yeah, a lot of people see the physical, okay, he can't walk, he can't, He can't grip. He can't do this, can't do that. But it's, people don't think about the, the mental side of things. Right.

Or people just giving up and unfortunately, I've seen it. Fortunately and unfortunate, because I've been able, I try to help people. Because the mental battle is the unseen and sometimes worse or stronger than the physical battle. Very true. But I've been lucky enough that I've gone to different therapy facilities and met people that have been freshly injured and get to, Talk to them about it, how to handle the situation, how to best go about it, different adaptations to the house that will help them make things easier, what makes life easier. That's awesome.

And just try to help whoever I can in whatever situation and whatever way I can. Yeah. And it's that support system, right? That's huge, right? And when you can find the commonality with people that have also dealt with something, you know, very similar situations, right? you've got a lost your job, right? You break up with your significant other. You're going through financial hard times, right?

The way that you get through those moments is connecting with people that are also been in very similar situations and realizing that you're not alone in that struggle, right, and in that process. Absolutely. And that's one of the biggest things. It's like, when with a spinal cord injury, it's like, okay, why did this happen to me? Like, I had never heard of a spinal cord injury before I got injured. Like, you're a quadriplegia. I'm like, what?

And then I was like, okay, then I started researching, found out what it is. I've never heard about this. I've never heard of this before. When I saw people in wheelchairs, I was like, they're either sports injury or they're old and they can't walk. And then it happens to you and you see now I see quadriplegic everywhere. I see people in which I'm like, oh, now it makes sense. And then at some of my therapy facilities where they'll have gatherings, meetups at a shake-a-leg, which is a facility out in Coconut Grove across from Monti's.

they do events all the time. One of my therapy facilities, it's called I Amable. They'll have gatherings as well. And it helps people meet others and get together and see, okay, I'm not in this alone. And we gather,

we talk. And it's like a support group. Yeah, exactly. Which is important. And I want to talk now about, you know, what you're doing today, right? Obviously, you've had your journey.

You've had your path. and it's built the man that you are today. Talk to me about the work that you're doing. You have a foundation, right? But what you feel like you're called to do today? Like I said earlier, I graduated in 2018 with my bachelor's in psychology. And originally I wanted to go into sports psychology.

I was an athlete. I was, okay, I can't play anymore. But I can still play. I can stay in the game and play a different role, even though I can't physically play. I can still stay in the game. But then I looked into it. It's a small niche.

very smart, very hard to get into. Only professional teams. I have a sports psychologist. I was like, eh, maybe this isn't for me. So I was like, let me stay in the psych realm. And I like talking to people. I like helping people. And why not go in to help other people with physical disabilities,

specifically other quadriplegics? And then back when I first got injured in 2010, my insurance was covering 50 visits a year. Now they're covering five. So, and therapy's not cheap. you're probably looking at around average about $150 to $200 an hour

and therapy is not something that should be divided by economic status can be okay Bill Gates's kids God forbid get injured and they can go to therapy but somebody that's low income can't get therapy so I started a foundation in the fall of 2024

to help people that can't afford therapy exhausted their insurance have exhausted grants to help them or give them grants so that they can get physical therapy. And as of today, we've helped six, I believe six, maybe seven people get physical therapy. And it's been a blessing connecting with them, talking to them, helping them, seeing them improve and get the therapy that they've always wanted and haven't been able to get. Oh, that's incredible. Right. And it's the fact that you realize, like, you know,

some of the struggles that you were dealing with as far as care, right? And saying, like, this isn't fair, right? And you said, I'm going to create a solution for that, right? And using the foundation as a funnel to help other people. What have you seen, you know, the impact be in that work? Yeah, going back, because that was me in 2011. My mom stopped working the day of my accident. So we were using this.

the insurance and whatever money we had. And then back in 2011, I believe it was, the mothers of some of my friends from when we were little, put together a domino tournament. We raised a lot of money and that covered physical therapy for about two years for me. Wow. So come 2024, I was like, right, that's what I'm going to do, a domino tournament as a first fundraiser.

So we did a domino tournament, raised a lot of money. We were able to cover grants for three or four people. Incredible. And last year we did a pickleball tournament to help raise more money for the foundation And then this year, December 5th, we're going to do another pickleball tournament Since everybody's playing pickleball now

And it's the hottest sport going on I was like, let's jump on the bandwagon And what was the question you asked? Sorry. No, just the impact, but that is the impact right there, right? Like being able to put together events that you're able to raise money and then able to give grants to people that need care

Not able to connect with different people that I would have never met Or come across in my life It wasn't for that True Have people from West Palm You know from Broward reaching out Look They fill out the application

They get it and Different kind of injuries It's the number one cause of spinal cord injury Is motor vehicle accidents Number two is falls Number three is acts of violence Like gunshots, stabbing Then come sports injuries

And but the majority is motor vehicle accidents whether cars, motorcycles, and then falls is mostly elders, older people falling downstairs, falling at home and things like that. And then gunshots and you get shot in the back or stabbing. Those are the most common. But an injury is an injury and no two injuries are exactly the same. Absolutely. Even if they're labeled the same, I've met people of the same C4, C5 injury,

but we just function completely different. Yeah. It's incredible the way the body works. It is. It is incredible. And I mean, I think the biggest takeaway, you know, in all of this is really the willpower and the strength of the mind that, you know, that you have and that you're able to share with so many people. To me, that is just, it's special. It really is.

And I think there's a lot of people that could take a lot of value out of, what you've been able to accomplish, right, with given the circumstances of what happened. But I think it's a testament to you and just the people around you and everybody that really makes this all work, right? And the sky's the limit, right? Like, there's just, I'm sure there's so much more

that you want to do, right? You talk about the pickleball tournaments and you talk about the impact of the people that you've already made. But now you're ambitious, right? So it's like, how do you make it bigger and better? You always want to go bigger and get better. but the same time you need to slow down, humble yourself,

look at what you've accomplished, and slow to do it gradually. It's like one step at a time, it will get there. And also I've leaned on my faith a lot. That's how I came up with the name for the foundation, Quad 13. I was like, it took me about a week to come up with a name, different people. I'm like, what do you think? What do you think?

What do I do? How do I make it different? Because I wasn't just going to do Jordan Foundation. I didn't want to make it about me because it's not about me. and then somebody read my bio on Instagram. I have Philippians 413 because that's a verse that I leaned on after my injury and it helped me get by.

Like, why don't you try to do something with that? And then my mom mentioned something. I was like, oh, let me see. And then I was like, hey, 4, quad, quadriplegic. I'm like, what about quad 13? I like that. Quad is four is quad also. Philippians 413.

I was like, let's run with that. So that's where the name of the foundation comes from. That's incredible. I love that. Philippians 413, it turned the 4 into quad. And since the foundation is for quadriplegic to get physical therapy. Man. So it worked perfect.

And then the good thing is people always ask, where did the name come from? So it helps me share with them where the name come from, lean on my faith, and share the experience with them and touch into the healing process and what it took and what helped me get. by. Yeah. Yeah. Now, faith, trust me, faith is everything. And you obviously hear about it growing up and, you know, pray and pray. And obviously there's, you know, significant to it and growing up in a house of faith. But it's really in those moments where you really truly understand what it means to like lean on on your faith, right? And obviously it can come in the form of a verse, but it comes in the form of prayer, reflection. And I remember, you know, through some of the challenges that I've dealt with in my life, Jeremiah 29-11, for me, was a passage. And it's for God has a plan for you, a plan to prosper you, and not to harm you, a plan for hope in a future, right? And it's that sense of, you need something to lean on in those moments.

Yeah, it's like, I tell people, like, don't wait for a tragedy to happen in your life, to start calling on God and leaning on God. Start now or whatever it's right for you. And so that he's there watching over, you, protecting you. Yeah. Not that nothing's going to happen to you. Of course.

If you're a Catholic Christian or a believer, things happen to anybody. But it helps to have God on your side before and believing and having faith and having somebody watch over you. Don't wait for a tragedy to happen to then start. Exactly. Not that it's too late. It's never too late. Never.

But it always helps to have the man upstairs by your side. Amen to that. Before and after. Amen to that. And he always is with you. That's the reality of the truth. but to your point, like it shouldn't come, you know, don't, don't lean on your faith or don't pray just when things are bad.

Exactly. Every morning and every night, I wake up and I say, thank you for a roof over my head. Thank you for the food that I get to eat. Thank you for AC, right. Thank you for clean water that I get to, like, you know, thank you for being able to get up and stand up today. Like, a car to drive to work. There's a million things that we could be grateful for every single day, yet we just

choose not to, right? But then it's in the moment of like, oh, man, I really need this to happen. Like, I'm going to pray. Like, that's not how it works. It's unfortunate, but it's, sometimes it only comes out of desperation. Yeah. Or when we need something, but it's like you hear it sometimes. It's like, don't only pray when you need something, but you can also pray and thank God for what you do have.

Absolutely. Absolutely. What, before we kind of wrap up here, I want to ask you one last question. And, you know, we talk about legacy is like a term that gets thrown around. But, you know, deeper than legacy, what's one thing today that you're really proud of? Never had that question asked. I'd say the two biggest things when I graduated, FIU, was the biggest thing, my biggest accomplishment to date.

And then now starting my foundation back in 2024, for it's given me a purpose. It's always like, okay, what's my purpose in life? What am I doing? What am I not doing? Like, why am I here? I'm just, same thing, flipping pages, the same page every day. But when I started a foundation,

gave me a purpose and something to do, something to look forward to helping others, which has always been, I feel like a calling to me. And so those are my two graduating from FIU in 2018 and starting the foundation, helping others in 2024. Love it. I've been my two biggest,

accomplishments to date and what I'm most proud of. I love it. It's plenty. Plenty to be proud of. Absolutely. And what's one piece of advice that you would leave to anybody,

you know, maybe dealing with a tough challenge right now? I like to tell people to try to be as positive and optimistic. It's hard because when you're in the when you're in a hole, the last thing you're going to do is think positive or be optimistic. But there's always light at the end of the tunnel. And you're going to struggle, but it takes time.

One step at a time, don't look so deep. Don't look at the end of the tunnel, but look at the journey that it takes to get there. Because it's going to take one step at a time and still progress. 1% each day is still progress. So just little by little, don't beat yourself up. Don't think you're not accomplishing anything. What you did was, is okay, if I moved my pinky, a centimeter,

I moved it a little bit. Okay, that was huge. A little, by little, in five years, I might be moving the whole finger, the whole hand. So just take each accomplishment as it comes as big as it is or as that's smart. I love that. I love that. And you got the event coming up now December 5th, right? December 5th at Fair and Expo.

Love it. Pickleball courts. All right. Well, there you go. If you want to get involved, you know, obviously quad 13, got the pickleball tournament coming up. We will definitely be there and support. And I'm really excited for the work that you're doing.

Congrats to you, one. And again, just thank you for being an inspiration to so many people. And again, being here to take the time and do this. Thank you guys for having me. Absolutely. Absolutely. But guys, thank you so much for tuning into this. I hope you enjoyed it.

Please support Jordan. Please support the foundation. And any reason to want to reach out to Jordan. Please reach out to him. We'll have his handles and everything connected. And, yeah, excited for what's to come for you, man. Thank you, Andre. Absolutely.

Been a pleasure. Absolutely. Thank you, guys.