Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Mike Shoreman: Toronto Mike'd #1200

Episode Date: February 8, 2023

In this 1200th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Mike Shoreman about his Ramsay Hunt syndrome diagnosis, his subsequent mental health crisis, and how he got his mojo back and became the first person to paddle board across all five great lakes in a single summer. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

Welcome to episode 1200 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Electronic Products Recycling Association. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past.

Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. And Canna Cabana, the lowest prices on cannabis. Guaranteed. Learn more at cannacabana.com. Joining me today, making his Toronto Mike debut,

the first person with physical disabilities to paddleboard across all five Great Lakes. It's Mike Shorman. Welcome, Mike. Nice to be here with you. How was that intro? Did I nail that? You're the first person with physical disabilities to paddleboard across all five Great Lakes.

I am. Well, I'm the first person to paddleboard across all the Great Lakes in one summer. And that's like just first human to do that. Yeah. Have non-humans ever paddleboarded across there? I'm sure many have. I'm sure there's like, I don't know,

like a minx or like some kind of a beaver has done that maybe here. But nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. And I'm going to ask you some silly questions off the top about your name, because I find it interesting that a gentleman who paddleboards across lakes, and we'll get into how you are differently abled and how you can paddle board across all five great lakes but it's interesting to me that your name is shorman

like is that real or is that like a stage name oh yeah well no that's that's the real name my uh my dad says that i owe him royalties but mike shorman like if i were gonna like invent a character that's gonna paddleboard across the great lakes i would probably name that cat character uh mike shorman yeah no i it's it's um it's it's just funny how how everything has worked out with with that name and um no it's pretty cool i was at great lakes Lakes Brewery. I don't know. We're going back about a month, but I was there to pick up some fresh craft beer. I make a bike ride there periodically and I fill up my trailer with fresh craft beer and I'm there and I'm talking to Troy at Great Lakes and he says, right now, upstairs is

a gentleman named Mike Shorman who is inspiring the heck out of all the Great Lakes people. So we were in the same building at the same time, but you were very busy inspiring people. But that was the moment I realized, I need Mike Shorman on Toronto Mike. So that's the origin story.

Yeah. No, I, you know, this summer, we crossed all the Great Lakes. Um, I did it as a mental health awareness and fundraising campaign, uh, for national, uh, mental health charity that helps support, uh, kids and youth across Canada. And with the name White Shoremen, I'm really glad that I made it short because, you know, it's a lot to live up to. Well, we're going to get into it. This is just like the teaser, but how did you get hooked up with the good people at Great Lakes?

Yeah, so I contacted Great Lakes Brewery to see if there was a potential collaboration with my Great Lakes Crossings last year. Great Lakes Brewery, Great great lakes crossings makes all the sense in the world yeah no and they were they were so welcoming and and excited about it and and they said yeah we want to create a beer for this and and we'll put a dollar from every can towards what you're what you're doing go directly to the charity right and um and more so than the actual funds that were raised with it was the awareness of it um and you know people

were going like my my dad was being contacted saying oh i got your son's beer amazing yeah it was really really cool let's uh let's thank the good people at Great Lakes for stepping up like that. Because you're right, if you're going to paddleboard across all five Great Lakes, and, you know, Great Lakes Brewery is the ideal partner to have there. They are amazing, amazing people. So, I mean, they probably hooked you up, but I'm going to give you some fresh cans of Great Lakes to take home with you here today. So, thank you, Great Lakes.

Thank you. And Mike, while I'm giving you gifts here, before we dive into your story, do you enjoy Italian food? Oh, yeah. That's a silly question, right? So you're getting a frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta to take home with you as well.

So it was worth the trek. Thank you. I love coming here. Hey, listen, I'm not even done yet. I might as well do So it was worth the trek. Thank you. I love coming here. You tell Wally, hey, listen, I'm not even done yet. I might as well do a three for one here. That's a flashlight. So if you pull out that,

yeah, there's a piece of white plastic at the bottom you got to pull out so the battery works. But yeah, that is a flashlight. So I don't know if you're doing late night paddle boarding and you need to see where you're going. You got yourself a Ridley Funeral Home flashlight. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home and they want you to to stay safe and i don't know if you ever have to measure your paddle board or see how far away you are from shore man see what i did there this is a measuring tape from ridley funeral home so you got your beer you got your pasta

and you got your uh your goods from ridley and now you're ready to uh rock and roll here awesome so firstly though a couple of quick quick little notes here before we get into your story uh one your goods from Ridley and now you're ready to rock and roll here. Awesome. So firstly, though, a couple of quick, quick little notes here before we get into your story. One is that my wife went grocery shopping yesterday with my youngest daughter and she saw behind her in line. She said, oh, Mike, I met one of your friends was in line and we chatted up and my daughter got to meet this person's dog. And there was like a great experience betweenatted up and my daughter got to meet this person's dog and there was like a

great experience between my my wife and my youngest daughter and this person this friend of mine i just want to shout her out is fotm biff naked so canada's rock goddess was behind my wife in line yesterday and biff's been over here a few times but my wife had never met biff and biff was a sweetheart as always so shout out to Biff Naked. You a Biff Naked fan? When you're training for these paddle boards, you ever put on some Biff Naked? So I followed Biff on Twitter this summer, and she gave me a follow back. Nice.

And no, she's a big mental health champion and supporter of Canadians's mental health. And she was following along and liking posts and what I was up to. It was encouraging. It was really nice. Well, from where she lives in Mimico, she can see one of the Great Lakes. So we're only steps away from one of the Great Lakes. But we'll get to the story.

I just want to speak at a Ridley funeral home. I want to pay my respect and offer my condolences to those who knew and offer my condolences to those who knew and loved uh mendelssohn joe mendelssohn joe and i don't know i think i got a few years on you mike but uh he was like this character like uh this artist this kind of kind of punk but he wasn't a punk artist and he was like a musician and you'd see him on much music anyway i always thought who's this mendelssohn Joe? When I started Toronto Mic, I always envisioned myself sitting down with Mendelssohn Joe. But sadly, he had Parkinson's and he basically planned his exit

using the assisted suicide law that we now have in this country. And Mendelssohn Joe left the planet yesterday. Anyway, I just wanted to pay my respect to Mendelsohn Joe. I'll do more in the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial episode at the end of the month, but there's a character who's no longer with us, and he was kind of an interesting Toronto guy, Mendelsohn Joe. And here we go, Mike. My big question before we dive into what you did and why and everything, my big question is, how come you're Mike Shorman and not Michael Shorman? How did and why and everything. My big question is, how come you're Mike Shorman and not Michael Shorman?

How did that process and that decision take hold? So, yeah, I think I started, you know, people at school kind of decided for me that I was going to become Mike. And then, you know, you start writing it on your assignments and your tests. And before you know it, you're just going by my Mike. So from like grade seven on, I was Mike unless, you know, I'm getting in trouble with my mom.

Because your teachers would be reading the class list, right? Which would have your name as Michael. Like I live this. You're talking to a Mike. So it always was written out as michael so teachers would say michael and if you were shyer i was pretty shy like i didn't want to tell a teacher no it's mike okay so it was like i went by whatever the teacher called me but at some point you realize you have some like control over this and you have some power here and at some point i remember thinking i don't feel like a michael i

feel like a mic i identify as a mic and i just sort of like that's it so you sounds like your friends made the decision for you yeah i feel like they just made the decision i just kind of went along with it um i think my dad was easy you know my my mom really likes the name michael so so even now like she she tries to throw that in there sometimes, but no, we're sticking with Mike. You're sticking with Mike. Yeah. And now that you're, you know,

let's face it, now that you're a famous guy, you're branded as Mike. You can't change it now. I can't change it. There's no going back now. You got that SEO now in Mike Shorman. Okay.

So let's talk about, I want to talk about Ramsey-Hunt syndrome. So please educate us. What exactly about Ramsey-Hunt syndrome. So please educate us. What exactly is Ramsey-Hunt syndrome? And when did you realize you were afflicted with this condition? So Ramsey-Hunt syndrome is a reactivation of the chickenpox virus. It is specifically a shingles outbreak that attacks either the eye or the ear, and it's very centralized, and it can be mild to severe.

So, like, Olivia Chow had a mild case of Ramsey-Hunt syndrome. She announced it when she had it because she had facial palsy as a symptom with it. Right. And she knew that there would be questions. So she came out and she was very honest about it. So it can be a mild condition or it can present many, many severe elements to it that are disabilities. So, you know, it could include facial palsy.

It could include vision impairments, speech impairments, hearing impairments, mobility issues. And, yeah, everybody, every case is different. It's very rare. And I was hit. It attacked me and it hit my ear in November 2018. So you realized, am I right, that one day you just realized you were having trouble hearing? Like what was your sign something was wrong?

So for me, it started with a headache and that headache progressed throughout that day. And it just got more painful and painful and painful. right then from there um it went into uh you know the next day i was driving and all the lines on the road started you know they weren't straight anymore oh is that like a form of like vertigo yeah oh my god yeah so vertigo was setting in at that point and then the next thing to go in my case was, was a hearing. Um, and you know, I was vomiting and it was just, it was, it was. Did you think you were having a stroke? No, I knew something was happening. I just didn't know what.

And I started, you know, we went to a, I went to a walk-in and then, and then I went to three hospitals over, over the course of a week. And unfortunately, you can establish what this is with blood work and a CT scan. Unfortunately, what I dealt with was medical anchoring bias. So they're looking at your chart and the previous person says, oh, I think it's this. So then the next doctor sees that and they're looking at it. And then they go down a different route than what it actually is.

So how long did it take to get your diagnosis that you had Ramsey-Hunt syndrome? So it took about six days. And all that time you've got that the vertigo and the headache and the the hearing issue and everything right yeah and on the sixth day i you know i i i was at my parents house at that point i come downstairs and and i'm staggering like a like i've had a night out in college and i'm you know weaving and my my mother pulled me in front of a window

that goes from the floor to the ceiling. And she said, I don't want to freak you out, but take a look at this. And she showed that my face had dropped, like all the nerves on the right side of my face. Just like sort of like a Bell's palsy or whatever, where you see one side of the face falls, essentially. Yeah.

So she said, OK, get your stuff. We're going to go to the hospital. Yeah, falls, essentially. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I just said, okay, get your stuff. We're going to go to the hospital. Yeah, time to figure this out. So they finally did blood work, and they came back, and they sent me for a CT scan, and they came back, and they said, okay, so it's come back as this, Ramsey-Hentz syndrome. And, you know, unfortunately, there is a 72-hour window for treatment,

and you've missed it. So we're going to put you on the steroids, and we're going to proceed as best as we can from here. And we're going to send you for an MRI to rule out brain damage. It was very scary. I can imagine. It sounds frightening to even hear you talk about it. Because, you know, let's talk about you before the diagnosis.

It's not like you just sort of picked up paddle boarding one day because you were diagnosed with Ramsey-Hunt syndrome, right? You were a paddle boarder. Yeah. Tell me Mike Shorman's paddleboarding life pre-diagnosis uh so i started i i started just um for fun um i like where i took my first lesson at cherry beach okay and and i did it on a date and and it was one of my favorite dates that I've ever been on.

It was amazing. And the thing that I love most about it, I think, is the falling bit, the wiping out, and then the climbing back on. It's just fun. Okay, it sounds fun. I've never done it.

I want to do it. We'll have to go out next summer. The Cherry Beach Express. I'm not a great... I mean, it's a wonderful song, but a very serious, unfortunate part of Toronto's history. But shout out to the Puckett Orchestra anyway. But Cherry Beach, you just took to it like, dare I say, a duct of water.

Yeah. So I did a lesson, and then I started doing rentals that summer. And then me and my partner, every time we got a board, and then that turned into three boards. And then there's all these boards. And I'm like, what am I going to do? I want to do this professionally. So I went to Chelsea, Quebec, and I got certified with Paddle Canada,

which is the gold standard of instructing and uh and when about should we talking just so i have it's like a time frame here like is this uh when is this this oh you don't give me a specific 2014 okay 20 okay so about four years before diagnosis and um so i went through uh the program with them and became certified. I became an advanced flat water, some not oceans, but lakes and rivers. And then I just built up this business in Durham region and the GTA of lessons

and rentals. Well, if a namely shoreman, you had to do something with the water like this was in your DNA. Well, if a name like Shorman, you had to do something with the water. Like this was in your DNA. Yeah. No. I was actually just going through some pictures with my dad the other day of me and my siblings, our childhood.

And my dad pulled out these pictures of me on a surfboard. And I was like, I didn't know about this. And he said, no, it started very young. No, it's no joke. I know i'm joking about the name shorman but like if your last name is baker like i think you will have this like you'll feel drawn to be a baker like i just think this would be something even if it's not so conscious even subconscious but you'll want to live up to your name if you have like if your

last i don't know but if your last name is candle maker you might want to actually like do go on youtube and see how do i make candles here like it might be you might as a shoreman maybe it's your dad doing this he might have felt like water activities with a name like shoreman like this could be something what about your last name well it doesn't mind i think my last name means a gift from god so that's all we need to say about that that's why i'm here here today to help you inspire the FOTMs. Okay. So you are a paddleboarder, but now, because I've never paddleboarded,

so I don't understand like how long you'd go. Is it like, did you, what was like a long paddleboarding for you before you were decided to tackle all of our great lakes? So my big program that I would do would be the sunset lesson in front of the Toronto skyline. So people would show up at six and we would finish at nine.

I would do a beginner intro on land and then we would go out and I would teach for the first 45 minutes, let everybody get their bearings out there and figure out what they're doing. And then we'd go into the Toronto Harbor. Yeah. And what they would do is they would bring their dinner with them and I would provide dry bags and they would bring like a picnic and we would paddle over towards Island from Cherry Beach.

Stop. Everybody would have a picnic and then we'd get back on the water and go out towards um CN Tower at the skyline sure and at sunset then I'd pull out I I was doubling as as the photog and I'd get these amazing photos of people paddling at sunset and then I love it and then I'd send it to them honestly Mike this is, this is right up my alley. Like, this sounds amazing. You know, that cherry beach to the island and then seeing the skyline at sunset. Sounds amazing. It was a perfect date night.

Amazing. Okay. But, you know, that sounds like it's nothing close to going across the Great Lake, but we'll get to that. So tell me about the day. There is a day when you go to visit, like, an ENT specialist. Yeah. And tell me about the news that was delivered to you. This is about six months after you were diagnosed with Ramsey-Hunt syndrome. What news was delivered

to you and how did you react? Yeah. So at that point I was, um, you know, I was, I was really struggling with my mental health and I was really struggling. I was, I, I lost, I essentially lost my mobility. I went from being very athletic to not being able to walk from, you know, from, from the living room to the kitchen. My parents were taking care of me and I would stay at my mom's for a week and then I'd go stay at my dad's for a week so that, you know, they could kind of balance work, work, social life, and then taking care of me on top of that. So I was dealing with the loss of my business, loss of income, loss of social life.

Everything that I knew was just gone. And, and, and my life was really learning how to, learning how to walk and figure all that out. And then in April, we went to an appointment at the ENT. And that was a really hard conversation. I was told that my paddle boarding was done. I was told that my paddle boarding was done. Being on water with vertigo and with what I'm dealing with isn't a reality. Driving is out of the question. And even long road trips and flying.

Flying would be really challenging. And, um, and, you know, my dad was in, in that room with me that day and it was hard for him to hear. Um, but, um, but no, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was a hard pill to swallow. You know, I can only imagine, but it sounds like being told, you are a paddleboarder, you built a life around this paddleboarding. That was a hell of a date you had at Cherry Beach there. Then you're told, essentially, your paddleboarding days are over. And this sounds almost like a straw breaking a camel's back. It sounds like you were spiraling regardless,

but hearing that news from an ENT specialist pushes pushes you to the brink yeah no so there were two back-to-back appointments there was that one and simultaneously you know I was going through all these appointments with physiotherapy and and whatnot but I was also um looking for um I'd found a facial nerve transplant specialist at Western University, and I was distraught with my face being sunken in and with all the nerves shot. know i was going through these appointments and i'd go you know every four or six weeks and and they'd look at it and they came back you know a you know a day later and and they said you know we're not going to do this this surgery for for up to two years like we want to see what naturally comes back on its own and and to hear that um with how i looked and how everything was, was incredibly hard. And it just felt like the knocks just kept on coming. Is it the devil's advocate when Pacino says,

vanity, my favorite sin, right? Because I mean, you're a handsome guy. I'm looking right at you, a handsome guy. And you're dealing with a lot, actually. Everything's crumbling around you. And one more thing, I suppose, is that, hey, I want to be handsome Mike Shorman again. And I don't love how I look with this condition. I think it was more of, you know, looking at yourself in the mirror.

And with everything that's internally going on, I didn't recognize myself. So do not recognize your own reflection when you're looking at you like, who is this? Um, and wanting to fix that desperately. Um, so it was more, more along the lines of that.

So, uh, I mean, I was just, uh, reading up on your story, which is tremendous, but it sounds like you ended up in a mental health treatment facility. um and i had a i had a breakdown you know days later um you know for months i'd been feeling

very isolated and alone and you know i'd be at home and and people would call in to check up on me my mom would call me from work and say how are you doing right and and and i'd say i'm okay i'm fine i'm doing you know i'm watching tv i'm doing this and, and I'd say, I'm okay. I'm fine. I'm doing, you know, I'm watching TV. I'm doing this. And, um, and I wasn't fine, but I was just saying, I was just saying that I was fine and that I was okay. And then, and then it got to the point where I just wasn't anymore. And it's like, I just snapped.

Um, and, and, you know, we had a big, a big meeting in my family and and it was you know out of love at at the time it was very hard um but but they were given you know i was given an ultimatum and they said you know we we want what's best for you and we want you to go in and, and do this program and figure out, um, you know, you, you can't continue living like this. Um, and, um, and, you know, we, we want you to be here. And, and I was at the point where I didn't want to be here anymore. Wow. Okay. Well, I'm glad you got mental health treatment and I'm glad we live somewhere where it's available to you readily uh that's that's awesome and this this sounds like an intervention actually when you

describe it like it's uh out of love for you and uh you went and got treatment and now in the story so here we have I love how we're building the story because you're at rock bottom now okay this is Mike Shorman he's never going to paddleboard again. What, they want to wait a couple of years before that procedure that you were describing there. But here you are. So how the heck do you go from that? And what, we're only in 2019, right? Like 2019, I feel like that was last year.

I know it's not, but 2019, like, okay. Okay, so 2019, you're at rock bottom. How do you get back on the board? Like, tell me about getting back to paddle boarding. So I think what was really interesting with the going into the crisis center and staying there was that it not only gave me tools and coping strategies and, you know, things to work with, it also gave me a lot of my confidence back. I'd lost a lot of belief in myself and what I was capable of.

And you lost your mojo. Yeah, yeah. And so a few weeks after I was home again, um, I opened up my, my email and, and there was this email from the Canadian Safe Boating Council. And when I had my business, I'd positioned myself, um, it's crazy. There was so many paddle boarding businesses, but I became very busy right away because i phoned up the canadian safe boating council who does safety water demonstrations for the media um ahead of victoria day weekend every year and and i phoned them up and i said i think you guys need a paddleboarding guy and um and they said yeah we do and so i jumped in there and i i just took it yeah and um and it filled you know it made me very

very busy and and it was great um so so you know i get out of this this crisis center and i open up my email and there's that email from them saying hey mike this is coming up on on victoria day you know on the thursday before victoria day long weekend, we would love for you to come out and do water safety demonstrations and talk to the media and all that stuff. And I said, and I didn't say anything. I was just looking at it. I was like, oh, boy. And so I kept it there for a day or two, and I just kind of thought about it.

And I thought, I don't want to say no to this because even though the doctor said that, who knows in the future? And I don't want to ruin this relationship or I don't want to separate it and um so i thought about it and i thought well what if i brought other paddleboarding businesses and kind of passed the torch to them but was still involved um so i contacted a friend who had a paddleboarding business in hamilton and went in and i said would you be interested in doing the safety demonstrations that day and being reps? And so I ended up there that day with them. And they did everything. It was crazy.

I didn't even tell them. I show up and my face is all, you know, it's different. And I was, you know, they're filming. And I said to them, do you think they've been, like the OPP was there. And I said, do you think they think that I've been drinking? Because it's like eight o'clock in the morning. And because I was staggering with how I was walking. But, you know, they did it.

They did a great job. And then all the media trucks pulled away and they left. And it was just us. And we were there with paddle boards. And they said, do you want to try getting back on, and we were there with paddle boards and they said, do you want to try getting back on a paddle board for a few minutes? So who said that? Your friend?

Yeah. Okay. This is a shout out to Ringo Starr who said you get by with a little help from your friends. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing.

Okay. So when they said you want to get back on the paddle board, is your guttural instinct to be like, I'm not allowed to do that i can't do that like how did you react to that uh that question from i was i was i was scared um because vertigo is still part of my condition you know when i when i turn my head left or right or up and down, I can feel it inside my head. It's, it's like being on a carousel. Um, so, so I, I was, I was very nervous about what if I fall, what if I go underwater? Um, and, and yeah, like how, how is this all going to work? Um, But they were very, you know, they were very good about it.

Like they, you know, the one paddle board with my friend on it was right beside me. She was holding my hand. We were on a very. You want to shout out these friends? Like maybe name check them or. Yeah, Sarah and Allie. Okay.

Sarah and Allie. Yeah. Nice. or yeah sarah and ally okay yeah nice and um and they yeah she held my hand and and you know it was a beautiful sunny day on a very flat surface of water and there wasn't any wind and and it was warm it was perfect um and and i lasted three minutes at just sitting down but that three minutes was enough to to light a fire that your mojo came back yeah i love this story okay so you sit on this board for a few minutes with a little help from your friends even though the ent uh specialists that told you like this was uh non-starter, you're done with

your paddleboarding, but you sit on that. So it's one thing to sit on a paddleboard for a few minutes, which is awesome for you and your journey. But look, that's 2019. I guess that's near Victoria Day. And here we are in 2023, early 2023. And we're talking about how last summer you paddleboarded across all five great lakes okay so how do you go from three minutes sitting on a paddleboard to i want to do this so i used um incremental wind building that summer so we did three minutes that day the next week i called up a friend who had a paddleboarding business out in Ashbridge's Bay. And I said, would you mind if I came down? And she said, of course, come down every week.

So the next week I went out and I was on a board for five to seven minutes. The week after I was out for 10 minutes sitting down. And we just kept on building that. And every time I did it, it would knock me, it would knock me. I'd be on the couch for an entire day the next day, just exhausted and not feeling good. Um, you know, this is a neurological condition. It can make you sick if, if you're feeling, um, you know, different things affect it. The barometer affects it. You know, air pressure affects my condition. So, yeah, so we just used incremental wind building

throughout that entire time, and it built up to July. And July, we purposely, we knew that I was going to try to stand up. So we went out to Cherry Beach and we went into the Toronto Harbor at sunset. And, um, and I stood up for the first time and, and I wiped out right away. Um,

but, but I got back up and I stood up and I, I lasted for a few minutes. And, um, and that was probably the, the big one for me, whereas I saw it. I saw that it was possible. I saw that it was what I thought wasn't a reality could be.

And I saw the potential um and and it was and it was meaningful um to do it in that location at sunset because that's what i used to do love it love it so much but where do you concoct this uh this idea that you're gonna go take your journey across the lakes like when did when did that germinate in your mind so in um in so i stood up in july in that summer a friend of mine said sent me something and she said um no actually it was in it was in the spring i just got out of the crisis center and and i went to visit her at work and and i was still using a cane i was still using a cane to walk i had an eye patch on to protect dust particles and stuff from going in my eye because i couldn't close my eye right um so you know i looked like the penguin and two-faced all at the same time and um and i walked in super villain yeah and i walked in and she just looked at me and she said you're not done what are we gonna do with you and i was like look at me and um and so i'm gonna send

you this this thing that i want you to look at and um and i think you have a story that you need to you need to share with with somebody like somebody. So take a look at this. So I go home and I look at it and it's this speaking thing, this competition. And I go through the form and I fill it out and I'm not really paying attention to it and I press submit.

And then the next thing I know, the organizer contacts me within 24 hours and she's like, yeah, we want you to do the story of getting knocked off your paddleboard and climbing back up yeah and we love this message of mental health and resilience and and all of this and and she said i'm gonna send you all the stuff so she sends me and it turns out that it's north america's largest inspirational speech competition wow and these are all ted talk speakers and corporate speakers and, you know, people who

go into corporations and organizations and I'm looking at this and I'm like, these speeches have gone viral and got millions of views. But at the same time, I remembered that I went into that mental health treatment facility. I can do hard things. Right. It built a lot of confidence.

And I also realized that all my competitors in this were all going to be, you know, working. And I was at home and I had time on my side so I could write. So I wrote this speech and my goal was to inspire maybe, I don't know, three or four people in the audience that night in Toronto. And they were, you know, in an audience of 400. And I ended up winning. And that speech went viral and got, you know, Ashton Kutcher shared it.

And Jay Shetty showed it. And it just got millions and millions of views. Wow. it just got millions and millions of views. Wow. So it connected me with, you know, people from all around the world who were struggling with either their physical or mental health. And it kind of gave me a platform.

I was suddenly being invited to do media interviews and all these things. And from there, I contacted Jack.org, which was a national youth mental health charity. I saw their shirt online, and it said, this is what a mental health advocate looks like. And even though I didn't feel like one at the time,

I thought, I want to support them. The proceeds of this will go towards helping put mental health programs in schools for kids and throughout which is a great program it is stop right there like what a worthwhile uh endeavor yeah um and i kind of identified with it with my mental health journey because i was being looked after um with my mental health journey because I was being looked after um with my physical and mental health recovery I was being looked after by my parents and I felt very childlike so I kind of identified with um kids and young people who who are struggling with their mental health so I contacted them and I said look the speech thing just blew up. Um, you know, I'm doing all these interviews. What if we collaborate? Like, what can I do for you? And they said, well,

do you want to do the, do you want to do an event? Um, so we did an event. Um, and I thought, you know, maybe, maybe, you know, 20 people will come out and, um, and we had 200 paddle boarders from all over Ontario come out. Um, and, and it just became this thing. And then the next year, um, you know, I was, I was looking at it and I was like, okay, we've got 200. We've got something to build on here. We can, you know, let's double this. Like let's get 400, 500 people out. And then the pandemic hit. And, you know, we were, I believe we were days of going into a lockdown in Toronto.

And, you know. March 2020. Yeah, there was a lot of fear and apprehension and uncertainty and people just weren't going out. And that 200 in the first year went to, I think we got about 30. Right. that it went forward and that we still did it, but I was also crushed because I thought, okay, this pandemic has just kind of come in and decimated this event. Dare I say it took the wind out of your sails, Mr. Sherman. Ba-dum-boom.

Unfolded. I'll be here all night. Yeah. So we went back to the drawing table. That's called pivoting, by the way. You're supposed to say it. We pivoted. We pivoted. Yeah, that's a paddleboarding term, actually. Oh, called pivoting, by the way. You're supposed to say it. We pivoted. We pivoted.

Yeah, that's a paddleboarding term, actually. Oh, yeah? Yeah, you can pivot. Okay. I really do want to try this paddleboarding. I'll teach you how to pivot. Okay, I'm in. Yeah.

I'm in. Yeah, which came first, the paddleboarder or Ross and Friends pivoting? Oh, right, with the couch, right? I get that. But I only get that reference from memes. Like, I actually never saw this episode of Friends. Oh, that's a get that but i only get that reference from memes like i actually never saw this episode of friends but i know that reference from uh yeah i didn't friends never took with me like uh i guess because i was really into seinfeld at the time so good and friends seem so like it felt like full house compared to seinfeld like it just felt kind of

like silly i don't know that's because they're all terrible terrible yes right exactly okay but i digress here so now you're uh pivoting due to pandemic yeah so so that fall we started planning and you know the event happened and and we you know we raised you know quite a bit of money for them and and and then i i went back and you know the after event is just as important as the event. Because you look at all the things that were done right, all the things that were done wrong. Oh, postmortem. Yeah. I was in the corporate world for many years.

I attended many a postmortem. Yeah. Evaluations. And we, I just said it so i said we have to do something that's newsworthy that grabs people's attention right and they said what do you want to do and i said well what if i become the first person with disabilities to paddleboard from one country to another and um and they said what does that look like and i said i have no idea but how did you know it hadn't been done like did you uh like is there i looked it up okay yeah yeah so so i was looking like people

who have disabilities have swam from one country to another and i was very aware of that right um but i was like what if we do it on a paddleboard? Right. And that's your baby anyways. Yeah. Okay. And they said, well, where do you see this happening? And I thought, well, obviously it's going to be Lake Ontario. It has to be from New York State. We're going to go from New York State into Toronto. Unfortunately, the planning wasn't, I kind of went running into 2021.

Um, we decided that I was going to go from Rochester to Toronto. Sure. If that had happened, that would have been the longest crossing by any athlete in Canadian history of Lake Ontario. Um, and. But I like this ambition. Like you're like, you're not trying to cheat anything here. You're, you're going to bite off more than you can chew and then you're going to

chew it. Yeah. Uh, well, I, you know, I just come, I went running into it and I,

you know, I didn't realize the amount of planning that was needed or required and what I would need to set myself up for success and set them up for success. So we planned it. I built a small team. We crossed over by boat from Belleville over to Rochester. And then we were going to do that and, and we set out and, uh, what we didn't anticipate was that, um, bad weather on the Atlantic. Um, so that weekend, a hurricane, um, hit New Jersey and what it did was it went over New York State

and it ended up triggering 9 foot, 10 foot, 11 foot waves while we were out there. So the first actual day of, there were three days, and the first day of three, the first day was rough. There were a lot of learning lessons. But the second day was, you know, I was watching these 40-foot support boats go up these waves and then come crashing down. And I didn't realize that all of my team were inside vomiting.

Oh, my God. And they were prepared to go as long as I would last. They were relentless. They were very supportive. And then it got to the point where it just got too violent and too unsafe. So we didn't have to make the call at the end of the second day of three.

And that was very hard. That was, you know, I felt not only was I letting down Jack.org, and I felt like I was letting them down. I was letting all the people who pledged and supported. Yeah, you feel like you can't fail because so many people are depending on you and you have like probably media prepared to like be there when you hit shore yeah no we we ended up staying the night that night in uh myron new york and and we drafted um an entire statement that i know, we, we decided we were going to stay that night and then take the boat over the next day into Ashbridge's Bay.

And we had alerted all the media that I would make an announcement when I got to shore, um, that, that day. And, um, and that was, that was really hard to do that day. So just to set things here, we're in 2021 right now. So what month was this attempt? August. So August, okay. So August 2021, you do not succeed in your endeavors there. But we all know what's waiting on the horizon on my wife's birthday in 2022.

So in August 20th, 2022, you're going to make history. So when do you do another pivot and say, hey, let's try this and do the five Great Lakes? And what does that entail? Because my brain's having trouble computing. That seems like a lot of paddle boarding. It does. It does.

So that distance from Rochester to Toronto, that would have been 140 kilometers. Okay. So I took about, I would say, four to six weeks after 2021 and just kind of, you know, licked my wounds. Sure. There might have been a little bit of moping. Just a lot of self-care. Right. And at that four-week mark, I contacted, you know,

the boat driver, boat drivers and some of the team, and said, you know, what did we accomplish out there? What are the numbers? And they said, you did 70 kilometers over two days. And I said, okay. And then I Googled Vicky Keith, who swam all the lakes in 1988. Right. I remember that.

And I pull up all of her information, and I'm looking at these charts of each of the lakes. Right. I'm looking at the two longest and it was like Michigan and like Huron were the longest and they were 73 and 76. And okay, you can do this. And so I'm looking at that and I'm like, okay, well we just went the wrong way. Right.

Like, right. Like how'd I go? How'd we gone? Marilyn Bell's route or Vicky Keyes crossing or any of these, um, that would have been, you know,

48, 50 kilometers. We just, that would have been accomplished. Right. We just went the wrong way. Um, so,

so then I, you know, I'm, I'm entertaining this in, in my head and, and I go, I go, I go back to the team and i'm like well what if we um

this is what i'm thinking i'm thinking that we come back and we do all the great lakes and and and and they're like oh wow okay so they're like well you know it was, you know, it was hard. You know, some of those, you know, that boat captain that did that initial first crossing in 2021, he said, why I can't, I can't be available. Like for each crossing, you're essentially taking five to 10 days to be on site, ready to go whenever the weather is optimal. Right. be on site ready to go whenever the weather is optimal right um and even when that happens there are swimmers who do that um there was a swimmer last year who tried to cross like here i believe eight times um the weather can change on a dime right um so there is no guarantee um but i said okay okay, well, what are you available for?

And, and he said, well, I'm available for Lake Erie, which would be the first, and I'm available for Lake Ontario. Um, so,

so my job became finding, um, boat captains and, and team support teams and, and figuring out how this all worked. Um, and, and training,

um, that, you know, 70 over two days was going to have to become 70, 70 within about 30, 35 hours, um, for those long crossings.

And, and we were going to try to cross all of these great lakes and, and raise a lot of money. So you have this big idea and it's, you know, I know what you mean. You got to think big to get the attention in this world of the media and other people like you, you really do. So I don't want you to look back. There's a picture for me in the Toronto star and I'm only pointing to it because I recorded this, uh, like it was almost six hours.

This a 1000th episode of Toronto. Mike, you're by the way, milestone episode, 1200. That's a good number for you, Mike. 1200.

Good for you. Okay. So when I, I did this, I remember talking to people, but how like, I'm going to do this like monster episode for 1000. It's going to be like six hours.

And everybody, including my wife were like, no one's going to listen to that. Like I remember Freddie P from humble and Fred is like, no one's, no one's going to listen to that. And remember Freddie P. from Humble and Fred is like, no one's going to listen to Six Out. And I'm like, you're missing it, okay? I don't care if anyone listens.

It just needs to exist because it gets attention. And then I just point to the four-color photo front page spread, and I said, that only happened because I thought big and did something ridiculous. So you're going to paddleboard across all five great lakes because that gets attention in this world when there's a million things happening all the time how do you cut through that noise fine i'm doing something big i'm gonna paddleboard five great lakes yeah and i

knew i knew that it would cause i knew that it would grab the attention um i didn't know the extent of it or where it would go but i knew i knew that lies were gonna come there was frustration in parts of it um because you know when you announce that you're when you're doing something like i got a lot of media attention in 2021 they all showed up um and then and then i announced you know we announced that i'm gonna attempt to do all the great lakes and and there was this kind of like silence um is that like the boy who cried wolf yeah and we're not falling for this the second time and there were and you know my my media team like there were people like it got back to me you know, my media team, like there were people, like it got back to me, you know, what was being said. And there were journalists who were like, yeah, we'll see where that goes.

Like, we'll see how it goes. And it all got back to me. And it was frustrating. I was very frustrated at parts of it. It was tough. And I was just like, just cover the story to get it out so that people know where to pledge and people know how to support. And there were parts of it that were really frustrating.

So because this is five Great Lakes, and I'm guessing you'll tell me if I'm... What is the order you do it? I'm guessing Ontario is your last one? Yeah, so we wanted to do Lake Ontario, the second attempt of Lake Ontario as the finale. Which is smart, of course, because all the media is here already like yeah so get your butts to harbor front let's go yeah we i we you know we could have like in 2021 we land we were going to land in ashford as bay

in this one we had to jump through hoops with the city to become the first athlete that would land inside the Harbor. Um, and that was, that was really interesting. It's so much paperwork. Oh, interesting. But so why is that?

Is that you needed special permits to have, uh, from the port essentially an event there or what? Yeah. Port authority, port authority parks, uh, Toronto parks.

Cause we, we took over HTL park. Um, um, just so many different well heck i think the way if a large rubber ducky can take over hto park maybe mike shorman can have it for his i paddleboarded out to that thing okay okay that was uh i took a photo of it and it's my most uh viral tweet of all time was a tweet about the rubber ducky, but it was quite the attraction. So you paddleboarded to the rubber ducky.

When was that, HTO Park, or when it was? In the Toronto Harbour. Okay. Oh, yeah, that's, okay. So the media, though, like, they're not, they don't have to be there for when you finish each lake. It's that last one, right? Like, that's the big one?

Yeah, so, you know, it's kind of like, the crossing started in may okay and the order the planned order i'm ready like so the planned order was different than the actual executed order okay tell me the uh planned order and then tell me how why why was it so it was going to be like erie like here on so it was going to be jumping in distance from one lake to a lake four times as big. Okay. Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Ontario. We had to switch and it went Lake Erie,

Lake Huron, Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and it flipped those two two three and four so why did they flip so it flipped because we had uh we were watching the weather on Lake Michigan and it just wasn't cooperating um and and you know we were even like for 10 days it wasn't cooperating and um and yeah no we so i i made the call and and said to my team okay like we're just gonna switch we're gonna get in the car we're gonna drive to wisconsin that was 20 20 hours um and we're gonna cross cross from Wisconsin into Minnesota. Okay. And then at least we'll have Lake Superior in the rear view,

and then we can just sit and play the waiting game, and we'll just wait as long as this takes. Do you mind if I play a little news clip about you successfully paddleboarding Lake Ontario, the fifth of the five Great Lakes. Let me play this, because then it'll give me a chance to turn off the dehumidifier back there. So let us listen to... Make sure I've got it here.

I do, in fact, have it here. Look at me. Here we go. Mike Shorman has made history. The Canadian paddle boarder is now the first athlete with disabilities to cross Lake Ontario and the first person in history to cross all five Great Lakes in one summer. Canadian young people are watching this and they're seeing Canadians show up and they're seeing that people care. Shorman landed at Toronto's HTO Park,

marking the significant conclusion to his summer journey, all in support of youth mental health. This final 52-kilometre crossing took about 21 hours to complete after leaving from Youngstown, New York, on Friday. A lot of this was a mental health journey for me. And I think in a mental health journey, a lot of people feel alone. And I don't feel alone today. And I'm really grateful.

And thank you. A shorman was an avid paddle boarder when he was suddenly diagnosed with the neurological condition Ramsey-Hunt syndrome in 2018. He lost his mobility, the right side of his face became paralyzed, and he dealt with serious vision, speech, and hearing problems. But his passions kept him motivated. He retrained his brain to walk and paddleboard again, now working with Jack.org to raise funds for youth mental health projects. I myself had a mental health breakdown a few years ago, and I feel it's a responsibility to give back. I hope that it helps save young Canadian lives and helps young Canadians feel not so hopeless and not so alone like I felt a few years ago. He began May 29th crossing Lake Erie in seven hours, then completed a 28-hour crossing of Lake Huron on June 13th.

On July 5th, he crossed Lake Superior and made the trip across Lake Michigan on July 27th, all of which made history. Even Hurricane Hazel was on hand to congratulate Sherman as he arrived in Toronto. He sets an example for young people to show that if you're determined and committed, you can do it. Organizers at Jack.org say Shorman's fundraising will help thousands of children across Canada. This will be going to our mental health programs for young people. That includes chapters across the country. It includes summits across the country

where young people come together to speak about mental health. He says the goal of this historic project is to challenge stereotypes and prove people with disabilities can do absolutely anything they set their mind to. Now, he's also very passionate about youth mental health projects. He's working alongside Jack.org and has raised over $60,000 for mental health services right across Canada. Reporting from HTO Park in Toronto, I'm Leah Johanson, City News. You did it, Mike.

Like, congrats. You did it. Like, that's something you thought. It's what you thought big. But you executed and you delivered. And you should be very proud of yourself. Thank you. And you raised money.

You raised awareness. I mean, heck, that clip was great. There's even a cameo from the late Hazel McCallion in there. Like, that's cool. She's a star. Wow. Well, I bet you, you know, well, she sadly passed away, but I bet you right up until the final days,

Hazel could have paddleboarded Lake Ontario. What do you think? Oh, I bet she would. Yeah, she'd probably do it on rollerblades on the paddleboard. Yeah, she was amazing. She was amazing. She was a force. Okay, so congrats.

Like, I guess I'm still, like, my brain is processing the fact that you're told by this ENT specialist that you're never going to paddleboard again. And not only do you get on a paddleboard, but you did something that had never been done. Forget being, are you, something that had never been done. Forget being, are you, the word disability, disabled, that's an okay word with you, disabled? Yeah, like, so it's weird.

I have an interesting relationship with that word. You know, I identify as a person living with disabilities. You know, I still have hearing and vision impairments and vertigo. Vertigo is a big part of this. So do I consider myself disabled? No, I live with challenges that present themselves. you know, some days every day, some days I have great days and bad moments. But no, it's, yeah, no, it's been a very...

You have disabilities. You don't consider yourself disabled. Yeah, yeah. How are you today? Like, tell me today as we speak here how are you feeling i'm having a really good i'm having a good day today okay because you got a great sweater on i want to let we will take a photo uh after this that people will see but i want to let people know i really like the uh saint pat's the toronto uh saint patrick's uh sweater you're rocking today so

and the great lakes beer that they did for you which is really awesome for Great Lakes to do that what was the name of this beer? so it was called the Five Crossings Pale Ale and we originally they designed everything they asked for my input there was like did you meet up with maybe

I'm thinking maybe Mike Lackey or something one of the did you get a chance to taste different? I did. I actually went in and poured the hops in and stirred it. I helped create it. Amazing. Yeah, no, they had a sunset,

and then they had a paddle boarder going across some water, and then it had five crossings, pale ale. Amazing. Yeah, it was one of their fastest sellouts um and they actually went and they did they did another launch of it um for for when i crossed the final one did you keep yourself a can or two like did you uh hold on to one i have i have a i have a can in my office yeah so you'll never open that one, though. No, that one's decorative. That's decorative. So again, shout out to Great Lakes Beer.

They've been great supporters of this show, and I love that they supported what you did. And congrats again to you. But what's next for Mike Shorman? It's like you climbed Mount Everest. What do you do now? Go to space? Yeah, so I'm actually planning another crossing right now.

And it is for an organization that supports children with disabilities. And it is to help them reach their fundraising goal to make their facilities more accessible for their clients and the families that they support. So I'm working with them on that. And I was, you know, for the last 10 months, a film crew has been following me and documenting, um, documenting the crossings of the great lakes and, and the Canadian mental health crisis. So we've partnered, you know, this was for jack.org.

We've now, I've now partnered with cam H talk suicide, Canada, um, sick, not weak. Um, a bunch of,

Oh, that's Michael Lansford. By the way, a gentleman who decided I'm a Michael, not a Mike. Oh, did he? Because Mike fixes his car.

Okay. And I love this guy. But don't forget that, Mr. Mike Shorman. Mike Schreiner was here recently. So was Mike Daly. So as you know, there's lots of us Mikes. In fact, I was recording a Michael interview and a Mike on Monday morning. Like there's just an unbelievable amount of guys in their like 30s 30s 40s and 50s named mike it's unbelievable but michael

lansberg's one of the good mics but he doesn't want to be called mike he wants to be called michael yeah so you're working with cam h which is wonderful so so the 90 minute feature length documentary on the canadian mental health crisis um featuring you know michael ansberg and all these people um you know excellent this will have hazel mccallion there's you know a thing with the prime minister and they're like it's crazy um this will enter the canadian and international film festival circuit in september so you're gonna be everywhere again we're gonna have to make you another beer i think oh yeah like yeah we'll call it i'll be calling troy right after this with some ideas okay and mr lackey if you're listening

uh invite me to these tastings okay i want i want in on the ground floor here wow hey when quick in again i'm curious like when you're recovering from the training and stuff uh is cbd a part of your recovery cbd yep cb oil. I'm using that as an opportunity to shout out Canna Cabana because they won't be undersold on cannabis or cannabis accessories. There's over 150 locations across the country and much like Great Lakes and Palma Pasta and Ridley Funeral Home, Canna Cabana helps keep this podcast going so I can shine a light on Mike Shorman and all the amazing, inspiring things that you've been up to

as you overcome these challenges. Last but not least, on that note, if you have any old tech, like be it, I don't know, an old printer or an old smartphone, any old tech at all, don't throw that in the garbage, my friend. You got to go to recyclemyelectronics.ca

and find out the nearest depot to bring it to, which will safely recycle it. There's a lot of chemicals and a lot of garbage in there that you don't want to put into the landfill. So to safely recycle your old tech, recyclemyelectronics.ca. Absolutely. All right.

So when you said you're going to do another crossing, what are you crossing? Grenadier Pond? Like, what is the next one? So we haven't actually announced it yet. Okay, it's a secret. We will be announcing it in May, what the actual crossing is. Okay, what are we in now, February?

Okay, do you want to give me a clue? Like, I don't know how you get bigger than Superior unless you're going to cross an ocean. I think you would probably be safe to look at vicky keith okay that's a big clue when i go to vicky keith's wikipedia page later today i'm gonna i'm gonna follow the breadcrumbs and i'm gonna come up with it so mike as we leave you know it sounds like you had a tremendous team behind you and that support system was there for you but you know they were supporting you because your mojo came back and you believed in yourself can you when you look back at that i don't know that one-two punch you received and

you had you as you described it as a breakdown but like when you look back and you realize where you are today are you self-aware that you have you know picked yourself off the mat and not only you know carried yourself up but you've exceeded uh like there's no other human on the planet who has done what you did which is paddleboarded across the five great lakes in one single summer are you self-aware that you're pretty much you talked about being a super villain you're a superhero man are you aware oh no it's just uh i'm just a crazy adventurer who uh who never never quit never stopped and um and i'm just very grateful um that i i have the support of that you know not everybody has the support but i but i got and um and i've been very fortunate in having a supportive family and friends

and building this amazing team. 38 people were part of this. And they were feeding me every half an hour and documenting how often I was going to the bathroom out there. Like crazy stuff. How many calories does it take to cross one of these great things? Thousands, thousands. It's like when you heard about like the Tour de France guys

and they're like, oh yeah, I consumed, I don't know, 9,000 calories on that ride. It's like, whoa, okay, that's for me, man. Yeah, like a 30,000-hour crossing. Wow. Okay, so much time. When you come back, it sounds like uh this this mystery crossing which i'm gonna crack that code later when i go to vicky keith's wiki page but uh you got to come

back and tell us about uh about your next conquest here because this is all very inspiring could you like i'm curious with the vaccine with that chickenpox vaccine and prevented you getting this in the first place, your syndrome there? Yeah. So I actually started the process of lobbying to lower the age of the shingles vaccine. What is the age right now? It is senior age. I'm almost there. I believe it's 50.

Okay, I'm so close I can touch it, but it should be much lower because you, of course, it's shingles. So if you could prevent yourself from getting that virus, then you would not have to worry about that syndrome. Yeah, no, we started, I went to Queen's Park and met with officials and we were exploring that. went to Queens Park and met with officials and we were exploring that and then all of a sudden the pandemic happened and the conversations of vaccines changed and nobody wanted to talk about the shingles but nobody cared about it. Yeah, they had bigger fish to fry but they got to put that back on the front burner. Mike, thanks for doing this buddy. This is great. You're now a wonderful FOTM and I can't wait to take that photo with you but I appreciate

you telling us this story because it's inspiring AF and I'm gonna go like run through a wall right now I just have to pick a wall that won't hurt too much so okay but thanks for doing this man awesome thank you and that that brings us to the end of our 1200th episode. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto, Mike.com and Mike, are you at Mike Shorman on Twitter?

Oh, you can just, you don't even need the headphones. Cause, uh, uh, yeah, I'm at Mike Shorman.

So follow Mike on Twitter at Mike Shorman. So you can find out what the heck his next adventure entails. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery who made the Five Lake Crossing beer, they're at Great Lakes Brewery. Sorry, they're at Great Lakes Beer on Twitter. Follow Great Lakes Brewery at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta's at Palma Pasta.

Recycle My Electronics are at EPRA underscore Canada. Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH. And Canna Cabana, they're at Canna Cabana underscore. See you all tomorrow when my special guest is former MuchMusic VJ, Craig Helkett. See you

all them. We'll be right back. I can guess the time because everything is coming up rosy and gray. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow warms me today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away. Because everything is rosy and gray. Well, I've kissed you in France, Well I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Chaclacour But I like it much better going down on Chakrakur But I like it much better going down on you

Yeah, you know that's true Because everything is coming up rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow warms us today And your smile is fine

and it's just like mine and it won't go away cause everything is rosy now everything is rosy yeah, everything is rosy and great yeah guitar solo