WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Cup Noodle Ramen: Life After Graduation

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

A big welcome to...CHARIS LINTON (yep, a sister)! Learn about life after graduation, and some tips and tricks on how to adjust and get plugged into the "real world".

Hey guys, welcome to Real Ramen Hour, where we have real conversations about real things and real food. And today we have a special guest, my sister, Karat. This is Ashland, by the way. Also, today we are sharing two mics amongst the four of us. So we're going to see how that goes. But we'll do our best. but yeah well caris is as a way of background she is an alumni alumnus how do you say alumna alumnus wait what is it caris don't you know are you you should know an alum who knows she's an alum I think

that's a somebody who graduated I went to Hillsdale College and passed yes she graduated two years ago no So she's here to talk about some things about graduated life and what to expect and suggestions, et cetera. But first, she's going to share a recipe with us. Okay. Thank you for having me on here. I am a big fan. So it's like hanging out with celebrity friends, you know. My recipe that I have started making all the time as someone who's graduated college,

Fends for myself, cooks for myself, is a Thai dish called pat-k-pao. It's stir-fried basil. The recipe I follow is by the singer S-O-R-N on her YouTube channel, Produce Orn. But she basically takes chopped garlic and chopped chili peppers, sautees them, and then adds in minced meat. She uses pork. I tend to use beef or ground turkey because I can't find ground pork easily. And you stir fry all of that and then you season it with oyster sauce, soy sauce, salt and a little sugar. And then you add in a ton of chopped basil at the end. So it just briefly wilts and lets out the flails. Thai basil.

Thai basil, yes. At the end. There's a different. Yeah. Yes, this is a Thai dish and you're going to do it right. So she adds that at the end. So just wilts and releases all its flavors before the dish wraps up. And then you serve it over rice and you can add a sunny side up egg on top if you want the runny yolk.

So you kind of mix with the rice and the stir fry. And it's got a really strong flavor, but it's super easy to make. So it's been a big win. And I introduce it to people and they have started cooking it all the time for their friends as well. is it can you make it with noodles instead of rice or is it like traditionally with rice i've never tried and the way sorn does it is with rice but i'm sure you could experiment i don't know okay it's up to you nice or you can like do rice noodles you can use rice noodle i think in substitution because it's rice noodle question right i don't know

I'm not from Thailand, contrary to popular opinion. So every time I say I'm from Taiwan, they're like, ooh, I love pot Thai. And I'm like, that's the wrong country. So I actually don't know how they, if they would approve of using rice noodles. But I think they would. I don't think anyone cares. I think like Ashen, like, cooked it one time for me. And then the next time I did it, I did it.

I didn't have rice. So I just did it with like rumm and shelly noodles. You know what I mean? And we used, we used regular basil when I did it the first time. It was not as good. But it was still something. But like it tastes way better with actual Thai basil. Yeah, it'll taste all Italian, right?

Fresh base, normal basal. Thai basil is a little bit darker, right? And the leaves aren't as round looking. They're not. They're definitely pointier. Yeah, on the tips. yeah you know how like it's kind of curve off for like regular basil like Thai basal it's a little bit flatter yeah less plushy i guess that's word this sharing mic thing is really funny we're just our heads are like

two inches away from each other as we're trying to get also Keenom and I are like a solid six inches higher okay wait i got to probably say that again because it was a are you okay microphone. It was into my, it was into my headphone. I didn't feel anything. Do I have a hard head? We shall play volleyball with this. Me! And then I'm going to go. And then you're Yeah, mine, mine, mine, mine. Mine, mine. Yeah, Kianam and Lily are on these office chairs that are like that will not go down. So they're about a couple feet taller than the rest of us sitting in our chairs. Which is like a varication for me. So I'm happy. Yeah, yeah, the two short people get to sit on the top chairs.

Okay, now moving on, Karras, do you have any thoughts about graduate life and things we should know about, things that prepared you for it and things that you had to figure it out on your own? And you would like to help us prepare for it in that case. Yes, I do. That's why I'm here. So I think the post-grad life is recently graduated from college, moving into your first career entry-level position full-time, is a time of life that no one really prepares you for. Because college in education in general can be very scripted. You know what you're expecting. You know what classes you're going to have.

And you know you're going to be surrounded by people who are also college students. or high school students that you know or trade students or whatever. And then when you get shipped off to your first job, you have no idea what to expect anymore. And life looks very different. And you're not living in a dorm. You're not having access to dining hall food. You don't have a financial advisor or an academic advisor looking out for you, who you can count on. Especially for Hillsdale because it's a small community.

and everyone can go find someone to help them with something. If something's going on, you can go to the deans. When you get shipped off to your first job, you're on your own, 100%. And if you mess up at the job, there's no probation period or, hey, you need to get your GPA up to this certain point. You could just get fired and then not have any money or food or anything. So not that that's ever happened to me, just clarifying. But no one really warns you about what's to come. So I guess I'm opening the table for y'all to ask questions or if you want me to just share my experience, I can do that too.

Do you ever feel lonely leaving colleges? Yeah, that was actually like my number one crisis. The first six months of being out of college was trying to find friends in a community. it was very challenging and the biggest challenging part about it was that it goes a lot slower to find friends in a community that it does in college because in college you're surrounded by everybody

you see everyone in around you multiple times a week either your dorm mates your classmates you're going to class with them twice to three times a week you see professors, you see whatever, people you pass in the dining hall, you're all on like schedules that will run you into each other multiple times. And then in the working world, you will see your coworkers every day, but outside of that, you, the maximum number of times you're going to run into someone is once a week at church, maybe, if you find a church in the first right away, if you find a church right away, maybe.

So instead of getting to meet someone every single day and then become friends after like five meetings and your friends within a week, you have to meet someone every single week and then it takes five weeks to get the same amount of connection in. So my advice would be to be very intentional about meeting up with people and following up with people that you just met and getting people's contact info and talking. and chatting and being like, hey, I know we just met, but let's go grab coffee. Let's go do something. Oh, we have this shared thing in common. How about we put a scheduled hangout on the table so that you're maximizing the number of time spent together and then you'll get somewhere faster than you would if you just wait it out.

So is there anything besides that that you would recommend for getting to know people and finding friends and such? Like, what were there some things that helped you the most? Okay, so I recommend getting involved in consistent hobbies that will put you in touch with other people who share those hobbies. So personally for me, it was martial arts, and most of my friends in where I live now are from the martial arts community because I would see them twice a week or more for the classes we've trained in together. And so that kind of is a sense. simulation of the college experience to some extent of consistent meeting with someone who has a shared interest and that can just be a really good platform for building friends and co-workers if you

have a nice job that has people of the same background and motivations and principles as you do can be a possibility although I work in education so most of the people who work there are moms who are like 20 to 30 years older than me and we do not have much in common so I don't have a lot of friends through my career um so I recommend getting involved in extracurricular stuff that'll get you out there more and getting involved in a church so I guess you made a good point of like Hillsdale is so like tightly knit that we just take for granted all the people we have around but a lot of people do like talk about how college gives you a lot of social skills or shapes the way, teaches you a lot about friendships and how to build relationships.

So would you say like there are certain skills that we've developed here that we should, it'll just be in a different context, but be seeking to like still pursue out of college? I developed, yeah. I was just asked this question really quickly because it's like related. I guess I think if this is not totally. off topic of Lily, but like, you know how you can easily be friends with people who share the same values that you? How do you become friends with people who are not necessarily, let's say, Christian, like, how do you be friends with people who are just in a lot of like, like work

live, a lot of extracurricular activities? Or like a different age or generation. I think that's kind of a separate question. So, okay, let's start with you first. Let's get to this. Okay, so I definitely developed a lot of conversational skills in college that I used to build a community out in Tennessee where I live now. What I had to get used to was that other people are not on the same plane as I am. So in college, everyone is a young adult who is also developing their social skills. you're all kind of building each other up and trying to develop as people. And then in the career world, I tend to be the person who makes the first move, who opens conversations, who talks to people and gets things started using a lot of skills

I used in college. But what's different is that everyone can be someone very similar to me, fresh out of college, working a new job, or someone who's a retired person, or someone who's a retired person, or someone who's never been to higher education and works in construction or everything like that. So I can't expect other people to communicate to me the same way you can kind of know what to expect from college students communicating to you. So yes, my college experience gave me a lot to use with other people in the quote unquote real world. but you do have to kind of prepare yourself for other people and not acting the same way college students do

and adapting to that. And then that kind of leads into keynotes question which if I understand correctly is how do you befriend people of different backgrounds? It's a little trial and error. Sometimes you got to just figure out what you have in common with someone who's an ex-Iraq veteran who got ran over by a tank and you're like I have never experienced anything like that ever in my entire life and you can still be friends you just have to kind of

get to know people um I've kind of done my best to use the golden rule and just treat people how I want to be treated. So I'll bring people gifts or like tiny little, hey, I had extra baked goods. Do my neighbors want any? I'll ask people questions about themselves and just listen because we may not have much in common, but they still have interesting life stories to ask about and hear about. I'll invite people to things because I love being invited to things. So presumably most people do as well. And even if they don't come, even if they don't come, even if they don't come, they're still like, oh, thanks for thinking of me. Even if I hate whatever type of event you were planning, it's not my thing.

I still appreciate that I got invited because that makes me feel cool to some extent. So just kind of treating everyone as someone who wants friendship and community and trying to give that to them encourages them to give that to you. I kind of stand by the like if you want a village, you have to be the village. statement. I don't know if y'all have heard of that. I like it though. Okay. Well, there's like, I think it's kind of internet slang that in modern society we don't live in villages where we're all in this together and we're helping each other out with our

farms and our gardens and passing around gifts and food and whatever. That was supposed to be like kind of idealized community model of past times that. era doesn't isn't conducive towards but a lot of people clone quote are like trying to build their villages and befriend neighbors and like look out for each other and try to have that model in the modern context and people will share stories about how someone was a villager for them and like looked after their cat while they were in the hospital or whatever some just like nice community model in the living world um and I think if you want that

the best way to get it is by being that kind person to other people and then they return the favor. Yeah, that's really good. That actually, I can kind of see some parallels between that and college because even though I don't think anyone in this room wasted their opportunity to embrace community. Like there are some college kids who do expect everyone to be reaching out to them, but they don't reach out to anyone else. And this sounds like that like on steroids. Like you're actually going to be so much lonelier or post-coct.

college. And it's, I mean, I'm getting you just have that shift of mindset of like you're going to be the one to reach out. You're not going to expect that from others. And others might pour into you, but like you don't necessarily deserve that just because you're new in the community. They might be new too. I think I was lonelier the first few months of moving out on my own because I was the new person. I was like, okay, I'm new. I don't know anyone. I kind of expected everyone to be like, oh, hey, nice to meet you. You're the new girl. Let's hang out. Let me get your number. Or like at church.

Oh, my goodness. You're new to our church. Let's go get lunch. Or, oh, you're new to this job. Let me take you under my wing and reach out to you. None of that happened. Unfortunately, and I still think to an extent it should happen. But that expectation that it would happen to me kind of threw me for a loop because then I

wasn't, I kind of held myself back from reaching out first because I thought the appropriate thing was that the established people in Tennessee would reach out to me first. That did not happen. And so when I made the mental switch to, I'm going to be the person who reaches out and invites people to food or to my house to play games or get their numbers or text people, whatever, that's when people really responded and we actually made events happen and hangouts happen and built a consistent community where the expectation was both sides were initiating and it was because I let everyone know like hey I'm interested in this I would love to hang out with you can we do something and then they were like oh my goodness yeah of course but if if you wait for them to do that

for you you might be waiting a while hopefully not hopefully there's some beautiful communities out there where they just take you in. But at least in Nashville City, you sometimes have to let people know you're out there. Yeah, weren't you saying that it's gotten to the point where someone's like asking you to use your house for a game night? They were wondering if you were in town or not. Yeah, I've had. So at this point, I've hosted more game nights at my place than I've been to at other people's

places, which I'm totally okay with. I love it. And it's also convenient for me. I don't have to drive. but it got to a point where this week someone texted me was like, what are you doing tomorrow night? And I was like, oh, I have dinner plans. And they were like, oh, we were kind of wondering if we could use your apartment to host a game night.

Obviously, you're invited. And I was like, thank you. Honestly, I'll leave my key out if you really, really want that. That's great. My one thought, I'm so happy that you can be that person for other people. but my one like for me personally that sounds really exhausting of being the new person and being the one reaching out and not necessarily being poured back into like is there and I know you were an RA so that also you do a lot you did a lot of that in college but did you feel burned out from

doing that or like was that really exhausting for you to switch that mindset and to be like okay I'm going to be the one taking initiative to pour into other. people's lives. I think I felt more burnt out when I wasn't doing it before, like, before I started really just making it my mission to talk to people and reach out. I felt so, like, frustrated that no one was talking to me and that I was just being alone a lot of the time. So actually, when I made that shift to actually reach out to them and got,

so much positive results from that and people agreeing and then we're going to go get food and then we're going to do this, that, and the other, I actually felt a lot more fulfilled and a lot more like, this is what I was looking for, this is the friendships I want to have, and then pretty soon, like almost right away, hold on, I have to cough. Cut that out. Cut that out. Pretty soon people flipped it around. now I have the friend that I got her number and I asked for her number.

She'll text me all the time and ask me to hang out with her. Okay. Or all these friends that I host game nights with, now they're hosting game nights. Sometimes they ask to host it at my place or whatever. But successfully, I think, managed to find the right people who have been pouring back pretty much as soon as I got the ball rolling. Gotcha. So I've been happier since then. Gotcha, that makes sense.

Just so we be clear and give some context, like, Karras is the one who always, even in college, she literally have game night all the time and she'll invite people over. So this is not like, you know, somebody who's introvert and does not, you know, like, this is literally somebody who is like extrovert to the point that I'm like, wow, these people actually exist. And she's still, these people, like, and yet I think, did you struggle a little bit with friends, like college?

No, not in college. you were fine in college but out life like you know trying to connect with people in Tennessee I guess at the beginning yeah I so I'm not I'm not introverted she's not and I still struggled so but I had a lot of success because I just put myself out there so that's my ultimate encouragement is put yourself out there and you'll have the success you'll if you are the village you'll you'll you'll get the village somewhere will be the village for you but yeah i am an extroverted no she it was just like a clarification of people were like oh is she like not like no she is an extrovert just so we'd be clear

yeah even the extroverts don't get invited to do everything the moment they walk into a new city unfortunately we still have to fight for it just like the introverts do yeah but i i was just going to say like as an i'm definitely more introverted although some people might not think so but But still, like, in college, I would still reach out to people. And sometimes it would be kind of exhausting to do that, too. Because you're not really sure if they want to be reached out to. And sometimes they don't particularly do. And sometimes they do.

But occasionally there'll be somebody who you, like, got a meal with them. And you thought it was, like, the most awkward meal ever. And then you're like, well, I guess that won't work. this friendship won't work out or someone yeah like a freshman or something um when you're older and um and then they'll like reach out to you a month later and be like do you want to get a meal again and you're like yes of course yeah so there's always like those people who you feel like it's not going great especially as introverts and but then they actually really appreciated the thought even if you're not the best at socializing, et cetera.

And even like, I used to kind of take my own introvertedness as an excuse to kind of feel the way Keros you were describing you felt in the first few months of just wanting to be bitter that no one's reaching out to me. But, I mean, as Christians, like, the Bible doesn't, like, have separate commandments for the extroverts and the introverts. Or it's like... So true. It's just, like, love one another.

Put others before yourself. And so it can be harder for an introvert in some ways. But also we don't have as much, we don't need our social batteries to be charged maybe to the extent that yours would, Karras. So like maybe a meaningful interaction for me would just be a conversation and not like a full on game night, huge event. And so, yeah, it's not, I think Karras being an introvert, I mean extrovert, sorry, doesn't like, I feel like if you're an introvert listing, to this, you can still reach out in the ways that she's reaching out, and it'll still be really good for you in growing post-post-grad. Grow your show-show battery to wherever you needed to be.

Like, don't grow it based on an introvert and don't rely to be the same as an extrovert. So, like, just, you know, watch and learn in a dab, I guess. And I want to share that it's, it can actually be pretty easy. easy to reach out to people. And there's a lot of things you can do to facilitate human connection that are just super straightforward, take about 30 seconds of your time, and can also be fun. So I dropped off some baked goods with my neighbor, who's this old guy. And then like a month later, I needed help moving a TV into my apartment. And I was like, I already know this guy. Let's let me knock on his door. and he was happy to do it and now every time we run into each other we stop and chat for a while

and would I consider him like a friend not not really like we don't know anything about each other but now I have a neighbor I can rely on for certain situations if I ever need it and that's not something that takes a lot of energy or effort is just like hey you want some banana bread yeah here you go okay have a good night good night sir bye bye like that's it Introverts can bake the banana bread in solitude first. Yeah. Get their social battery charged real quick for the brief interaction at the door. And then if you have an extrovert friend, you can just ask them to go with you.

And then like, here you go, banana bread, sir. And then, yeah. Yeah. And one of my favorite parts about how all this happened where first few months, I was lonely and kind of annoyed at everyone because I just felt like no one would care about me. And then second few months just putting the effort out after all of that. And then following having really successful friendships come as a result of putting myself out there and just treating people the way I wanted to be treated. Is that a lot of the people that I know have actually told me that they've been inspired to follow my example. And they'll say like, hey, I really appreciated how you asked me to lunch after church.

And this guy's been going to the church for like way longer than I've been going to the church. I thought surely the people who've already been going to the church should be asking the newcomer to go. But he was like, yeah, no one really got that ball rolling until you came along. And now when I move out of, he's graduating college. Now when he's graduating college, he wants to be that person in his new location wherever he goes. And I've had other friends be like, I was always embarrassed to have game nights at my apartment. because I feel like it was small and, you know, it's not a five-star hotel. But seeing you host game nights in the most budget apartment you can find in the entirety of Middle Tennessee,

oh, I was like, you know what, no one cared. So maybe I'll start hosting things at my place. And seeing you just text me about let's go get food means I feel comfortable to text you and other people about let's go get food. or just seeing you introduce. So now I feel like the community is growing socially, like is developing socially. So I'm not the only one at it anymore. And people who care and people who care about other people are going to care about other people. And if you find them and you care about them, then they'll blossom.

Yeah, no, I was just at all because she said that. Like, you know, it's like, oh, yeah, like build a community. Do you introduce your old friend to your new, under like, I guess, connect friends? Oh, yeah. I mix friend groups all the time. I had my birthday party, and it was a mixture of church friends.

So very reformed traditional Presbyterian Church of America people. Very homeschooly vibes. Very, yeah. Mixed with my martial arts friend group, which is like tattooed, buff individuals with like a a hankering for violence.

Mixed with my, I go to a Baptist young adult group and they're not quite as reformed, a little more like chill Southern Christian vibes. Mixed with that friend group, mixed with like my neighbor who's I don't even know what he does.

He's a student somewhere and he didn't know any of the people there. So there's a few other people there who also didn't know any of the people there. And like there was a couple high school students there as well and the oldest person was like a retiree so i love mixing friend groups i totally recommend mixing friend groups and it can be a little awkward at first there was definitely a moment where everyone was like i have no idea who these other people are um i don't know if i should be making this joke i don't think it's appropriate for these like high schoolers to hear

whatever it doesn't matter well life is bigger than people who are already know each other so I like to just like make people meet other people. And now it's a problem because now my friends who mix from other friend groups are now hanging out with each other without me sometimes, which is it's not a problem. It's like a good thing. There's one time like there's, I got invited to hang out with some of the Baptist friends I have.

And I showed up and one of my martial arts friends was there. And I was like, what are you doing here? And they're like, oh yeah, we met at that game night a while ago. And we've been texting and like, now we hang out. now we're friends and I was like what what okay and then I've had that happen where like one of my co-workers met up with one of my church friends and then they were like we're going to get coffee later thank you for introducing us we have a bromance now and I was like I just had you guys over to play mahjong and I only invited my church friend because I needed a fourth person to play mahjong

so cool so now they're friends friendship is exponentially growing if you if you make it happen that way. So can you walk us through just for anyone who, because I think most graduates are going to be in budget apartments. So can you walk us through what it looks like to host, just really practical, what do you have to do, what do you not have to do, and like the correct attitude just to like make it approachable, an approachable option for us? Tell people where to park because some budget departments care about that. I always push most of the furniture as far against the wall as possible because there's not a lot of room space. And then I'll just, I don't have enough chairs, so I tell people to bring their own chairs, and they will, like they'll bring lawn chairs. And then I just set up a

bunch of games. And so people show up. If they don't know each other, I'll introduce them to each other. If they do know each other, then they'll chat. Have lots of drinks and chips. people like food and drinks. And I think that elevates any gathering. It doesn't have to be fancy. Like, I just buy Sprite and tell people that if they're addicted to Dr. Pepper, they can bring their own Dr. Pepper, which Southerners are. I'm concerned about the Dr. Pepper consumption in the South.

And, yeah, if I introduce people who don't know each other, I'll try to find something in common to tell them about, or at least something interesting to get the conversation going. So I'll be like, oh, meet this person. He works this job. And then the other person has an opportunity to say, oh, tell me about the job you work. How did you get it? How long have you been working there?

And then the conversation has already taken off. But you don't want to just be like, this is name. This is name. Good luck. You have to be like, oh, yeah. Like you guys are both the same age or like you guys both graduated. Or he lives near here. You live near here.

You work in this field. he works in like an adjacent field or your jobs are really close to each other or I know him because of this and then they'll be like wow how'd you meet care is whatever and so you get them something to start with and then they get going and then for games just kind of get everyone started just rope everyone into it and just be like these are your cards let's go and then once it gets started I think the awkwardest part is starting a game once they get started then they start dealing their own rounds for the next round they'll be like okay this was good or whoever lost is like motivated to win now whoever won is motivated to keep winning so you just have to get it started what are your favorite games

okay secret hitler secret hitler is what started the game night situation because i own it and everyone fell in love with it and then they'd be like cares we're hosting a game night can you bring secret hiller then i show up and they'd be like all right you can go now we'll just take the game which it was a joke of course but like that's that's a good starter game it's it's good to make people like lose their mindset each other for context this is a mafia game yes I have to say though that one for introverts is not always the the most helpful beginning game it's kind of awkward in the beginning but it forced them to come out of their comfort zone which is they have to play in a couple of rounds before they can actually like you have to argue you have to argue with people or like

defend yourself or accuse people. For extrovert like me, I love using them because I win all the time when I play with introverts. Okay. If you're an introvert or if you have a big, big group, I recommend code names because it is two teams. Any number of people can be on any team. And one person only has to do the big thinking and vibing.

And usually there's going to be two people who really want to do the big thinking, give you clues. and then everyone in the team can guess. So whoever's not that big clue giver and who's just guessing the codes, they can participate as much as they want or they can choose not to participate if they're feeling awkward or if they don't know.

And then it can be, it's a group effort essentially. So it's a little less individual pressure. And it also provides opportunity while the other team is working because you can't both go at the same time. while the other team is working, the team that's resting can chat with each other. So I recommend code names. And I will say my friend group has gotten obsessed with this new game called Flip 7. It is basically the gateway drug to poker because it's essentially, you're essentially

counting cards and gambling a little bit to make it happen. But it's really, really easy to learn. So it's really good. And you can have like infinite number of people involved. So it's really good as a start of game to kind of warm up a crowd and explain the rules in like one minute. And then everyone can get started. And then there's lots of like adrenaline moments. And while you're not going, you can chat with each other.

And it doesn't matter because you're not strategizing in between rounds. There's no strategy. It's really guesswork. So I recommend Flip 7. If you've never heard of it, it can be super fun. I will also say like poker is surprisingly really. really fun for not a huge group, but a medium-sized group. Like, people can get really into it, and it's a lot easier to play than I thought.

I remember playing it at your birthday party, like freshman year, Paris. Yes. It's, I mean, I don't know if you, it's not, obviously not with real money. We're not gambling or anything, but card games like poker or there's easier ones, like bridge, yuker, things like that. that you don't have to go out and buy a ton of games to have a good time wait can everyone go around and say their favorite like card game or board game we've never played that it's been fitting on our coffee table for like i've been tempting people but none of them are ever going to be we need to play

that before we leave i love bang and i just got it so i haven't kind of introduced it to anyone yet but I'm waiting for the day where I get the entire Middle Tennessee community into playing bang. I like Ophooey, which is a card game, which is partially dependent on luck. I like card games that incorporate luck because if you lose and you can blame it on your bad luck. And if you win, you can blame it on your, you can get credited with your skill. I also love Dutch Blitz, especially with like the expansion pack with like eight people. It gets really fun.

That's a good way to bond with people too. I did recently teach four people Dutch Blitz, and we stayed up till midnight. We started at like 7 p.m. And then we stayed up. I checked the time, and I was like, guys, get out of my apartment. They were like, another round, another round. And then one of them told us at the very end. He lost every single game.

And we're like, we're so sorry. I thought you knew how to play this. Like you told us you played it before. Everyone else was a beginner. He was like, oh, yeah. I'm red green colorblind. And I was like, you. you mentioned this at 12 p.m. after five hours of playing.

8.m. after 5 hours of playing a game where you're color coding everything and you're trying to match red cards with red cards and green cards with green cards. That's so funny. No wonder. He was a really good sport. He enjoyed playing the game as well, but I just thought that was hilarious. I was like, sir, what? Why now? Or, well, there's also like games that you can play with friends. Okay, don't do this. Like, instead of gambling, we literally draw lipstick on each other faces. So, like, we play a game in Vietnamese called Penalties. Yeah, Dinglen, meaning like, it's very much simpler to poker.

And I got Eden to play. I think Eden was introduced it by another Vietnamese person. And then she loved that game. So every time I see her now, she's like, we should totally play that game. So, yeah, somebody sucked. But, yeah, it's totally, just find a game, I promise you, if they look like they're not enjoying it, they are enjoying it to say. Yeah, I would say my favorite crowd pleaser,

there's a lot of games that I really like, but this one's the one that I think you can always go back to is spoons. Yes. And we even do it with, like, pens at, or like, if you can't, don't have enough spoons, or, like, the plastic spoons are too dangerous because they're so sharp when they get cracked because someone's trying to pull them or something.

But it's so fun and it's so easy to explain. And you always kind of feel a little bad for the person you gets eliminated, but then you're like, it was just the practice round. And then they start getting like very ambitious later. So, yeah. You can also replace spoon with shoes. That's what we did. Shoes?

Yeah. But who did I do that? Okay. Okay. Just one shoes, just per person. And I promise you, it's like the funest alternation that you probably ever do. done to spoons. You have to touch their shoes. Well, sometimes people hide the shoes. Like, so you have to, like, as soon as everyone, like, somebody, like, you know, get the, like, the, like, four in a row. Yeah. They will go around the room trying to find their shoes. And people will go. So you hide the shoes beforehand. Okay, that does not kind of fun. I mean, you can do that with spoons, but just hide the spoons. Well, and not have to touch people. You have to find your shoes. You have to find your shoes. Yeah. Like, other people would hide your shoes. So who's, whoever's the last person who hasn't found their shoe yet is eliminated yeah oh that actually does sound kind of fun yeah so people like

actually hide like you like you like you're on your look for like somebody's shoes and you've on your shoes but you found somebody you can like like tuck it away a little bit further or something so me i'm not saying that i have never done it but it is a very funny that's really funny i've done that with like spoons but they just it was like a big church gym and they just hid the spoons all over the gym well not in super hard places to find but you had to literally run across to the other side and get the spoons that is more dangerous that's probably more of a youth group type game um not for a small apartment but yeah it's pretty dangerous yeah small apartments like you can dive on the table or like like um throw yourself over to the other side to get the spoon that just fell down you know actually yeah

this fight with something to drive me the last spoon speaking of violent games i forgot to mention this This is like one of the most played games I did in high school. Egyptian rat slap or slapjack. There's many variations and you can start with really simple rules and then add on more and more. Because usually the best games have like slightly complex rules, but you don't want to start with them. Take your rings off, no sharp nails. But it's just slapping the cards. So that can be really fun too.

Yeah. Me and Ashton recently played Uno. and that was the longest. It literally had to be a room. It lasted an hour and we had to stop it and we didn't even finish. We didn't even, we didn't do a new round. It was an hour of one round of Uno. It was really fun because we keep like guessing what's the color.

Yeah. Anytime someone got an Uno out of the five of us, what are your five of us? Five. Out of the five of us, one of us would kind of like loudly say, we're pretty sure they have this color. And so we always just managed to foil the UNOs. And yeah. Well, and then you just do funny thing.

Like Katie and her family, there's a traditional whenever you, like, got a power. Wild card. Like a wild card. You have to do, what is it? Magic color changing power and then put your hand over the middle. Magic power changing color, you know, to green. And then two red. Yeah.

It's really funny because somebody walked out of, Dante and looked at us like, oh man, I wish I was out here playing with you guys. So we know we were a little out, but it was good because people were envious of us having a lot of fun. Yelling, yelling random things. I also 100% recommend befriending someone who has jackbox games if you want to have an easy way to include. They do have player limits, so it has to be like eight people or whoever in your friend group, but I would never buy it because I don't. care about spending money but you can befriend someone who has it and not tell them that that's why you're befriending them and then use it and invite them everywhere and then use their account

so totally that's why we're friends with you totally recommend that just kidding uh befriend them first and then find out they have jackbox games later and then suddenly invite them to everything just include that like what's your name do you have jackbox right you know You know what I really like in a person? A Steam account with Jack Fox games on it. Well, on that note, we hope you go home and have a lovely dinner with friends and play some games together. And also practice just like reaching out to people. Maybe reach out to someone you haven't really talked to before.

Start now so you're ready after you graduate. Literally make friend in college. It's harder out there. Can I share my top favorite ways that I've accidentally befriended someone before we go? Okay, these are fun and simple ways to befriend someone that I've actually pulled off. Number one is I was about to travel on vacation and I had a bouquet of flowers that weren't wilted yet. So I walked over to my neighbor's door and was like, hey, do you want some flowers? He was like, yeah.

And I was like, great, take these, give them back when you see my car in the driveway again. And then now we're friends. and wait you said give them back give the vase back oh okay i was like wait i was like that's how you make friends yes uh number two is forgetting ingredients at the store so you have to go to your neighbors and be like please please can i have garlic powder please i'm halfway through cooking something and i forgot this

ingredient when i went shopping like 20 minutes ago so that one's a big one uh number three is not as just being bossy. So I'll be like, hey, so this is how I made friends with a lot of martial arts people. I'd be like, hey, I'm hosting a game night. Put your contact info in my phone and I'll text you the details. And they'll be like, oh, okay. Just kind of don't give them an option to get out of it.

Just kidding. Usually you ask first and you're like, hey, would you be interested in game night? And they'll be like, yeah. And then you pass over your phone. So just interrupt whatever they're doing and tell them you want to invite and something and most people will be flattered and be like yeah of course and another top favorite way is to go get food with someone and try out new restaurants always Asian food I never go anywhere this podcast yeah so find a new restaurant be like I really want to go here but I don't want to go

by myself do you want to come with me you want to come please yeah so I'll pretty directly tell people like that's so cool hey can i get your number let's like hang out and do this later or whatever and then it all works out yeah well go do that now guys tonight thanks carris that was such good advice we'll see you next time bye bye we should do like a tiny outro one at least yeah we're gonna do we should write a letter and read it out oh no no no we'll probably cry no no no it's Okay. Well, that's the whole point. Yeah. Well, we'll see you the next time for the last time. Yeah, we can cut that part out.

I get the impression that y'all never cut anything out. Guys, it takes a long time to cut things out. We'll see you next time for the last time. Everyone say bye right now. Bye.