Finding Purpose Through Yoga And Music

Scott DeLuzio:    00:03    Hi everybody. This is the Drive On Podcast where we talk about issues affecting veterans after they get out of the military. I'm your host, Scott DeLuzio and now let's get on with the show.

Scott DeLuzio:    00:15    Hey everyone, thanks for tuning into the Drive On Podcast.  Before we get started, I just wanted to take a minute to ask a quick favor from the people who are listening.  The point of this podcast is to help veterans through sharing stories like the one we're about to hear today.  But it can't really help if no one hears the story. So, if you would, hit pause for a second and head on over to Drive On Podcast/subscribe where you can find links to subscribe to the show and review the show on your favorite podcasting app. And if you wouldn't mind taking a second to share the podcast on social media or even directly to a friend who you think might benefit by listening to the podcast, I'd really appreciate it. All right, so today my guest is Steve Alvarez.  We served together in the Connecticut Army National Guard and we deployed together to Afghanistan in 2010.  That wasn't his only trip to the Middle East, which I'm sure he'll discuss here in a bit. Steve, welcome to the show.  Why don't you introduce yourself for anyone who doesn't know you and let people know who you are.

Steve Alvarez:    01:18    How you doing, Scott? First of all, man, thanks a lot for having me here and it's really good to hear your voice and I feel it's an honor to be on this show first and foremost. I really appreciate this.  You pretty much hit the nail on the head with the introductions.  I’m Steve Alvarez, I served from July 27th of 1999 until July 27th of 2016.  I left the military as an E6 Staff Sergeant and I rose up through the ranks from private E nothing all the way up to Staff Sergeant. I took many roles throughout the military and the military was my full-time job. Like Scott said, Scott and I deployed back to Afghanistan together in 2010. And before that I went to Iraq from January of 2004 was the MOB up until May of 2005.

Scott DeLuzio:    02:20    Awesome.  So anyways,

Scott DeLuzio:    02:30    part of the show, we like to talk about the struggles that some vets have gone through and some of the ways that they work their way out of those struggles and in the coping mechanisms and all those types of things. So, if you don't mind sharing a little bit about your background and maybe some of the struggles that you went through, either during your time in the military, during that time period, because that certainly was a significant length of time to be in the military. And especially with two deployments, you had some stuff going on, I'm sure.  Even after the military, after getting out, I'm sure a lot of people have transition issues and things like that. So, I'm thinking that maybe there might've been some of those types of things, too. So, what were some of those struggles that maybe you went through that you might want to share with the people who are listening?

Steve Alvarez:    03:27    Well, the biggest struggle I have now when I look back at it as I see myself when I was younger is that I didn't have much perspective, at best.  I was very [young] when I enlisted at 17 years old, I was very tunnel vision [focused], pretty much through the next 15, 16 years of my life. I'd say the biggest thing and one of the struggles about getting out was just figuring it out again and just really trying to figure out where to start and really trying to find who you truly are. That was a huge driver.

Scott DeLuzio:    04:15    Yeah, I can definitely relate to that. Also, through this podcast and talking to other veterans, I found that you're not unique with that. There are definitely other veterans who felt the same type of a thing when they got out that you're in the military and your day to day is basically planned for you. You wake up at a certain time, you do PT at a certain time, you come in, come into work at a certain time, you leave work in a certain time, and everything is pretty much laid out for you. And when you get out, it's just kind of like, eh, do whatever the hell you want. You want to wake up at this time, cool. If you don't then don't and do whatever. And it's very unstructured. And I think a lot of people, especially veterans who are just getting out, struggle with that quite a bit, that lack of structure that comes from there.

Steve Alvarez:    05:15    I 100% agree. It was because you're left to your own vices and you're left to your own free will. But even in the military, throughout your time in the military, even guys that were in Guard that did one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer and even guys deployed for lack of better words, it's like even if you're in a rut, if you feel like you're distracted by something, no matter what, there's always somebody there to gut check you in saying “no matter what's happening in your life, you've got to think about the mission and you really have to push a lot of things away personally.” And then when you get out into the regular world, do you realize that

Steve Alvarez:    06:01    there's very few people in your life now that can go ahead and tell you that “Hey, think about their mission?” Because now it's a whole other mission and you're dealing with emotions, you're dealing with frustration and aggravation because obviously, it's probably a love/hate relationship most of the times coming out of the military and you're dealing with aggravation of civilian world and the way the world works. A lot of times I think guys, well at least me personally, what my struggle was that I was pointing the finger out a lot and just saying this is wrong, you guys are wrong. This is wrong. And I think it came to a point where I matured and I started saying, “hold on a minute.”

Steve Alvarez:    06:49    This is a way I had to think in order to do certain jobs and perform certain tasks like this and that was one phase in my life. So, it was almost like a growing up period. You've seen pictures recently of my beard and hair and

Scott DeLuzio:  definitely not the clean-cut guy that you were.

Steve Alvarez: No, I definitely had to completely divest myself and let go of all inhibitions and just open my mind more. As soon as that started to happen, you started realizing that there is actually a life outside of the military. These people aren't wrong or this ideal isn't wrong or anything like that. It's just different. That was where I would say the biggest mindset is in the military when we were in is what's right and wrong. Where now in the civilian world there is different and then there's different. There is no real right or wrong really with anything.  That was one of my biggest struggles right there, which was just dealing with

Steve Alvarez:    08:10    pointing the finger out instead of looking in and seeing what had to be fixed within me.

Scott DeLuzio:    08:14    Right. And the strange thing too, and I've talked about this with some other people before too, is that we all were civilians at one point. We all came from a place where we had no military background. We had no basic training drilled into us. We had none of that. That stuff really drove into us. And then all of a sudden, we come out of the military and it's like a whole new world that we feel like we've never seen before.  However long you were in, whether it was five years or 10 years, 20 years, whatever it is, if you look back that far, you used to live that way, you used to live in that same civilian world where you didn't have the military background that you're so used to right now.

Scott DeLuzio:    08:58    So it's like you said, it's looking into yourself and re-centering or refocusing, whatever you want to call it, to get yourself back to that time that you were, but I’m not saying forget about all your experiences or whatever, but get yourself back into that mindset of how you lived your life before.  Take some of the good from your military experience and carry that along with you as well, some of the discipline and other things like that.  Definitely, to anyone who's listening, you're not alone with that. That is definitely a big common issue that people do have. And I wish I had a better answer in terms of how do you get over that. But maybe you have a something that you've done to help yourself work through some of those issues or anything like that?

Steve Alvarez:    10:03    Yeah, honestly what happened with me, it was probably about three and a half years ago. I was on a lot of medications coming out of the VA immediately when I ETS out of service and I had gotten contacted by the VA and at that time I wasn't too good with my diet. I was depressed really bad. I had a lot of emotions carrying on from years and years of baggage. And I got a phone call one day from the doctor and the doctor pretty much told me that I had levels in my blood that were so high that I could have a stroke at any moment. I mean, like the doctor pretty much said, “I've only had to call two patients ever in my 27-year career to yell at them like this but whatever you're doing, you need to stop.”

Steve Alvarez:    11:06    And then at that point, I just looked at myself and I said, you know what, I have to figure this out because at that point I had my kids and I was going through a lot of depression, just a lot of stuff that everybody goes through. I don't have to go down that rabbit hole but I really had to go ahead and give myself a gut check and I started looking at a healthier way of life. I stopped taking a lot of medications that were prescribed to me for, (at that time I was diagnosed right around my ETS with diabetes and a whole host of other ailments). I just gave up the pharmaceuticals and I got on a really good strict regimen of dieting and I started working out again in martial arts.

Steve Alvarez:    12:00     I have previous martial arts experience and I started training in Brazilian Jujitsu and that was the foundation. One month turned into two months really watching, focusing on my diet, not drinking, just really watching what I was doing health wise and really getting into it and really dropping all the pharmaceuticals. And each month I kept feeling better and better and better. I sleep, I kept sleeping better. And then I started doing small things that would chin check me in the morning. So, even now on my phone at a seven o'clock every single morning, 0700, I have an alarm set that says be grateful for five things in your life. Okay?  I started changing my attitude. I started looking at my attitude instead of more like a fatalistic attitude. Because we can become very cynical through experiences going overseas especially as some listeners out there, I know that have been deployed probably seven, eight times that's a lot, man. And you get really cynical of the world because of your experiences, unfortunately. And that's no fault to you and that's no fault of the world either.

Scott DeLuzio:    13:24    I think that that's actually a coping mechanism to some extent with all the bad stuff that you see when you're deployed and that you go through and experience, the cynicism is almost a way to cope with that. And almost in a way, maybe not make it so real so you're not normally you would probably be so down and depressed by seeing all of this bad stuff. But if you are having a more cynical attitude, maybe it protects you in a way. I'm not sure.

Steve Alvarez:    14:05    Yeah. I fully believe it because the thing is that when you suffer amounts of trauma, when you suffer trauma. I mean your body goes into a natural protective state and you're going to figure out how to grow tough skin because you don't want to feel vulnerable because you're not ready to deal with that trauma yet. So, when I had the phone call from the doctor, that was the gut check and I really had to let go of like a lot of the cynicism I had and just really just have a more positive outlook on life. More like I changed my mission; that's exactly the way I look at it. I changed my mission. I refocused and my purpose, a lot of guys that I've spoken to personally, when they come out, a lot of them are like, “Hey man, I feel like I don't have a purpose or whatever.”

Steve Alvarez:    14:56    But in reality, it's like we all have a purpose. It doesn't matter whether you're purposing one friend or whether you're a janitor, whether you're a sports announcer, whatever you like, you have a purpose and as soon as I actually started telling myself that and I started coming out of the funk; now trust me Scott, it's peaks and valleys. You know what I mean? I'm not sitting here telling you that it's all sunshine and roses because I do have my bouts but the more you become aware that “Hey man, I've been through some stuff, I really got to deal with that and I really got to deal with why I'm acting the way I'm acting. I really got to deal with why I feel the way I feel.”

Steve Alvarez:    15:49    I really got to deal with just how I am. And the thing is, is that through that, through that deep dive into that; however, you want to do it, whether it be a therapy, whether it be just coping with a friend, whatever method you choose healthy wise. Now let me just caveat that healthy, right?  You really have to come back to finding who you really are through all that. You know what I mean? And in order to do that, you have to work through all that stuff, you know? And as soon as you do that, you can go in and as soon as you go ahead and forgive yourself and say, “you know what, it's all right that I can be angry every once in a while.” Because for me, every time I would get angry or every time I get frustrated, it almost seemed like I was getting even more frustrated that I couldn't calm down.

Steve Alvarez:    16:41    But almost like jet fuel.

Scott DeLuzio:  It's like an endless cycle. You're angry over this one thing and then your anger, that you can't calm down, and then that because you're not calming down, you're getting angrier and just keep on cycling through that and it's definitely not a helpful situation.

Steve Alvarez: The internal dialogue would be like, why am I letting this beat me, this and that. Almost taking a very brute stance to it. When I started changing my mindset and saying, Steve, it's okay to be angry right now, man. It's all right and just take five minutes and be angry. Like, dude, I swear as soon as I started focusing it, it's all right that this is happening; instead of trying to fight it, it almost became easier to let it go. And then over the years things that would go ahead and send me into a world of poopville now I just brush off. Because I pick and choose my battles now. Like I said, it's peaks and valleys, but I'm sure it's tough. It's

Steve Alvarez:    17:50    tough at times, you know?

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And it's probably the longer you stay this course, it's probably easier to get out of those valleys than it was way back when you were first got out when you were getting into these valleys and it's almost like you're down in this huge deep trench and you just weren't able to climb back out or if were you're slipping along the way. So, it maybe took you a little bit longer to get out.  I read a book a couple months ago, it's called Atomic Habits and it  goes along the lines of what you were talking about,  in terms of making these little changes that doesn't change necessarily overnight but changing your attitude towards how you perceive things that you were getting angry at or whatever.

Scott DeLuzio:    18:41    Those little tiny changes that you make, maybe it's changing your attitude towards this one little thing that's getting you angry and then the next day you change your attitude towards something else. And you're not making wholesale changes right off the bat but you're making these little tiny changes and eventually those changes become habit and it makes it that much easier to cope with whatever the issues are that you're having as you go through.  Because it's now just how you deal with things, it’s part of who you are and how you identify with yourself. Basically, I'm not the type of person who flips their lid over this thing that used to get me upset. I'm the type of person who now sees it for what it is and yeah, it sucks, but you know I'll be mad about it for a couple minutes and then I'll move on because I realize that it's not all that important.

Steve Alvarez:    19:42    Absolutely. And the best part about that, too is like that thought now that progressive thinking, it's like you put your character into that, your true character. I think another big struggle I had coming out, too was lack of compassion. I don't think there's any more going into that, whatever a definition was just compassion, it wasn't out there.

Scott DeLuzio:    20:10    Yeah, I completely can relate to that as well. I feel like I might've struggled a little bit with that as well going through that.  I know you've been up to a few different things going on and I think some of these things we haven't really talked about.  I'm taking a leap here with my assumptions and I could be totally off but I think some of these things might fall in line with some of the stuff that you were talking about in terms of the activities that you might've been doing to help you out. You know, getting through some of these issues.  Recently, I saw that you're involved with a yoga studio. You're doing some stuff at that studio. Do you want to talk a little bit about that and how that might play in, too?

Steve Alvarez:    21:05    Absolutely.  Just to backtrack a little bit, I had made mention of doing a Brazilian jujitsu. Now, I've been doing it, like I said, since pretty much since I got that news. So, roughly about three and a half years going now. And I had suffered a back injury probably about a year into it. It was recommended to me by the doctor that to get into more movement into more stretching. So, at that point, I had started watching some YouTube videos on some yoga and I was doing it in the living room and I'm like, “I'm going to give this a shot.” I started to notice improvements virtually immediately.  Then I was like, “well, this is interesting.” So, I started taking a couple community classes here and there and then I just fell in love with it.

Steve Alvarez:    22:00    And at that point, by sheer happenstance, a colleague of my wife at work who's affiliated with the yoga school that I now am an alumnus of.  She mentioned to her saying, “Hey, have you ever had Steve try out yoga? Melanie's made mention to her before about my trauma and dealing with such and so on. And at that time, I was doing jujitsu but it was almost like it was working but it was like there still needed, it was like you had a “chili” going on, but it still needed that little bit of something going.

Scott DeLuzio:  That is the best analogy.

Steve Alvarez: I'll go into why jujitsu I feel personally pivotal for veterans especially. But, at that moment, she had a suggested that. A long story forward, I went to this open house and it was at West Hartford yoga in Connecticut and I sat in a circle and everybody just gave their story of why they were there and introduced themselves a little bit and they were handing out pamphlets and you know the course was a six-month long course.

Steve Alvarez:    23:23    You have to dedicate one weekend each month. And it's to really dive into learning how to not only instruct yoga but a lot of the philosophy behind yoga and a lot of the teachings and the ways and the mindsets. And I wouldn't even say mindsets, but the opinions, just a lot of different writings and so on and so forth. So, I realize how much it actually costs. And I was like, “Whoa, okay. So, I have to figure something out.” And then my wife came up with the idea, “Hey, why don't you try having your federal benefits for your GI bill?” Because we have the post 9/11 GI bill. And I was like, you know what, I'll give it a shot. So, I contacted the VA, I gave them the program. And long story short, I'm now a year and a half later, I graduated that school.

Steve Alvarez:    24:19    I was the first veteran to go through that school and help pioneer a way for veterans to use their federal benefits going through to be yoga instructors.  It opened my eyes to a lot.  Like I said, a compassion and about a positive way of thinking.  It helped me health-wise with blood flow, all the little aches and pains and I know a lot of listeners are probably suffering from as we speak. You know, if you're adjusting yourself in the chair your lower back, if you have problems with your knees or whatever, all the way up to GI issues. Scott, I kid you not, doing yoga has taken my life and just put it over the saddle for me. It just helped.

Scott DeLuzio:    25:07    It probably helps mentally too in terms of not being like, “I can't believe my back is hurting, my knees are hurting, my whatever is hurting. I'm not this 65-year old guy or 70-year old guy or whatever that is going to just expect to have all these aches and pains at that point. You're young enough and you shouldn't be having all those aches and pains and that probably takes a toll mentally on you as well. But you know, now that things are improving for you in terms of the physical health, it probably improves the mental health as well.

Steve Alvarez:    25:45    Oh, a thousand-fold. And I mean, what's great about both yoga and Brazilian jujitsu is that both practices put you in a very cathartic state because you force yourself to have to live in the moment, you know what I mean? And that's a lot of what we have to do in the military. You have to live for the moment, no matter what's going on at home, no matter what's going on in your financial life, your love life, your social life, if you're on mission, none of that matters. And you have to have a focus on the moment. And those are my healthy releases for that and it still trains my brain and it still makes me feel that.  Also, with yoga combined with it the thinking of yoga, now it is instead of just getting upset about things that aren't in your control, just accepting things that are in your control.

Steve Alvarez:    26:43    You know what I mean? Like you were saying before you blow your top or something before that, now you would just look at an except for what it is and just say, “Hey, there's nothing I can do about it.” Let's say you backed into a guy's car two months after getting home from Afghanistan. You're going to flip out and you're going to be like, “Holy creeps!” You know, this is ridiculous. Now you're just going to back up and say, “damn, that sucks. Well, good thing I have insurance, I'm going to take a picture of it. It's all set.”

Scott DeLuzio:    27:13    And it's a much healthier way, from mental health anyways, perspective, much healthier way to deal with it and instead of just completely flipping out on whatever it is.

Steve Alvarez:    27:25    Absolutely. It just feels better.

Scott DeLuzio:    27:29    Yeah, exactly. It does.  Let's talk music. Condition Zero. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Steve Alvarez:    27:39    Yes sir, I do.  If you guys want to follow us, we're at @conditionzerometal on Instagram.  You can follow us there. I just had to put in that plug. Thanks, Scott. These four guys that I'm with in this band and some melodic metal core band. I am the vocalist and these four guys that I'm with, we really believe in our story, our way.  These guys are probably one of the other reasons why I'm still living and I'm still here. These guys helped me get through a lot and they encourage me from an artistic side and going back to readings of Changzhou and the Art of War and so on and so forth, most warriors going throughout history up until the modern-day American army warrior or service warrior.

Steve Alvarez:    28:40     There's a lot of history of warrior poets and while I was in yoga, I did a lot of writings because a lot of my assignments in yoga had to do a lot of reflection of your life and have to do a lot of writings on that. I continued that writing project; now we were in a project before, it was called <inaudible> Morris and I filled in for the lead singer and that project had ended and then we had started this project. We released in December and it's a great ride. It allows me and allows these guys to just be who we want to be on stage. And I think that's like the cake topper. It's like boom. I allow myself to just be what I want to be in the moment.

Steve Alvarez:    29:31    And if you're noticing the pattern of all three of them, it's in the moment.  Because there's a lot of stuff going around you. I've got two kids, I'm married, I've got a career, you know what I mean? I get bills, the dog and all this relies on you. And I think, to be perfectly honest with you, through all that and these four guys, they're so pinnicle and me being here in my life, that's awesome. I love every one of them. And to be honest with you, they're close. They're as close to me as the guys were in the military for me. And none of them are Vets either and it's just, we ride together and we have our ups and our downs as any band would. But we are the genuine brotherly love there and all that brings it back to it.

Steve Alvarez:    30:26    For me, in order to live in these moments, I really had to push other moments away after I dealt with them.  I still go through therapy now.  It's 100% healthy. I have no shame in saying that I go to therapy; sometimes I attend more than one session a week and if that's what's needed to be done, then so be it and that's okay and it's okay to go ahead and let those feelings out. I think a lot of times being in the military, we get so macho and we beat our chest so much. We forget that there are healthy ways to release this and talking and there's no need to be tough anymore when you get out.  What are you going to hold the frontline of your front yard?

Scott DeLuzio:  Stay off the grass!

Steve Alvarez:    31:12    Exactly. You're going to be out there with your hose and you know what a rake “stay away.”  There's a time and a place for where we were. It echoes in my head constantly. The movie, we were soldiers once and young.  We were soldiers once and young. We were young, we had our purpose there. Now we have a new purpose. What I encourage people is if you feel like you don't have a direction, trust me, it's there. You just have to go ahead and repurpose your thought. That's all you have to do. You just go ahead and you really got to come to terms. I think that was one of the biggest hurdles was coming to terms with

Steve Alvarez:    32:01    I am no longer in the military. I am no longer in the world's most destructive and most powerful fighting force.

Scott DeLuzio:  You don’t need to be that guy?

Steve Alvarez:  You don't need to be that person anymore. And that's okay. So, that's forgiveness. It's all right but make no mistake, still find healthy outlets, still train, if you need the train, boxing, martial arts, if you like to go shooting, fine. Whatever helps, your fine. But remember though, that purpose that you're doing that is you just fulfill that need. It's not a purpose anymore. Your purposes, whatever it is, that you're meant to be. You can be a janitor, have a purpose, you just have to figure out what your purpose is and just have to accept it and just know that you're awesome, I guess.

Scott DeLuzio:    33:06    I got you there.  All right, one last question before we wrap this up.  I like to ask that to everyone that I have on the show.  You can answer this however you want. If you want to lighten things up with a joke or you want to be serious, whatever it's cool. However, you want to answer it. There's no wrong answer here. So, the question is, “Is there anything that you wish someone would have told you before you joined the military?”

Steve Alvarez    33:31    Okay.

Scott DeLuzio:    33:34    And what advice or things

Scott DeLuzio:    33:36    that you could have taken through your career or whatever?

Steve Alvarez:    33:42    Oh man, that's a tough one because for as much as I probably would have told myself that it's going to suck a lot more than it's awesome. I would've told myself the 99% to one. Now I was given this speech by captain Steve McQueeney at the time. We were cold as F leaning against, I don't know if I could swear on the podcast, it was cold as fuck. Like I couldn't feel my feet and he gave me the speech and the speech like rings through and through to me. To me it's a 99% to one realize that 99% of the time the military is going to fucking suck. It is. You're getting up at four o'clock in the fucking morning. Why? I don't know. Like you're walking into one place to be there at 6:00 AM not to move until 11:00 AM.

Steve Alvarez:    34:43    Why? I don't know.  You have to burn shit like you're getting yelled at and it fucking sucks. You're away from home. You shared a port-a-potty, you're in an open area, pooping right next to your best friend or whatever. You're farting. Your guys are joking. Everybody's making fun of each other. There are guys fighting. All that shit sucks. But at one point or another when you were in the army, you're going to go ahead, especially when you're around 18 or 19 years old and you're going to be in a helicopter and you're going to be like, “I cannot believe I'm getting paid for this shit.”

Scott DeLuzio:    35:24    I know. I remember I was in basic training and we were doing the 50 Cal range and I was sitting there and I was rocking away and I was like, “I can't believe they're actually paying me right now to sit here and just shoot a machine gun down range and just start destroying some stuff.” Oh, that was like the greatest time.

Steve Alvarez:    35:43    Absolutely. In that spec of time, all that shit burning, farts, smelling joke cracking, fights, fist fight, having all that bullshit didn't matter.

Scott DeLuzio:    35:54    No.

Steve Alvarez:    35:55    It's that moment in time. It's the same way, you finally get oversees for those listeners who have been over to the box before, when you finally get over there, especially like all of us had been there if you get into it,

Steve Alvarez:    36:11    none of that shit matters that you just had to spend the last three days inventorying a vehicle or getting the comms right in the fucking trucks. Or dealing with the fact that there's big ass camel spiders in the fucking bathrooms and you don't want to go take a shit.

Scott DeLuzio:    36:28    Yeah.

Steve Alvarez:    36:32    You forget about that. You forget about every bit of that. And for that moment it's like all of it was worth it. So, all the 99% bullshit to 1% awesomeness, just remember. But that 1% awesomeness is really fucking awesome.

Scott DeLuzio:    36:50    Yeah, it is.

Steve Alvarez:  What I can tell my younger self is, take a lot of the takeaways

Steve Alvarez:    36:59    from the 1% instead of focusing on the 99%.

Scott DeLuzio:    37:03    There you go. So, focus on the good.

Steve Alvarez:    37:06    That's throughout life.

Scott DeLuzio:    37:10    That's awesome.  That is an awesome takeaway to have for that.  Great advice to anyone who might be listening who is about to join the military or early enough on in their career.  That's great advice to have that it's going to suck a lot and I can attest to that as well as it does suck a lot. Not just your personal experience, it does suck a lot but there is some good in there and you'll find the good and focus on that. Remember those things and move on from there and just let the other crap just roll off. Well, it looks like we're coming up on time here for this episode. But thank you again for joining me and sharing your story and everything else that we talked about today. That was really great! I'm going to have links to all this stuff that we talked about in the show notes.  Anyone who's looking for resources or whatever, I'll have links in the show notes and so, thank you again.

Steve Alvarez:    38:21    Thank you so much, Scott. It was an honor being on the show. If there's any of our brothers that we were with and are listening, I love every one of you guys; feel free to reach out.  All the listeners, just remember there's always hope and

Steve Alvarez:    38:36    yeah, “drive on man!” Mission is the purpose.

Scott DeLuzio:  All right, thank you.

Scott DeLuzio:    38:47    Thanks for listening to the Drive On Podcast. If you want to check out more episodes or learn more about the show, you can visit our website, DriveOnPodcast.com we're on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at @DriveOnPodcast.