Season 3 Kickoff: Motherhood, New School Year, and Big Ambitions
01:01
Carrie Aguilar
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to In Her Land. I'm Carrie.
01:04
Mara Kamat
And I'm Mara. This week we are kicking off our season with a quick summer recap and a touch base with some of our favorite people, our daughters.
01:14
Carrie Aguilar
Woo hoo. We thought it would be fun to capture this exact moment in time. Summer is over, a new school year is starting and there are all these things they're excited about, nervous about working on and hoping for.
01:27
Mara Kamat
Welcome, ladies. Welcome Penelope. And welcome Olivia.
01:31
Penelope Aguilar
It's good to be here.
01:35
Mara Kamat
We don't have Ari with us today, my younger daughter, candidly, because she's just really busy in her schedule. So at some other point, Ari will join us.
01:43
Carrie Aguilar
That's awesome. I love that your child has a harder schedule than all of us.
01:47
Mara Kamat
It's like in our algorithm.
01:49
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
01:49
Mara Kamat
Quick warmup. Can you ladies describe your summer in three words?
01:55
Olivia Kamat
Camp 11's fun, Europe, fast friends.
02:01
Mara Kamat
I love that.
02:02
Carrie Aguilar
I like that too.
02:04
Mara Kamat
So Penelope, what grade are you going into this year?
02:07
Penelope Aguilar
I'm going into fifth grade.
02:09
Carrie Aguilar
And what about you, Olivia, what grade are you going into?
02:11
Olivia Kamat
I'm in eighth right now.
02:12
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, that's very exciting. Before we go any farther, Mara, what are your three words for the summer?
02:19
Mara Kamat
Chaotic, painful and fun.
02:26
Carrie Aguilar
My three words are working lonely contractors. That's it. That was my sentence.
02:34
Olivia Kamat
We had contractors all summer too.
02:36
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah, we did.
02:37
Mara Kamat
Before diving into what the girls did and their favorite parts of the summer. Carrie, let's talk about you. It's been a few months since were together and we sat down in these chairs. Both of our worlds look a little bit different. Us. How was your summer? You gave us your three words. Elaborate. Elaborate.
02:56
Carrie Aguilar
My summer was pretty good. So last summer I worked actually at the summer camp that my husband works at and my daughter goes to, and that was very full. I had 14 hour days. But I was in a beautiful place with amazing people. And this Summer, I had the 14 hour days, but minus the beautiful. Well, I guess Cleveland. Beautiful in the summer, I should say that. But minus the beautiful place and the people. So it was a little. That's why I said it was lonely. And I worked a lot. So I was working. I was wrapping up a project that took a lot of time and it took a lot of sitting at the computer time, which is not my favorite, especially when I feel like I know that the summer is typically a time to slow down.
03:43
Carrie Aguilar
And I definitely felt like I was not able to do that. So it was fine. We made. I certainly made the best of it, but it was. Yeah, it was a lot of that. And then I mentioned contractors. We finally got everything done in our house, which is great. So we don't have holes anywhere and all the painting is up. But contractors in your space, it's a lot. You guys definitely know that. We do.
04:06
Mara Kamat
We definitely know that we had quite a few contractors as well.
04:10
Carrie Aguilar
So your three words. Will you elaborate on your three words?
04:14
Mara Kamat
Yes. Our summer felt a bit chaotic and mainly because it was filled with travel, which was great in the beginning, but then I also broke my leg in July 6, so that was rather painful. And Aaron was out of town with clients in kind of a hard to reach place. And I was in Chautauqua by myself. So my dad drove up, picked me up, drove me home to the hospital.
04:42
Carrie Aguilar
Dads are the best.
04:44
Mara Kamat
Yes. My close friend's mom stayed with me in Chautauqua while we waited for him. And then we found out I broke my leg. And that kind of felt like the end of my Fun Summer, which July.
04:55
Carrie Aguilar
6Th is the beginning of summer.
04:58
Mara Kamat
So that was kind of sad. And that's a little bit of what made it chaotic was figuring out we finished a renovation on our house that made it even harder. I couldn't really come in and do any podcast episodes because we. Where we record. There's a lot of steps to get to it. So it puts it in perspective how grateful I am and how much we take for granted the small things in our lives like mobility, the ability to walk and stand on your foot and all those things. And then the last word was fun. And it was fun because I always enjoy time with my girls. We did a girls trip to Europe in the beginning of the summer and we made some really great memories. Also got to enjoy the lake and the water, even with a broken leg.
05:49
Mara Kamat
They put me in the wheelbarrow and wheelbarrowed me down the dock and carried me onto the boat. As appropriate.
05:57
Carrie Aguilar
I think it's such sweet. What a sweet family you have.
06:00
Olivia Kamat
I think it was one of the most funny things I've ever seen my mom do. She's sitting in this wheelbarrow with this huge boot on going down a dock, and it's just so funny. And we're all dying laughing, and she's like, kaiza.
06:13
Mara Kamat
It wasn't.
06:13
Carrie Aguilar
You're like, this is the only way I get down here.
06:16
Olivia Kamat
Yeah.
06:16
Carrie Aguilar
And I can imagine because you're the lawn. It's like. It's a little hill. It's slowe. You just get it rolled down the hill.
06:26
Olivia Kamat
No, we did the, like, golf cart down and then like down the dock.
06:29
Carrie Aguilar
So it wasn't.
06:29
Olivia Kamat
It wasn't.
06:30
Mara Kamat
The dock is still pretty long and even a hundred feet.
06:33
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
06:33
Mara Kamat
So it's a pretty far way to wheelbarrow a full size human.
06:37
Olivia Kamat
Highly.
06:38
Carrie Aguilar
And. And you could have, like, just taken a spill off this side.
06:41
Olivia Kamat
For sure.
06:41
Mara Kamat
I could take a spill off the.
06:43
Carrie Aguilar
Side of the dock. Oh, my gosh. Well, I'm so glad that you lived to tell the tale.
06:46
Mara Kamat
Yes. And we're all healed and we're back to our school schedule and back in a rhythm. I worked all summer, and that's been great. I figured out a way to do meaningful work and still find balance in life. A bit different than where Carrie was at this summer.
07:04
Carrie Aguilar
Olivia, what was the absolute best thing you did this summer?
07:07
Olivia Kamat
I went on a team tour of Italy and Greece. And that was. It was like 25 days. And that was like, really fun. It was really cool. I met a lot of new people, I made new friends. Overall, I just loved it as a whole.
07:20
Carrie Aguilar
That's amazing.
07:21
Olivia Kamat
And then I got back and I just hung out with, like, I golfed a ton. I did swim team, and I just hung out with my friends, which was really fun. I had all my friends to lake house.
07:31
Carrie Aguilar
That's so awesome.
07:32
Olivia Kamat
Yeah.
07:32
Carrie Aguilar
Question just to elaborate a little bit, what was your favorite city to visit in Italy?
07:39
Olivia Kamat
And we didn't do that many cities in Italy. It was like a smaller city, but Genoa or Perugia was really cool. The pesto in Italy was like my favorite.
07:52
Carrie Aguilar
Penelope is obsessed with pesto, so that might just have made us purchase a ticket to Italy.
07:58
Olivia Kamat
I tried to bring it home, but I still had all of grease left.
08:02
Penelope Aguilar
Right, right.
08:02
Carrie Aguilar
So you couldn't like.
08:03
Olivia Kamat
I couldn't really bring a glass bottle of pesto around multiple more cities with me.
08:08
Carrie Aguilar
Was it. Okay, so can I ask, was it cream based pesto or was it like both?
08:13
Olivia Kamat
It was a lot of fresh pesto and then there was some cream based pesto. But it was really good.
08:19
Mara Kamat
You did bring one thing home though, from Greece. That was incredible. What are they?
08:24
Olivia Kamat
Tzatziki chips. Oh my God. They're my absolute favorite. I think I ate like 10 bags that whole summer. They're honestly like they don't make. They only make them in like I don't know where, but I know they don't make them in the US and they're so good.
08:38
Carrie Aguilar
Story of our life. I'm just kidding.
08:39
Penelope Aguilar
Tzatziki.
08:40
Mara Kamat
I love that.
08:40
Carrie Aguilar
That's amazing.
08:41
Olivia Kamat
Greece was just like healthier, but it was also really good and tasty.
08:45
Carrie Aguilar
Cool. I have never been to Greece. I imagine the food is really good. The only downside about Greece is that I loathe olives.
08:54
Olivia Kamat
Like I hate olives.
08:55
Carrie Aguilar
Cannot stand olives.
08:56
Olivia Kamat
I hate olives.
08:57
Carrie Aguilar
Get em away.
08:58
Olivia Kamat
I hate olives so much too. And I just asked for no olives and Greek salad or something like that.
09:03
Carrie Aguilar
I worked and you could eat and it was amazing.
09:05
Olivia Kamat
I just didn't. I don't like olives either.
09:07
Carrie Aguilar
I love it. Same, same.
09:09
Olivia Kamat
Also with the heart, the thing I did not like. Greece in the summer is super duper hot. Yeah, that was. It was hard. That was hot.
09:17
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
09:18
Mara Kamat
How about you, Penelope? How was your summer? How was camp?
09:23
Penelope Aguilar
It was really good. I think one of my favorite parts was playing this game called Manhunt.
09:32
Olivia Kamat
Oh my God, I love that game.
09:33
Mara Kamat
Can you explain to us what this game is?
09:35
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah, it sounds a little scary.
09:37
Penelope Aguilar
Manhunt is basically when at night, usually when it's darker, you wear all black and there's a safe space and there are hiders and seekers and the hiders have to try and get to the safe spot before. Before the five minutes is up. It's really fun.
10:00
Carrie Aguilar
So how are they caught? Do you have to do run?
10:02
Penelope Aguilar
Yeah, double tap. Double tap.
10:04
Olivia Kamat
It's like tag, hide and seek and like everything kind of mixed into one. Have you ever played the Hunger Games? Almost.
10:14
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah, I kind of like that.
10:16
Olivia Kamat
That's hidey too. There's like a. Like at camps we do like the Hunger Game, but it's like a mix of Hunger Games, tag, hide and seek. It's a mix of all of them.
10:25
Carrie Aguilar
Love that.
10:26
Penelope Aguilar
It's where you hide and you basically.
10:28
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, sounds incredible.
10:30
Penelope Aguilar
You fight to the death.
10:30
Mara Kamat
But what else did you do?
10:32
Carrie Aguilar
Miss the death part. Just to clarify for the audience, minus the death part.
10:36
Penelope Aguilar
Yeah, just minus the death part.
10:39
Mara Kamat
What else did you love about camp or Your summer in general?
10:43
Penelope Aguilar
I like to see my friends.
10:46
Carrie Aguilar
That makes sense.
10:47
Olivia Kamat
Yeah.
10:47
Penelope Aguilar
And I liked having a free period.
10:50
Mara Kamat
Oh, is camp busy?
10:53
Olivia Kamat
Yes.
10:54
Carrie Aguilar
Yes. She's nodding her head yes for the audience.
10:56
Penelope Aguilar
Yes.
10:57
Mara Kamat
Yes. How was being there with your dad? So your dad works at the camp. Do you see him?
11:02
Penelope Aguilar
I don't see him very much.
11:04
Mara Kamat
How's that?
11:06
Penelope Aguilar
Good.
11:07
Carrie Aguilar
I don't think she sees him much. And she likes it like that.
11:10
Mara Kamat
Did you learn anything new this summer, Penelope? Like an actual scene or something about yourself even?
11:18
Penelope Aguilar
I figured out that I like to play field hockey.
11:24
Mara Kamat
Oh, that's cool. Are you gonna play field hockey at school this year or next year?
11:29
Penelope Aguilar
Yeah.
11:30
Mara Kamat
Yeah, I think that's great. Ari took up field hockey this year, and she does not know how to play.
11:37
Olivia Kamat
So please learn how to play.
11:39
Mara Kamat
Yes, I learned how to play.
11:42
Penelope Aguilar
I learned how to play.
11:43
Carrie Aguilar
Okay, let's switch gears a little bit. What is something you did, Olivia, this summer, that made you feel really grown up?
11:51
Olivia Kamat
I traveled almost alone. Like, I get it.
11:56
Carrie Aguilar
You were in a group of other kids, and there were adults. Right. It wasn't just, like, a bunch of.
12:01
Olivia Kamat
I was in charge of my passport. I was in charge of making sure I had everything, making sure my bags were packed. I was in charge of myself. But still in a group.
12:10
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
12:10
Olivia Kamat
Which was, like, very great experience because now, hopefully, they'll trust me to travel to see my cousins alone, because I've been begging them to go see my cousins, but they don't.
12:20
Carrie Aguilar
That's Texas, right?
12:21
Olivia Kamat
Yeah.
12:22
Mara Kamat
The problem is there's no direct flights.
12:24
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
12:24
Mara Kamat
So I'm not worried about Olivia's ability to travel alone. I'm worried if Olivia gets stuck laying.
12:31
Carrie Aguilar
Over somewhere in Charlotte, North Carolina, and then just Olivia's in Charlotte, and then.
12:36
Mara Kamat
What are you gonna do, Penelope? You're adjusting back, getting into a new schedule, learning new teachers, but you are the big girl on campus from the. That fifth grade is the oldest grade out at the Butler campus. How does that feel?
12:49
Penelope Aguilar
So we're doing this sailing project for the first time, and basically we're launching a sailboat across the ocean, and it's gonna keep going everywhere, and we're gonna put stuff in it. We're gonna put a gator stuffed animal in it, and it's gonna be like. And, like, when whoever finds it gets the stuff inside, and. And then the whole point is they send it around. And my friend Gabriella moved to New Zealand, and I'm really hoping that she gets it.
13:20
Mara Kamat
Aw, that's really sweet.
13:22
Carrie Aguilar
The coolest part about this is that when they put all of the stuff inside this, it's like message in a bottle. But they're making a sailboat. A sailboat. And then what they do is they actually give directions so that whoever finds it actually takes it to a school and they actually zoom or video conference with the school, with the other school to see, like, where they got it or where it got picked up from. And it's really cool. And Laurel is the only other school that has done it or the only school. There's one other school that's done it in the Great Lakes. So we're gonna. I think they're gonna deploy it, actually. Instead of going to Boston and deploying it in the Atlantic Ocean, they're gonna use Lake Erie.
14:05
Penelope Aguilar
They're probably gonna use Lake Superior just to get it to the ocean.
14:09
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, okay. I see. I see. Anyways, it's really. That is very interesting.
14:13
Mara Kamat
That is cool.
14:14
Carrie Aguilar
That is really cool. Olivia. What about the academics?
14:17
Olivia Kamat
I love the world for academics. I think something Ms. Bean brought this year, which was really good, was in English department. They brought this thing called Harkness from Exeter.
14:25
Carrie Aguilar
Okay.
14:26
Olivia Kamat
It's basically where you don't raise your hand, you have conversations, and you have to wait for each other. But it's like a new way of learning that's really cool. They're bringing it starting in eighth grade through, then you do it every year after. They're trying to bring a little bit of into science, but not all of it.
14:43
Mara Kamat
It's like a Socratic seminar style.
14:45
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah, it's very cool. That's how my high school was set up. And it's so much because you're not waiting to hear your name. You just have a conversation and then the teachers ask questions, which is very much the Socratic method.
14:56
Mara Kamat
I love that. Are you enjoying it then?
14:58
Olivia Kamat
Yeah, I like it a lot. I think it's very interesting and a great new way of learning. It's definitely helped hear more points of view than you normally would.
15:10
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
15:11
Olivia Kamat
Also, I thought this was interesting, which I think is good and bad. You start getting grades on your engagement. If you're actually engaged in the class versus not so if you actually talk in the class versus you're not. I think it's good and bad. I think it's good because it gets more people to talk and more people to engage. I think it's also bad because some people are shy or some people over talk. I know. I'm an over talker.
15:38
Carrie Aguilar
So your participation grade is very high?
15:41
Olivia Kamat
No, it's sometimes lower. If you Talk too much or if you talk too little, so you have to have a happy medium, and that's kind of hard.
15:50
Mara Kamat
What an important skill to develop. I'm learning something as part of this podcast today, too.
15:55
Carrie Aguilar
Wow, I really like that. That's awesome.
15:59
Mara Kamat
What subject in school is most intimidating or challenging for you this year?
16:05
Penelope Aguilar
I think that ELA is hard, but, like, we're mapping the Butler campus, but in a different perspective. Last year, we mapped the Butler campus, but this is on a new scale. It's, like, more detailed, and it has a compass rose, and it's just a little intimidating.
16:28
Mara Kamat
It is a really cool project. I remember when Ariana and Liv did it, and it is, like, very detailed. And what you.
16:37
Olivia Kamat
100 Trees. I swear to God, I did 100 trees.
16:40
Penelope Aguilar
I know. You had to draw the forest.
16:42
Olivia Kamat
We had to draw the forest. And they just don't want a green scribble on it. They want detailed. So I think I tried to fit as many as I could. It was really hard and difficult. And so many trees. Just so many.
16:57
Carrie Aguilar
Olubia, let's turn the mic on you. What's challenging for you at school this year?
17:03
Olivia Kamat
I feel like, for me, and, like, I'd say as a whole, it's less of the academics at this point. It's more about social dynamics. I think there's a lot of social, like, not issues, but there's a lot of different social problems and social things happening in our grade. That's just different. And I was expecting, oh, we'll still have friend groups, will be the same. Friend groups will be similar. That's what we've had since sixth grade. But they're like. Everybody would be like, tell you that everything is different.
17:34
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah. You know, when I think back about my middle school, in my seventh and eighth grade year, I have very succinct, specific memories about seventh and eighth grade. So much more than I do about high school or earlier, middle school and elementary school, just because I feel like they're honestly just hard years. There's so much change, and both academically and socially, everyone's on a different schedule. And I very much have very specific memories about it. And it's like, they weren't all great. They weren't all terrible, but I just remember them.
18:07
Olivia Kamat
When you guys look back on your schooling from middle school to end of high school, what was, like, the thing you remember the most, one of the most significant memories you remember?
18:22
Mara Kamat
Mine's gonna be funny.
18:24
Olivia Kamat
It's about my dad.
18:25
Mara Kamat
It totally is about your dad.
18:27
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, that's so cute. Look at this.
18:29
Mara Kamat
Yeah. Dad and I dated in high school.
18:31
Carrie Aguilar
Like, my husband was already in college. When I was in middle school, going.
18:36
Mara Kamat
To homecoming and prom with him was, like, so special. I reflect back, and I think about those moments. I think middle school was hard. Like Carrie talked about before seventh and eighth grade, there's a lot of dynamics. There's lots of girl drama. And then boys are getting introduced in this picture of people are starting to date. They're socializing and going to football games and other things.
19:02
Carrie Aguilar
I will just be really honest. When I was in the seventh and eighth grade, I went to Laurel, and I was, like, boy crazy. So boy crazy. But it wasn't cute boy crazy. It was like, I think if there are random boys that I don't know anymore, but they're, like, the same age, they're by, like, man, Kerry Holmes was nuts. It was just. It does not reflect well on me. I did not. It does not age well, for sure. In seventh and eighth grade, it was the social stuff. My sister was one year older than me, so I love the fact that she had her friends and I could hang out with, like, the older girls. And I was just, like, in my head.
19:39
Carrie Aguilar
That made me cooler because I was like, oh, But I have this other group that's older, and that was, like, very cool for me. I went to boarding school for high school, and I will say, did you.
19:52
Olivia Kamat
Go to boarding school?
19:53
Carrie Aguilar
I went to Western Reserve Academy, and I loved the dorm. Like, my best friends are girls that I went to high school with, and they're, like, who I see three times a year. And we have these reunions, and I love them to pieces. And I'd say I definitely have very specific memories of that community. That still means a lot to me.
20:12
Mara Kamat
Girls, what is something that's really hard right now that you're figuring out how.
20:16
Olivia Kamat
To navigate social dynamics in school and friendships? That's all I'm gonna say.
20:22
Penelope Aguilar
I guess math is hard for me, but I'm learning to navigate through it.
20:28
Olivia Kamat
Penelope, I have a question for you. Do you miss having your dad as a teacher?
20:32
Penelope Aguilar
I miss him, but it's not like I'm, like, sobbing at school because my debt's not there.
20:40
Carrie Aguilar
That's fair.
20:40
Mara Kamat
I think it's nice that you get to have your space, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's healthy. Kerri, what are, like, three words of guiding advice and reminders that you have for yourself to bring your best self forward?
20:55
Carrie Aguilar
I am working on a lot of really exciting work stuff that is new to me. And so I would say lead with positivity is big because I'm spending a lot of time outside of a comfort zone that I've created for myself. Next one is flexible. I think it is very easy for me to get into routines. And sometimes those routines are really healthy, and then other times those routines aren't so healthy. So I'm really leaning right now to a season of flexibility and being open to other things and other ways of thinking. And then the third would be, I don't know. I really want a new car in my free time. I've just been doing a lot of car research, and I'm ready. I'm ready. I've had the same car for six years. I want a new one.
21:50
Carrie Aguilar
That's the third one, which has nothing to do with feelings. It just has to do with I want to buy a new car. What about you, Mar?
21:57
Mara Kamat
I think the first one for me is we're working on de escalation in every part of our life, personally and professionally. So I would just like to find more peace in every part of my life. So that's one area that we're working on. The second is I would like to slow down a bit. Feels like we've been on Fast Forward for the last 12 months. Oh, I really like that thought.
22:24
Carrie Aguilar
The Fast Forward piece. Cause it's so true. It just feels like everything's been, like, accelerating or accelerated.
22:30
Olivia Kamat
We were talking about it the other day, and I'm like, my missile was a year ago. And she's like, no, it wasn't. And I'm like, yes, it was.
22:36
Carrie Aguilar
It's crazy.
22:36
Mara Kamat
So it's crazy just to think, like, how fast time is flying by. And then the third thing is I want to make sure I'm finding joy in all the parts of life I love to cook. It feels like I haven't been doing that as much. I love to be in my garden after I broke my. I didn't really get to do that this season. So it's like sitting with myself around, hey, what's important? What gives me energy? What takes away energy? And then focusing around. Focusing around the things that bring me energy and happiness and peace and doing those things and prioritizing them.
23:15
Carrie Aguilar
I really. I think that's wonderful. I think so. Something I didn't mention because it truly wasn't during the summer, but. So after Penelope came back and I had. I really just worked all summer. So what I did, though, it wasn't convenient or anything, but Penelope and I actually went to Ireland last week and it was so fun. It was so nice to unplug. It was so nice to do random stuff. It was just so nice to get out of our norm a little bit and be very intentional with time we spent together and all that. So heard on the intention.
23:48
Mara Kamat
How was it? Did you like Ireland, Penelope?
23:51
Penelope Aguilar
I thought it was really fun. I think one of my favorite parts was staying at the Mount Juliet and biking around the estate. It was a beautiful estate.
24:04
Mara Kamat
That's awesome. I also think it's beautiful that you are able to share this memory with your mom and on this girls trip, one one. That's a really beautiful memory.
24:13
Carrie Aguilar
It was like. What was encouraging is that it was so freaking easy. If you live in Cleveland, you should absolutely take the direct route to Dublin. It takes six hours. It isn't even like the flight to San Francisco and you're in an entirely new country and it's super fun. So just do that. And it's cheap. Our trip wasn't cheap, but the flight could be.
24:35
Mara Kamat
So girls, our wish for you this year is pretty simple. We hope you learn a lot. We hope you laugh a lot. We hope you surround yourself with good humans and good people. You step a bit outside of your comfort zone to challenge yourself and grow new skills. We don't expect you to have everything figured out, but we do expect you to always be kind, be smart and bring confidence forward. As we step into season three of In Her Land, we're excited to be joined by women sharing their entrepreneurial journeys as they started businesses like Becko Bags and Adrenaline Monkey. We'll also be joined by Healthcare Professional to talk about women's health. And finally, we'll explore what it means to lead incredible Cleveland institutions like the Music Settlement.
25:25
Mara Kamat
We look forward to you joining us this season and we look forward to welcoming women who are truly making an impact in Cleveland. Thank you for tuning in to In Her Land. If you love this conversation, please share it with a friend. Leave us a review and keep following along at inherland.com where we highlight more incredible women making an impact. Until next time
