Ep 43 - Sam: Storms Don’t Define You: Lessons from Hurricane Harvey

Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Monomyth Diaries, a podcast where ordinary people get to share their hero's journey. I'm Mandy and I'll be your host. We'll discover powerful insights, critical moments of growth, and much more. Thanks for joining us. We all have a monomyth to share, and someone out there needs to hear it. Welcome to the Monomyth Diaries, a take what you like and leave the rest podcast where real people share inspiring stories of transformation. No advice, no experts, just connection, growth, and hope. In today's episode, Sam returns to share a chapter of her story that tested her resilience in every way. Hurricane Harvey. In 2017, the storm devastated Houston, flooding homes, uprooting lives, and leaving behind more than physical wreckage. Sam, like so many others, lost nearly everything. But in true Sam fashion, she found meaning, strength, and community in the aftermath. Join us today as we revisit those days. Not just the chaos and loss, but the lessons and unexpected boons that followed when the waters receded. Welcome back to another episode of the Monomyth Diaries. Thank you. Excited to be back as always. Yeah. For listeners who are tuning in for the very first time, Sam is joining us for the third time this season. So if you haven't listened to the other two episodes, go back through earlier in the seasons and have a listen and you'll be able to connect some of the puzzle pieces. Typically, when we record a guest, we do it in two pieces. Pieces, episode one and an episode two. We're doing hers a little bit differently because she has had a lot of wonderful life lessons. Today we're going to be talking about weathering the storms, and you have weathered some storms metaphorically and literally. And today we're going to be focusing on our experience with Hurricane Harvey in Houston. In 2017, we experienced one of the most tragic storms ever to hit Houston. Was a pretty devastating experience for a lot of people. But before we jump into your story, let's do some monomyth story starters so that our listeners can get to know you a little better. What is a skill you wish you had? The computer. I know where the on button is. I have to tell you, when I started this podcast, I knew nothing about podcasting, and I felt that way. I was very afraid of technology, and I used to tell people, I don't know how to Instagram. My husband said, you have got to stop telling people that. I think it's probably important for our people who are listening and not watching this on YouTube that I am 48 and you are, and we'll just say your sixth decade. 65. You're 65. I'm a proud 65 person. But you are so willing to learn new skills. For me, I was afraid of learning new skills. I. Again, for people who haven't listened to your other two episodes, you are not afraid to learn new skills. Try new experiences. And. And you love learning and growing. So that was not my experience when I started this podcast, but I thought, I do this. I think it. I think saying it, it's okay, because you can grow. And of course, going into what we had to do, we had to grow. I had to grow a whole lot, you know, so it leads into. If it scares you, that means you're supposed to do it. You know, that's. That's how I look at it. If it scares you, that means you're supposed to do it. To be inspiration to others that think that they can't do it. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Get uncomfortable. Yeah. I live in. I think I live in uncomfortable. Yes. Yes. It's that. It's that idea that this might be difficult right now, but I'm going to learn and grow from this experience. Yes. You're going to learn a lot of computer skills. I am. What's your favorite song? I will survive. I know. Yeah. That's very fitting, isn't it? Yeah. In episode one, we know it was episode two, we talk about your aneurysm and survival. Yeah. What's your favorite book? Think and Grow Rich. Yeah, I knew you were gonna say that. I think, Richard, I have many, but I think I always go back to if your mind can believe it can conceive, or if your mind can, your mind can conceive. You can believe either one of those. But his thing is, if you believe you can do it, and I believe I can do anything. May take a while, you know, that's okay. I'm learning along the way. That's right. You have such a good attitude. Do you have a favorite quote or mantra? You have a lot. I have a lot. That's a hard one for you to pick. It is a hard one to say. The story of your mind is a story of your life. The story of your life is the story of your mind. What stories are you telling yourself? It's the idea of changing your narrative. If you tell yourself you can't do it, you can't do it. You could always change your mindset. You know, nothing's ever written to say you have to believe what you're believing. Yeah. If you can conceive it, you can believe It. I love that. I'm going to have to write that one down. I hadn't heard that before. Did you make that up? I don't know where I heard it, but I heard it from somebody. I did not make it up. Where are you from and where'd you grow up? I grew up in Pennsylvania. Small little town named Jeanette. It was a great place where you actually see Friday Night Lights and football is a big thing. I grew up in the 60s, so the wonder years. My dad had a store. It definitely was the wonder years. One street, you know, I remember closing it like, you know, for Good Fridays and Fourth of July parties. And I have great, great memories of growing up there. I just didn't want to live there. You didn't like the cold? I did not like the cold. And you didn't like small town, and I didn't like small towns. I. I realized, you know, you kind of go, I'm not a small town person, you know, And I just didn't see myself doing the same thing day after day. So, as we said, we live in a suburb of Houston, Texas. I live in a place called Cinco Ranch. You live in a subdivision called Canyon Gate? Yes. It's now 2025. It's been eight years since Hurricane Harvey and I flooded. As well as yourself. Tell us what was life like prior to this horrific, catastrophic natural disaster. Let's talk about what was your home life like. I had moved my practice maybe six months before that to the house. I was in a brick and mortar. And I said, I can do this. And. And I wanted to move things closer to the home instead of traveling and paying somebody for rent. And I had a four bedroom, and I said, I'm moving it to the house. And I moved it to the house. And six or seven months, it wasn't long. Harvey hit. So you're actually working from your home full time. So I was getting my clientele built up out here. Everything was great. I had the house set up for massages and running a business out of it. I was having client appreciations. It was. Everything was in full swing. And we all knew the hurricane was coming. What did your preparations look like? So we had never flooded. We had never flooded. They somehow took our subdivision off the list and nobody mentioned it. We still had electricity. I had been through many storms down here and we were preparing, so we knew we had a generator. We knew that we put things up on cinder blocks. We had flood insurance. Yeah. So when you say you were preparing in hurricanes prior to that, in the Houston area, we were told one of two things. Either hunker down in place or evacuate. Yes. And in this instance, what were you told? We were not told anything. I mean, we were not told anything. I wouldn't have stayed. We really didn't know. Some people did leave, but there were a majority of our neighbors that stayed. Our whole neighborhood stayed. And it's important to note that Houston is a giant area. I mean, we are one of the most geographically spread out cities. And so I remember my subdivision being on the list of places to stay. Hunker in place, don't evacuate. And what had happened in the past, in a hurricane prior was everybody was told to evacuate. And then the traffic got so backed up that people. People sat on highways for seven, eight hours just stranded, ran out of gas, ran out of water. There were no places to go. And that was a disaster. And so this time, I feel like they told us to stay because the cities south of us, like Galveston, all those areas needed to evacuate and they needed the highways to be open for those people. So I think they were trying to learn some lessons. But I also don't think they realized the amount of water that was gonna get dumped on us during that storm. So it wasn't the hurricane necessarily that really affected us. It was the amount of rain we got afterwards the hurricane came in and it just started raining. Yes. The amount of water that dropped in such a short period, there was just not enough places for it to go, which then, of course, we start flooding. So it's raining. It's raining. So when we decided to evacuate, the sewers got compromised. The sewer plan's so close, we back up to a drive by you. There's another creek that's beside us. We had never, ever flooded, but it was a perfect storm. So I had a friend that called me and said, I put your name on search and rescue. They'll get you on a boat. I'm like, what are you talking about? She says, you need to evacuate. But we had to walk out. It was too shallow for the boats to get back, so we had to walk because the other water that was in the main street was moving too fast. Something that should have taken us 15, 20 minutes to get to the front. It took us something like two or three hours. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. The hurricane didn't arrive until Friday, so my husband called me from work. He works in the oil industry, and they'd been having weather calls. And he calls on Thursday and says, we are going to flood the city of Houston is going to get A major storm. I need you to start taking everything from the first floor of the house to the second floor of the house. So we start clothes, furniture, all of our belongings, we start moving upstairs. Now it's dry. Thursday, it's dry. It starts raining. I think it was maybe Friday night that it starts raining. By Sunday, we start taking on water. We get just a little coating of water across our floors. And as you said, the water started to recede because it stopped raining. We have pictures of us all out in the street playing in the water because it's not raining anymore. And we're all happy. All the neighborhood, my neighborhood, is excited that it's not raining. All the water's receding, and we. We think we're going to be okay. And then it starts raining again, and there's no place for the water to go. And so for us, then the water starts rising again and rising again and rising again until the point where we actually ended up with about 6 inches, 4 to 6 inches of water in our house. But we didn't get the amount of water that in Canyon Gate. How much water did you have in your house? I had three feet for nine days. Yeah. Yes. So I knew it was going to be bad because by the time that we had got up, the water was coming up the driveway. So you evacuated before you took on water in your house? Yes, it was coming up real rapidly. Okay. So it was in the streets, but it was rising up, up to the house. The whole city flooded, you know. But your neighborhood was the worst. It was one of. Because we weren't allowed back in the homes, of course, for 10 days. So it wasn't like it receded in a coup days. It was 10 days that we couldn't even get back in the house. The water had cut off the road to get over in front of our subdivision. Yeah. You had National Guard in your. In your neighborhood? Yes. When I went through your neighborhood after all the water had receded, the National Guard actually wrote on people's homes with spray paint. And it was some coding system about whether people were in the house, whether they had evacuated. It looked like a literal war zone. It was. It was. For months. It did look like a war zone. So you. You were out of your house for the entire 10 days? Yes. What was it like going back the first time you saw your house? You know, just be prepared. When you walk in, things are going to be tumbled over things. You're. And you're not gonna be able to save anything. I already said this to myself before. You Walk in, like, okay, so you were mentally preparing before I even walked in the door. Things are tumbled over. You're pulling pots and pans out. Because I have a one store, I couldn't move anything. Your. Your cabinetry is sunken in. I'm like, well, there is no saving that. Do you feel like all of the adversity you've faced in your life, your challenges when you were young, you're moving to Texas, your aneurysm, all of these experiences that you've had, do you feel like you had gained a lot of skill, a lot of knowledge to be able to handle something of this magnitude? Definitely. The attitude was, I, I. And, you know, and I wasn't afraid to tackle it. Yeah, you've got grit. You've got perseverance and resilience. I mean, I had to tackle a lot. I learned to be tough on that one. You know, I fought. I fought hard for everything I did. Yeah, you've got a lot of skills in conflict resolution and problem solving and knowing how to advocate for your needs. Yeah. From all of your other experiences, one of the things that you had said to me in the past was when you lost all your belongings, you realized what you need and what you don't need. Yes. When they were pulling everything out in wheelbarrows, you know, I had church groups, and I had friends come in, and one said, oh, my God, you have such great clothes. And so I says, well, that'll give me a reason, really, to stay fit and get healthy, and I won't need those anymore. What truly matters. Yeah, it truly matters. And I said, I was healthy. I was able to walk out. I'm grateful that we are so healthy that we can do this, or we wouldn't have been able to walk through that. I did lose the pictures. So I have no pictures from my childhood. They were in my. My mother's standalone arm was. And the bottom part was cedar. So I always put all our pictures so that if you had silverfish, I knew they wouldn't get in there. I lost all of them. Lost all of them. We had no clothes. Okay. So one of the churches was given out, and he says, well, I'll let the other people go. We're both. We'll let the other people go. And the lady came up to us and said, you know, you are the other people. You really. Do you have anything? And I said, no. So you lost all of your clothing as well. I didn't think about that. Yeah, I lost everything. But again, in the hindsight of everything you don't really need all that stuff. The stuff can be replaced. We lost stuff. It's just stuff. But we have our health. You know, we're happy, we're healthy. You know, it's just stuff. I think when we air this episode, we'll make sure that we drop some pictures of what the neighborhood really looked like so that people can see. So if you're just listening to this, take a look on YouTube, you'll be able to see some of the pictures of what the aftermath of this was like. It was pretty devastating. It really did look like a war zone. You're amazing. I mean, your attitude through the whole thing is amazing. And all the blessings that you know, came of it. Let's talk about that. Some of the blessings that came from this horrible situation. My house needed updated. Okay, I'm going to be honest. It needed updated. It's not exactly how I would have had it because everything had to happen so fast. I learned how to contract. A friend of mine taught me how to contract, and I'm forever grateful for him. And he said, you need to, you need to be a negotiator. And I said, I said, I gotta live in this house. You don't have to live in this house. But I did negotiate. There are all those people skills that you've learned, like with your dad and the business and waiting tables and your own business practice. Yeah. So you're learning contracting skills. I am. That's pretty amazing. And obviously you already have some negotiating skills, but you're getting an opportunity to practice some of them. You're getting a new beautiful home because, because it wasn't updated. I had a similar experience that our house was outdated and we got a, A new makeover to the house. It was a blessing. Why did you decide not to leave? A lot of people chose to leave, to leave their houses as is and abandon them and never go back. You know, I wasn't going to let it beat me. The house was paid off. I'm not moving. I says, will rebuild it. You're not going to let fear drive. I'm not going to let your trap drag me down. And I, I, that's going back to how I grew up. That, that fear or discomfort, it may be a little bit. And it was, I mean, dealing with, with all the people. I would put my head down and I have a list of everything to do and, and there were some hiccups. We found out we had termites. You know, I mean, the good thing, it did happen because they were eating the hole through the window, you know, and it's. I thought, well, that's a plus. That's a benefit. Yeah, for sure. I had a. We flooded. Of course it ruined our flooring. But a handful of months prior to the hurricane, we had found out that our flooring had a defect in it. We had flooded about nine months prior and had the floors redone. And then a handful months later, we found out there was a defect in the flooring. And we had chosen not to redo the floors until after we were done building a pool. And so when we flooded, we didn't have to pay for those floors because they were already going to be replaced. It was such a blessing. The flooring was bad anyway. Yeah, we had a very similar experience. It was such a benefit that we found that out. Do you have any memories of some sort of wonderful miracle that came out of Hurricane Harvey? You know, I think it's just the people that came and helped. I just think that you saw the best in people. I think I felt grateful every day. Even though it was devastating to see and to experience. I felt grateful every single day, like you said, for friends, for family, for the amount of people that came and helped. I had complete strangers come to my house and help with the gutting, as you said, the mucking. You know, we were introducing ourselves to complete strangers in our homes. There were people walking around in our neighborhood with lunch sacks for people. I mean, it was incredible the way that our community looked out for each other. The men of India took out the carpet after everything was gone. And then churches came and helped clear the pantry. Helped did everything that they could. I had a neighbor that wanted to get back in as soon as possible because he had a two story that they actually moved back and stayed upstairs. And he would watch the house, him and his dog would walk. And he was. He was like, listen, I'm getting rid of this couch until you can find a couch that you want, you know, because it was upstairs. He says, why don't you just take it? You don't think about it. The whole city flooded. You couldn't get furniture. So I had a friend give me their king size bed for a year till we found something. Everybody was buying stuff. You know, the whole city was buying stuff because the whole house had to be sheetrocked, you know, there wasn't enough labor and materials. I was fortunate with the labor, but it was the materials. My neighbor across the street had had the India connection. I got my floors from them, I got my cabinets from them. He was also guiding me and he was also financing me. He charged like a percentage because he upfronted me the money until my insurance came in. But it goes back to friendships and connections. He wouldn't have done that for anybody. And I want to circle back to. You said one of the benefits was learning to contract. And I don't know that everyone realizes that a lot of companies and contractors were taking advantage of people. It was really sad. It was really and truly horrific. Some of the stories that I heard from people and their contractors that would take their money and never show back up. And yeah, it was really, really sad. So learning to do that was amazing for you, that you have all those skills that you can advocate and learn those skills and do that for yourself. I was fortunate that I had a very trustworthy contractor that was a friend of mine, and she was actually on my show this season. Ida Franklin with Venus Construction, who has since retired. But yeah, so I love that. I think that it just is important to point out that that that had happened to people. As you said that you were lucky. You had some of these connections and trustworthy people in your life. Someone said to me, once people's most prominent attributes are highlighted. For example, if you're a person with a servant's heart like yourself, that's going to be a highlighted part of you during a catastrophe. If you're a taker, you know, your natural tendency is to take from people, then that's going to get highlighted. If you're an angry person, that gets highlighted. If you're an optimistic person, that gets highlighted. And I found that to be true for me. I found that I looked at a lot of the experiences I was having as opportunities and my servant nature came out. As you were saying, when you were helping your elderly neighbors, I was out helping my elderly neighbors for you, what do you think was highlighted? The same. I don't ask for much, so I'm a giver, not a taker. I very seldom ask for anything. I just had a hard time asking for help. It was. It's not my nature. It made me look. But it also made me a better person because where you can handle it, somebody can't. You know, perspective, somebody. You know, even though our house was flooded, you know, people were really distraught and, you know, they just needed a hug. So you go up and you just tug them and say, everything will be okay. We'll take a deep breath and let's just kind of take a step back. Yeah, you're giving everybody a lot of grace, knowing that they're struggling as well. Do unto others as you'd want others do unto you. I live by that. And when the table makers come, I, you know, I dress and bless them and send them on their way. Did you have any tools or strategies, mantras, anything to help you through the, the hard times? I just said, God has a plan. You leaned on your face. Yeah. I says, God has a plan and we should show it to me. God has a plan. At one point when you were talking about mucking out your house after the hurricane, and for people who don't know what that is, there was nothing salvageable in some of these houses that sat for, for 10 days with water in them. I mean, there's just, it's moldy. There's no saving some of these things. And you said you were sad watching somebody wheelbarrow out all of your books. Yes. And I remember you telling me once upon a time you really weren't a reader, but along your 65 years, you, you developed a love for reading. You became a voracious reader. What kinds of things do you like to read? Believe or not, self help. But I read how people go from self doubt to being 6, 7 figure earners. I read how people change their lives around because I always want to grow. So you really use books as a tool? I use books to better yourself, yes. So when I saw them wearing out my books, I had books from osteopaths. I had books that they're no longer alive. I had books that were signed by people saying, good luck, I know you'll make it. I know that you and I have read a lot of the same books. If you had to pick one, which was your favorite. So again, it was Napoleon Hill. So now a new person is. His name is Rob Sperry because what he does is he interviews all these people and his major masterminds on how they got ahead and what they found out. Because these were down a lot of people. These were people that were drug addicted. These were, they were, these were people living out of their car, supporting their family. It was how their resilience was that they found something. Somebody gave them a chance. Somebody believed in them. Let's circle back around for a minute. So your house is rebuilt. Yes, yes. And we've talked about some of the benefits. You mentioned that your business had just started inside of your home. What does that look like today? Most of my clients have moved on. When my house flooded, their house flooded and they didn't know what to do. A lot of them moved into Houston, which is anywhere from 25 to 30 miles away. If you think so. You lost a lot of clients. I lost a lot of my clients. And I pivoted into different things and I sat down and I asked, what do I really want? And I still want to do massages, but to the people that really need it. It. But I was asking myself, where do I see myself in five years? Just as. Just as we were starting to rebuild and I was starting to network, Covid hit. So, you know, I had this downtime. So it is rebuilding the travel. And people are so scared to travel by themselves. They're so scared and do everything. Well, the company that I'm with, they fix that. You can go with a group of people, not spend a lot of money. And it's not a travel. It's actually like an Amazon lifestyle company, but on steroids. But their main product is travel. And it fits into what I want to do. So what my business looks like is I'm still traveling, I'm still doing everything, and I'm still massaging, but not as many. I love massages, but I can't do four or five like I used to a day. I may be able to do two and I'm tired. I do an hour and a half to two hour massages and. And I love it. But it's. The business is picking up back again. But it also took a cycle, you know, it took six years. Yeah, I didn't even think about that. That probably affected your business as well. That's another episode for the Monomyth Diaries. To talk about that with you, that was a biggie. I never really thought about that. Okay, so when you rebuilt your house, you're still practicing out of your home. Yes. It took a while to get people to come back to the house. Now it's not to the full practice that it was before Harvey. It definitely was not. Right. But you've adapted now and you're doing the traveling business as well as. And the traveling is going to morph into full time when I'm ready to retire from massage. And I'm thinking two to three years. So you're setting yourself up. Setting myself up Two to three years. And I want to bring people I like. I like a squirrel squad. People like to travel with people. And you like to travel by yourself. I do. I love that. And now you're helping other people learn to do that inexpensively. Inexpensively? Yes. On a budget. On a budget. And if people want more information about what it is that you're doing, how do they get the. That My phone number. Okay. We'll drop that in the show notes. And what's the name of your company? The Traveling Squirrel Girl. The Traveling Squirrel Girl. Imagine, just imagine a squirrel going down the highway or on a cruise ship, or ziplining with purple hair, flying, wearing sunglasses. That's you, that's me. And I love that because it is part of your personality. I think through all of these experiences that you've had, you want to live life to its fullest today because you might not have tomorrow. And so you truly live with a positive attitude in today. And I love that about you. You're always making yourself uncomfortable so that you can grow. I love that. Yes. Good for you, Sam. How do you hope your monomyth and all of these experiences will uplift our listeners? Life is too short. It's too short, it goes too fast, and before you know it, you're 80 years old. And you've never, never dealt with that one dream that you had. Whether it's traveling to Alaska, repelling off rocks, or just eating and sipping wine in Paris, or even just sitting on a beach, just looking and having a beach day. But make it the memories so vivid that you're gonna go, that was fantastic. I knew you were gonna say something like that because I remember one of the first pieces of wisdom that I took from you was when you said, life is a collection of experiences. And that is so true. But that's what I would say. I would say life is to be lived. It's too short. Never have any regrets and just do what makes you happy, Whatever makes you laugh, do it 10 times more. Yeah. Laughing is medicine. One of the questions we always ask our guests is, how are you giving back to the community? You have been through a series of pretty life changing experiences from moving to Texas, your aneurysm suffering through Hurricane Harvey, and you come out on the other side with all these gifts and all these benefits. How are you giving back to your community today? What does that look like? So I give massages to people I know that can't afford them. I'll do one or two a month. And I normally give them to people that give back. They have the same issues I do. We are so giving that we forget to treat ourselves. And then the travel just started. I have travel mixers, but I focus on the people that just need to meet different people so that they can get out of their comfort zone to talk to different people and to make new friends. You really like to connect people, and I have really appreciated you've done that for me as well. Yeah, You're a connector, for sure. I'm there when people need me. I normally give extra time to people. Yeah, you are a very giving person. You give people your time. We always end every episode with an attitude of gratitude, and we weren't able to do that on your other two because I knew there was going to be one more. So it's an attitude of gratitude. It's an opportunity for you to acknowledge anybody in your life that's been a significant part of your journey. You know, there so many. One, of course, foremost is my husband because he puts up with my squirrel moments. But I've had so many great mentors, and I'm grateful for all of them because you take away something, whether they know they're giving you those bits and pieces, but that's where the listening skills come in. I say to them all the time, well, thank you for your time because I really learned a whole lot from you. And they said, well, I really didn't say anything. And I said, you say a lot. You are a very good listener. I love that I can call you anytime and I know that you're going to listen. That is definitely a skill that you give back to the world. Well, I admire you and your bravery and all your optimism and the way that you look at life. I really appreciate you coming on the show and being willing to come three times and share all of these different chapters of your life and all of the experiences and growth that you've had because of them. So we really appreciate you being on the show. Thanks again for joining us. Thank you. And you know, when you have more chapters that you want to share, let us know. Oh, there will always be more ziplining, something. That's right, because you're always looking at life as an opportunity to grow and to have experiences. As we close this chapter of Sam's Monomyth, we're reminded that even in the wake of destruction, there can be renewal. Hurricane Harvey may have taken much from Sam, but it also revealed her strength, deepened her gratitude, and strengthened her faith in community. Her story is a testament to how rebuilding isn't just about walls and roofs. It's about spirit, purpose, and connection. If this chapter of Sam's Monomyth moved you, we invite you to share a moment in your own life when loss gave way to growth. Your story might be the light someone needs to see today. Thanks for joining us on the Monomyth Diaries. If this episode resonates with you or someone you know, we'd love for you to share it and spread the inspiration don't forget to follow us wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube to stay connected, we'd appreciate if you could take a moment and rate and rate view the podcast. It helps us reach more people with stories of transformation and growth. You can visit us@monomuth diaries.com or text us directly from the show notes to reach out and keep the conversations going. Until next time, heroes. Let's journey together through our Monomuth.