Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla, and I'm the host of this podcast.

Jaenika, like many others in the Delonis shelter in Washtenaw County and shelters around the country, never had a chance to run from unstable housing because she was born into it. The homeless issue within the United States has only grown since the pandemic, surging to record highs in 2024 of around 770,000 homeless persons in the country.

When I first saw Jaenika coming through the door to the interview room, I noticed she had a notepad full of notes she had taken to prepare and was ready by the first question, which surprised me, because most interviewees came empty handed except for the experts. She looked well put together and proper. She mentioned holding jobs in the medical field and having children who went to good universities and who had successful families of their own. To me, she seemed like a regular person I might meet at the supermarket. And yet, her story reverberated the simple message of empathy in a raw way that I admittedly have never truly opened myself up to to hear in such a light, and her words begged that humanity choose to be kind, to listen to others, and to help those who were never given the opportunity to help themselves.

After our interview, I continued my conversation with Jaenika and I asked her if there was anything else people like me could do to help. She told me to listen. To see with my own eyes the struggle of others, and to hear the stories of those less fortunate. To give warmth not just through blankets and donations of food, but empathy. The simplest and most seemingly obvious answer that has been drilled into us since we were kids, one that we as a society have yet to embrace as not just a concept, but a necessity.

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla, and I'm the host of this podcast.

As you may have inferred from the title, this is the second part of "The Business of Being," our segment dedicated to a certain member of Unlock Highest Dimension, a nonprofit for "gathering people with spirit gifts around the world and opening their connection with the high dimensional wisdom of the Universe so they can complete their calling and return to the N-dimensional Universe," as stated in their mission statement.

In this episode, we continue out conversation on the necessities of such an organization in a time where it seems as if modern beliefs trump spiritual ones and dive into the intricacies of both managing and enjoying being part of such an organization.

This will be the final part of her story, closing off this unique segment.

Welcome back to this person I met! My name is Kayla, and I’m the host of this podcast.

Recently, I had the chance to meet up with a close family friend. Upon first meeting her, it was easy to make assumptions in my head. She graduated from MIT with a degree in business. She’s worked with one of the largest investment banking companies in the US. She talks a lot about investing in stocks and advises me to start saving when I am young. By the end of our first few days together, I naively thought I knew her entire character. It turns out, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

In this episode, she talks of her interest in the higher dimensions of the universe, as well as her role in the nonprofit “Unlock Highest Dimension,” which helps discover individuals with special gifts. As our conversation progresses, she dives into the idea of the “N-dimension,” as well as soul and spirit, which help forge the connection between our physical bodies and the infinite universe.

Despite my months of work with this podcast, her story served as another reminder that I never truly know until I ask. As a quick heads up, due to the length of our conversation, this story will be split into two segments.