catchiNG up: Beyond the Classroom

Peter Ng
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Personal Journals
  • Updated Weekly

What happens to the people who shaped you — after the bell rings? catchiNG Up is a reflective podcast where educator Peter Ng reconnects with former students, colleagues, and friends to explore who they were, who they're becoming, and what they've learned along the way. Because learning doesn't stop when the bell rings. Want to be featured? linktr.ee/The_catchiNGupPodcast

  1. 2d ago

    Episode 18 - Lifting Through the Setbacks

    This week on catchiNG Up, I'm reconnecting with Zach Nelson — someone I first crossed paths with back at Nike, where our timelines almost overlapped. Zach's now a store manager at a medical dispensary, and we spend this episode tracing the road that got him there. We open by swapping Nike stories — Zach started at the St. Augustine store back in April 2010 while he was still in his second semester at Flagler College, and I share my own experience working the massive Orlando I-Drive location, including my brief career as an in-store "hype man." We compare notes on just how intense Nike's brand culture could get depending on which store you worked, and why the Orlando flagships operated on a completely different level than smaller outlet locations. From there, we dig into Zach's path from retail into dispensary management, what that industry actually looks like day to day, and how a recent promotion has let him start seriously attacking old debt. We also talk candidly about the toll of a demanding pre-IB course load in high school, why he made the call to step back into regular honors classes, and how that decision — which felt like a setback at the time — ended up being the right one. The back half of the conversation turns to Zach's return to powerlifting after years of setbacks from back injuries. He opens up about what it's taken to get back in the gym, the competition he's training for now, and what it means to chase PRs again after feeling like so much time was lost. It's a real look at what patience and rebuilding actually look like. We close things out with our signature growth question — and Zach's answer, that growth is simply being able to look back and honestly say "I'm better than I was," is exactly why this episode is called what it is. Growth isn't always linear, and Zach's story is proof that setbacks aren't the end of the road — they're just part of it. 🎧 New episodes every Wednesday. Clips every Friday.📲 Follow us on Instagram: @The_catchinguppodcast🔗 Linktree: linktr.ee/The_catchiNGupPodcast #catchiNGUp #GrowthIsntLinear #Powerlifting

  2. Jul 15

    Episode 17 - The Girl Behind the Screen

    Some students you never forget — even the ones you first met through a computer screen. In this episode, Peter reconnects with Jandayra "J" Gonzalez, a former student from the strangest chapter of teaching either of them can remember: hybrid learning during COVID, when a class of masked faces and Big Blue Button tiles somehow turned into one of the closest groups Peter ever taught. J and Peter look back on what it was actually like building a real connection through a screen — the guesswork of imagining what your classmates looked like under their masks, the "social wild west" of a group chat full of kids who just wanted someone to talk to, and the surreal moment they finally recognized each other in person for the first time. From there, the conversation moves into where J's life has gone since: working her way through Seven Brew as a barista, learning to drive for the first time as a young adult, moving to a brand-new town where she knew no one, and slowly finding her footing as a Writing and Rhetoric student at UCF. The two also dig into J's quiet, ongoing relationship with creative writing — from a secret poetry account she deleted in high school to the writing she's only now getting comfortable sharing again. As always, we close with our two signature segments: something we each learned today (this one involves tooth enamel and a Mitski song played 203 times), and the advice J would give her past self if she could sit down with her — a reminder that most of what feels catastrophic in the moment usually isn't "the ruin of England." A conversation about screens turning into real relationships, chosen versus given community, and figuring out who you are once no one's watching anymore. 🎧 New episodes every Wednesday, clips every Friday.📱 Follow us on Instagram @catchingupthepodcast for behind-the-scenes content.Growth isn't always linear — and neither is figuring out who you're becoming.

  3. Jul 8

    Episode 16 — Andres Valcarcel: Engineering Dropout to Serial Entrepreneur, Ironman Grit & the Nostalgia Economy

    This week, Peter reconnects with Andres Valcarcel — a UCF classmate he shared math classes with 13 years ago — for a conversation that spans career pivots, entrepreneurship, endurance sports, and the search for meaning outside of a screen.Andres started at UCF chasing an engineering degree and walked away with one in finance instead. A connection from high school led him into the live event ticket brokerage business, where he learned to manage his own book of business, relationships, and inventory from the ground up. That early hustle became the foundation for what he's built since: he's now a co-founder of two companies, including a collectibles business spanning action figures, trading cards, and comic books, and Take Flight, a sports performance company gearing up to launch its own beverage line.Peter and Andres dig into the wild growth of the collectibles market — from a $10 billion industry six years ago to $75 billion today — and what that boom says about our collective craving for nostalgia and joy in an age of constant screen time and app fatigue.The conversation also turns to cycling and endurance sports, which Andres picked up during COVID as a way to process uncertainty and eventually built into completing a full Ironman. He opens up about the mental and even spiritual side of endurance racing, including a hallucination during the marathon leg where he saw a vision of his eight-year-old self cheering him on — and the advice that moment left him with: cheer harder for yourself, especially for the small wins.Along the way: e-bikes and responsibility, the last generation to remember life before constant connectivity, and why growth is rarely a straight line.If you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone who could use a reminder that growth isn't always linear.Follow us on Instagram @catchingupthepodcast for clips every Friday, and catch new episodes every Wednesday.catchiNG Up: Beyond the Classroom — where conversations continue beyond the classroom.

  4. Jul 2

    Episode 15: From High School Anatomy Class to NASA's Artemis Program — Mariana Ramirez on Chasing the Moon

    Peter reconnects with former student Mariana Ramirez, a UCF computer engineering and game design grad heading into a full-time role with Lockheed Martin on the Orion program — the capsule that will carry astronauts back to the moon and, eventually, to Mars under NASA's Artemis missions. Mariana traces her path from a high school Game, Model & Simulation class to a NASA internship, and shares what it's actually like working toward humanity's return to the moon. She and Peter reminisce about their anatomy class days — the "coffee shop classroom," a still-hanging student painting, and a shared love of Marvel and tattoos — before diving into Mariana's world: learning Japanese as a third language, rebuilding a Pokémon card collection after a devastating loss, and living for EDM festivals like EDC and Ultra Miami. They also get real about growth, identity, and resilience — from graduating during COVID lockdowns to navigating a male-dominated engineering field as a Latina, and the family sacrifices that shaped her drive. Plus: Toxoplasma gondii (yes, the cat parasite), Japan travel tips for Peter's upcoming trip, and advice for anyone still figuring out where they fit. In this episode: Working on NASA's Artemis/Orion program and the road to MarsFrom Timber Creek High School to UCF's #1-ranked game design programRebuilding a Pokémon card collection worth thousandsEDC, Ultra Miami, and the culture of music festival communitiesNavigating engineering as a woman and a LatinaGrowth, gratitude, and honoring immigrant parentsAdvice for her 16-year-old selfFollow @catchingupthepodcast on Instagram for clips every Friday and new episodes every Wednesday. Catching Up — where conversations don't end when the bell rings.

  5. Jun 24

    Episode 14: From Angst to Action — with William Woods

    This week on catchiNG Up, Peter sits down with William Woods — trading card store owner, political organizer, DSA Orlando chapter member, miniature painter, former YouTuber, and a self-described "very autistic" person who once walked a leash-trained Nile monitor around a Georgia high school. To say William has had a non-traditional path is an understatement. The conversation kicks off exactly where you'd expect — a near-drowning experience involving a speedboat, an inner tube, and William's deep conviction that open water is simply evil. From there, Peter and William trace a winding road through military kid life, relocating every three years, and what it's like to be uprooted at 14 and dropped into deep South Bible Belt, Georgia, where the options were essentially church, Walmart, or drugs. (William chose World of Warcraft. Arguably the right call.) Along the way, they dig into how William turned a beat-up base set Charizard into a business during COVID — and how Collectible Squids grew from a side hustle into a community-centered store with a no-Nazis, no-scalpers, sell-under-MSRP policy that has earned a dedicated, queer-friendly following. Oh, and how a shoutout from a niche Warhammer podcast crashed his website. Twice. But it doesn't stay lighthearted. William opens up about navigating autism without a diagnosis as a kid, bottling anger he didn't have the tools to process, the struggle of asking for help in an environment that didn't understand panic attacks (or much else), and why therapy was the thing that finally helped him get his act together. His take on mental health is exactly the kind of grounded, no-pretense honesty this show lives for: "You can get irritable bowel syndrome. You can also get irritable brain syndrome. It's an organ just like anything else." There's also a real conversation about the ethics of loving things made by overworked people — from anime production culture in Japan to gaming industry unions forming right now — and how William thinks about running a business where profit above bills goes right back into the community. His answer to what growth looks like today? "Everything that is mine is and should always be yours." He's not just saying it. He means it. If you're a fan of trading cards, Warhammer, reptiles, niche internet history, or just a really honest conversation about figuring yourself out — this one's for you. 📍 Find William and Collectible Squids at collectiblesquids.com and in store at Almighty Boba Café near UCF in Oviedo, FL.

  6. Jun 17

    Episode 13 - From Boots to Wings

    In this episode of catchiNG up, Peter reconnects with Mason Vilsaint, a former Timber Creek student who's traded a military police badge for a pilot's wings. Mason served three and a half years as an Army MP after enlisting just days after high school graduation, and is now a student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University working toward becoming a commercial pilot. Mason opens up about the winding road that got him here: a turbulent stretch of high school spent living out of district and commuting nearly 45 minutes each way, a recruiter's cold call that changed his trajectory, and the unexpected lessons in authority and responsibility that came from policing a military base barely out of his teens. He and Peter dig into what it really felt like to patrol alongside soldiers twice his age, the moment he decided to pivot from the Army to aviation with zero flying experience, and the disorienting physical sensations pilots train to overcome (yes, anatomy comes up). The conversation turns reflective as Mason talks about being a 23-year-old freshman, mentoring younger classmates, and redefining what growth looks like now that the markers aren't as simple as passing grades. He credits the relationships and structure he built in high school, sports, student government, and yes, Peter's anatomy class, with giving him the foundation to take a leap of faith most people wouldn't. This one's a reminder that the path to where you're going rarely looks like a straight line, and that the people who show up for you along the way matter more than you realize at the time. Follow @the_catchinguppodcast on Instagram for clips and behind-the-scenes content, and catch new episodes every Wednesday.

  7. Jun 10

    Episode 12 - From the Library to Seoul: Natalie Fuentes Finds Her Place

    What do you do when you're 15, back in a city you left behind, and every friend group has already formed without you? For Natalie Fuentes, the answer was a classroom — a room with the music, anatomy posters, and a teacher who never minded company at lunch. In this episode of catchiNG Up, I reconnect with Natalie, a former anatomy student from the Class of 2019 who's now finishing her psychology degree at UCF on the industrial-organizational track. What started as "I just wanted a fun science class" turned into one of the most meaningful conversations of the season. We talk about: 🪑 The lunch table that wasn't a table — how an empty classroom became a safe space, and how one student quietly built a community without realizing it 🧠 Finding her lane in psychology — why Natalie pivoted from neuroscience to I/O psych, and what she wants her career to look like 🇰🇷 Eight months in Seoul — studying Korean abroad, why English speakers struggle with Korean grammar, and learning to read the lyrics she'd been singing for years 🌏 The "little world tour" — Japan, China, Korea, and Bali in one summer, plus her travel tips for my own Japan trip this December 💜 BTS, SEVENTEEN, and a Super Bowl theory — front-row barricades, fandom culture, and why I'm convinced a K-pop halftime show is coming ⏳ Advice to her 16-year-old self — "Time really does heal." Natalie opens up about the hardest year of her life, the anger she carried, and the resilience she didn't recognize until years later This is what catchiNG Up is all about: the student who sat quietly in the corner becomes the world traveler, the survivor, the big sister giving advice no one wants to hear, yet. Growth isn't always linear — but it's always worth talking about. 🎧 New episodes every Wednesday | Clips every Friday📲 Follow us on Instagram: @thecatchingupPodcast catchiNG Up: where conversations continue beyond the classroom.

  8. Jun 3

    Episode 11 - Jack of All Trades: A Conversation with My Brother Victor

    Season 2 kicks off with a family reunion. Peter sits down with his oldest brother, Victor Ng, a realtor, Air Force veteran, and self-described jack of all trades. Victor shares what it was like growing up in the Dominican Republic, where the school system put students together from first grade all the way through graduation, and how a disruptive but brilliant friend shaped some of his most memorable moments in class. He also opens up about enlisting in the Air Force in 1999, being stationed in Kuwait just weeks before September 11th, and what those 97 consecutive days of 12-hour shifts actually felt like. But it's not all heavy — Victor's story includes a legendary cheat sheet operation, bribing his teachers with sandwiches and $100 bills, and arriving in the U.S. knowing exactly four sentences of English. The episode closes with Victor's advice to his younger self: start investing early, because a 9-to-5 alone won't get you off the hamster wheel. A candid, funny, and surprisingly profound conversation between two brothers with a 15-year age gap and a whole lot of catching up to do.

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What happens to the people who shaped you — after the bell rings? catchiNG Up is a reflective podcast where educator Peter Ng reconnects with former students, colleagues, and friends to explore who they were, who they're becoming, and what they've learned along the way. Because learning doesn't stop when the bell rings. Want to be featured? linktr.ee/The_catchiNGupPodcast

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