ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ

Caitlin Bassett:
It's not that I wasn't afraid of failure. I was terrified of failure, but I was more afraid of living a life full of choices that I regretted. I was willing to stand in the just terror of making a fool of myself because at least I'm making a fool of myself, instead of everyone else making a fool of me because I'm just doing, you know, what I thought they wanted me to do.

Intro:
Welcome to the ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ podcast, "Unstoppable Stories" with your host Lauren Cardillo.

Lauren Cardillo:
Today I'm joined by Caitlin Bassett, a ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ grad, military vet, and also an actress. Welcome Caitlin. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me, Lauren. First question I just have to ask. How'd you get from that horse loving Maryland kid to, you know, Afghanistan? Military?

Caitlin Bassett:
Yeah, uh, well, you know, it was a different time, Lauren. It's a different time. Um, So I grew up, I don't want to say I grew up in a military family because I wasn't in a military family in the sense that like we traveled and moved in a military brat, which is a horrible thing, but is the same. Um, but I, my grandfather was in World War II and my dad was in Vietnam and you know, there had always been kind of a representation.

Um, and honestly, and if you kind of track my life, it makes sense. Now, um, uh, my dad is a phenomenal storyteller. He, he was a sportscaster for years. He's, and just, you know, he's excellent at that. So not only did I grow up with this kind of, uh, gentleman who could just tell a wonderful story, but he told stories about Vietnam.

He told stories about his time in the military. Uh, and I grew up with that and we like to watch Jag and, you know, all of those types of shows. And it just became a very important staple in my house. Um, and then when I was turning 18 and needed to take some responsibility for myself and my life, uh, I, I kind of had that always in the back of my mind is, is a, is a viable path for me.

And, and I'm, I'm really grateful to my dad and my mom and everybody, my grandfather, they never made it feel like it was only for the boys. There wasn't a lot in my life that they made feel like it was only for the boys. Like, I learned how to run fly patterns in the front yard. Like, I learned how to play football.

Like, you know, that was just, I grew up on a farm. So, like, you have to do stuff. Uh, being a girl is no excuse for not learning things. Um, so it was just, it was always a path for me. And, and so I, I took it. And it also felt You know, 9 11 had deeply impacted my life. My parents ended up splitting up afterwards cause they took different jobs and how the economy was kind.

It was just a lot, you know, it really, it changed the world and it, and it also changed my world. Um, and I, I do remember a specific moment where my dad was, we were watching the towers fall and my dad was kind of, he was crying on the couch. And I'd never seen my dad cry. And I, and I asked why, and he said, there's just a lot of old vets like me out there that wish they could do something about this and they can't, uh, and they're too old.

And there's something in me then I was 11 years old. I kind of knew then I was probably going to go at some point. And then, and then it just kind of ended up coming to fruition.

Lauren Cardillo:
Just, you know, reading through your history and things you've told me previously wasn't really like in your, on your bingo card in high school.

You know what I mean? Like, I remember you telling me that, you know, things were sort of a little bit out of control and you needed to graduate and, you know, I mean, it's so. Yes.

Caitlin Bassett:
Technically, I was never a senior in high school. I was a junior twice and then graduated. Yeah, my, my dance card for high school was supposed to be drama and musical theater and, uh, and, and basketball.

I was a basketball player and then I got to high school and I didn't make the basketball team. Uh, they won states every year. It was a very competitive school to get on the girls basketball program. Um, and I, uh, my parents started getting divorced. My whole life started crumbling. Uh, I did not get into the drama program.

Um, me and the drama teacher did not do well together. Uh, and, and it just all kind of crumbled around me. And, and by the end of that run, uh, I was like, well, I'm not going to go to college, uh, for me. So what am I going to do? Uh, and it just felt like. You know, the military at the time for me felt like I, a way to reset my life, um, and, and also do something that I felt had value, right?

And when, I think when you're young and you're looking to find value in yourself, you're willing to do things that you find value in as a, as a first

Lauren Cardillo:
step, which is fair. So, how many days after high school graduation did you sign up and enlist?

Caitlin Bassett:
Oh, I signed up a week after I turned 18. So I was still in high school.

It was, I turned 18 March 16th. So a week after that.

Lauren Cardillo:
So I remember you also saying it was sort of the family business, the idea of helping others or serving was sort of ingrained in you early.

Caitlin Bassett:
I think so. Like I said, I grew up on dad's stories. I grew up on, on there being honor in service. And, you know, I grew up on a little farm and I don't think my mom ever met a stray that she didn't take in, right?

Like, you know, there were just cats and things and, and so we had those values that, that service was, was important and being of use to something bigger than yourself was important. And I, I, I felt, I felt called to do, do something other than just sit around and be an angry 18 year old that didn't feel productive.

were honorable to me.

Lauren Cardillo:
So you enlist, boot camp, and then where do you get shipped to?

Caitlin Bassett:
Uh, I did, I did a year of training in Texas, uh, in, in San Angelo, Texas, which you've, you've never been to. Uh, I promise. Uh, no one's been to. Um, and then after that, my first duty station was actually Hawaii. Which, was pretty lucky.

Lauren Cardillo:
But eventually you ended up, like, getting off a plane in Afghanistan. I

Caitlin Bassett:
did, yeah. My, my first and second? Oh goodness. Certainly my first deployment was out of, you know, my first deployment was out of Hawaii and then I did two more out of, um, Fort Meade, Maryland when I, because that was my second duty station.

Lauren Cardillo:
So, kid from Maryland goes to Afghanistan, I'm guessing a middle of a desert. What's it like?

Caitlin Bassett:
It was actually the middle of a mountain range. Um, I was at a place called Fobshank, which, uh, has been long dis, you know, uh, dismembered is not the word. What's the word? Disassembled. I don't know.

Lauren Cardillo:
Decommissioned.

Caitlin Bassett:
Yeah, okay. Yes.

It's kaput. Okay. It's kaput.

Caitlin Bassett:
Um, uh, it was Fobshank. So it was nicknamed Rocket City because, and it was originally, history, uh, a Russian airbase. Um, because it was the only area in that region, it was like the north, uh, eastern region, um, that, that had a flat enough, a place flat enough to put a runway, to, to, to put the big planes, right?

But it was in between these, like, peaks of mountains. So they, people just used a lot of bombs onto the base because it was easy to. You could just, you just tossed it off the mountain. And it would go into the little tiny valley that, um, that Shank was built in. So it was nicknamed Rocket City because it was just, it was constantly, just all day, just 8, 9, 10, 12, you know, all day long.

You're just getting martyred. But you had to, you have to maintain that area because it's the only place to put a person. put a big plane down. Um, so you need, you need the land. So, uh, that was where I went. Um, and it was right, it was in 2011. It was right after Osama bin Laden had been killed. So the Taliban were in the middle of one of their major re offensives.

Um, the first time I tried to land at Fabshank, we couldn't land because the. The air, this airstrip was being bombed. So we had to, we had to come up. Yeah, it was crazy. Like, oh, and it was very like, welcome to Afghanistan.

Lauren Cardillo:
Very welcome to Afghanistan. Welcome to Afghanistan. We're going to lava rocket at you, which, you know,

I get it.

Lauren Cardillo:
So what was your, what was your job there besides avoiding the rockets?

Caitlin Bassett:
So I was, I was Intel, so we, I mostly worked on the base. Um, and it was this, you know, little hole that they kind of shoved us in. And my job was to, um, I mean, ultimately keep American troops alive, uh, and also further whatever command goals there are.

So if they're looking, you know, for certain networks or certain bomb makers or certain, uh, people. I would give as much information as we could. You know, this person tends to come in this time or they have their family here. They're coming in town to visit somebody, you know what I mean? As much as we could, um, give, give the guys that were actually going to be out there.

You know, taking bullets, um, that was my job.

Lauren Cardillo:
So set the scene for me about how you found ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ. Like, pretend, pretend, pretend I'm reading a script and it says, like, exterior Rocket City. There's a building, and you're watching, you're, you know, yeah, exactly. Go ahead.

Caitlin Bassett:
Uh, so I'm at Rocket City. I'm at Fobshank, and.

Um, I had been wanting to get my degree, you know, even when I went into the army, I always knew I wanted to get my education. That was always one of the goals. Um, and actually ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ, UMUC at the time, but ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ now, uh, had sent a rep, a rep to Fab Shea. So this poor man that you had conned into going to Afghanistan on your But Half, um, was out there, and I remembered actually, like, the fir I think it was the first time I tried to go.

I was delayed by, like, a month because that building that he had been set up in had been bombed. And, and had been blown up. So they were repairing it, and they were, like, moving buildings, so it was, like, So, so, day one, I went to go find my higher education to see if I could see what this was all about, and they were like, oh, sorry, we're closed, we got bombed.

And I was like, oh, that's fair. You know, that's a fair reason to close. Uh, and so I went back to my office, um, and then I, I came back like maybe, you know, a couple weeks later. Uh, and I met a lovely gentleman out there who I hope is making a lot of money. And, and, uh, we kind of talked about the programs and what was available.

And, and when I got back to, when I got back, he helped me get enrolled there, but I couldn't, I wasn't going to start classes until I got back because it was, you know, I was busy.

Lauren Cardillo:
Uh, yeah, even if you were doing them online, I would have to imagine it was hard to just log on and, you know, in the middle of all that chaos.

Caitlin Bassett:
I did do them a little bit on my later deployments. Um, the first, this, I will say the first one was the most intense. Not only were we being rocketed all day, but I was working in a very kinetic area. I was working with the infantry, like, and so like I had guys that were going out on Maybe not my suggestion, but certainly my intelligence.

That I was responsible for, right? Like, you know, in, in at least morally to Caitlin, um, uh, if somebody goes out and dies on a mission, you know what I mean? That you're, it's a big, it's a, it's heavy. So I just didn't have the capacity to do that at that point. Um, but on my second and third deployment, I did a little bit on, this is the second one.

Um, but then it was, it, it got too much and I was like, you know what? I need to focus cause I'm here. Uh, but then on my third one, it was, I was actually in Qatar, so I wasn't in Afghanistan that time. And, and that, that time I, I was actually able to finish, I finished. I sent in like some of my final papers for my final classes because I, I finished those classes and then I graduated.

Lauren Cardillo:
Goal achieved, right?

Caitlin Bassett:
Goal

Lauren Cardillo:
achieved! Do you remember your graduation day? Do you remember that, you know, commencement day? We actually went looking for footage. Because we, so like, we have, we have a feed from the other, that day. My

Caitlin Bassett:
hair was a little different. It was a little different. Did you have glasses on?

I had glasses on and I had very short hair. So what'd that feel like, though? When you were a bit of a kid who, who screwed up quite a bit. And you, you know what I mean, uh, to, to, to not only kind of make up for that and, you know, and get your, get your feet back under you, but then to go home and, and graduate in front of your family, in front of your friends.

Um, it really felt like, uh, like a chapter, like, you know what I mean? Like I can close the kind of chapter that was before, and we are now onto a new life. Um, and they were so proud of me. Um, and my cousin, who's the best and also the autistic, he was going into college at the time. Uh, and he, he goes, Hey, how, how many years did it take you to graduate?

And I said, well, it, it only took me about four when I started, uh, cause I got all those credits to start so I could do it part time. And he was like, and how old are you? And I was like, 25 at the time. And I, and I was like, 25? And he goes, That took you a long time. .

Thanks Alex.

Thank you for being honest, . He, he was completely honest and he was completely honest, completely. If you're not wrong, it, it took me a second.

Lauren Cardillo:
But that, you know, just to go on a little tangent for a moment, but that's sort of the story of most ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ grads. You know, they're non traditional learners, they're adult learners, and things take time because there's challenges and obstacles and, you know, life happens and you're a perfect example of that.

So fast forward for a sec, because then you go to law school. For two years.

Caitlin Bassett:
I did.

Lauren Cardillo:
Which you think is a great idea. 'cause you had a legal studies degree, right?

Caitlin Bassett:
I totally did. Yep. , it was, I was being so smart, Lauren, I was being so smart. And then what happens? And then I ruined it. No, uh, I did, I did my, look, I had planned to go to law school.

It was something I thought I thought I was gonna love and I didn't, not. Love it. I liked the school. I liked the information. Um, but I did the first year and look, the first year law school is already hard. And the first year out of the army is really hard. And the first year in New York city is really hard.

So I was like, it was the hardest year of my life. And I was thinking to myself, okay, well that was horrible. Um, but maybe it's not. Law school, maybe it's maybe I actually do like this and I and so I went for another year because I wanted to give it another year like now that my feet were underneath me a little bit more and it just Wasn't gonna make me happy and I could tell it was it was a knowing in my bones That this path was not gonna bring me closer to my purpose or to joy and it was safe And it was totally plausible, um, but similar to my time in the military, I felt, you can feel when the engines start to kick on.

You can feel when the, you know, the, the train is about to take off, and it's gonna, and, and once the train starts to move, it's very hard to get off of it. Uh, and, and, and the more success that you get, and the deeper down you go into these pads, the harder it is to turn around and walk out of them. And I had already done that once, and leaving the military was, was the hardest thing I had ever done, other than getting into the military, right?

Which is, is to my point, getting in is really hard, getting out is almost harder. And then getting into law school was really hard. And I realized, if I let this train keep going, I didn't know if I had it in me to get out of another path that I didn't want, really want to be on. Um, and so, I pulled the e brake.

And I, I started, I had taken, I had always wanted to act from high school. That was the plan. High school, the plan in high school was all I wanted to do was drama. And I, I thought, with myself, again, kind of going back to regretting things, I thought, look, I'm in New York City. There's all these possibilities around me.

I can go to these schools, I can take some classes, I can take some time. I can go back to law school. I can take a year and then go finish my law degree. I can go back to uh, intelligence. I can go back to the national security agency. But, but I'm never gonna be, I was 27 at the time, I was never gonna be 27 years old in New York City with no attachments, um, to actually take a wild swing like this.

So, I said, do it one time. One time, I will give you this permission to just make a bad decision. Because everything else had been a good decision. It was a good decision to go in the army. It was a great decision to go get my undergraduate degree. It was a great decision to go to law school. It, you know, these were all good, smart decisions.

Respectable decisions, and then I said okay one time. I'm gonna let you do something crazy I'm gonna let you make a crazy and everybody thought it was crazy And I totally get it if if I was my best friend right now And she was like I'm gonna quit law school at the end of my second year and go be an actor I'd be like you're you're crazy.

You're that's not that doesn't make any sense, and it doesn't Um, but that's what I did and, and it was the best thing I ever did.

Lauren Cardillo:
For someone watching this or, or listening to this, it sounds like failure or the fear of failure is not something that you worry about. You know what I mean? It's like you take risks in the hope of something else.

Caitlin Bassett:
Okay, Lauren, I'm terrified of failure. I'm terrified of failure. I'm so scared of it. Okay. Up until this point. I was on a TV show. I had a great job. I was stable. I got to go on these podcasts and talk about like, look, you can do it too. And then you make it and then you're fine. But now I'm back in the in between.

I'm back in the, I don't know what my future holds. I don't know what kind of shows are going to come down or when. I don't know what my finances are going to look like. I don't, you know, I don't know. I am in the middle right now. And my, and, but, but. That's part of it. And so it's not that I wasn't afraid of failure.

I was terrified of failure, but I was more afraid of living a life full of choices that I regretted. That I was, I was willing to be, stand in the, in the just terror of making a fool of myself. Because at least I'm making a fool of myself instead of you, everyone else making a fool of me, because I'm just doing what they would wanted, you know, what I thought they wanted me to do.

Um, so no, I'm, I'm terrified of it. I, the hardest thing I ever did was outside of get out of the army was get out of law school. I mean, what a boneheaded thing to do. Um, but it worked and it also, it made my life, my responsibility. There's no path. There's no enough, like, you will, you live and die by the sword now.

And it, it allowed me to take radical responsibility, which I now have to take again. Right? You know? There's no, nobody's, I, I don't have a TV show that's, and an NBC that's kind of packaging me and being like, Okay, there's, go be on that talk show. Go do that. Go do this interview. It's, it's back on me. Which is super scary, but there's also so much opportunity in it.

No, I'm terrified.

Lauren Cardillo:
And that, but that's something that's like, you know, if you're a, if a student or you're an entrepreneur or whatever, that's sort of an inspiring take on it, right? You're, you're, you're afraid, but you got to go. You have to do it. You know, which, which I think is probably most of our student body.

You know what I mean? Like who are adult learners and later in life. You got to do it. Which

Caitlin Bassett:
I love. That's, that was another thing about the ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ graduation and this community here, right, because I think, you know, people get on these paths or they're from this area and then everybody goes to one of these two or three schools and then everybody kind of marries each other and has kind of one or one of these, you know, degrees and they come back and, and it's a great, and you know, it's pretty predictable by the numbers and you're, you could see your groups, you can see your people.

Um, and I've always kind of felt like a, like a person without a people of, you know, I've, I've, I've floated through these different places in life and you meet a lot of other people like you, you're, you're people without people. And I felt like ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ was a really great place where I got to meet a lot of other people like me who hadn't taken a really traditional, you know, one of the three regular paths, and they were kind of just hobbling their life together as, as it was happening.

And, and it made me feel much less alone in my choices. Um, and, and in, you know, we all have to walk our own path, but it was nice to feel like I'm part of a community that does that.

Lauren Cardillo:
So jump us a little forward. So You decide to go to acting school three years.

Caitlin Bassett:
Yes. Yes. I did three years. It's the Stella Adler studio Which is an older theater school, which is kind of cool It was pretty steeped in American theater tradition.

Lauren Cardillo:
And what were you doing like odd jobs? Like, you know, how are you making life work?

Caitlin Bassett:
Yeah, well, uh, first of all, I had a GI Bill So I was able to go to school on that, which was, you know, enormous. And that had a small living stipend attached. And then I, um, I worked all sorts of things. I, I interned at CNBC and their documentary department.

I worked at a production house. As an, uh, archival documentary assistant. Like, just looking through the bowels of footage. Um, I was a PA on set. Cause I was trying to figure out, you know, do I really want to do this? So I PA'd on indie films. I worked at restaurants. I worked at bars. I, you know, I did I did New York.

Like, I did New York.

Lauren Cardillo:
Quintessential New York journey.

Caitlin Bassett:
Absolutely. Uh, much less glamorous than one would hope. Like much less glamorous, but, uh, but, but sometimes that's because I've met people who had very glamorous times in New York and it was amazing, but they missed that they missed the people that are working at the bars and like went to amazing schools and have amazing things they're working on, but this is just how they're surviving right now.

You know, you miss. That group, which was cool.

Lauren Cardillo:
I'm, I'm sure it was a great environment, you know, to, to be in. So, fast forward, and it's not really a fast forward, but you end up in L. A., because you're gonna take that chance, right? Another risk. And after auditioning for how many things, do you end up with an NBC primetime show?

Caitlin Bassett:
Well, I was actually still in New York. I got cast on New York City. I moved to L. A. for the show. Um, so I was still in New York. Uh And, and yeah, it took me quite a while to find a representation cause I was, which is geriatric and actress years. Um, and, and everybody in my category at my age had a resume a mile long, you know what I mean?

It was, and I kind of missed the streaming boom. So anyone who had been working, just had been working so much.

And I will never know how I got that job, but I did. And they swear to me that I was the right person for the job. They swear to me. I am like, but I did, I got, and it was the, it was such a traditional route. I auditioned. Then I got a callback. Then I got a network test. Then I get a, uh, uh, chemistry read.

And then I waited the whole, however long you could possibly wait that they have legally to get back to you. I waited that amount because they took every second to think about that one, which was fair.

Lauren Cardillo:
Yeah.

Caitlin Bassett:
And,

Lauren Cardillo:
and then, and then I got the call. So you get the call for the reboot of the 80s classic, Quantum Leap.

As an intelligence analyst, right, or an analyst, you're working in some military intelligence sort of setting.

Yeah.

Lauren Cardillo:
And I remember you saying your mom, you thought your mom must have called someone.

Caitlin Bassett:
Yeah.

Lauren Cardillo:
Like she

Caitlin Bassett:
wrote the part. She totally wrote the part. The part was, was wrote, written for me. It was, it was, uh, you know, it was my background.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, if, if, if Caitlin instead of law school had decided to go to science fiction time travel school and learned how to make a time travel, like that's what would have happened if you just took my life and you just went a little bit. to science fiction, that was my life. Um, and so, yeah, I remember, I remember joking that, uh, my mom must have, they must have called my mom to get the background of the character.

Lauren Cardillo:
What was the reaction of your parents when you landed that? Because, you know, you've had a progression of different things.

Caitlin Bassett:
Ah, I mean, I think everybody was surprised at the size that it landed. But I don't think they were surprised that something landed. I think I had had enough. little wins. I had gotten into some, you know, I was in the Disney showcase and, and there were a couple of things that had already, you know, I had been pushing that boulder up a mountain for a while.

And, and. And you know, I, one thing that I do pride myself on, um, is that, and my, I remember my best, one of my best friends said it when I told her I was quitting law school to go to acting school, a high school friend, a friend that has seen me through the messiest of years. Um, when I told her that I think I'm going to quit law school to be an actor, she goes, when Caitlin says she's going to do something, she's going to do it.

And she's like, you'll be an actor. And I was, you know, there was, I, I just. I was gonna make it somehow. Was I gonna make it to be the lead of a, a big show? You know, I couldn't have possibly hoped that that was gonna be the start, but, but I am way too determined, um, to not have gone, you know, I would have, I was gonna go somewhere.

I was gonna at least be doing theater and, you know, things like that. So, so, and that's something I pride myself on, you know, if I, if I, if I, by the time I tell you, it's gonna happen.

Lauren Cardillo:
I read something, might have been from an article about you, um, where you talked about how the Afghan women inspired you.

Like, I mean, tell me more about that just because. You know, what you're talking about is sort of finding your path, and these were people who have lived in very limited circumstances, and yet, like, inspired you.

Caitlin Bassett:
Oh, yeah. I mean, what a wonderful group, and what a tragic situation that is now. The education opportunities that they were getting, the, the, the, the, the opportunities for self determination that they were getting to have businesses, you know, they hadn't been around, obviously, when Russia was there, or before Russia was there, it was doing fairly well.

In the early 80s. So it had a time there and then these women who would make this progress there. And then it went back to literally the dark ages. And then it started to come up again. And you watched all these young girls dream and actually see, Oh my goodness. Like if I get an education, if I do this, I could actually have my own business.

I could actually do more than, than maybe, well, What my mother was afforded or her mother and I think the most tragic thing about what has happened in Afghanistan Is it is you took those girls? I was there in 2011, right? So let's say let's say an 11 year old girl then by the time Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021 she would have been 21 years old and she would have been in college and that little girl who was Taught that she could finally dream.

They have now been put back in their houses. They are being stoned to death. Um, and I remember watching a clip when, when it was happening and there was this young man of the same age 20, 20 something saying I hope you guys enjoyed your time because you're going back to the house. Because he knew the power that he was about to wield again.

And you could also tell he wanted it back. He didn't want to have to compete with them. He didn't want them, you know, he wanted the entitlement that the Taliban was going to give him over these women and he got it. And that's exactly what's happened. So, uh, it's one of the greatest tragedies that to happen in our lifetime.

What we, what we have allowed to happen to the women in Afghanistan. Um, but yes, they were the most inspiring, kind, courageous, uh, women I've ever met.

Lauren Cardillo:
And, and how do you carry that with you every day? You know, how does that sort of make you do what you do?

Caitlin Bassett:
Yeah. I mean, I think you can only do the best that you can in your life.

I can't change the course of Afghanistan. I can't change the, there's so many things you can't change. But I can live my life in such a way that celebrates and honors and respects the privileges that I have been afforded and do what I can to ensure that in my world and around me, um, especially women aren't going to lose those, those privileges.

And that, you know, those jokes, the jokes and the, and the guys that just, it's so fun, right? It's so fun to be like, oh, women can't drive, women can't, it's so fun, but it's not fun because that allowed. Unchecked turns into what's happening in Afghanistan.

Lauren Cardillo:
How did your ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ degree help you in later things in life?

Because some people might think legal study is not exactly applicable, but is it more than that?

Caitlin Bassett:
Oh, of course it's more than that. First of all, one of the biggest things I took away from, from my time at ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ and, and also just getting a degree was that I got a degree, right? I put in the time, I put in the work and I accomplished something.

You know, I, you kind of hear this doctrine about confidence and what confidence re where it really comes from is, is making deals with yourself that you keep, I'm going to get up and I'm going to work out in the morning. I'm going to read this book. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to, you know, work on my emotional reaction to my triggers, or I'm going to do my coursework and I'm going to get this degree.

And then when I have this degree, I know I put in the work. I, I, I didn't go to the bars. I did the papers and I made myself smarter and better on purpose because that is the, that is what I said I was going to do and I did it, which means I am now more confident and I am now more trusting in myself. So that was the biggest thing.

Because a degree for me, especially at the time, was what was stopping me between where I was and where I wanted to go. I wanted to go to law school, um, I wanted to go to a grad school in general, I'd always known that, and a degree was part of the way to get there. So first and foremost, it did that for me.

It was a goal that I set for myself, that I accomplished for myself, and an obstacle that I cleared between me and the future that I wanted. So that was the biggest thing. And I could do it at my own pace, and I could do it, and I could figure it out on my own. Um, so that was a big deal. But then also, of course I use that, I use it all the time.

It's a, like, I got a degree in legal studies, obviously I was going to law school, but I read my own contracts. I read, you know, I read scripts, I read doctrine, I know how to do a lot of things because of, of the things that I learned. Um, in school, and more importantly, it just made me a smarter person, uh, and, and that matters in, in the world, you know, being, being able to think clearly and communicate clearly and, uh, that, those skills outside of the acting has been the things that have helped me the most so far in Hollywood, uh, because people look at me like an adult, um, so that's, it, it, In every way, it helped.

Lauren Cardillo:
So if, so if like, 17 year old, I don't want to say whiny, that's not the word, 17 year old you, who was just sort of, angsty, if 17 year old angsty you saw you now, what would she think?

Caitlin Bassett:
You know, I think she'd be pretty proud, which is pretty nice.

Lauren Cardillo:
Yeah, because like I said, not on your bingo card, right? Like how life turned out.

Caitlin Bassett:
It's everything I wanted. But, I didn't think you could want all those things. You can want to be in the army and also want to be in law school and also want to be an actress. Like, you have to pick something, right? You can't. My, one of my favorite sayings is, you can have it all, just not at the same time.

Lauren Cardillo:
You can't, you know? Kaitlin, thanks so much for joining us today. It was great to hear your inspiring story. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. And for everybody listening and watching, please remember to like and subscribe. If you want to see more Unstoppable Stories, see you next time.