Yes, I am aware my last three posts all include question marks in the title, but I’m hoping it conveys they sheer magnitude of how unexpected most of those things have been (okay, maybe I KNEW I was going to graduate but still, it’s wild).

I figured it is LONG PAST DUE to update this thing, especially considering I no longer live in the PNW, let alone the same time zone. It’s honestly really hard moving to a place where you don’t know anybody, but I’ve already made some great friends and really like the culture of this town. Hoosiers are nice as HECK apparently, and it has been fantastic experiencing the hospitality many of the folks I’ve come across possess.

Oh, yeah, I’m here because I GOT A FREAKIN JOB, Y’ALL. I cover education specifically now too, so I’m really excited to see where it takes me. My mom works in education, and so I find myself thinking about her even MORE now, and trying to make sure what I cover would be something she, as an administrator/educator would find valuable.

I’ll end this quick little life update with “I hope I come back to this soon” but I say that knowing full well this could be the last post of 2018. Life is just busy, y’all.

I suppose we’ll see! (But really, I hope I come back to this soon)

 

I’m hoping it’s just a temporary thing –  my brother is letting me crash on his futon until I find a real “grown up” job. It’s odd, being in Eastern Washington, but I mean, he makes me breakfast so that’s super neat. He’s a cool guy.

Anyway, as you might have guessed, the job hunt thus far has been….. unsuccessful. I landed one interview earlier this summer, but that was a bit of an odd situation (lol, ask me about it). I’ve been looking for radio journo jobs all over the country, but now that I’m not actually living in Seattle I realize how much I miss it.

Here’s to the continued job search, and all of the exciting, weird, and confusing times ahead!!

Well, it’s been awhile since I last posted, but something seriously major has happened since then: I graduated! Now, I’m on the hunt for a job.

Check me out on LinkedIn, or browse through my resume below.

Jeanie I. Lindsay | jeanielindsay@gmail.com

Experience

Production Assistant – KNKX, March 2017 – June 2017

Formatted stories for station’s All Things Considered host and filed stories into the station’s news archive. Assisted the newsroom by reporting on and pitching stories. Other duties included gathering tape and producing spots with editing software Audition, gathering background information, and collaborating with other reporters to ensure stories were reported accurately and on time.

 Legislative Reporter – Northwest News Network, January 2017 – March 2017

Reported daily news at the capitol in Olympia. Attended hearings, conducted interviews and gathered sound for public radio. Other duties included taking photographs, voicing, assisting remote reporters gather story materials, and editing pieces through the program Audacity.

Marketing & Communications Assistant – UW Human Resources, April 2015 – November 2016

Responsible for reporting and writing articles for newsletters and blogs with The Whole U and University of Washington Human Resources; writing, editing, and revising content for University web pages and internal communications; and strategizing and planning for media engagement with HR publications and their related content.

Clips

Northwest News Network – Right to Work Hearing Wrap: http://bit.ly/2lxuk5j

Northwest News Network – Washington Youth Academy Feature: http://bit.ly/2n4nTY7

Northwest News Network – Latino Legislative Day Wrap: http://bit.ly/2mlMgAB

 

Education

University of Washington Class of 2017 – Communications: Journalism

Pioneer Award for Radio Journalism

Comparative Literature Paris Program, Autumn 2015:

            Study abroad; conversational French speaking skills

 

Volunteer

PR, Marketing, Alumni Relations Coordinator – Camp Kesem UW, Summer 2015 – Present

Responsible for alumni relations, donor and camper family relations, social media management, website maintenance and Camp Kesem – UW event coverage.

Ellis Civic Fellow – UW Carlson Center, Fall 2013 – May 2017

Committed to 20 hours of service a quarter, including presentations, leadership and service-learning courses, workshops, and collaboration with other students and groups on specialized projects.

It’s so hard to know what to say in moments like these. #blessed seems to be a default of mine for some reason.

But seriously, I’m struggling to wrap my head around the reality of my world right now. I feel so excited and lucky and grateful and speechless and amazed when I sit and consider the opportunities I have in my life, and where I’m headed now.

I’m leaving the University of Washington in June. I’ll have two STELLAR reporting internships under my belt that exclusively deal in radio journalism, and connections all over Washington in that network. It’s incredible, and I don’t know how to deal with it?!

Part of me wants to throw a party. But the rest of me just wants to smile at everyone I see for the next four months. Both might be an option. I think I need to buy some thank-you cards?

Good feels.

Today’s Giving Tuesday, a nonprofit holiday when processing fees for donations are often waived. This year, I’m fundraising for Camp Kesem again, and I would love any support you can provide – whether it’s sharing a post, donating a dollar, or spreading the word about our cause. Donate here.

Turns out, I’m moving to Olympia and will be reporting with Northwest Public Radio next quarter while I cover the 2017 legislative session.

 

How hyped am I??!?

THE MOST.

Doing things well makes me feel great. Sometimes opportunities are missed, but today I’m taking all of them. And that’s what makes life good. Opportunity. And taking it by storm.

 

Now how do I find the time to take care of it all?

Today marked the last day of a class I took this quarter titled, Intro to Communication II. And wow, what a course.

Coming into it, I definitely had some assumptions. This was an introductory class after all, so as a senior in the journalism department, how much did I really have to learn? Well, a whole lot, and every piece of information my brain absorbed this quarter during this class impacted me significantly.

I’ll start by saying that communication is relevant in literally every aspect of life. Humans do it on many, many levels, but animals do it too, so understanding the differences between us and them, and even one another is vital.

But because of the vitality of communications in our every day life, sometimes it’s easy to take it for granted or ignore the deeper, hidden messages that we might not ever consider.

It’s more than just what we communicate too, it’s all about how. And man, now that this class is over, I sincerely feel like it should be a graduation requirement for high schoolers. Learning these basic communication ideas wasn’t only about advancing me professionally, though as a UW course it might fall under the guise of professional development.

I’m mad not everyone gets to take classes like this.

I’m disappointed that people underestimate or devalue important things like the way humans communicate with one another, while simultaneously promoting and funding everything else.

We value professional sports, celebrities, religion, and science. But what about each other?

It seems to me that in our “All-American” (what even is that anyway?) culture, we focus on the accomplishments and special qualities of the unique few – which generally makes sense because if everyone is special, nobody is – but the gross amount of time and worship and money we put into those things does humanity a great disservice. 

I think the key takeaway in my communication course was that the more we study how communication works, the more prone we might be in ensuring our own messages are decoded the way we intend them to be, and we might even start caring for other people holistically (shocking I know), instead of our immediate and intimate social circles.

Just some food for thought.

 

What is real?

I mean, there are a lot of different ways to look at that word. Things that actually exist are real. Things that we feel are real, but so are things that we can’t. Of course my favourite (read: the worst) uses of the term real that never cease to make me cringe, are when people apply it to other people’s aesthetics.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? I’ll briefly explain for those of you who have clearly not spent enough time on the internet, so the rest of you can skip ahead.

A great example of people misusing the term “real” on humans comes from the backlash surrounding basically any lingerie marketing campaign ever. Victoria’s Secret got in on the action after their “The Perfect Body” campaign came under criticism for not using “real women” in their ads, and Aerie became entwined in this confusing use of vocabulary after releasing their body-positive advertisements, #aeriereal, similar to Dove’s “real beauty” campaign.

Ugh.

This use of the term real – no matter its context – drives me batshit crazy. Women and men, no matter how many plastic surgeries they’ve had, or amount of makeup they wear or image editing they’ve undergone, are real people. Yes, nobody comes out of their mom with a six-pack, bright pink hair, and flawless eyebrows, but the people who have those things now are still real.

Now, this is the part where I address the growing feeling in your gut that’s starting to whisper, “but hey, edited images and impossible body standards need to be called out because those things are bad”, and if you know me, you know I am ALLLLLLLLL about #bodypositivity.

But the word and use of the term real is still (really) a problem, and here’s why:

By applying the word “real” to humans and the way they look, we immediately make the assumption that not all other humans are real, or aren’t to a certain degree. By communicating to people that they are in fact not real (whether we intend to communicate that or not) we devalue them.

In a culture where we intensely vocalise our preference for authenticity, originality, and truth – while simultaneously and CONSTANTLY experiencing things that have been altered, edited, or supplemented – categorising or measuring someone’s “real” factor leads us back to a basic problem: objectification and judgement of other humans.

I know, I know, nobody actually does that on purpose anymore, it’s 2016. But some people still might, whether we know it or not. Not only that, but people communicate every time they basically do anything, regardless of their intent or knowledge of what message they’re sending.

That’s where we come back to the term real.

When I use the term real in this context of body image, the first person that generally comes to mind is someone with numbers on the scale and letters on their shirt tags similar to mine. But the people who look differently from me are still real.

By defining specific people as “real,” we not only praise them for having some feature or characteristic that others don’t have, we also make assumptions about those people. This also sends a subtle message to the people with features undeserving of the term “real” that they aren’t good enough.

We use “real” people as tokens to exemplify what is right, good, and pure, and shame people who don’t look “real” enough or appreciate body modifications and synthetic aesthetics for being so grossly “fake.” How is that fair??

Of course, you could point out some kind of privilege that comes into play and why it’s important to empower people and – you guys, I already agree with you.

The point is that I think humans of all shapes and sizes and styles and looks should have the right to behave, celebrate, and love however they want, so long as they don’t harm others. And in my efforts to make that possible for everyone, I have to address the problems in the body positivity movement that stem from the descriptor “real.”

I’m not saying we can’t compliment each other or use the term real ever again, because that would be stupid. And I’m definitely not saying that you can’t call people out for body shaming or generally being an asshole.

What I am saying, is that when you use the term real to describe a woman or man’s appearance, you close one gap and help open another, even if you do ever so slightly. I’m saying be aware of the words you use and how others interpret the way you use them.

To close the gaps – all of them – we should avoid focusing on people’s degree of realness or authenticity. We have to focus on loving people just as they are, and encouraging others to do the same.

And that’s it.

 

I love relaxing. My friend Maddie loves exploring. In Martos, we were able to do a little of both, while simultaneously not being able to understand what basically anyone who lived there was saying.

Martos, Spain, is a little country town that not many people have heard of. On TripAdvisor, there is 1 thing to do in Martos, though after staying there for a week, I can tell you that… TripAdvisor is basically right (if you’re looking for tourist attractions).

Of course, I had been doing the “tourist” thing for almost two and a half months before I went to Martos, but something I started valuing during my trip in Europe is that visiting a place is more than just looking at what people to tell you to look at.

Obviously, my co-adventurer and I went to the 1/1 thing to do in Martos, and it was to hike up a steep-hilled street to check out the view from the town’s old castle. I never wrote down the name, but the view… that is something I will never forget: mountains cast shadows across the valley, and the sunset set the sky on fire.

I’m eternally in awe that I was able to witness such beauty every single day that I was in Martos.

Maddie and I were in Martos for about five days, and one of those days was a holiday. It was already a rather interesting adventure to understand what was going on during siesta (uh, why don’t we do that here?), so not knowing about the holiday was additionally baffling.

But, foreign holidays aside, we were eventually able to figure out how to go grocery shopping and experience Spanish supermarkets. Apparently, they weigh your fruit before you go to the cashier, which was weird for Maddie and I at first, but honestly it makes so much sense. We also enjoyed an egregious number of Chupa Chups, and they were phenomenal.

One of the things I really loved in Martos was definitely the people. Most of them looked intensely focused while hiking up the hills that are EVERYWHERE, but when it came to interacting with the folks around town, they were all unbelievably kind and understanding (not always linguistically because language barriers are a thing).

The florist, the Orange store customer service specialist, the pizza guy, the cashier at the grocery store, and the old man walking his dog in the park. These people don’t have many titles in my memory other than these, but they stood out enough for them to change my experience in Martos. None of them did something extra heroic, but in my mind they made a huge difference in how my trip turned out, and are now characters in the stories I tell.

As I sit here and write this post, I realize now how people who play a role in our lives can change our perspective, no matter how big or small their role is. These Spanish strangers, who I will (most likely) never see again, made my trip more pleasant than it could have been.

It’s incredible to me when I see people’s capacity to be kind and compassionate with others. Of course, I don’t think people wake up and go to work with the desire to make others feel bad, but in a world of so much violence and pain, being able to find and acknowledge the good in everyday life is more essential than ever before.

At the time, I’m not sure that I believed my interactions with the locals to be anything necessarily special, but sitting here reflecting on my experience has helped me come to this realisation.

If I’m being completely transparent, I was exhausted by the time I got to Spain. I was homesick from my first trip outside of the United States mentally draining me, and I was incredibly anxious about having to carry my suitcase, backpack, and carry-on to every new place Maddie and I visited.

It was hard to keep my excitement or brainpower at normal levels.

With the combination of Maddie, the wonderful people we met, and things I learned along my journey, Martos was the perfect place to be. It helped me re-shape my appreciation for a beautiful country, and the beautiful calm that came with the small town. No pressures to see some famous museums or endless ancient buildings, but rather the escape from always being plugged in, and the ability to experience a different set of cultural norms in a peaceful environment.

After experiencing the whirlwind of life in Paris and other cities around Europe, Martos was the perfect place to be indeed.