We all have our weaknesses, the things and situations that we try to avoid. But some things, you just can’t hide from forever. For me, large social settings were never my jam. I discovered this about myself shortly after graduating college and started my first reporting job. Going out with a group of people I didn’t know very well and staying silent the whole time? Yeah, that was my reality in my early 20’s and once in a while it still is today. But I’ve become more outgoing and it’s for the better, not just in my personal life, but for my career. When I became a reporter, I knew what my job entailed; talking to people and hearing their stories. But approaching strangers wasn’t always easy. Sometimes I do interviews called “MOS” or “Man on the Street Interviews.” Before I explain, let me say, for most of my career I’ve been a solo journalist, also known as a Multimedia Journalist, Multi-Skilled Journalist, One-Man Band, Backpack Journalist…the list goes on. This means that I shoot my own video, write my own stories and edit them. I learned to “get MOS,” as we say in the business, quickly, at my first…
“Don’t back down.” That’s what I told myself for years. “You will be a television journalist in the Twin Cities. You were meant to do this.” I’ve always believed that was true. From the time I was a child watching Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw anchoring the evening news, I was an instant news junkie always wanting to know the latest happenings in the world. As a kid, I relied on Paul Magers and Diana Piece at KARE-TV to tell me what’s going on in the Twin Cities. As I got older, I came to understand that they were more than just people sitting in chairs reading off a screen. They were journalists. They were working for their community. I wanted to be that person learning from and communicating with my community. Early on, I knew that I wanted to be a television reporter and that drive only grew from there In high school and college, I’d sit in class daydreaming, thinking about the day I’d become a real-life reporter. All I could think about was how much I wanted to be done with school and do my career. I wanted to work in the Twin Cities before age 30….
I have always been a little overweight, today probably more than usual. But, as of recently, I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t really want to hide behind that. I want to wear what I want, when I want no matter how I look in it. I’m still working on that to this day, but eventually I hope to get to the point where I’m 100% confident in rocking my two piece swimsuit in public and not just for my closest friends. I’m slowly finding out that I do still like how I look no matter what my size. In the age of crop tops and high-waist everything, I still want to wear that stuff. I want to wear it without spanks and not be judged. Well, I’m not going to wait around for others to stop judging. I’m going to wear what I want when I want and hopefully show other women that they should too. Or what about this baggy clothing trend? I always thought it would make me look like a sack of potatoes being the size that I am, but I DON’T CARE. I am all about being comfortable. If YOU don’t like it, YOU…
That feeling you get, when you cannot seem to open your eyes from your slumber. That feeling like you haven’t slept in years even though you have been sleeping for over ten hours. When your body is so over rested, it is making you more tired. The sun is shining through my window and burning my eyes. I cover my head with my blanket, hiding from not only the sun, but life. Today I slept through my morning workout class and snoozed my alarm probably 23 times. Today I am annoyed with everything and everyone. Even the touch of a thread of my own hair, resting on my face pisses me off. Today is one of those days. One of those days where I just can’t do it. There is a huge “to-do” list floating around in my mind like a pile of 100 necklaces tangles together. I stare effortlessly at the pile and I don’t have the energy to do it. I don’t have the energy to fix it. My room hasn’t been clean in weeks. I don’t have the time or energy to do it. I grab my phone and see too many notifications. They swarm my mind…
After the last few days we’ve had as a country, it can be easy to feel heartbroken and helpless. How do we possibly process something as terrible as the loss of 50+ innocent lives? What can we do to make this horrible time any better? We’re here to give you a few ideas. We can’t change what happened, but we can have an effect on what has yet to happen. Rather than accepting this violence as the norm and fearing for our safety, we can choose to create love in the face of fear and hate. Self-care Check-in with yourself. Take time to find your center and identify the emotions you are feeling. It’s okay to be sad, hurt, scared, and more. You are allowed to feel whatever it is you’re feeling. Don’t hide from it or run away. Move through the emotion one moment at a time and do what you need to do to stay healthy. Get out into the world and see the beauty that IS there. I know you may want to hide in your home and let fear control your life, but that will only create more fear. We all deserve more than that. Visit…
Being brave is is often defined as “ showing courage,” and courage is defined as having “the ability to do something that frightens” you. To me, being brave is exactly that: doing the things that scare you or make you uncomfortable. This could mean anything from facing your fear of birds to going to your boss and asking for a raise, or standing up for your rights and the rights of others. To me, all of these things make me feel brave, but right now I have something else that is constantly at the forefront of my mind… I am graduating college. There, it’s been said (or typed), therefore it is now made true. Okay, that’s a little dramatic. But it actually is true, and there’s no way to change it. I only needed three more credits to graduate and I took nine, so something crazy will have to happen to cause me not to graduate. I’m on the fast track to adulthood, less than a month left and then it’s all over. Jeez, four years of college went by so fast all of a sudden. So, you might be asking: what does that have to do with being brave?…
Hey, all. Depression is hard. It’s really, really hard. Someday maybe I’ll write about what the depths of what that actually felt like, but lately I’ve been working to see that sunshine and focus on the positive. I’m working on winning my tiny victories. When you’re fighting depression, the smallest thing is overwhelming. I was too tired and worn out to do anything, even simple things like pick up my toddler’s socks from the living room floor without bursting into tears. Tasks that seem so easy and routine when you’re healthy now require you to disembark on grand voyages when you’re sick. When I’m in the lowest points of my depression, my tiny victories are things like staying awake past 6:30pm and not crying on my way to work. However, the Catch-22 of depression is that you’re not able to see past the depression to celebrate those as victories. Now that I’m learning how to deal and what works best for me, my tiny victories look like eating enough fruits & veggies for the day and having enough energy to take my daughter to the playground after work. Tiny victories can be something you achieve every day. Little moments deserve…
Self-discovery is one of those journeys that you don’t realize you’re actually on until you are moving through it. I found myself on this journey after facing a tough breakup. This heartbreak I was struggling through took over my thoughts and held my mind captive from unlocking my inner peace. I constantly found myself stuck in a place that was keeping me from my fullest potential. Through this moment of weakness, the truth finally dawned on me. The realization that I was in control of how I want to face this challenge. That’s when I made the choice to start picking myself up piece-by-piece, and build myself up into a stronger, kinder, women. As I continue on my self-discovery adventure today, I leave you with five takeaways that will challenge you to go out of your comfort zone to build a better you. If I can make the choice to find peace within myself, so can you. Befriend your challenges Self-discovery begins when you make the choice to turn a challenge into a friendly teaching. Having this change in mindset allows for personal growth in your journey. I’m a firm believer that what’s meant for you won’t pass you…
Recently, I had the privilege of speaking to 50+ high school and college women about building a personal brand. Together, we walked through aligning their passion with their brand and practicing their elevator speech so they would be comfortable and confident when walking into the sponsored networking event later that afternoon. It was a huge success! They did great work and we all left feeling prepared to take on the world (or at least the evening). That, however, was not what moved them the most. After we completed our time together we had a Q&A session. During that time, I was asked what my greatest challenge was in my life and how I overcame it. In that moment, I chose to be brave and share my truth with this group of women. I shared my story of struggling with perfectionism and anxiety throughout my life. Since I was a little girl, I’ve always struggled with keeping myself calm and feeling like I am enough as I am. I really struggled when I was in college trying to manage academic challenges and meet the expectations I had for myself by getting involved. I lost a significant amount of weight in my undergraduate education. My…
2017 is upon us! A new year brings new opportunities, new challenges, new sights, and new sounds. For many of us, a new year is a fresh start and a chance to change our lives. It’s refreshing to feel a chapter close and start writing the next. 2016 is behind us, and we have all of 2017 to make of it whatever we choose. As you settle into a new rhythm to make your resolution a success (remember, it takes 21 days to form a new habit), I would like to challenge you to make a change with me. If you’ve read some of the blogs I’ve written in the past you already know that I struggle with perfectionism. It has shaped the majority of my life and I’ve always been ashamed to admit it. That shame I felt was just one more element of my struggle. Now I know, you know, and we can all look at 2017 at a time to do something about it. This year, I would like you to make a change with me. 2016 showed us a lot of pain, tears, hate, and fear. We felt loss and we felt terror. Our reality has…
Get out of your comfort zone, and learn from it
We all have our weaknesses, the things and situations that we try to avoid. But some things, you just can’t hide from forever. For me, large social settings were never my jam. I discovered this about myself shortly after graduating college and started my first reporting job. Going out with a group of people I didn’t know very well and staying silent the whole time? Yeah, that was my reality in my early 20’s and once in a while it still is today. But I’ve become more outgoing and it’s for the better, not just in my personal life, but for my career. When I became a reporter, I knew what my job entailed; talking to people and hearing their stories. But approaching strangers wasn’t always easy. Sometimes I do interviews called “MOS” or “Man on the Street Interviews.” Before I explain, let me say, for most of my career I’ve been a solo journalist, also known as a Multimedia Journalist, Multi-Skilled Journalist, One-Man Band, Backpack Journalist…the list goes on. This means that I shoot my own video, write my own stories and edit them. I learned to “get MOS,” as we say in the business, quickly, at my first…
Believe in Your Dream and Make it Happen!
“Don’t back down.” That’s what I told myself for years. “You will be a television journalist in the Twin Cities. You were meant to do this.” I’ve always believed that was true. From the time I was a child watching Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw anchoring the evening news, I was an instant news junkie always wanting to know the latest happenings in the world. As a kid, I relied on Paul Magers and Diana Piece at KARE-TV to tell me what’s going on in the Twin Cities. As I got older, I came to understand that they were more than just people sitting in chairs reading off a screen. They were journalists. They were working for their community. I wanted to be that person learning from and communicating with my community. Early on, I knew that I wanted to be a television reporter and that drive only grew from there In high school and college, I’d sit in class daydreaming, thinking about the day I’d become a real-life reporter. All I could think about was how much I wanted to be done with school and do my career. I wanted to work in the Twin Cities before age 30….
Rock What Ya Got!
I have always been a little overweight, today probably more than usual. But, as of recently, I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t really want to hide behind that. I want to wear what I want, when I want no matter how I look in it. I’m still working on that to this day, but eventually I hope to get to the point where I’m 100% confident in rocking my two piece swimsuit in public and not just for my closest friends. I’m slowly finding out that I do still like how I look no matter what my size. In the age of crop tops and high-waist everything, I still want to wear that stuff. I want to wear it without spanks and not be judged. Well, I’m not going to wait around for others to stop judging. I’m going to wear what I want when I want and hopefully show other women that they should too. Or what about this baggy clothing trend? I always thought it would make me look like a sack of potatoes being the size that I am, but I DON’T CARE. I am all about being comfortable. If YOU don’t like it, YOU…
Shutting Down Assumptions
That feeling you get, when you cannot seem to open your eyes from your slumber. That feeling like you haven’t slept in years even though you have been sleeping for over ten hours. When your body is so over rested, it is making you more tired. The sun is shining through my window and burning my eyes. I cover my head with my blanket, hiding from not only the sun, but life. Today I slept through my morning workout class and snoozed my alarm probably 23 times. Today I am annoyed with everything and everyone. Even the touch of a thread of my own hair, resting on my face pisses me off. Today is one of those days. One of those days where I just can’t do it. There is a huge “to-do” list floating around in my mind like a pile of 100 necklaces tangles together. I stare effortlessly at the pile and I don’t have the energy to do it. I don’t have the energy to fix it. My room hasn’t been clean in weeks. I don’t have the time or energy to do it. I grab my phone and see too many notifications. They swarm my mind…
What You Can Do in the Face of Fear
After the last few days we’ve had as a country, it can be easy to feel heartbroken and helpless. How do we possibly process something as terrible as the loss of 50+ innocent lives? What can we do to make this horrible time any better? We’re here to give you a few ideas. We can’t change what happened, but we can have an effect on what has yet to happen. Rather than accepting this violence as the norm and fearing for our safety, we can choose to create love in the face of fear and hate. Self-care Check-in with yourself. Take time to find your center and identify the emotions you are feeling. It’s okay to be sad, hurt, scared, and more. You are allowed to feel whatever it is you’re feeling. Don’t hide from it or run away. Move through the emotion one moment at a time and do what you need to do to stay healthy. Get out into the world and see the beauty that IS there. I know you may want to hide in your home and let fear control your life, but that will only create more fear. We all deserve more than that. Visit…
Packing Up and Moving Out
Being brave is is often defined as “ showing courage,” and courage is defined as having “the ability to do something that frightens” you. To me, being brave is exactly that: doing the things that scare you or make you uncomfortable. This could mean anything from facing your fear of birds to going to your boss and asking for a raise, or standing up for your rights and the rights of others. To me, all of these things make me feel brave, but right now I have something else that is constantly at the forefront of my mind… I am graduating college. There, it’s been said (or typed), therefore it is now made true. Okay, that’s a little dramatic. But it actually is true, and there’s no way to change it. I only needed three more credits to graduate and I took nine, so something crazy will have to happen to cause me not to graduate. I’m on the fast track to adulthood, less than a month left and then it’s all over. Jeez, four years of college went by so fast all of a sudden. So, you might be asking: what does that have to do with being brave?…
Tiny Victories
Hey, all. Depression is hard. It’s really, really hard. Someday maybe I’ll write about what the depths of what that actually felt like, but lately I’ve been working to see that sunshine and focus on the positive. I’m working on winning my tiny victories. When you’re fighting depression, the smallest thing is overwhelming. I was too tired and worn out to do anything, even simple things like pick up my toddler’s socks from the living room floor without bursting into tears. Tasks that seem so easy and routine when you’re healthy now require you to disembark on grand voyages when you’re sick. When I’m in the lowest points of my depression, my tiny victories are things like staying awake past 6:30pm and not crying on my way to work. However, the Catch-22 of depression is that you’re not able to see past the depression to celebrate those as victories. Now that I’m learning how to deal and what works best for me, my tiny victories look like eating enough fruits & veggies for the day and having enough energy to take my daughter to the playground after work. Tiny victories can be something you achieve every day. Little moments deserve…
5 Self-discovery Take-Aways
Self-discovery is one of those journeys that you don’t realize you’re actually on until you are moving through it. I found myself on this journey after facing a tough breakup. This heartbreak I was struggling through took over my thoughts and held my mind captive from unlocking my inner peace. I constantly found myself stuck in a place that was keeping me from my fullest potential. Through this moment of weakness, the truth finally dawned on me. The realization that I was in control of how I want to face this challenge. That’s when I made the choice to start picking myself up piece-by-piece, and build myself up into a stronger, kinder, women. As I continue on my self-discovery adventure today, I leave you with five takeaways that will challenge you to go out of your comfort zone to build a better you. If I can make the choice to find peace within myself, so can you. Befriend your challenges Self-discovery begins when you make the choice to turn a challenge into a friendly teaching. Having this change in mindset allows for personal growth in your journey. I’m a firm believer that what’s meant for you won’t pass you…
I’m not alone…
Recently, I had the privilege of speaking to 50+ high school and college women about building a personal brand. Together, we walked through aligning their passion with their brand and practicing their elevator speech so they would be comfortable and confident when walking into the sponsored networking event later that afternoon. It was a huge success! They did great work and we all left feeling prepared to take on the world (or at least the evening). That, however, was not what moved them the most. After we completed our time together we had a Q&A session. During that time, I was asked what my greatest challenge was in my life and how I overcame it. In that moment, I chose to be brave and share my truth with this group of women. I shared my story of struggling with perfectionism and anxiety throughout my life. Since I was a little girl, I’ve always struggled with keeping myself calm and feeling like I am enough as I am. I really struggled when I was in college trying to manage academic challenges and meet the expectations I had for myself by getting involved. I lost a significant amount of weight in my undergraduate education. My…
Brave in 2017
2017 is upon us! A new year brings new opportunities, new challenges, new sights, and new sounds. For many of us, a new year is a fresh start and a chance to change our lives. It’s refreshing to feel a chapter close and start writing the next. 2016 is behind us, and we have all of 2017 to make of it whatever we choose. As you settle into a new rhythm to make your resolution a success (remember, it takes 21 days to form a new habit), I would like to challenge you to make a change with me. If you’ve read some of the blogs I’ve written in the past you already know that I struggle with perfectionism. It has shaped the majority of my life and I’ve always been ashamed to admit it. That shame I felt was just one more element of my struggle. Now I know, you know, and we can all look at 2017 at a time to do something about it. This year, I would like you to make a change with me. 2016 showed us a lot of pain, tears, hate, and fear. We felt loss and we felt terror. Our reality has…