My name is Giselle and I am a third year student studying History with a minor in Russian. I love poetry, bagels, and skateboarding. In the beginning of the semester we were suppose to think of a piece of writing we wrote that inspired us. The first (and most exciting) thought I had was about a poem I wrote a year prior. It was a silly piece of work, and not for any class, but I still remembered it. All of a sudden, I was picturing the scenes and dialogue of the poetry as a short film — lighting, music, camera angles... Everything. The short film script was my first experiment. I had a lot of fun making storyboards for the different scenes and researching how film scripts are written. This was a great first experiment for me, and it only made me more excited about the next experiments.

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My second experiment was a sort of country song mostly because I love Dolly Parton and Western country folk music. While I was not raised in the country, I wanted to try and attempt a song that encapsulated a lot of what country music focuses on — the loneliness, the simplicity, and the loveliness of living in the country. My origin piece had the eeriness of a "middle of nowhere" location in my mind, and I wanted this to translate into an eerie country story-telling song. This was my most difficult experiment and least loved. I think I need to improve my guitar skills before I can write a successful country song.

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My final experiment was the one I was most excited about. I was listening to a lot of Gimlet Media's Heavyweight this summer and I fell in love with the type of story telling it offered its listeners. I wanted to make my own mystery/problem-solving podcast. I will admit I had a hard time thinking through the purpose of the story — I wanted it to mean something, but for awhile I wasn't sure what. It all came from a poem that didn't necessarily mean something deep to me, but I wanted it to. I dug for awhile, and I talked it out often and at length with my classmates, my professor, and my friends. Thank you to everyone for listening and helping when you could.

 

When I was writing the transcript of the podcast that I found the meaning I was looking for — I felt a lot of resonance in what I was trying to communicate, and I hope anyone reading feels the little bit of comfort I am hoping to give. Being in college is hard. It's hard to know what you want to do with your life when everything is constantly changing and you're not sure if you're in the childhood part of your life or the adulthood. Take it from me, someone who has done a lot of thinking about where they want to be someday — there's no rush. I hope you enjoy my silly little project in the meantime.

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