Taking a Leap of Faith in Podcasting
I have to say, since I started college two years ago, my journey has been everything but boring. So far during my journey of college, I moved three hours away from my home, made new friends, joined organizations on campus that I thought I would not see myself in before, and even moved back home due to living in the middle of a pandemic now. Now that I have started my third year of college, I have decided to take a new leap!
I have started the 10-week NICE Leap Program. The Nice Leap program is new to North Dakota State University, but has been used at other universities across the U.S. Overall, during the ten weeks, I am suppose to determine my Leap.
Before I went to the first workshop, I had no clue what to really expect. I wondered, How much commitment was this going to be? What kind of leap would I like to do? Am I capable to start and execute a leap? How much support will I have if I pursue a leap? After the first workshop of establishing our leaps, I can say all of worries had went away.
During the first workshop over zoom, I was paired up with two other people to start the Leap Map. I loved how the Leap Map was very organized, each pair had to ask each other several questions in a way to get to know you, and to figure out what your leap is.
First, when we started to brainstorm to figure out our Leap, although, personally sometimes brainstorming can be hard on the spot, I came up with some pretty well thought out Ideas. First we brainstormed on our Inspiration List. First, we had to think of stories or other media that we liked. The first thing I could think of was podcasting. I love how when I am listening to a podcast, I can physically be in the library studying, walking on campus, doing homework, but mentally, I am inside the story that the podcaster is telling. I also thought of the TV show, The Simpsons. When I moved back home last March, I spent my time at home binge watching the show… and yes, all 31 seasons of the show. I also thought of Spotify, it has to be the most used app on my phone. From me listening to music to podcasting, having a great organization of playlists and genres, It is a well rounded app that I can listen too everywhere. We had also talked about the people that I admire and respect. At the time, I had came up with my mom and Michelle Obama. I admire my mother because how she considers my feelings, always honest with me and always encourages me to reach for my goals. The reason I thought of Michelle Obama because of her empowerment of women, specifically black women, and education.
I also had to brainstorm on times that I had felt in my element, and things that I wish were different in the world. Normally when I am in element, I am usually staying quickly on my toes, especially when I am working or creating anything. I feel the most in my element when I am feeling like I am making a change into an initiative or creating something that will make a either a small or big change in mine or someone else’s life. And lastly, I feel the most in my element when I am with my family. I feel this way because both of my parents have been very supportive in challenging both me and my brother in our goals, and supporting us in anyway that they can.
The next part of constructing my leap was the figure out where I would like to see myself in the future. This question always get me cause I sometimes can’t visualize seeing myself five years ahead, it feels like uncertainty to an extent and that is okay because I feel that the path I am on right now is leading me to a great future. I had also drew a stick figure of myself while thinking about my future so it would be easier for me to visualize it. I also thought of owning my own business in the near future, and maybe of starting a podcast.
After figuring out my inspiration list and predicting how will my life be in five years, we jumped into one more section, called the Leap Storm, determining and narrowing done what my leap will be. The first question was what ideas I had for my leap. During this entire workshop, I could not get the idea of having a podcast out of my head. It was like I was able to see myself in the future making podcasts.
During the Leap Storm of brainstorming, one of my partners brought the idea up of a baking podcast that could specifically focus on bakers who are of color. I thought this was a great idea, this idea was a cluster of my hobbies and passions.
Overall, during the next 10 weeks, my leap is to construct a podcast where I can hopefully have the opportunity to interview owners of small bakeries on how they got into baking and how they turned their passion into a business.
