Janey_s World - Podcast Project

The speaker discusses a childhood memory from when she was in elementary school. She had just moved to a new city and school, feeling scared and lonely. She found solace in a TV show that she connected with, particularly the main character who had similarities to her own life. The show helped inspire and influence her. As an adult, she wanted to revisit the show and researched to find it. She discovered it was called "Every Witch Way" and watched some episodes. While some details were different from her memory, she still found the main character inspiring. Reflecting on her experience, she realizes that the show provided a connection that she craved as a lonely child. She concludes by discussing the importance of embracing and finding comfort in loneliness rather than trying to fill the void. Hi, I'm your host, Jane Perla, and you're listening to Janie's World. Today, we're going to be talking about one of my memories that took place when I was in elementary. A little back story, I was in third grade. I had just moved from Atlanta to Ann Arbor and had also moved schools as a result. I was about 9 or 10 at the time, and I was a short, dark-haired little girl who was very reserved and would rarely talk to others besides my mother and older sister, Angie. And as this was my first time going to school without my sister, I was very scared and felt very lonely. But I also remember one thing that helped me get through these harder transitional periods was my favorite show at the time. I felt a significant connection to the show and honestly looked up to the characters. As a third grader, I had a lot of things to worry about, especially as a new girl. I didn't know where to go to school every day after going to a charter school for most of my life, how to fit in, how was I going to make friends, where was I going to sit at lunch, and just anxiety of these big changes happening around me. So I did what I did best. Stayed quiet and just tried to act normal. I felt very alone and honestly was just terrified everyone wouldn't like me. But one way I would try to escape the scary reality was to turn to my show and try to imagine I was just like one of the characters, which wasn't hard as I felt I related to the main character a lot because she had a single parent just like me, she was Hispanic just like me, and she had just moved and started at a new school just like me. I instantly connected with her and her struggles as well. Her character and story were some of the first representations I ever saw. So to say it was impactful to me would definitely be an understatement. Her character helped inspire me as a child and had so much influence on me as well. From how to dress to how to act, even now as a young adult she still resonates with me. And every now and then she'll come to mind, which is exactly why I want to find a show and see if the story is like how I remember and see the plot from my older perspective. The first thing I did was ask all my friends and even some family members if they remember the show as well. After very little help from them because apparently their memory is even worse than mine, I turned to the internet and researched any details I could remember, like how the main character looked, that it was a show of wizards or witches, and the main character's mom had died so she only lived with her father, and she was in high school. So after searching for what seemed like forever, I finally found what I thought was the show, Every Witch Way. It's a Nickelodeon show that first aired in 2015 and the main character's name is Emma. The show is about how she moves to Miami with her father and eventually finds out she's the chosen one. It's also a telenovela formatted TV sitcom, so that's probably why I also liked it so much. And so after watching one to two episodes from each season, most of the details seemed familiar, like the blue and orange school colors everywhere, and the uniforms, and her dad, but one thing that was different from what I remembered was that she didn't already know she was a witch, like how I thought she did. So they show her learning how to control her powers and use them, which I didn't remember at all. The characters, especially Emma, were like how I thought. Emma was a very brave high schooler who went through a lot in four seasons. She was also so inspirational. Although watching this show now definitely makes me cringe at what I used to find entertaining as a child, it's also crazy to think about how one sole person being the chosen one. But I do think the reason this show resonated with me so dearly was because at that time in my life, and even sometimes now, all I would crave was a connection with anyone, really, to not feel lonely. I think it's something that a lot of us struggle with, not feeling comfortable with our own loneliness and feeling as if it's a void we must fill when it's more like something to find relaxation in and something to embrace and not something to run from.