Helena Gardner
Hello. Welcome to Here’s the Story, a show that brings Student Affairs to life by sharing the authentic voices and lived experiences of those who are shaping the field every day as part of the Student Affairs now family, we’re dedicated to serving and furthering people who walk the walk and talk the talk and do all the things we all do serving students in Student Affairs in Higher Education. You can find us at studentaffairsnow.com or directly at www.studentaffairsnow.com/heresthestory or on YouTube and anywhere you enjoy podcast, we like to thank today’s sponsor, evolve. Evolve. Evolve helps higher ed senior leaders release fear, gain courage and take action for transformational leadership through a personalized cohort based virtual executive leadership development experience. I’m your host. Helena Gardner, I currently serve as the Director of Residence, education and housing services at Michigan State University. I live as a mom, a sister, a daughter, a friend and a mentor. I’m with you today from the ancestral, traditional and contemporary lands of the Anishinabe, three fires, confederacy of Ojibwa, Ottawa and Potawatomi peoples. The university resides on land seated in the 1819, treaty of Saginaw, and is home to Michigan State University. And I’m here with my co host, and I’m going to pass it to you.

Neil E. Golemo
Hey, my name is Neil E. Golemo PhD. I use the he, him, series of pronouns, and I’m blessed to serve as the campus as the director of Campus living learning on Texas A and M’s. Sonny Galveston campus,

Helena Gardner
Fantastic, and we have the honor today to be joined with, to be joined by, let me just say this, join with, joined by, to have with us. I’m so excited my good friend Lyndsay, Christia. Lyndsay and I met, I think it was just last year at a senior housing officers Institute. And what I loved about Lyndsay when I met her in that space, is that she walked in confidently. She had this bubbly spirit, and she just gave really good energy. And as soon as we were like, Hey, let’s do a here’s the story type podcast. One of the first people that came to my mind was because I knew she had a story to tell. She had the energy to tell it, and we were going to just be blessed today with something, something going down today, Neil. And with that, I’m going to turn it over to you, Lyndsay, to introduce yourself and let us know what you got.

Lyndsay Christia
Yeah, great. Well, good morning everyone. Thank you again. Like Helena said, I’m just so grateful to be here. I’m ready to rock and roll. My name is Lyndsay Christia, and I have the honor and privilege to serve as the Executive Director for Student Success at the first degree granting historically black college and university, Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, where I oversee the departments of Residence Life and student life and development. I’m from Buffalo, New York, very proud, bills, Mafia fan, but down here in these parts, I oversee all of our campus population, our residential community, all of our clubs and organizations, Greek life and social fellowships. I am overseeing the biggest and baddest Campus Activities Board, and I serve as the primary advisor to our royal court.

Neil E. Golemo
Is that a broken table behind you? Is that? That makes a lot of sense now,

Lyndsay Christia
no, but my flag is, you know, I had to decide, was I going to do the schools that I’ve worked at, or was I going to have my bills mafia flag behind me? So it was a toss up. It wasn’t toss up, but it is here. It is here. And so outside of that, is what I do here on campus, I’m currently in my dissertation phase, aspiring to be like Dr Nia over here at Morgan State University, where I am looking at how extracurricular involvement and leadership opportunities impact student leaders, identity, development, mental health and transition outside of the university. So just got a couple things going on.

Neil E. Golemo
Don’t look tired, for what it’s worth. So is

Lyndsay Christia
this filter zoom has so many new features, and, you know, things like that. So I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Tried very hard. Well,

Helena Gardner
Lyndsay, tell us the story today. Tell us the story.

Lyndsay Christia
Yeah, and you know what? You said that to me in. The beginning, when I got this email, and it was so crazy. I was in the car, I was driving with my husband, and this email pops up to say, you know, here’s this opportunity. We want to bring you on. And I was like, Oh my gosh, like, little me like a story. And I listen, if I could get this dissertation done, I’d be writing a book right now with all of the stories that we could possibly tell, and especially, you know, shout out to those that are in or have ever served in Residence Life. I very firmly believe that there should be some sort of wristband or universal tattoo, because I think everybody is owed one free coffee or at least one free drink wherever we go, because those that have served on the front lines again, in residents, like, definitely have some stories to tell. But when you said that to me the first time, I’m not gonna lie, I was a little taken back. Like, I really, you know, I’m a I’m a note taker. I had to get in my journal and, like, okay, a story, a story, a story. Like, what? That’s so much pressure. Like, you get one, you get one story of everything that we can share. And so I kind of went through all the different things and all my time here, I’ve been in higher education now for almost 10 years. This is my seventh year here at Lincoln. I’m like, oh my goodness, like that. Narrowing it down to one is crazy. But anyways, ultimately, I was like, You know what? The only real best story that I have is my own right, my truth, how I got here, and what I’ve been up to. And so that’s what I’m going to give you just a little bit. And so before I get to that, I think, you know, as we were talking about what this looks like, and I’m such a fan of what this podcast is trying to do, and bringing people together, and, you know, really humanizing this crazy world of student affairs that we fall in, I really thought about, like, how a lot of our stories start, right? And, you know, none of us went to kindergarten career, day dreaming about a career in higher education.

Lyndsay Christia
Were like, I’m so like, retention specialist, yes. Hall records had a clipboard occupancy reports, like, had everything just showing up. Like, yes, I can’t wait to do this. Um, but no, I’ll say for the 99% of us, because I knew there was one out there, so I found my meal. But for 99% of us, we just magically fall into this environment. We just fall into this world by either our leadership opportunities a mentor. Sometimes it’s because we had a really great experience, but sometimes it’s we didn’t have the best experience, and wanting to give that back to students. And so, you know, I know for me, that is exactly how it happened. And mine was a quarter life crisis. I was getting ready to graduate. I was a graphic design major. I was going to New York. I was going to work on magazines like I had all these internships and studios, and I sat in my mentor’s office, who I’m grateful enough to call as my supervisor now almost 1213, years later, sitting there like I absolutely hit this, like I love art, I love, you know, everything about me is, you know what I do, but I can’t see myself sitting in an office doing edits and going back and forth and, you know, that’s just not me. And I’m about to graduate in three months, and I have no idea what I’m about to do. And he looked at me, and he was like, Lyndsay, you’re going into higher education. Like, what? Like, obviously, when you break it down to somebody, they’re like, oh, yeah, there’s people that work at colleges. You have these people at the universities. But nobody knows how we get here. We don’t just get trained for this. I feel we all just get dropped off into this world. And it’s like, make it work. Here you go. Have at it. Trial by Fire. Wish you best of luck. And we go on from there. And, you know, I really look back, and I was like, Yeah, you know, I did all the things I loved being involved. I was, you know, I had the magical experience of being an RA, being an orientation. And when I think back now of my story and what I want to bring, I feel like I was always in these positions of, like, Wait, that doesn’t make sense. Or, why are you doing that? Like I said, I was a graphic design major. I didn’t know what higher education was. I was a commuter student moving in as an RA, nobody understood. You never lived on campus before. How are you going to do this? I became a senior Ra, a year later, I became a hall director, where my entire staff was older than me and had worked in Residence Life longer than me. So coming in again, it was that challenge of like, what are you doing here? Very quickly became an assistant director before graduating my master’s program. And again, I’m not here to do a little flex, right? But it just it happened so fast, right? But sitting here thinking about, you know, how did I really get here, and how is this whirlwind really shaped, the way that I show up, and even how I am in this position now, and you know, most recently, as I shared, you know, I have the space where I am grateful to serve at the first degree granting historically black college and university. I attend a historically black college and university. I’m married to a partner who just finished at Tuskegee University with his veterinary medicine program. Shout out, dr, Chris. But, um, you know, had all this support and all this love around me, and still, I’m in a position, especially now, where people, what are you doing here? Right? What is this, this white woman from Buffalo, serving in this population, and I’m very, you know, acknowledged of the fact that I have not met anybody that is as forward facing, overseeing the Greeks, overseeing clubs and organizations and being on the foreground, but and that could be a whole nother podcast, a whole other experience of what that has been like. And like I said, I’m very appreciative, because I know the opportunities that have been afforded to me, I know the privilege that comes with that, and I also know that there are people in my position that have sadly taken advantage of the opportunity to serve this community and create a lot of distrust, and so it put me in a position where I had a lot of ground to cover, right? I had to build relationships, and I again, am faced with these obstacles of, how do you show up? Why does this make sense? What does this look like? And what I really learned was, don’t think about what it looks like to others. I don’t have to justify does this mean like? What does this look like. How does other people interpret my experience and where I show up in these spaces, right? And so outside of that, in the physicality, and not in terms of my whiteness, but I’m 30 years old, I’m okay with saying that I’m a younger as me and Helena were talking about even at this conference that we had met at last year for senior housing directors, I walk into the room and are looking at me like this student is lost. We’re in the student I had my varsity jacket on my plane was late. I come into the room, nobody’s trying to make a seat, and I’m just like, alright, well, I’m gonna take one right here, because guess what, sometimes, if they don’t leave you a seat, you got to make your own table. And that’s just how I am, right? You have to get in where you fit in, but be proud that those experiences, those narratives, can’t take away from the light that you want to bring right? Because, guess what? We don’t know how many people are still in darkness. And so for me, outside of what it looks like, outside of my identities, of where I’m at, I’m always very conscious of how we show up in these spaces. And for me, it’s standing on that positivity, it’s standing on that creativity and innovation and so so much so now that I’ve set the foreground a little bit about me, if I haven’t scared you off just yet.

Neil E. Golemo
I mean, you’re making my knees hurt, but you’re going, I love it.

Lyndsay Christia
No, because I think it’s just so important. Like I said, I’ve always been so cognizant of how do I show up in these spaces? What am I bringing? What is the message that I’m leaving? But more than that, how are we not missing the moments? And so that is really the story that I want to bring today, because it’s something that I really preach to my students, right? How do we show up? How do we craft these spaces where students feel safe, where they feel comfortable, where they want to come back again, and really building those relationships. And so one thing that I really, really drive into my students. So as I mentioned, I have founded our Campus Activities Board here at Lincoln. We are known as the biggest and the baddest. And there is a standard that we uphold,

Helena Gardner
and that we really better talk tough. You better talk tough.

Lyndsay Christia
Listen, okay, because they can take the recipe, but ain’t gonna taste the same. And so okay, because you listen whole another podcast, whole another time, but we take a lot of pride in how our students show up. And I always tell them not, you’re just not representing me. You’re representing this department. And we always take so much pride in the fact that we represent our institution, right? And we’re very big on telling our story here, which, again, is why I was so geeked. Of this is perfect. This is exactly what I want to do. And so when I train them, our students do all of our programming on campus, but really, they are the front end of my office. And let me tell you, I have some pit bulls out there. They are very quick, like they call me Mama lens, like mama lens is in a meeting. You can’t go back there yet, right? Or, What can I help you with? They try to triage, you know, to try to save as much, you know, commotion and things that are going on, because we’re a very busy office. But the one thing that I always drill home is that this should be Disneyland, right? I’m very big on putting the life into Residence Life and student life and development, especially now, right? We are facing some very tough times. Being in this field is really tough. Being the college student is really tough. My biggest priority is that when someone comes into this office, we are not aiding into a runaround or, you know, we are able to help solve their problems. We are helped to connect them to somewhere else, and if at the very least, we are a friendly face that they say, Hey, you know what? I’m still confused, but I really like them. I really liked coming in here and getting to know the students, and you know that environment that we create. So I’m always very big about that. And the one thing that I always tell them is you have to remember, you may have answered the same question 800 times, but the moment somebody else comes in to ask that question for the first time, you better act like that’s the first time that you answered it, because that is that moment that you don’t want to miss with that student. Well, guess what? Y’all, I broke the first card, no rule. So one day I’m in my office, and, you know, I think so many people can attest to just this feeling sometimes. Of suffocation. You’re going meeting to meeting to meeting, phones ringing, emails blowing off. You don’t even know where your cell phone is. Lunch was three hours ago. We just get so thrown into the thrust of our day, and all we know is that we have a migraine by the end of it. It was one of those days where I’m running around. I’m moving back and forth. I’m just going on vibes and wherever my Outlook calendar tells me I need to be, and I get a knock at the door and one of my students was like, hey, Mama, you know, do you got five minutes? And, you know, I was just kind of in that space again, like, yeah, I always tell them I’m always busy, but I’ll make time. So I’m like, Yeah, sure. I got a couple minutes on. I gotta hop on this other meeting. So, you know, is this a quick question and not necessarily rude. I’ve never, never that, but I felt myself rushing that interaction. And just like, What do you want? I gotta go, like, I got another call. I gotta be in another place. What do we got going on? Let me help you. Really quickly. And she came in, she had this little bag in her hand, and she was like, Mama lens, you know, I just realized you’ve been running a lot. You’re handling a lot of stuff. I was at the store, and this student doesn’t even know this is the first time I’ve shared this story. I’ve carried this has probably been four or five years ago. At this point, I’ve been running around. I was at the store and I saw this, and I just thought of you, and I wanted to pick it up and just give you this reminder that, you know, we all see what you do. We appreciate you, and we don’t know how you hold it all together, but you do. And she gives me this little sign that says, chaos coordinator, put on my desk, because I always joke like, this is my official title, even when I’m in meetings on campus, like, yeah, yeah, this is what I do. This is what I go by. But you guys can call me chaos coordinator, because essentially it’s all the same thing. And I sat there at my desk, and just this immediate, gut wrenching guilt. And of course, in the moment, I’m like, Oh my gosh, sweetheart. Like, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Like you didn’t have to do that. Like, this means so much. She’s like, okay, like, I’ll let you go. Like, I just wanted to stop in. I closed the door, and I’m bawling, not only because I’m a Pisces. I take everything emotionally. I but I felt immediate guilt, and I was just like, Oh my gosh. Like, you big fat jerk, you’re sitting here and you’re rushing the suit like you’re all just worried about what’s coming next and all the stuff. And I broke my own cardinal rule about being in that moment and being cognizant of how we show up, right and not taking advantage. And yes, we’re only human. We’re gonna have hard days. It’s not at all that we, you know, aren’t owed a minute of just like mental frustration or just moving about. And honestly, she might even see this, definitely plan to send it to her, but she’s gonna be like, I don’t remember that at all, and it may have been worse than me, as I sometimes do and overthink, but I’ve never forgotten that as it sits on my desk years and years later, I just, you know, none of that other stuff matters. The emails are going to be there. If it’s an emergency, they’re going to somebody’s going to get a hold of me. There’s always going to be a next meeting, but you may never have that moment again. You can alter the way that somebody interacts with you and how they’re going to come back in, and how they felt in that moment. And it just was one of those things where I was like, you know, along with me talking about how important it is to me to recognize how I show up and what I bring to the table is just thinking about, you know, again, our students, what kind of role model are we setting for them? What kind of example are they in the lessons that they’re internalizing when they see us running ragged like sometimes they call me revolving door, because, hey, bye, I got students that sit at my front desk. Yeah, she’s in a meeting, yeah, she’s in a meeting. Yeah, she’s in a meeting. And that might be true, and that comes with the territory. You know, at this level, can’t always get out of all of them. Sometimes I try, but not always, is that the case, um, and they understand that. But at the end of the day, it’s like you have to take advantage when those moments happen, because that’s what we’re here to do. I didn’t sign up. We are not robots that are just meant to, um, you know, answer phones and go to meetings meeting me. We’re here for the students. And so I always just try to remember that. And you know, especially with my research that I mentioned, of looking at how the institution plays a role in setting that environment for students, this false level of perfectionism, this Go, go, go, go, go, that can instill those fears of failure. They don’t want to disappoint us, but we first can’t disappoint ourselves. We got to take those lunch breaks. We gotta slow down and just get back to that, enjoying the Student Affairs magic, because that could be a point for somebody else to have that magical experience, to say, hey, I want to do this too. So that’s what I’m here to bring. That is my my truth. That is my reminder that this stuff is going to be here. Y’all, there’s always going to be another day, there’s going to be another email, but not allowing this job, this environment, to take away from who we are as people, right? How we show up, how are we enjoying the work that we do? Because there’s a lot of stuff that can really alter and take away from what that looks like, and it’s. Hard. It’s very hard to say. We can’t let it bother us. And you know, because some of these, they don’t prepare us for politics in grad school. Okay, that’s a whole nother, whole nother thing. But it’s just remembering, like it’s those moments that got us here, and how do we keep creating those for others? Is really just what I wanted to share today.

Helena Gardner
I love that, Lyndsay. I love it so much. And I’m just, I’m sitting with so many, like, bars and quotables and things to write on my dry erase board to take because I’m thinking about how, like, it’s kind of that basic when, like, if they see you, you see them. And I’m just thinking about you tell them about the moment and whatever you have been doing, albeit chaos. The person saw you and even saw you being busy in that moment and needing to pause. And I just appreciate that. I appreciate it. And I love the Getting back to the Student Affairs magic, because I think you mentioned earlier, appreciating what we’re trying to do here. And that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s it that tingled to even hear that student affairs magic. Because sometimes we lose that but, but I appreciate that it’s in the moment, it’s, it’s in the moment and, and even in the chaos, I would offer that we find it well and,

Neil E. Golemo
and, like, like, part of the magic, you know, is that every year you get another shot. Like, every year, you know, and God willing, every four to five, you know, you have a whole new set. And right, there’s two sides to that, you know, like, you get a new set of people to, like, annoy and lead, right, you know. But also, like, there’s a repetition and, you know, they’re all special, uh, they’re special snowflakes. And I don’t say snowflakes as a an insult, like, I live in Texas, if you get more than a couple of them together, you can shut down a city. So, so I get that like they they are special and different, but, you know, they have their problems aren’t the same, but they rhyme, and oh so easy to kind of fall into a groove and like, you know, kind of that magic is that they don’t let you, they don’t really like

Lyndsay Christia
you. And I tell students all the time, right? We cannot fight for your positions harder than you do, right? You get one shot at this. You have made it. I want you to fully enjoy what it whatever it is that you are doing. I get another chance. I can do this all again. I can make this go and, you know, I was actually talking to some of my advisors friends about sometimes the grief that comes with losing students, right? Like, you build these relationships, and then you gotta start all over. It’s kind of like blind date. Every year you gotta build this relationship. What’s your favorite color? You know you’re doing all of that. You get stuck. You get stuck in these, these cycles. And, you know, going back to what my story is like, what do we want them to remember about us? Are they going to remember that Mama Lynn was always in a meeting, or are they going to remember when she said, You know what? I’m Reclaiming my time. I need 20 minutes. I’m going to go out to my game room and I’m going to whoop some behind in ping pong and seeing me as that person, because I can and I will, and whoever wants the smoke knows that they all they got to do is ask, and, you know, just sitting down and taking those five extra seconds. And I think it’s hard, because when we talk about this, it’s always that, well, we don’t have extra time. We don’t have extra blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I, like I said, we have to make time. We have to make time, not only for their sake, but to really remember our why and being rooted in what it is that we’re here to do, because it’s very easy to lose that. I know there’s so many days where I’m just like, why am I here again? Like, what? What is? How does this all make sense? Like, Oh yeah, yeah. I love them. I love them. I love them. I love this work. But it only comes if we make that priority. Because, no, I don’t want our legacy. I don’t want the story to be, yeah, she was here, here, in and out this and that, like, No, it was the we had the time to make that magic.

Helena Gardner
And you know what? I don’t think they’ll think that, you know, I you know, you might have, like, you know, we talked about that 1% the doctor Neils

Lyndsay Christia
they found, forget that this is what we wanted to do. Yeah. And I always tell them, You’re in school to make your dreams come true and to be the next doctor, the lawyer, the next advocate, whatever that looks like. We did our time. I want to be doing this.

Neil E. Golemo
Yeah, I do this on purpose. Like I say, I do this on purpose. Do you believe that I get paid to do this

Helena Gardner
on purpose. I have a joke with our employee relations person that, like, I got out the car today. That’s kind of what we say when we see each other good morning. You know, because sometimes I like to to kind of play off the chaos. Sometimes the chaos can be a lot for us, the constant meetings, the back to back. You know, even that guilt you speak to when we can’t pause to sit with it, and our moment has to look sometimes like fleeting passing or the kind of the appropriate handoff. So not not to go to the other office, but like, let me situate you with somebody who can take the time right now and but we’re

Lyndsay Christia
even a quick. Follow Up goes such a long way. Goes like I didn’t get to this moment, but when I get home, I’m gonna send you that text. Hey, hon. I didn’t get a chance to text with you today, but I do have some time tomorrow. I didn’t forget about you. I didn’t you know. It just hey, you cared. Hey, you remember. And I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to cut you off. But that is, I’m a huge names person. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know where in my history I remember names, and I had somebody one time to like I I didn’t think you would remember me like and that it was so like, I don’t know just something about recognizing a name or remembering that it’s like I didn’t feel like that was such a big moment or something like that, something that should happen, whether you’re good at memorizing or anything like that. But just knowing that I engage with that student, I followed up. But so many people know us as we walk around, like, Hey, how you doing? How you doing my tagline? And I’m going to get in on a t shirt, a mug, living the dream, living the dream. And, you know, it always gives a chuckle, and all my colleagues are like, Oh, you guys always say that, but yeah, in some of those moments, it is to be a little funny, because things are crazy, there is chaos, but it’s because it’s absolutely true. This is my dream. This is what I wanted to do, at least until I have another quarter life crisis. But I’m exactly because we’re not at midlife. We’re not at midlife yet. Okay, I refuse, but yeah, this is, this is the dream.

Helena Gardner
I love it, though, because, like, I’m still sitting with you saying we put the we gotta put the life, in the life and in that like, I think in this season as a as a professional in community, with campus, out here, in the streets, in the world, I just a little bit that’s missing, right? Like we are seeing a lot of the nuances. And, you know, we say things like talk across difference, the differences in life are really highlighted right now, in the in the ways things are moving. But are we truly living like in it, like this energetic way? Are we? Are we celebrating the good times as much as the stuff takes up the space, and so it just, it just really felt good to hear putting a life back in it, just for myself, on today and and Today’s a day off for me. So I’m just going to say that out loud for me, because you can’t coordinate that chaos every day, but you can think about that good energy of putting a life into something and that I think, um, I don’t know, I’ll be vulnerable to say, um, it hasn’t felt like the life, yeah, it hasn’t felt like that bubbly energy piece that is, is the part, like you said, that is the dream. It’s exactly doing what I wanted to do. I’m in a role that I wanted to be in, and some days it doesn’t feel like living the dream. And I just like, I’m just, I’m not even trying to be cheesy. I am reminded right now to put the life back into the residence life, the Student Life, the just to breathe, just to breathe well.

Lyndsay Christia
I’m so, so sorry. There’s so many thoughts. And I just Oh my gosh. I wish we had all done but it’s just so many people say that. And I think not only for our students sake, but even our other colleagues. And like I said, all of this work is hard. Being in student affairs, doing this work, and being in the servant leadership role is hard, but especially for those of us that are in I have Residence Life and student life. We shut down the parties and throw the parties like it’s just a crazy world, depending on where they are, right? There’s always nights and weekends, and I have to remind them that, you know, not only of that human aspect, right? We’re not robots that are answering calls and emails, but I spend so much of my life here, they see me more than my parents. They see me more than my god willing husband, right, who allows me to be in the space and knows that if I’m home at eight, 910, o’clock, it’s because I was picking up popcorn and, you know, pool noodles for some kind of program or event. And so just remembering that, like, yes, breathing that life. And I really appreciate because that was the one thing that I really wanted to, you know, if leave with anything is, how do we get that life back? But you know, it’s a fine balance, because as much as we try, and I don’t believe in work life balance, right, especially with what we have, it’s more of that integration. We do have to try a little bit harder, because it’s not always equal. We can’t always just shut one off or the other. It’s just we spend so much of our time here, and at the end of the day, we got into this to live, not to just work and to serve, but to really live out all of those again, that magic and those hopes and dreams.

Neil E. Golemo
Yes. I mean, yeah, there’s definitely times where I have to say, like, there’s a reason I get paid for this. Like there’s a reason, if it was easy, you know, we do it for free. But also, like, I don’t know, we ain’t in it

Helena Gardner
for the money, but you’re right, though we’re not, money compliments it, and thank goodness it comes on time. But

Neil E. Golemo
I’ll tell you, one thing that hits me is that, and what you’re saying is that this, this work, does. To let you go for long, like on autopilot, like you can’t, it just doesn’t. I mean, you were on autopilot and a student came in and gave you a thing, you know, a knick knack, and I’m imagining she’s probably wondering, like, what just happened at your desk. She’s like, Oh my God, what did

Lyndsay Christia
I do? That’s not the reaction I was hoping for. She was

Helena Gardner
just like, here,

Neil E. Golemo
you know, and it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s such a cool thing to be like, on the other side of that wheel, because if you do this long enough, and you know, if you get good at it at all, like you’re gonna have those moments the other way. And so I just, I love so much Lyndsay, like how vulnerable you were and how you just like named a moment that we’ve all experienced. And, yeah, I don’t know. I wish I could bottle your energy and told you, told

Helena Gardner
you she was going to bring some energy today. I told you, you’re right, yeah, and it’s, and it’s, and we’re grateful for it. And I really thank you for sharing that story today. And I’m hopeful that as others listen to it, they do a couple things like, you know, they remember to keep your cardinal rule up, cherishing the moment, but they also recall their moments, you know, the moments they’ve given to others and the moments that they’ve received? So thank you so much for that today.

Lyndsay Christia
Thank you. I cannot appreciation enough. This was so cool, like I want four more hours, because you guys are amazing, but you summed it up perfectly. So if not for anything, you know, that is exactly what I came here to do. It’s so easy to say, you know, I hope that you take care of yourselves, because you know, like I said, if we get those five minutes, but being okay with saying like again, standing in your truth, knowing how you want to show up, knowing that that authenticity matters, and when you embody that, even if it is by bringing energy or doing something consistency, however that looks like for you, we really do give the green light for our students to find who they are and how they want to show up in this world too. So I appreciate it. I had a great time. Thank

Helena Gardner
you, and thank you for sharing your joy for everyone that again is Lyndsay Christia. Lyndsay hangs out over at Lincoln University and is doing some wonderful things, and we look forward to enjoying your PhD work when you complete your journey.

Lyndsay Christia
Thank you so much. Let’s manifest that.

Helena Gardner
We manifesting it today. We also want to thank our sponsor, Evolve. Are you a higher ed senior leader who is knowledgeable and deeply committed to transformational leadership, yet find yourself unsure and not as effective as you know you could be. Evolve, led by our own doctor, Keith Edwards, along with doctors Brian Arrio and Dawn Lee, are offering evolve to help leaders like you release fear, gain courage and take transformation, transformative action to unleash your leadership for social change. Evolve is a three month virtual experience, combining on demand modules, personalized coaching and powerful group sessions. Visit evolve to learn how you can be a part of their next cohort, or talk to us about evolved in your senior leadership team. This has been Here’s the Story, and I’ve really enjoyed our episode today. Here’s the Story as part of the Student Affairs NOW, family, we are glad you joined us to laugh, cry, learn, and sometimes commiserate and always, we celebrate here being a part of student of the Student Affairs experience. If you have a story, please consider sharing with us by leaving a two minute pitch via voice file at studentaffairsnow.com/ here’s the story. Every story is welcome and every earnest perspective is worthy, and we want to hear it. If you don’t feel like sharing yours, you can find ours and others at Student Affairs now.com on YouTube, make sure you smash that subscribe button and anywhere you listen podcast, I’m going to turn it over to my good friend Neil to close out and thank our editor.

Neil E. Golemo
I’m lucky to say this episode has been edited by Nat Ambrosey. Thank you,Nat for making us sound better than we have any business sounding This is Neil Golemo and I just want to say, we hope this fed your flame a little bit, because your light matters. So keep using it to make the world a brighter place. Until next time this has been here’s the story. Peace.