podcast-Isabella Lindsay

Bella, a sophomore at Hamilton College, discusses her piece "Ripta" on the podcast "Don't Quote Me." The story is based on her own experiences taking the bus to school in Rhode Island. She enjoys writing about the disjointedness of self-perception and how others perceive her. Bella believes stories are never truly finished and that her perspective will change over time. She also shares her favorite and least favorite parts of the story and mentions her love for Rhode Island. Are you not going to sit sideways? I don't think I'm anti-sideways yet, but I don't know yet. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Hello and welcome to Don't Quote Me, the only podcast that is unadmissible in court. This is episode two, Ripta, and it is also our last episode. We want to thank our listener for sticking with us this entire time, but unfortunately there are no microphones in jail. Today I have Isabella Maria Lindsay, better known as Bella. Bella is a sophomore at Hamilton College. She is majoring in anthropology and Hispanic studies. She is from the smallest state of Rhode Island. She loves watching movies, spending time with her friends, and fans. Fuck. Where do you think I should start from? Maybe from the introduction. Okay. Hello and welcome to Don't Quote Me, the only podcast that is inadmissible. Hello and welcome to Don't Quote Me, the only podcast that is inadmissible in court. This is episode two, Ripta, and it's also our last episode. This is episode two, Ripta, and it's also our last episode. We want to thank our listener for sticking with us this entire time, but unfortunately there are no microphones in jail. Today I have Isabella Maria Lindsay, better known as Bella, with me today. Bella is a sophomore at Hamilton College. She is majoring in anthropology and Hispanic studies. She is from the smallest state of Rhode Island. She loves watching movies, spending time with her friends and family, and fans. She loves watching movies, spending time with her friends and family, and laughing. It's nice to have you, Bella. Thanks for coming in. Thank you so much for having me. You gave us a work today, Ripta. I did. Why did you choose this piece to introduce to the show? Well, I've written a couple other pieces as well, but I chose to do this piece on the show because I thought it was the one that was the most, like, mixture of both happy and kind of, like, sad or bored, you know, kind of, like, emotions and stuff. And I kind of think that – wait, can I redo that just because I'm saying um a lot? Yeah, totally. Okay. Do you want to ask the question again or do you want me to just – I don't remember how I introduced myself, so I'll just, like – Today Bella gave us a piece named Ripta, and I just had a question. Why did you choose this piece? So I chose this piece because I think it has a good mix of, like, emotions, ranging from, you know, happy to kind of more sad or bored. And I just thought that was kind of nice instead of, you know, trying to read a piece that was a little bit more sad or kind of glum. So that was why I chose to read this piece on the show. I also think that it's kind of true to my life and stuff, and so I just thought it was interesting to kind of write about something that I did live, like, throughout high school. Yeah, I heard that, and don't quote me on this. This story is based on your own life. Like, what extent is that true? So this is actually completely based on my own life. Really? Yes, it is. I took the city bus to school almost every day when I was in high school. We had, like, free bus passes and stuff in Providence where I grew up. And so, you know, every day I would take the bus, and sometimes people would say stuff that was kind of interesting and it would, like, stand out to me. And so I decided to write a piece about that. That's really interesting. Is public transport, like, good in Rhode Island? What's generally the quality? I mean, I would say it's pretty good. I don't have that much experience with public transport in other cities. But, I mean, the bus always got me from, you know, the bus stop to school and then back, and that was kind of what it was meant for. It functioned. Exactly, and it was free. So that was always very nice. Interesting. In your piece, what would you say is your favorite line or part? Oh, okay. So I have a couple favorite lines. One of them is one of the last lines. I'm talking about something that my creative writing teacher in high school said, which was Isabella draws you into her weird little world, and I said I didn't know my world was weird or little or that I even had a world, which I feel like is kind of true to, you know, like the development of your personality throughout your, like, I guess adolescence and stuff, just like the kind of difference in, like, perception based on how different people perceive you, like teachers versus parents versus friends, and, you know, not kind of knowing, like, how people perceive you and then kind of having that, I don't know, like disjointedness between how you perceive yourself versus how, you know, other people perceive you. Did other people's opinions have, like, a big effect on your personality or how you perceive yourself today? I don't know. I think only time will tell. I think, you know, perhaps that will show up in future writing or something, you know, understanding or trying to understand the disjointedness of, you know, like self-perception versus other people's perception is something that I definitely, like, try to think about a lot while I'm writing. It's a really interesting topic. Yeah, definitely. There's a lot to dig into there, I think, so, yeah. What's your least favorite part of the story? My least favorite part? If you have one. I don't know if I have one, actually. I mean, I felt really good about this piece. I kind of wrote it kind of fast, which is typically how I try to write my pieces, just kind of, like, just go for it. Like, I think a lot about it before I start to write it so that I kind of have everything planned out, but then, like, finally I just kind of, like, start writing it and I just, like, don't stop. How long did it take you to write this? I want to say it took me about maybe two hours or so. It is flash fiction, so it's not very long, but I don't know if you count, like, all the hours that you spend kind of, like, thinking about it and thinking about, you know, all the different experiences that I had in my life that I wanted to include in this. So probably a lot more time, but actually sitting down and, like, trying to write, I think probably, like, two hours. So when you're writing, do your ideas for stories always, like, circle around you? Are they always on your mind? Are you thinking about one right now? At this exact moment, no. At this exact moment, I think I'm trying to think about this one. But yes, and I think it's really interesting that you asked that. I feel like a lot of the work that goes into thinking of ideas and stuff is something that I kind of just, like, do constantly, and, you know, like, sometimes, like, people will bring up, you know, like, some topic that's, like, pretty interesting to me, and it'll, like, somehow make its way into my story. So I kind of think that, you know, the idea of kind of always thinking about what you want to write about is something that kind of does show up in my stories. So, yeah. Do you believe that stories are ever finished? No, I do not. I do not. I think, well, yeah, I think that you kind of have to draw the line at some point and just kind of say, you know what, it's done. But I think that there's always more and more editing that you can do over time just because, like, as your perspective changes, you probably want to change things based on how you thought about past experiences, I think, especially if you're trying to write about something which actually did happen. Like, as you write, you know, the perspective that you have can change. And so I kind of think that, to that end, it is important to kind of, like, have an idea of what you want to write in mind. And once you feel like, okay, I got it, just, like, be able to draw the line at some point and say, you know what, I think this is done. I tend to think about the first line that I want to write and then also the last line, and I try to kind of fill it in, like, in between. But as long as I feel like I have the first line and the last line, I can start writing and feel like, okay, after I'm done with this piece, it's just done, you know? Yeah, that's a beautiful way of putting it. Thank you. Thank you. And I would love to see this piece written by you 10 years in the future. Yeah, I think it would be. Seeing how your perspective changes. Yeah, I think it would be so different because, you know, high school was relatively recent. I think that definitely affected, like, how I thought about things. I think if I wrote this piece in high school, it would be totally different too just because, you know, coming to college and stuff, like, I have a totally different perspective now than I did in, like, high school on my high school experience just because I feel like sometimes when you're living something, it's harder to write about it with a perspective that is, like, totally, like, whole. I think that after you're done with, like, a certain experience, it can kind of be easier to go through and, like, pick apart the different pieces that can add more to, like, you know, the full, like, story, like, narrative in a way. Definitely. We actually have a question from our viewer, Lindsey from New Jersey. She asks, why are you from Rhode Island? Well, okay, I don't know if there's actually a good answer for this. My mom is from Brazil, but my dad is from Rhode Island. He grew up in Warwick, and before that, my grandparents and my great-grandparents, they owned a market also in Rhode Island. And so I guess it kind of is just a place that my parents wanted to move back to, to, like, be close to family and stuff. And, yeah, I personally love Rhode Island. I think it's a great state to grow up in. I had a great time, so. What are your top five favorite states? Top five favorite states. Rhode Island, Massachusetts, maybe California. California? I don't know. I just visited there one time. It was kind of nice. Maybe, like, Maine I thought was kind of nice, and New York. New York's number five, though. The snow. It is the snow. It is the snow. I, yeah. Is it snow in Rhode Island? I mean, where? Or is it just like that? It does snow. Not as much as it does here, but it definitely does snow. Interesting. Well, I think that's all the time we have to interview you today. Thank you so much for all those questions. They're really nice. And thank you to our viewer, Lindsay, from New Jersey. That was a beautiful question. Jersey's definitely my bottom five favorite states, going to be honest. I have to go. How should I transition? I didn't really have a good transition. Okay, wait, I have an idea. Bella's work, Ripta, can be read using a link only given to those who ask nicely. But as a treat, she will be reading it aloud for us today. Is that good enough? Perfect. Awesome. Wow. What a gripping story. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for today, listener. Thank you for being a captive audience and continuing to support us despite our alleged crimes. Don't quote me on this, but I heard that without you, this podcast wouldn't have made it past the first episode. Good night, goodbye, and have a good life. And remember, don't quote me. I'm going to try that again because I stumbled over a word. Wow. What a gripping story. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for today, listener. Thank you for being a captive audience and continuing to support us despite our alleged crimes. Don't quote me on this, but I heard that without you, this podcast wouldn't have made it past the first episode. Good night, goodbye, and have a good life. And remember, don't quote me. Don't quote me. I'll just send you that part and you can have it. Okay. Unless you want to do another one. Don't quote me. Okay, is there anything else you wanted? I think that's good. Awesome. That went by smoothly. It did go by smoothly. Okay. Thank you for being a captive audience and continuing to support us despite our alleged crimes. Don't quote me. That went by smoothly. It did go by.