Interview Series ft. Carrie: 8 Countries in 6 Weeks, Part 2

Here is Part 2 of Carrie’s interview where she talks about happiness and her career. If you missed Part 1 of her interview you can find it here. Quick recap, she took a year off school, traveled to 8 countries in 6 weeks in Southeast Asia and now is a reporter, show host, freelance journalist, and photographer. You can learn more about her on her blog!

 I think the most important thing I learned about me and my happiness is that simple is better. I’m a planner and a goal setter by nature. Those are great qualities, but when they’re obsessed upon they can cause a lot of grief. Complicated is exciting and sexy and fun to talk about, but simple is where it’s at for me. Being content in a moment is truly a wonderful feeling. I have found the same amount of happiness sitting on a beautiful beach in south Indonesia as I have sitting on my porch with a cup of coffee and a book in my hand. I wouldn’t trade either of those times for anything.

 

It most definitely did. I once heard it said that travel is the only thing you can spend your money on that makes you richer. As a young person out of college only a year a think a lot of people stress investing your money in things that will benefit you in the long run (real estate, stocks, etc.) those are all great things and I believe in them all whole-heartedly, but don’t forget to also invest in YOURSELF, and in the person you want to become. All of my travels were expensive, but I always came back a newer, usually better version of myself.

 There’s a lot of cliche quotes out there about “happiness” and how to define it, and honestly, for the most part I think they’re all lame, but one of my favorite TV shows of all time hits it directly on the head for me.

“People get lost when they think of happiness as a destination. we’re always thinking that someday we’ll be happy, you know. we’ll get that car, or job, or that person in our lives and that will “fix” everything. but happiness is a mood, and it’s a condition, not a destination. it’s like being tired or hungry..it’s not permanent. it comes and it goes, and that’s ok. i feel like if people thought of it that way, they’d find happiness a lot more often.” — Jullian, One Tree Hill

I kind of like to think Iwas born with the bug in me. Ever since I can remember I was always the kid in class that got good grades but got in trouble non-stop for talking too much. I’m a natural born talker, but it never occurred to me that could make a living out of talking, turns out you can.

Summer after my freshman year of college, I came home for the summer and was ready to chill out. Needless to say, my parents grew tired of coming home from their 9-5 jobs and seeing me sprawled out on their couch watching re-runs of The Hills and eating pop-tarts all day. Through a line of connections I got an unpaid internship with the news director at the local radio station. I was sure radio wasn’t my thing, but it was something to do a few days a week. It didn’t take long for the news director to realize my real passion was in sports. He arranged for me to get some experience with the sports department, and from there things just kind of snowballed.

I remember when i was younger and the show Total Request Live was still on MTV. I had absolutely no interest in the show, but I remember the hosts of the show always looked like they were having a blast. I would grab a hair brush or a ruler and mimic what they were saying pretending I was hosting the show in my own living room. When you’re so young it never crosses your mind that you should do something like that for a career, you’re just a young kid having fun. Looking back now I can see that was a sign.

It didn’t really hit me until I got my first job with a baseball team. I’m an adrenaline person. being mic’ed up in front of anywhere from 3,000-10,000 people gets your blood pumping, and I love the feeling. from then on I knew I didn’t want that feeling to end.

I do. definitely. when I was a junior in college I set a goal that I wanted to be on Network television (Fox, NBC, CBS), by the time i was 25. I did my first Network show for Fox Sports when i was 22. I still have other goals of course. it’s always been a dream of mine to work at an Olympics and at a Super Bowl.

I’m not completely sure where it’ll go. the wonderful thing about this career is that 9 times out of 10 it’s not a straight and narrow path, and I’m completely fine with that. I love what I do, and I’m willing to try new things and go new places so I really think the possibilities are endless.

I love your quote from One Tree Hill (great show!) I am always interested to hear about how people find their careers and I love how passionate you are about journalism.

Carrie, thank you so much for being a part of this, it was so awesome getting to know you better! Be sure to follow her on her blog Carrie Lippert.

 

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