Where Are They Now? Part One: Kira
Ruth Bieber-Stanley 21
As a high-school student applying to 厙ぴ勛圖, the blogs were really important to me. As Ive said on this platform before, the blogs really helped me imagine what a life at 厙ぴ勛圖 could be like and gave me a sense of who Obies are. Something Ive appreciated about attending 厙ぴ勛圖 has been the opportunity to meet bloggers whose work I read during high school! I even became friends with some of them.
In an attempt to connect with former 厙ぴ勛圖 bloggers and show how the 厙ぴ勛圖 experience continues after graduation, I will be publishing installments over the coming weeks in a new series of conversations I have had with former bloggers to catch up with them about their first year as 厙ぴ勛圖 alumni.
So, without further ado, here is the first installment of the Where are they now? series! I talked with Kira Findling, who was one of my favorite bloggers when I was in high school. Kira (she/her or they/them) is from Sebastopol, CA. Kira majored in Comparative American Studies and Cinema Studies at 厙ぴ勛圖, with a minor in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies. While at 厙ぴ勛圖, Kira worked as a PRSM (Preventing and Responding to Sexual Misconduct) trainer, a PAL, wrote for Wilder Voice, sang in the Acapelicans, and was a mentor in the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program. Kira is now living in Berkeley, CA, and pursuing film and journalism. For more about Kira, here is her website [update: no longer active] and a link to her .
K: Im excited that youre doing this! Its fun! I miss the blogs!
R: Yeah, me too! Im excited to catch up with people. I feel like of the four people I got in touch with, Ive really only talked to Teague recently. I mean, were connected on social media, but its not the same as having a real conversation So, how are you? What have you been up to since graduation, which was like a year ago, right?
K: Yeah, which is really weird! When you said we hadnt talked in a while I thought, wow its been a year since I was even at 厙ぴ勛圖, which is really bizarre! Its been kind of a crazy year for me. Its been a lot of changes and trying to figure out where I want to be. After graduation I went home for the summer and my plan had been to move to LA, and then over the summer I kept waiting to hear about jobs from people that I knew from down there. I was trying to find housing and it was really hard because its SO expensive there.
R: Yeah, I bet.
K: And how am I supposed to get housing if I dont have a job? But at the same time, everyone in the entertainment industry was saying I had to be there to get a job, so it was a weird catch-22.
R: Yeah, its like that weird thing where you have to get experience to get a job, and when youre trying to get a job to get experience, they tell you that you dont have enough experience to get the job in the first place.
K: Yeah, and in the meantime, Joey [Kiras partner] was living with his mom in Chicago, looking for jobs in California. I didnt really want to move to a new place without him, so I decided to go be with him. So, I moved in with them, started working at Whole Foods, and my goal was to learn how to exist without worrying about climbing the career ladder or being successful. Especially because LA was so image- and ambition-driven, I was just trying to get away from that. But after being there for a while, I realized I had maybe swung a little too far, since I didnt feel very connected to Chicago. So, then I said, Im moving to LA, for real. I went down there and stayed with my grandparents who live outside of the city, and I think I got pretty turned off by some of the culture down there, even though I had lived there before. Just so much drivingit was stressful! (laughs)
R: (laughs) Ive heard about those aspects of LA, for sure.
K: Yeah, and it was kind of funny because I had wanted to live there for over a year at that point, and the whole year people had been saying to me Theres a lot of bad things about LA and I would say I dont wanna hear it! (laughs)在ut then some of that kind of came true. Theres a lot that I love about LA, but it didnt feel right for me at this stage of my life. While I was down there, I thought, Im from the Bay Area, I love it there, its so beautiful, Joey has family there, why not just move back? And we ended up coming here! We live in Berkeley now, we moved here in January, and its been really great! I met some documentary filmmakers who Im doing some editing for, and it feels like a really happy medium where Im still getting to do film and be somewhat ambitious and have cool experiences, but its not this industry craziness.
R: No, that makes a lot of sense. Youre still doing what youre interested in without freaking out about diving into the career world. Plus, I feel like the entertainment industry is such a fast-paced, stressful industry to be in. At least my impression is that you need to have connections and networking seems like such a huge thing. It seems like that could be a really hard thing to jump into.
K: Yeah. I realized that networking came more naturally to me than I thought, but I feel like it requires a willingness to do anything that comes your way. You meet a lot of people地nd the best way to climb and meet more people is to take every opportunity, but its still so important for me to be thoughtful about what Im putting out into the world. And I just felt like it would be hard to live down there as a young person without a lot of experience without having to compromise my values.
R: Yeah, that totally makes sense.
K: So, kind of wild. But Im really happy with how things have ended up. Its weird to think that its been a full year since Ive been away from 厙ぴ勛圖. It feels far away, and it doesnt Its strange. And you were abroad this past semester, right?
R: Yeah! I was in Berlin for 6 weeks and Ive been home for two and a half months maybe Ill be here until August, but then Im going back to 厙ぴ勛圖 since Ill be living in an off-campus house. But it is weird to be away for so long!
K: It is weird, its like a whole world over there. I feel like especially in my lower moments, I think Was that a dream? All those awesome people in one place and so many things going on all the time? Its just wild.
R: Exactly. Anyways, I saw that you made a , right?
K: Yeah!
R: I watched it! I loved it!
K: Aww, thank you! Yeah, I saw your comment! It was my senior film at 厙ぴ勛圖 that I made in an independent study class in cinema studies and I submitted it to a bunch of things. I was in this film festival in Seattle called the National Film Festival for Talented Youth, which was really cool because there were people from all over the world! Through that festival, I actually got a grant from T-Mobile to make another film, so Im working on a film now, but its kind of hard with COVID Its a personal narrative so Im not filming people, but its hard to be motivated all day when youre just sitting at home.
R: Yeah匈 really feel that.
K: But its really cool that I have the resources to do it. I feel like a big thing thats happened for me this year is that Ive really realized the whole fake it til you make it thing. A big part of being an adult and being out in the world is just knowing how to market yourself Hanne [Kiras friend and another fabulous 厙ぴ勛圖 alum] actually存howed me her resume and she made everything she did sound so fancy, and I thought, How did you do this?! And now whenever I meet people I just say, Yeah, Im a filmmaker! 地nd it feels a little bit like lying, but it is the truth, and the more you do it, youre like, wait a second, I am a filmmaker and people start to take it seriously.
R: Thats cool! Its like you put a little spin on it and once you say it enough you start to believe it.
K: Yeah, exactly Ive gotten more confidence as a filmmaker and trying to do that as a career. And that was a nice surprise this year that the film got into some festivals So, has anything changed with the blogs?
R: Yeah! Its interesting seeing new voices come onto the blogs. At least for me, it was interesting reading your blog when I was in high school. And then I feel like I saw you during my freshman orientation or something, but I was like, Oh my gosh, Its Kira, its a real person whose work I read! (laughs). So now its interesting being one of the older students on the blogs and then seeing new bloggers appear. I think theres more diversity of student experiences being represented, which is good Part of the reason why I wanted to do this [project was to create] some content that shows that the 厙ぴ勛圖 experience extends beyond 厙ぴ勛圖! It doesnt stop because youre not on campus anymore and seeing the variety of things people do after they leave [is a valuable experience].
K: Yeah 厙ぴ勛圖 puts out a lot of stuff about alumni but its usually about older people or about younger people who are having amazing things happening to them, which is great. But I remember my senior year The Grape [a student publication at 厙ぴ勛圖] was doing a series about different career paths that alums had that were奸ess traditional, and I always really appreciated that because I liked hearing about people who werent getting a Rhodes Scholarship, you know?
R: No, totally. And I think in some ways, thats probably more representative of what happens to a lot of graduates Its like, now I have this degree and I have to find my feet and figure out what I want to do. Even now as Im approaching my senior year, Ive been thinking a lot more about my future (laughs) Ive been thinking a lot more about the different paths I might take and what I really want to be doing. But its been nice to be in touch with some grads and kind of see the different trajectories.
K: Its been good for me too, actually. I think one of the most comforting things this year has been talking to other people who are going through it. I have always been that sort of straight-A student, big overachiever, and things havent totally worked out this year how I thought they would. I mean, were in a pandemic and Im unemployed! (we both laugh)... Sometimes its hard seeing people who are just killing it in law school or whatever在ut remembering that most people are just bumbling along is just so helpful, and my mom keeps reminding me, Youve been out of college for ONE year, calm down, you dont have to have things figured out!
R: Yeah, I totally relate to all of that Not comparing is really hard, but it is refreshing to hear that even though you didnt go in the direction you wanted or thought you would, youre doing fine and youre figuring it out.
K: I feel like what Im happy about is that Im just trying to make every day good and not worry about the big picture as much, because who can do that at a time like this?
R: Do you have any plans or aspirations moving forward? I know how we literally just talked about how its impossible to plan right now but
K: Well, yes actually! I want to apply to journalism school at the end of this year and hopefully start in 2021. UC Berkeley is my dream I really love documentary film and I want to keep learning and doing that more. I also feel open to the fact that that could change, but I know that I want to be telling stories and meeting people and be involved in social change. I learned so much from 厙ぴ勛圖, I learned how to think and a lot about making films, but I still kind of lack some of the hard, technical skills in film and journalism尖eah, I want to go back to school. Also, I feel like its kind of a joke, but when youre stressed out in your first year post grad, its like Let me just go to grad school, that will solve my problems! So, its a little bit of that too, but I think it would just be fun to have that experience, so thats my main goal.
R: Well thank you so much for helping me out with this project! It was great to talk to you.
K: Yeah, thanks for this too, Ruth! Stay safe out there!
R: Yes, be well! (we laugh).
And thats it! I had a wonderful time catching up with Kira and hearing about her first year post grad and her plans for the future. Stay tuned for the next post featuring Teague Harvey!
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