A Cheesy Statement from the Host
I talk a lot in my daily life. I also tend to reflect heavily on the things I’ve done, and said, and whispered under my breath during times of great frustration. I’ve always looked at communicating with the self as a way of connecting with others. While making a podcast that entirely projected this idea onto other people, I think I did a pretty good job of weaseling my own mantra onto others. Reflection is a powerful tool; it allows us to be vulnerable, but productive, in creating the lives that we wish for ourselves. And as listeners, we become equally as vulnerable, as we connect with a speaker’s past, present, and future.
Fleeting explores individuals' experiences with love and sex, between adolescence and the end of college. As someone who had a rocky history with love in high school, and an even messier period of constant hookups (in college, what a surprise) with people who didn’t love me, I had a strong urge to uncover all the baggage that came along with that. Because I’m bad at expressing love because of it. I lost my virginity to the guy who would later sexually assaulted me the summer after I graduated high school. And that caused a lot of pain. A lot of confusion when I thought about having sex or trusting someone sexually in the future. And while I wasn’t brave enough to express this in the podcast, it’s what made me think about how I recovered over time. And how we all recover from sexual experiences or romantic experiences that go sour.
Fleeting’s original intent was to be used as a guide for high school students who felt uneasy entering the big, bad world of college. But as I spoke with MaryRose, Nick, and Olliver, I found that these experiences were universal and that the emotions, the passion, they were feeling towards themselves and others, were applicable to a lot more than nervous teens. Awkward hookups can happen when you’re 30. First kisses can happen when you’re 24. Being confused about your sexual identity can happen when you’re 10. Our understandings of our positions, between love and sex, are constantly evolving.
There is no age that love, or attempts to feel love, isn’t present. And I’ve been feeling like a lot of narratives in media, and books, and Instagram posts about how in love you are, make it all sound so easy. But I wish I could hear people’s voices. Their inflection. How they really feel.
Sex, or the choice not to participate in sex, is inevitable, regardless of what age it happens.
And it’s unfair to project the idea that, because you’re in high school, you know nothing about sex. Or if you’re at the end of college, you’ve got it all figured out. And I think my guests did a wonderful job of showing just that. It’s the growth of an individual, showing that you’re open to change and willing to pursue better sex lives, better love lives, that is important. Not age. The time period just happen to fit since it’d been four years since I graduated high school, and my opinions have changed a lot over this time. I was inspired by their statements of growth. Of compassion towards old and new relationships, and their willingness to try new things.
I thought it’d be important to highlight how meaningful each and every experience people have with their interpretations of love and sex.