Jaclyn Roessel
"You need to savor, truly savor the life that you built for yourself...it's the worst thing to have a beautiful life and not be able to appreciate it."
Jaclyn Roessel is Navajo. She grew up on the Navajo Nation and attended Arizona State University. She is the Education and Public Programs Director for the Heard Museum. She also writes the blog Grown Up Navajo, hosts a podcast called Schmooze: Lady Connected and Presence 4.0.
As you can tell, Jaclyn is very busy. But she does it all because she has a passion for creativity and for creating and supporting positivity in Indian Country. Jaclyn's energy is infectious and her story is not one to miss.
In this episode we discuss:
- Jaclyn's support as a child from parents and grandparents that fostered her creativity.
- How that support helped Jaclyn become a doer.
- How Jaclyn's decision to attend ASU positioned her to work for the Heard Museum.
- Managing the temptation to ask "what if?" on past decisions or events.
- Taking care of yourself, especially if you want to take care of others.
- Growing personally so you can continue to provide for others as their needs grow and change.
- How an unpaid internship at the Heard Museum evolved into full time work.
- How/why we both read "self-help" type books.
- Float tanks
- Meditation/mindfulness
- Why Jaclyn embraces her nickname "Glamhippy"
- How Jaclyn became a museum curator by responding to a call for ideas, which eventually became Confluence: Inter-generational Collaborations
- Jaclyn's preference for the term "challenges" instead of "problems" when discussing different issues in Indian Country.
- The inspiration for Grown Up Navajo.
- Jaclyn's challenge to other NextGen Natives: 1) write a love letter to someone, anyone 2) think about ways we can be content creators.
For all the details, listen to the episode. You can also listen on:
iTunes
Stitcher
