Jonathan Meyer.

Does it ever upset you hearing politicians dodge questions? Have you ever heard someone talk out both sides of their mouth? Does your boss try to keep everyone happy? Despite how unpopular these examples may be, it’s definitely a skill!

Being media trained is oftentimes something that a public figure or politician or leader does to prepare for being asked questions on the record. When I interview a politician and they give a canned response, that’s probably because they’ve been trained to say that and not play their hand ahead of time. I’ll cut to the chase here–I’ve never done any of this preparation in a formal sense, I’ve just worked at a newspaper, coming up on four years too!

As I sat and wrote my school board run-down this morning a text came in on my phone. The editor of our campus newspaper wanted to sit down and talk with me. For a little context our campus media hasn’t been too active with the Student Body President in the past, so someone in my position might be a little off guard. Instead of declining to comment, I knew what her angle was and we had a good conversation. It’s easy to navigate those interviews when I imagine, “What might I ask or want to know?”.

I decided to play a fun game and look for examples of my comments before I worked for a newspaper, here’s a few!

Here’s a comment after our 4×800 relay placed 7th at state track in 2022: “This group of us, we trained in the snow and we trained in the heat,” Meyer said. “Whatever it is, we’re going to go out there and try our best. I think we really showed that we’re gonna thrive in whatever weather nature throws at us.”

I would probably say a few things differently at this point in time, not use the word “gonna”, I’d be more clever than saying we’re going to try our best. Definitely not bad though.

This other example was from a 2021 story about STC’s student council doing a snow removal project: “We’ve known for a little while that we wanted to be better with the community for student council. We were just waiting for a way to be safe about it. It was the right time,” Meyer said.

Very interesting quote considering this one coming out of the covid-era. Now I’d probably say something along these lines, “We have really prioritized community outreach and service coming out of the pandemic. Doing snow removal was a perfect fit for getting our group out into the community.” In case you haven’t noticed, I like being a little reflective!

As I’ve taken the time to look back through our website, I’m reminded that we all have plenty of room to grow and mature. My growth has come through what I like to call “trial by fire”, on the job training is all the rage, don’t you know!

Until I’m a bit more polished, I’m Just Jonathan.