Day 23

Name: Lindsey Schmidt

Profession: Student, Northeastern University

Location: Holmes Hall, Northeastern University

Question: What brought you here?

Answer: My career aspirations

Today my Journalism 1 professor paired the disgruntled and half-awake 8 a.m. class off alphabetically to interview a peer (I couldn’t help but beam at my good fortune—I would have the day’s interview completed by 9!). I was partnered with Lindsey Schmidt, who shuffled over to my table, grumbling that she was “going to fall asleep in t minus three minutes.” She interviewed me first, recording exactly the information she felt met the requirement before turning it over to me. Though blasé at first, Schmidt seemed to liven up by the end of our conversation, even divulging a secret love of hers in the last minute of class.

She just finished a book called “When Ghosts Speak or something,” which she had bought and read strictly under the covers.

“You know the show ‘Ghost Whisperer?’ It’s written by the lady who inspired that show. She could actually supposedly see ghosts. And I believe in ghosts because my—it’s a long story and I’ll probably just sound crazy—but my friend’s aunt can see ghosts. Like my best friend. So you probably think I’m crazy,” she said. “It’s like really interesting. And it explains all these things about earth-bound spirits. It’s so interesting. It just came out, so I bought it and just finished reading it. But I don’t tell people I read it. My roommate’s like, ‘What are you reading?’ I was like, ‘Our room’s haunted!’ She’s like, ‘No, it’s not.’”

Other than talk of lost souls and haunts, the conversation was pretty average. Schmidt comes from a small town in New Jersey and moved to Boston for a big-city experience.

“I always wanted to be in a city, and if you want to make it in journalism, you can’t make it in the town I come from,” she said. “And I really love Boston, so I wanted to stay relatively close but I still wanted to be far away.”

Though she’s somewhat adapted her dreams of writing for a magazine to going into PR, she is no less involved at school to ensure her career comes first. She’s currently involved in the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), the Communications Club, and designs for the Huntington News.

“I joined the PRSSA just to see how I would like it, and it was really interesting,” she explained. “Everyone was so nice, and it was kind of fun, so I just thought I’d try it out.”

Schmidt is also an avid soccer player. During high school, she was on as many as three different teams, and had seriously considered playing for Northeastern before deciding that she needed to lighten her load. She now plays intramural soccer and will play defense in her first game this Saturday.

“I like working out a lot, staying in shape,” she added. “Since I don’t play for a team anymore, it freaks me out that I’m not working out. I hang out with my friends and sleep a lot. I like reading.”

The latter, she said, is simply a result of being her mother’s daughter. A sixth grade language arts teacher, her mom contributed significantly to her love of literature, her appreciation for grammar, and her career choice.

“That’s how I got into journalism,” she said, “because I’m a good writer and my grammar’s good. Ever since I was little, I’d be like, ‘Me and her’ and she would be like, ‘She and I.’ She would correct me. She got me into it, I guess.”

Her father, a manager in sales, isn’t around quite enough to have had such a direct influence.

“He takes a lot of day trips,” she said. “Some days he’ll drive twelve hours a day. And he’ll go over for like three days at a time, and it doesn’t really bother me ‘cause I’m really close with my parents, but we butt heads a lot. So it’s nice when he’s away for a little while.”

Schmidt, on top of everything else, is also currently looking around for a part-time job. She’s applying to restaurants in the area with significant experience at La Campagnola, a fine Italian kitchen, but so far her efforts have not yielded results.

It’s so competitive,” she said, “and their hours, the waitressing hours, don’t match up with mine. But I’m looking for a job. I need one.”