Anyone who knows me knows how important Parks and Recreation is to me. I might have words from Ted Lasso tattooed on my forearm, but if someone told me I could only watch one show for the rest of my life and I had to choose, I’d choose Parks and Recreation. It’s so integral in my life for so many reasons that I don’t think I can ever fully describe it. That said, finishing up copyedits and releasing my third romance novel has had me in such a chokehold that I haven’t been able to listen to Good Hang With Amy Poehler until now. And my God, it’s everything I needed.
So here’s a fun fact: I like to pretend I’m like Leslie Knope, but the reality is, I’m not. I can’t function with only four hours of sleep, and I get so frustrated with creative endeavors when I don’t succeed right away. I’m also a perfectionist and have OCD, both of which I’m convinced exist solely to torture me. To top things off, I’m also someone who believes in consistently giving 110%, even if I don’t feel like it, and I don’t know, we could probably blame Coach Eric Taylor for that. But…I’m also tired and overwhelmed.
Now I’ve already written about the perils of this industry and this job and how I often think about Ron Swanson telling Leslie that she shouldn’t half as$ two things, but whole as$ one thing. The problem is that it’s impossible because yay (sarcastically) capitalism and money and trying to live comfortably while trying to make our silly little dreams come true.
But in Good Hang With Amy Poehler, our perfect titular host says something to Rashida Jones—Ann Perkins—that may have honestly rewired my brain chemistry a bit. (At least for a while. I give it about a week before my Type A personality decides, nope, we need to be extra hard on ourselves. Again.) Poehler tells Jones that the reason she started the podcast is because she was tired of watching men do things while only giving 25% and that she’s no longer giving 100% to things. Yet, oddly, the podcast is amazing. She might not be giving 100%—or so she believes—but hearing these words was exactly what I needed to know that I don’t have to be too hard on myself.
The reality of this specific job as an entertainment journalist is that, as much as I put my heart and soul into every feature, review, or interview I do, sometimes the property itself doesn’t resonate with me the way that it will for someone else. I’m an analytical person by default—it’s how I operate. I have an MFA in English Literature, and I know how to get to the bottom of something. But what hearing Poehler’s words is making me see is that it’s okay to understand that not every show or movie can come close to my heart the way that Parks and Recreation does. Or it’s okay that I’m not as interested in The Summer I Turned Pretty like the majority of romance fans seem to be at the moment. Sometimes, a job can just be covering a show as best as I can. And as she says, we don’t always have to grow. Sometimes we can just be.
To a degree, even, maybe this makes all the things I really love that much more special. When I watch something, and have to get all avenues of it covered. Maybe that’s okay, and it doesn’t exactly mean that I’m not doing my best when I’m still doing beyond the bare minimum, truly. But also, when did we decide the bare minimum simply isn’t enough in a space when we’re all tired and fighting against countless obstacles every day? At least I’m not stealing anyone else’s work by using AI when I’m sitting here, staring at my laptop for hours, trying to find the right words to describe something.
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It’s still a solid amount of effort to review something, even if I’m not breaking down every little scene or exploring metaphors. I’m still trying, and if nothing else, like Good Hang With Amy Poehler, we’re all just trying to create a safe space for women and minorities to be honest and transparent while also trying to enjoy every little bit of what we can because life is too fragile not to. In other words, every episode is a gift that keeps on giving, and I really think she can save us, friends.
First Featured Image Credit: ©Amy Poehler