Episode 18 - Unapologetic Audacity with Jecelyn Shenkin
By Jessica Garrison
Our next guest of the new year already has close ties to the F.E.E.L Podcast. Jecelyn Shenkin is our host, Melissa’s, daughter’s sister-in-law. If the last name sounds familiar it’s because Sierra and Tim Crook Shenkin were in an episode of the podcast back in season one. Theirs was a great episode about boundaries as guideposts, and Jecelyn has even more compelling stories and advice to share. Her character traits include audacious, driven, curious, and empathetic.
Jecelyn has a unique experience to share as she discusses living out of her own expectations versus others. Her childhood was fairly self-directed growing up because she was homeschooled and had a lot of freedom in her schedule. This was a great way for her to practice living out of her own expectations, and she says it served her well in the beginning. Jecelyn was confident in her ability to make decisions and do what is best for herself, which is a skill most people don’t discover until they reach independence with college or living on their own for the first time. However, she recalls her confidence starting to fade when she hit middle school.
It was then that she faced religious abuse, and unfortunately, this is not the first time we’ve heard of this happening. Church and religion can be incredible pillars in your life, and they have helped so many people for centuries. However, Jecelyn described her church as more like a controlling cult. If a church’s heart isn’t in the right place in its religious practices, then the damage done can last a lifetime. One clear example of this could be a church telling children they will go to Hell if they’re gay, rather than accepting and loving all people. This negatively impacts and shapes a child’s thinking, causing more harm than good by unleashing prejudice into the world. Although it isn’t always so black and white.
Jecelyn says her church experiences killed her confidence because there wasn’t room for strong, confident women in that community. In her mind, the person we start out as as a child is us. We are who we are unapologetically and freely until we’re influenced by those around us. We talk quite a bit on the podcast and blogs about healing your inner child, and Jecelyn makes the great point that by doing this, you’re able to get back to your true self. You can go back to that child you once were before anyone told you to act a certain way and live your life authentically, without worrying about the expectations of others. This is easier said than done, but I love the perspective Jecelyn brings to this conversation, and this truth can have such a great impact on us.
Professionally, Jecelyn is a marketing strategist, entrepreneur, and photographer; you can visit her website to check out more work and information. The experience she shares about in the blog is just one section of her hour-long episode, and I can’t wait to find out which talking points resonated the most.
Ways to Engage: When was the first time you felt you had control over your life, including with schedule, with hobbies, with style, or anything else you can think of? Do you still have confidence in these areas? If not, think about the reasons why you used to and don’t anymore. Are any of these reasons in your control? A step in the right direction could be letting reasons out of your control go and taking charge of the ones you can help. You have more power over your own life than you think you do, and it’s never too late to start living out of your own expectations.