Quarantine provided time to think for the majority of NC’s students. In the case of junior Tatiana Cobos, the months spent in limbo between school and summer vacation also provided an opportunity for her to voice her thoughts in a unique, creative way: a podcast. 

Her podcast, aptly titled Teenage Contemplation, gives insight into Cobos’s reflections surrounding life, covering topics from perspective, to humility, to learning from any situation. Much of Cobos’s podcast centers on her unique perspective as a teenager and how she chooses to approach these years of her life.

Originally, Cobos purchased the equipment but put it off for a time. However, she overcame any doubting thoughts and began creating Teenage Contemplation. In the first phase of the podcast’s creation, Cobos decided to keep the length of her episodes within half an hour and to create an idea of what exactly she wanted to contemplate beforehand. This helped her to avoid rambling and ensured that she would create content she believed in.

“The internet and putting something out there is always risky because you don’t know who’s going to receive it and you really have to genuinely believe in what you’re saying. So, when I sketch an episode out I want to make sure that one, it has an impact and two, I have personally felt it or I have personally lived it or I have people in my life where I know of situations where people have this in common or have dealt with this subject,” Cobos said.

In the podcast, Cobos hopes to introduce other perspectives besides her own to her audience through those around her who inspire her. This includes her mother, a survivor of breast cancer who shared her experience in Cobo’s second episode, titled ‘Finding Silver Linings’.

“The first interview I did was with my mother, and I haven’t done any more interviews, just because school started and I kind of got on that late.  In the case of interviews, I was thinking of friends and people I communicate within the community. The trial run was with my mother because I don’t think you can go wrong with a parent,” Cobos said.

Cobos decided early on that she would not set a schedule or quota for her output, instead, she chose to act on podcast ideas and topics that she felt passionate about and took breaks when needed. During the summer, Cobos released three episodes averaging about twenty-five minutes long, pausing from creating content as school resumed in August.

“If something really inspires me, then I’ll pop back in. I’m on a hiatus because I wanted to give [making the podcast] a trial run, give it a couple of episodes, and see how it goes. I didn’t think I would get more than five or ten people [to listen]. Especially with a podcast called Teenage Contemplation, you know I had grown adults listening to a kid,” Cobos said.

Sharing her thoughts with others and hopefully inspiring them to slow down and reflect remains Cobos’s goal. Although the future of the podcast remains unknown, she hopes to continue sharing her contemplations with those who listen.

“We’re on this earth for such a limited amount of time, and you don’t know when that time is up, and I think you should make the most of what you have. The sky’s the limit,” Cobos said.