ILI Interview: Erin Kotecki Vest (a.k.a. Queen of Spain)

Warning: if you are a particularly insecure soul, you might want to stop reading now. Why? (I told you to stop reading.) Because Erin Kotecki Vest is an impressive creature and hearing about her sundry accomplishments might make you feel even more insecure. Consider yourself warned. A fellow blogger, Erin spent a decade as a broadcast journalist in Los Angeles, Orlando and Detroit. During this time, she won not one, but six Golden Mic Awards with LA news institution KFWB. Currently, Erin serves as Producer of Special Projects for  BlogHer.com where she hosts BlogHer Backtalk. Erin also contributes to the Huffington Post, MOMocrats.com, and to her own marvelous Queen of Spain Blog where, depending on the day, she talks about the Senate HCR bill, soup recipes procured via Twitter, or her bittersweet role as Mom (a.k.a. "Funkiller"). I for one appreciate this digital tapestry of Serious and Silly and trust you will too. (Oh, did I mention that she once did an interview with Barack Obama? Not too shabby.)

In any event, this journalist and blogger and mother, this wearer of many glorious hats, agreed to do a little interview with me. (Does this mean that per some inscrutable transitive property I have done an interview with Obama? Hmmm.) Anyway, enjoy!

Balancing passions and family (and everything else) is something I've been thinking and writing about a lot on my blog. As a woman, you are many things - a former award-winning broadcast journalist, the Producer of Special Projects for BlogHer.com, politically active, a mother...this list could go on and on. How do you juggle everything you have in your life? Do you think balance is attainable?

Erin: Juggle? Ha! I fumble it. Honestly balance is near impossible for me but, like most, I do the best I can. I've learned that I can't have it all and do it all and be it all and sometimes I have to just say 'no.' I have to remind myself that while the kids come first, I have a job to do and I have to remind myself that while I enjoy my work, I need to make some family time sacred. I am not sure balance is attainable, but managing chaos can be. While my life shifts daily from one end of the balance spectrum to the other, I do my best to make sure one side doesn't get too far out of whack. I think that's the best anyone can do. Have you struggled with the choice to have a life "outside" of your children? Do you think the plight of the modern woman is that we really can't have it all? Or do you think that's possible?

Erin: I used to struggle with having a life outside of my kids and sometimes still do, but those times are fewer and more far between these days. Once I realized that having this life outside my kids was BETTER for everyone, including my kids, it became much easier to accept. I'm not sure it's the plight of the modern woman that we really can't have it all, it's more of an annoyance. I think we all know we can't do it all. We can't be it all, yet here we are still trying. How annoying that we KNOW we can't, yet we still try! I don't think anything is impossible, but I am realistic. Some people would say I do have it all because I live in both worlds, however I, and those like me, know better. What's one thing you hope is different for your two children than it was for you?

Erin: I'd love for their hearts to never break and for them never to want... of course, but when it comes down to it... I hope nothing  much is different. I hope their lives are filled with just as much love and luck as mine, that they get more opportunity than even I was granted... and learn to appreciate each opportunity as it happens, not decades later ;)

What have you learned in the world that you could never learn in a classroom or a newsroom?

Erin: It's been the people I've encountered that have taught me the most. The relationships, the real stories. Sure I can learn about those things in a classroom or see them on my tv news or hear them on my newsradio...but nothing compares with talking to those involved yourself.

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Thank you, Erin, for taking the time from your superstar schedule to chat with little old me and make all of us feel a wee bit more insecure!

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Thoughts? Reactions? How would you answer the above questions?