Not a single writer, journalist, or editor comes from Panevėžys district. However, this time I am interviewing Gintare Valancevičiūtė-Stanikūnė from the village of Ibutonii, 8 kilometers from Krekenava. She is currently the video project manager of the Lrytas.lt portal.
Fate brought me to journalism
Gintarė studied at Mykolas Antanaitis Gymnasium in Krekenava. The girl admitted that she didn’t know where she was going to study and with what specialty she would connect her life until she finished school.
“I often say that probably journalism came into my life by complete accident. Until the end of the twelfth grade, when some of my classmates had already decided what studies they would choose in the near future, I thought that I was destined to learn something that everyone is learning, and in the future to work in a job that I might not love at all,” the 26-year-old journalist said.
According to her, she still remembers the day she filled out the admissions applications.
“I browsed the official website and just tried to imagine myself in the scope of each area. I considered the exams to be the main ones, so I had a lot of options to choose from. So, quite unexpectedly, my eyes fell on the line where journalism studies were described. It was funny to myself when I thought to myself, what kind of journalist will I be if I like talking more than listening. I filled it out just to see my options. Well, in the end, I decided that these studies will be number one on my list,” said Gintarė.
This is how the girl went to the entrance essay exam, which was still mandatory at Vilnius University at that time.
“I didn’t understand what I was doing there, because I still chose a political topic, as if I was a political fanatic at the time,” she laughed.
“And after seeing the results and the invitation to study, I finally realized that life is probably a joke, and if it is, you probably have to respond in kind.” So I accepted the challenge to become a journalist, and I have never regretted it. A little later, when I started my studies, my mother also told me a funny story. It is said that when I was very young, when I could neither read nor speak, one of my favorite activities was to pick up a newspaper ordered by my grandparents, make sure to turn it inside out and pretend that I read perfectly using the “cooing” technique. So, probably, this is also part of that fate,” said the interviewee, who currently lives in Vilnius.
From practice to courts
Gintarė revealed that when she started her studies, she was very afraid that she might have chosen the wrong field. Especially due to the fact that the majority of group members gathered to study to ensure their choice.
“There were also those who worked as journalists in their regions as minors. That was really scary. And at that time I was just a girl from the Panevėžys district, who neither knew how to write particularly well, nor was she interested in radio, and her severely irregular language didn’t even promise her way on TV. During my studies, I really tried very hard, in the first year I worked so diligently in every subject that I still have entire manuscripts transcribed by hand, where even quotes from teachers can be found,” she said.
“Every year there were various internships, I had to be both a newspaper journalist and a television reporter. During the third internship, I again decided to challenge myself and enter one of the most popular portals in Lithuania and write about criminal topics there. The internship was supposed to last a month, but already on the second day I received an offer to work on television. I have never been so scared of a job interview because I was so desperate to get there. I had to finish the internship in a week, because work was waiting, and the university regulations will not wait. So, during that week, I managed to write “crazily” readable texts, attend more than one court hearing. And I ended my internship after receiving a summons to appear before the authorities for one text. Because of him, an investigation was started against the person I described,” the girl said about the beginning of her career.
About the mentioned event, the head of the practice said: “Baptized woman is healthy.”
Career ladder
“There were a lot of those fears because everything happened more suddenly than I could have imagined. I got a job in the video department, where the pace was fast. I had to learn to edit and sound the materials, and I didn’t even know how to pronounce the words correctly. Over time, everything worked out, because it turns out that it is true that you can learn absolutely everything, as long as there is a strong desire,” she was happy.
A few months later, Gintarė received an offer to become the head of the department. She found it incredible.
“It seems that I haven’t fully dealt with my thoughts yet, and now I will have to be responsible for supervising other work, training, spreading information to a cosmic-sized audience. There was really quite a lot of responsibilities. A year later, I got the opportunity to become a deputy host of a live current affairs show. While he was dictating the offer to me, I was thinking “really no, I won’t go for anything”, for some reason my lips said “yes”. Before my first appearance on the air, I was very scared, because I had to speak on topics that I did not even understand, so I had to prepare for a very long time. For a very long time…”, she emphasized.
After hearing that there were three seconds left until the broadcast, Amber took a glass of water to drink and was unable to do so due to trembling hands.
“Of course, now, when all the troubles and fears at work in television have passed and I am working for one of the most popular Lithuanian portals, Lrytas.lt, it is very funny to think that those small problems seemed so immeasurably big at the beginning. It all dissipated with experience, interest, encouragement from colleagues and family. I had to learn a lot in order to reduce those troubles as much as possible, but I have certainly not learned everything yet. There is a long way ahead,” said the young specialist, who is now a video project manager.
“From Zero to the Moon”
When asked about the most interesting experiences in this job, Gintarė assured that working both on television and on the Lrytas.lt portal is the most colorful and unexpected.
“Every day is like a new challenge that you have to dive into and look to succeed. So I probably couldn’t even count those interesting, unique events. The most memorable event happened on television. Since the presenter has a headset in his ear, and the producers tell him when the part of the show ends, when the interviewer comes on the air, when the interviewer is not on the air, the performance of that headset is very important, especially for someone who does not have a lot of experience.
So the worst thing happened to me during one show. The headset failed, the interlocutor did not connect. Therefore, I have 15 minutes of airtime, which I must somehow fill, do something so that we don’t lose viewers, provide correct information and report the news that I promised at the beginning of the broadcast that an expert would report. That’s all I did, I remember like in a fog, it felt like the ground was slipping from under my feet, and the camera was just getting farther and farther away from me every second, but I got away with presenting the news,” she recalled.
According to the girl, every week one or more challenges have to be overcome.
“I recently got a cast on my arm for filming. Everything has to be filmed: from doctors to pumpkin growers. That time we got a job at the Panevėžys hospital, where the traumatologist put a cast on me just so we could have some better images and show them to the audience.
Also, anyone who knows me knows that I’m very obsessed with fitness and any physical activity, but what can’t you do for work. Due to the filming, I had to roll up my sleeves and try the extreme running with obstacles, mud, in which professionals from all the Baltic countries compete. I had to wade through the mud and climb the rope and try to cross the obstacle course with my hands when there was a gaping puddle below that was not yet prepared and not filled enough to allow me to fall and break my legs. I still don’t understand how it all worked out.
And in one filming, when we traveled to a very beautiful pet farm for a special project, a goat bit my hand quite badly while I was saying my text and filming. So, the work is really “from zero to the moon”, – laughed the journalist.
A profession about people and for people
Amber likes the work of a journalist very much.
“Being the video project manager of the Lrytas.lt portal, I challenge myself every day, learn a lot of new things and see so many unique people that it is becoming difficult to count them. Thanks to the talent of various projects, their participants and colleagues, I can find the most wonderful corners of Lithuania and their creators, I can touch each of these discoveries,” said the interviewee.
“Actually, before this work, I had no idea what was really happening in Lithuania. I couldn’t imagine that people here have such talents… I met a woman who makes jewelry from the milk of a woman who has given birth, a doctor who has worked in resuscitation for at least half a century and can tell all kinds of stories, and businessmen who grow shrimp in special warehouses! Therefore, the work of a journalist is a discovery for me every day, because I discover more than I could have expected to see,” she revealed.
Since this profession is about people and for people, Gintarė is happy that they become her daily motivation.
“I am grateful to them for the uniqueness and exclusivity they are creating and to their colleagues who encourage me to do more and more at every step and thus never allow me to stand still,” he thanked.
Fatherland
Lately, Gintarė is rarely in her hometown, Panevėžys district.
“But I always try to come back as soon as I have a weekend off!” This is home, no matter where I live, but until now I tend to say that I am “going home” whenever I go to my native land. “Probably the most important and integral part of that home is the family and mother, who surrounds herself and creates the image and comfort of that home,” she said.
Since the birthplace is near the river, the most fun activity for the girl, which has become a kind of tradition in recent years, is to make a fire and have a picnic with the family.
“I’m really looking forward to it this year as well. And the Ibutonians themselves are probably closer than ever before. I always thought: when I settle in the city, I will definitely not regret leaving the village. But as soon as I come back here, I feel so calm, even time seems to slow down. Everything is so unique and familiar!”
According to Ibutoniškė, it is very good to see such free people, seemingly not burdened by everyday problems and simply working in the yards when the weather is good.
“In the city, you don’t see those family works together so easily. If I had the opportunity to choose the place where I could have come from, I would never change it for anything!” she emphasized.
By the way, she also met her now-husband Justus Stanikūnas, who comes from the village of Rabikiai, at the gymnasium.
