| What is your most memorable childhood experience? | During the summer when I was twelve years old, a friend and I had an opportunity to go sailing with some of our teenaged neighbors, who were moving their uncle's sailboat to another marina on the lake. The wind died soon after we were on the water, so we ended up just drifting around for a few hours. We talked for hours while we waited for the wind to pick up again. It was a special time. Eventually the wind came back, we dropped off the boat, and our neighbors drove us back. My mom was worried because we were gone longer than we said we would be, but she was relieved when she saw us. |
| What immediate family member do you closely identify with and why? | If I had to choose just one, I would say I most closely identify with my father. He is hardworking and kind, and has always emphasized the importance of using one's life to serve others. I looked up to him when I was a child and he continues to serve as a role model for me to this day. |
| What character traits do you admire in an individual? | I admire those who are kind and have a strong work ethic. There isn't a good reason not to be kind, and everything is so much nicer when people are friendly to one another. I admire those who work hard and take advantage of every opportunity they have because I think that means a lot more than when people are naturally gifted but do not do much to develop their gifts. There's certainly nothing wrong with being born with many talents, but one can't take credit for the gifts one was born with. One can only take credit for doing the best one can with the gifts one has. Pushing oneself past one's limits and experiencing and then overcoming failure also develops empathy and humility. |
| What is the funniest thing ever to happen to you? | When I was about eight, I decided that I wanted to try out gardening. With my parents' help, I acquired some cherry tomato plants, dug out a space in our lawn, and planted them. I took care of the plants the best I could. After the tomatoes began to form, I became increasingly excited as they kept growing, becoming far larger than any cherry tomatoes I'd ever seen. By the time I harvested them, they were enormous. I thought to myself that I must have been one of the best gardeners in the world! But it turned out that the plants had simply been mislabeled as cherry tomatoes when in fact they were beefsteak tomatoes. My parents didn't have the heart to tell me at the time. |
| If time and money were not an issue, where would you travel and why? | I would like to travel throughout Latin America. I have met so many wonderful people from Central and South America who are proud of their countries. The way they speak of them makes me want to experience them for myself. |
| When and if you ever have children, what would you like to pass on to them? | I would like to have children, and when I do I will try to develop in them passions for achieving their full potential, being kind to others, and maintaining rich social relationships. Whatever they want to do, I will urge my children to stick with it and become the best they can at what they do. I would also like my children to learn that kindness is tremendously important. No matter how rich or talented someone may be, if they are unkind, their strengths in other areas cannot make up for that essential deficiency. Likewise, no matter how impoverished or slow someone may be, if they are kind, they have inside them the most important form of human beauty. I would like my children to understand that deep social bonds are the chief source of joy in life, and that the joy they provide is particularly special because it is shared with exactly the people one cares most about. |
