| What is your most memorable childhood experience? | While it is more of a saga than a single experience, moving to a different state at age ten proved to be a daunting task. I went from being surrounded by friends and elementary school popularity to dealing with the unkindness of others daily. While I could complain about this period in my life, it taught me that other people are usually mean for a reason, and understanding that prevents their unkindness to you. This time growing up helped me grow into a kind person with a more adult empathy for others. |
| What immediate family member do you closely identify with and why? | My mom is in creative writing, and she never gives up in the artistic world. For me, it’s in film, but the two are related and I am able to watch her both struggle and succeed, which gives me hope. My whole family understands working in a creative field, but I wouldn’t be where I am today without my mom. |
| What character traits do you admire in an individual? | A person’s willingness to understand and accept others is the basis for all other character traits. It leads to closer relationships, empathy between us, and a more peaceful world. I also feel that it leads to many other good character traits such as kindness, awareness, and honesty. I also feel like it’s a trait that anyone can work toward, even if it is difficult for many to achieve. |
| What is the funniest thing ever to happen to you? | I think life itself is a funny thing. It’s hard to define a single moment, even though there are many hilarious ones, since nothing compares to the fact that we are all thrown on this planet together in different backgrounds socially, economically, and physically, raised my people who dealt with the same, and then thrust outside into adulthood and expected to have everything just work itself out along the way. But it works for many. I find it ironically funny that being bullied as a kid taught me kindness. It was only when I gave up hope on my dream college after being rejected from all the other “easier to get into backups” that I got my acceptance letter. And as a freelancer, I always get calls for work just as I’m beginning an existential crisis from not having worked for a week or two. I love it and find a lot of humor in it. |
| If time and money were not an issue, where would you travel and why? | My snarky answer would be somewhere in outer space, but I think I would get more than what I bargained for if my wish were granted. In my sophomore year in college, I took a Japanese art class, so I would love to go to Kyushu (southern island of Japan) for the chance to see a lot of the temples and art pieces that I studied there in a relaxing, beautiful, and natural environment. I traveled a lot as a kid, so for everywhere else, it’s more about experiences that location for me, such as knowing anthropologists or ecologists in Africa or Australia and being able to join them on an expedition in some capacity. |
| When and if you ever have children, what would you like to pass on to them? | I would tell them the most important lesson in being an adult that my dad told me and my grandpa told him, “Do what you want to do. If you want to be a garbage man, then be the best garbage man you can be.” (No offense to those who work in sanitation, it’s an important job and just part of the quote.) Follow what you want to do - so many kids grow up without experimenting in what career they want to follow. Being an adult is stressful, but it can be fun if you are doing what you want. Taking a job for the money is fine, but choosing a career for the money leads a person to be unfulfilled and unhappy as well as the job not having the best candidate. It doesn’t matter what you want to do as long as you love doing it and do it to the best of your ability - that’s what true passion is. |
