She’s smart, confident, and strong. She has spunk, sports a great of humor, and, if you haven’t noticed already, she’s also quite pretty. Ladies and gentlemen, she’s this week’s campus celebrity: Haley Laningham!
Major: Doubling majoring in Hispanic Studies and Creative Writing
Hometown: “I was in a military family, so we moved around a lot, but I identify with where I went to high school, which is Fresno, California.”
Favorite Movie: “It’s always a split between Django and Pride and Prejudice – it properly describes the disparity of my personality.”
Song that describes you best: “At the moment, Opus 23 performed by Dustin O’Halloran.”
Sorority: Gamma Phi Beta
What are you passionate about?
“I’m happy to have figured out my passions my junior year of college, and I’ve tried to get it in order since then so that I can go to grad school in Creative Writing. I think both empathy, self-discovery, and learning about other people drive a lot of what I like to do, which is why I’d like to go into writing professionally.”
What are your dreams for the future?
“That’s spooky to think about with graduation coming up. The future, in terms of the next year, I would cry if I got into any grad school. That’s what it’s about for me right now. In the far future, if I can do anything with a steady living that involves lots of reading and being outdoors a lot, then that’s the dream – at least realistically speaking. So I’m heading towards trying to stay with books but also trying to stay with nature.”
As a member of the Gamma Phi Beta Sorority, how do you build strong girls?
“Building strong girls is our unofficial motto and I think it describes the people who are in Gamma Phi. It’s my personal belief that we can build strong girls everyday. It has a lot to do with how we think about ourselves and other women. I feel like our generation of women grew up with a lot of weird things influencing us. For example, when social media began and the internet happened, I think that our ideas may have been a little affected because we could see all over again, not just on television, women being objectified and women being mean to each other. Basically, the thesis of that is taking into account my own experiences and trying my best to take into account every other woman’s experiences. I just like to be as supportive as possible, non-judgmental, and remember that we’re all in a similar place in society. Fighting and being cruel between ourselves isn’t going to do anything for anybody. That’s why, although “building strong girls” is our mission statement, we also look outward toward women in the community. It’s really important for me to also focus on the people I come into contact with everyday because those women need attention too.”
What is your dream vacation?
“I love Yellowstone National Park and then probably Canada if I could go a little more north and just be in the woods. Don’t get me wrong, I do really enjoy the beach, but I also love the moutains, rivers, and lakes. And I just love fly-fishing, but I haven’t been able to do that since we moved to California. That and kayaking are the two greatest loves of mine.”
If you were Queen for the day, what would you decree?
“It’s a little hypocritical of me because I’m really bad about having a resting bitch face, but I think a good way to start in making a better day, and this may sound cheesy, is to have everyone smile or say hi to the people around them. It’s not even in contradiction to this malicious thing – I don’t think anybody is malicious these days, I just think we’re all just a bit more busy – and then also the smartphones thing has also affected the way we see people passing on the street. It’s really cheesy, and I’m sure I could do better things with it, but to start, I would definitely have people start greeting each other as they pass by one another.”
Describe your personal style.
“I used to wear ridiculous amounts of color in high school, and it was a little bit too hippie for me, not that that’s a bad thing, but I was way too boho. That’s why these days, I like simple pieces that fit well and that I only have to do buy one of – like I’m not going to buy fifty black shirts, I like one good black shirt. Sheer black dresses are clothes I could wear every single day. I just love them. Just black clothing basically.”
Tell me something people don’t know about you?
“Something that irks me, at least what goes on at Pepperdine, is that I have some really really close friendships, but I think that at pepperdine, we’re a little too fast, and so we don’t get to know about people’s life before pepperdine. Although I don’t want to completely blast this across the walls, I feel like I was a mess in high school and had to learn a lot of things my way on my own. So I guess the thing that I’d want people to see when they see me, if they don’t already, is somebody who, although I may not smile at you, has been through pretty much anything one could imagine in a personal problem. I’ve probably gone through it like everything from drinking to depression to body image. I’d want people to see me and understand that we’re all the same and that we all go though some serious crap and that, although I might not be singing all the time, that I really care about everyone. I would really like to help everyone out in this life because I think, especially in middle school and high school, I was dealing with a lot of mature issues too young. It’s almost like life is better now.”