There are some people you meet during your college career that are just so unique and interesting. I had the honor of meeting and befriending Liz this past semester, who, if I don’t say so myself, is pretty darn spectacular.
HC: Why did you choose to come to Georgia College?
LL: I knew that I didn’t want to go to Tech [Georgia Tech] or State [Georgia State University], because I didn’t want to be in the city. So I only actually looked at UGA and here. I toured UGA and here, and UGA was too big for me, and then I toured here and I was like ‘it’s a smaller UGA, it’s perfect!’.
HC: What do you want to do with pre-nursing?
LL: Well, what I hope to do is get into the nursing program, and work as a nurse for a couple of years. Then either specialize, more likely in orthopedic nursing, or go back and get my nurse practitioner degree.
HC: How would you and others describe you?
LL: Well, I would describe myself as an out-going introvert. I love talking to people, but I want that time at the end of the day to not be around people. People probably describe me as like quirky or nerdy. Creative, I guess because I do a lot of crafting and stuff like that as well.
HC: How are you involved on Campus?
LL: I’m a CA [Community Advisor] and I also am very involved with You Game? the board game club on campus, and that’s really about it, but I’m super involved in both of those.
HC: What made you want to get involved with these activities?
LL: For the CA stuff, my brother was an RA [Resident Advisor] at Tech [Georgia Tech], and I watched him kind of grow from that and fell in love with how he grew as a person, and wanted the same thing to happen for me. So I applied and got it my freshman year of college. Then for the board game club, I’ve always been super nerdy and interested in board games and card games and that sort of thing. My brother got me really into it, and then when I started working for housing, Trapper [McLean] and Kevin [Blanch] had approached a bunch of CA’s and asked if they would be interested in starting a board game group for people like us on campus, and I was super into that and joined up with that.
HC: What’s it like being a CA on campus?
LL: Busy, but it’s a lot of fun. I truly love my job, and what I get to do every day and help people find their path on campus, as well as just help them in general. I love planning events and being creative. I’m good at that sort of thing. It’s busy, there’s a lot to do, but it’s a lot of fun.
HC: How do you deal with being a CA and also a resident?
LL: It’s difficult living where you work, because people are always watching. They always want to know what you’re doing, but I think I just tend to treat it as I’m your friend unless I need to be an authority figure. And I think that helps a lot.
HC: You make a lot of interesting door decs, how do you get the ideas?
LL: Pinterest. A lot of times what I’ll do is I’ll go through on Pinterest, and see like a basic idea and then will do the one’s that I see, and then will also add more. So, I do the Disney ones every year, and I found four designs for the Disney ones, and I was like ‘I know, I’m gonna make all the characters I can think of”. But yeah Pinterest.
HC: What activities outside of school are you involved in?
LL: My Biggest one is called Destination Imagination, and it’s a creative problem-solving competition for pre-K through University level students. I started competing when I was in first grade, and I am still competing today. I also am a judge for the program, as well as a regional director for Central Georgia. Which means I plan the competitions that happen here in Milledgeville as well.
HC: How did you get your start with Destination Imagination?
LL: My brother competed when I was little, and it is a much bigger program in Michigan, which is where we started with it. I remember sitting in my brother’s meets and just watching and just being like ‘this is so cool, I want to do that!’, and so I did it that way. Once I was old enough to compete, I begged my parents to let me do it.
HC: How do you like to relax?
LL: I watch a lot of TV, and I play a lot of board games, but mostly I watch TV and movies.
HC: What are some of your favorite shows to watch?
LL: Doctor Who is my favorite, but I also watch a lot of the super hero shows, like Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, that sort of thing too.
HC: Have you seen any good movies lately?
LL: The last movie I saw in theatres was Deadpool and it was awesome.
HC: Did it live up to the hype?
LL: I think so. It’s not as violent as I was expecting it was going to be, it was still violent, but not as violent as like I was fully expecting Deadpool to be. But it’s also hilarious. I’m also educating myself on a bunch of random classic movies too, working my way through a bunch of eighties movies that I’ve never seen.
HC: So like cult classic movies, not thirties classic movies?
LL: Maybe I’ll get to that point, but you know the one’s that people always talk about.
HC: Like the John Hughes movies.
LL: Yeah, I’m working my way through a lot of things like that.
HC: Do you have a favorite movie, series or genre?
LL: I have tops in various genres. So like, my favorite Disney movie is the Lion King. I love things like Ferris Buller’s Day Off. I love the Lord of the Rings series. There’s a lot up there, it just kind of depends on what genre I’m feeling like.
HC: What are your favorite board games?
LL: I have three. The first one is Survive, and I just like how competitive it gets. The other two are co-ops [cooperation] and they are, Eldritch Horror and Flash Point.
HC: What is a book that you have read lately or in general that you would recommend to people?
LL: My favorite book, most people don’t know about it, it’s a series by Patrick Rothfuss. The series is called Kingkiller Chronicles, and most people find it by the first one, it’s called Name of the Wind. Basically it’s an epic fantasy, which is what I normally tend to read. The third one is supposed to come out, hopefully soon. But I highly recommend it to everyone, especially if you like fantasy writings like Game of Thrones, and that sort of thing. It’s a little less violent than Game of Thrones, but otherwise it’s the same epic fantasy thing.
HC: What kind of music do you listen to?
LL: I will pretty much listen to anything that people will play, but I tend to listen to the like pop alternative type stuff. My favorite band is McBusted. It was two bands that became one, and the two bands that became one were like my two favorites before they became one, and it was pretty great.
HC: What’s pop alternative?
LL: Well, it’s kind of like the mix, it’s more punky, but not really. It’s not top forties pop music, but it’s not full alternative either, it’s a mix between the two. It’s the mix between the top forties and the real alternative, like rock music. I guess pop with a rock twist is kind of a way to describe it.
HC: Anything else you would like to share, or that people should know about you?
LL: I love all things nerdy. I speak in quotes, a lot of times most people don’t understand my references. My spirit animal is Baymax from Big Hero 6. I love to travel, in fact I have been to more countries than I have states. All four parts of the U.K., so England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. I’ve also been to Greece, Italy, Turkey, France, Spain, lots of places in the Caribbean.
HC: Were these all school trips or vacations?
LL: I did study abroad to the U.K., and I did an exchange trip to the U.K. in high school as well. Most of the European countries my junior year of high school. My family went on a two-week Mediterranean cruise, and kind of like hit all the big sites.
HC: How was the exchange program, how did you get involved with that?
LL: My drama teacher in high school, he was from England and was really interested in doing an exchange program with the school he use to work at over there. Anyone that was in the theatre program that wanted to do it was welcome to and same with them over there. We got paired with people that were kind of similar to us, and so I ended up hosting a couple of girls, and one of them I’m really good friends with today. In fact she’s coming this summer.
HC: So you hosted someone not the other way around?
LL: Both. My sophomore year of high school, the girls came and stayed with me for a week. And then a few months later, I stayed with one of them for a week. Then when I studied abroad in England this summer, I picked there to spend more time with her. Out of the five weekends I was there I spent four with her.
I hope you have grown to love Liz as much as I have. When you see her out and about, or if you have a class with her, or if you spot her on midnight rounds, be sure to say hello!