Starting freshman year of college hits all the emotions in the human body; pure excitement, crippling fear, crazy nerves, and of course the dreadful sadness of saying goodbye to your dog. During the process of basically flirting with your future friends and scrambling to hang up all your cute pictures comes the most repetitive questions you will here for the next three weeks on campus. What is your name? Where are you from? What is your major? Besides every other emotion you are feeling, I can promise you that answering these questions for the 756th time will be nothing less than the “please not again” response. But, as time goes on and you start to meet more people the conversations get deeper and more interesting. I have always been interested in Humans of New York because the interviews get to the depth of a person’s emotions and feelings. In my own personal journey as a college freshman I want to talk to my peers about things that scratch under the surface and about issues that matter. I interviewed 7 of my peers, asking them different questions about their lives.
Gretchen James: Who is the most influential person in your life?
Growing up I looked up to my dad a lot because it was just him raising my brother and I. He would get criticism from other families because they didn’t support that fact that he was a single father raising two kids. Even so every single day he would share so many messages about positivity and trying to keep a positive attitude even if other people are telling you not to have one. I remember every single morning he would wake me up he would say “It’s a brand new day! You get to decide if its a good day or not.” When he died my Freshman year it was really hard for me and since then my brother has taken on the role of someone I can look up to. He is someone I can talk too because he is the last person who I really feel is my family. So I guess now my brother is who I look up to the most.
Alexis Smith: What are you looking for in your life right now?
I feel like I’m just looking for happiness I want to be at a place in my life where I feel like I’m content and I have all my goals lined up. I would probably say knowing that I am going somewhere is my career gives me happiness. I really want to do modeling, that’s why I moved out here to Los Angeles and knowing that I am headed in a direction that leads to a successful career makes me feel good.
Mateo Valles-Quintana: Can you talk about an experience that really affected your life?
This one is kind of recent actually. I was doing a little project for myself, something personal. I was interviewing service members on why they decided to take that career path. I was interviewing a border patrol agent on the border of Tijuana and San Diego, which is where I grew up. I was talking to him about his job and there were certain moments that really affected me. He was saying that as soon as we see somebody cross the border the situation turns into trying to get them into custody but when we see somebody in a situation that is life threatening, like crossing a dangerous river, border control switches into rescue mode and that’s all they are worried about. A lot of their support team is structured to help people who end up in these bad situations. It really open-minded my mind to the fact that this is a life or death situation for many people. This moment where they are literally trying to cross into a better life can be so lethal. Especially me being a Mexican-American, I’m lucky enough to have citizenship and not worry about that type of stuff but I see it all the time and how it affects others. It was really nice to have perspective from the law enforcement side. That moment rattled me and it helped me open up my view of the world in many ways.
Rachel Rivera: Can you talk about an experience that really affected your life?
When I was in seventh grade my parents announced to me that I would be moving from Michigan to Minnesota in a month. All of my friends were in Michigan and all my family too so it was a huge change that I didn’t believe at first. We went to Minnesota and looked at the school I would be going to and all these houses. I was really scared because at that point in my life I hadn’t been through a huge change and so just going from somewhere that I knew so well to a place I didn’t know at all was super scary to me. When I finally moved I had to meet all new people and it was kind of like college where everything and everyone is new. It was hard at first but it really opened me up to new perspectives of different people and places. I eventually started to love Minnesota a lot more that I loved Michigan and I realized that change can be healthy and a good thing. Even if it seems bad at first it can always turn out differently. Before moving here to LMU I thought about that change and it helped me to not be so nervous and to be open to adapting.
Sam Dejardin: Who is the most influential person in your life and why?
My grandfather. I call him papa. He is the most influential to me because throughout my whole life he took care of me when my dad was on the road playing baseball. He was always there for me and we actually lived with him and my grandmother for my first four years of life and he taught us a lot of groundwork stuff like how to read and write all that stuff. Through Middle School and High School he taught us how to love all sports like baseball and tennis and golf. He was the one who got me into tennis and that’s why I’m here at LMU because of the tennis team.
Megan Richardson: Can you talk about an experience that really affected your life?
I started playing soccer when I was really young and it was a big part of my life. When I was in eighth grade I got a concussion while playing soccer and I ended up not going to school for 2 months and now have permanent nerve damage from it. The hardest part of it was not being able to play soccer because it was a very significant thing in my life at the time. It was my way of escaping. It was really hard for me to find a new hobby in my life because soccer was all that I did. Overall though, it ended up being really beneficial because since I wasn’t able to play soccer I started running track which I actually enjoyed more.
Damian Browne: What are you looking for in you life right now and why?
I am mostly looking to grow myself as a student and someone with interest. I want to explore my passions to the best of my ability. I’m studying computer science but I really want to get into sports analytics and I want to find a way to do that here. Not only finding my interests but trying to make them accessible to me is really important. I want to work hard on my academic career right now for sure.