Why did you decide to do ROTC?
I knew what it was like from what my parents had told me. It seemed like a good, holistic opportunity for me to grow. What I mean by that is Air Force ROTC doesn’t just focus on your academic career, it also focuses on your professionalism, your physical health, and they want you to be excellent in every way possible. I know I’m personally motivated by a group working towards that goal. They are united by values I believe in. The core values of the Air Force are: integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all we do. I try to strive for those. Plus, since I knew I wanted to commit from the get-go, I was able to apply for a scholarship that enabled me not only to do ROTC but also to be able to do it out of my home state, Nebraska.They are giving me a scholarship that is covering my tuition. There are various ranks in their scholarships. Type one covers full tuition at any university, type two will cover three years and type seven will cover in-state tuition. I don’t know what happened to the other ones in between two and seven.
If there was one extra hour in the day, what would you spend it doing?
I would write my pen-pals. I write my little cousins, I write my best friends in Nebraska, and I write my family. Especially the older ones because they appreciate it more. I love writing on stationary, I like keeping mementos of the people I care about. Sometimes I’ll slip a piece of gum in my letters, and I feel so sneaky because it’s heavier than a normal letter, and I still can send it with my forever stamp!
What was your favourite childhood television show/book?
Funny story about television, actually. When I was six years old, my parents thought if they sat me in front of the television for long enough, then eventually I’d fall asleep and it would be an easy night for them. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. I ended up staying up until four in the morning watching Cartoon Network, which out of all of the channels to watch until two in the morning is not the one. Then my mom said I was not allowed to watch TV because it was draining my brain cells. In terms of books, as a child I loved Gregor the Overlander. It’s about this guy who’s got this little sister and she ends up falling into the sewer system. There’s this entire world of rats and people who have been living under there for hundreds of years and have been fighting wars. He goes back and forth between worlds. Now, I love the book Bigfoot: I Not Dead.
Why are you majoring in Physics?
I couldn’t decide what I wanted to be when I grew up. I thought to myself after high school, physics was the most engaging class I had. Unlike anything else in the world, everyone has to obey physics. You can disregard social rules all you want, every day, but everyone has to listen to physics. I thought there was tremendous power in that. In learning how to approach the concepts, I knew I’d be prepared for whatever life threw at me. Plus, I was preparing myself for ROTC. I want to be anything.
Who is your “hero” and why?
I love my mom. She’s one of the most selfless people I know. She doesn’t even know she’s selfless. She’s so ingrained in her sense of what’s right and wrong. She doesn’t even have to think about it and she never expects anything in return. She’s genuine. There are a lot of people in my life who need that feedback. Her moral character is so strong. I want to be independently selfless.
I know you moved around a lot when you were younger. Where was your favourite place to live and why?
It’s funny because I always thought that whenever I moved, I could have a fresh start and would be able to change my persona. I viewed each place as a different phase. I lived in California, Colorado, Alabama, Virginia (for three months), Nebraska, Florida, then Nebraska again. Now I’m here, in Massachusetts! I wanted to check off the New England box. I just remember my homes from my first one in Nebraska onward. In Alabama, I went to Catholic School. It was only for one year and it was the only time I went to Catholic school. This was in first grade. I had my first encounter with sexism, and it was because I won a burping competition. I can burp on command really well [burps]. As I go, the air pockets continue to grow, and by the end of the burping competition, and by the end of the competition, I got this opera, vibrato burp that just blows everyone away. When I did that, as long as the boys were beating me it was fine, but as soon as I beat them they would say “That’s not very lady-like.” I was like, “Wow! Someone’s a sore loser.” I was so mad because no one wanted to talk to me because I was “gross” for burping, even though they were doing the same thing! So that’s what I remember from Catholic school.
Then I moved to Florida, and I got tan, and in 6th grade I was dating the most popular boy in school, yeah, I was kind of a queen bee. I was in the nice variety, I’d like to think. The extent of my relationship was passing notes. Then I moved back to Nebraska again in 8th grade, all tan, and all of the people who didn’t like me at first all of a sudden also had crushes on me. I was like, “What’s going on? You’re so fake! Now you think I’m cool just because I have highlights and short shorts? No.” I did make friends because I had a storm drain behind my house, and I used to play out in there. Under the streets, where people are afraid they’re going to fall in, I was in there. I was giving people tours. There were a few different pathways. There was “Pagina” with a “P” not a “V”, Gates of Hell, that was the most extensive one, I never really went there because it was called the Gates of Hell! These names were passed down from Sewer travelers from the past. Then there was Narnia, and I think it was called Narnia because at the end there was a lamppost, like in Narnia. Someone got hurt, though, and then we stopped going down in the sewers. [Burps] See what I’m talking about? There’s always an air pocket! But anyway, so I just had to stop. In Florida, we got chased by a wild boar, and then hid up in an abandoned Hunting Post in the woods. We were lucky!
What’s your best strategy for making new friends?
You need to be yourself. I was always described as weird, and that really hurt me in middle school, but then I kind of just was like, “Yeah, I’m kind of funny”. So humour will get you far, but if that’s not your thing, always just greet people and let them know you’re there. You need to be perceptive of other people’s needs in order to make new friendships.
If you could travel anywhere right now, where would you go and why?
I would love to go to a hot spring in a mountain stream- I like nature. Maybe in the Amazon!
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