Name: James Ma
Year : Senior
Age: 23
Activities: Salsa and Ballroom Dancing
Interests: Photography, trance music, electronica, Cactus-ing
Relationship status: Sorry folks. This guy’s taken.
HC: What do you think about being Purdue’s Campus Cutie?
JM: I feel like I’m going to need an assistant now to take care of all the dates that are going to come along!
HC: What three words/phrases would your friends use to describe you?
JM: Easy going, pure at heart, massive fun
HC: What’s your favorite movie?
JM: A Beautiful Mind. Something that makes me feel the most emotional. I end up getting my life lessons from movies.
HC: What appeals to you the most in a girl?
JM: She should have beauty in her own special way; something original that others don’t have. Not shallow and has depth to her heart; fun loving and generous; a carefree personality. Someone who I could see myself marrying. Sometimes quiet, sometimes crazy. Someone who pulls at my hearts strings. Someone who makes my heart tremble.
HC: How do you feel about having a serious relationship in college?
JM: I think it’s a good idea. It prepares you for the next stage of your life. When you start your life, you won’t get this opportunity again of finding your soul mate. When you work, you don’t have the time to find the one. For all Asian parents, they say concentrate on your studies but I think you get so screwed up socially; it doesn’t help you in your life. You grow up together when you date in college.
HC: I almost forgot to ask! Where are you from?
JM: Singapore.
HC: As an Asian at an American university, what were your initial survival skills to adjust?
JM: Go join more social organizations, get fluent in English, leave your Asian niche, meet more people that aren’t Asian, and try and adapt to American humor.
HC: Do you regret coming millions of miles away to Purdue?
JM: Not at all. These have been the best years of my life, and I feel like my last year is going to be the best year of my life.
HC: Have you ever had a life changing experience?
JM: While I served in the Singapore army for two years … I was serving as a medic and I watched someone die in front of me … he was one of the 5 close knit group of my buddies in the army and that changed me; made me realize that life just flies pass by you. It made me question our physical existence, and the existence of souls. It made me become a deeper person, and think about our existence – whether it’s just flesh and bones, but the more valuable soul part of life.
HC: What is something you’re looking forward to the most in life?
JM: I am really looking forward to spending the rest of my life with my girlfriend, having a stable family with her and doing what I like in the future. This is a guy in love talking!