Name: Marshall Powell
Age: 23
Home Town: Federal Way
Graduation Date: Spring 2016/17?
Relationship Status: Single
Favorite Food: Pad Thai or Sushi or Teryaki
Favorite Book: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Favorite Movie: Forest Gump
What is your major and how did you choose it? My major is computer science and I chose it by trying everything else first. I tried creative writing, I tried communication, psychology, and business.
Cat or Dog Person? Dog. Because they’re happy to see you, and they’re a friend to the end.
Biggest Pet Peeve: People who are too polite.
What Are Your Hobbies? Making music and producing it, singing and playing guitar. There are two groups that I play with, one is Well Wishers. We’re a folk band- pop indie folk and we’ve been playing together for four years. We just put out an EP on Christmas day. That’s fun, it’s like a little family. I also produce with another producer and we go by the name Anniversary. We do dance music and more fun music and we also DJ.
What are your favorite Musical artists? Beach House has always been up there, Frank Ocean and the Tallest Man On Earth. I think those three are pretty magical. I’m big into R&B as of the last 6 months or so, so I’ve listened to a lot of Frank Ocean and Drake- that kind of stuff.
Favorite Childhood Memory: The one that jumps out at me is having a big house made out of cardboard in my room, it was like a like a little fort. It was all black and white designed and you could color in the whole house. It had a jungle theme and you could color in all the different things, there was like birds and trees. It would be set up in the middle of my room and there would be nowhere to walk, but for like a month straight I could just color in that thing. Until I got tired of doing it, then I knocked it over.
What’s the Best Job You’ve Ever Had? I worked as a camp counselor this past summer, I was a counselor for 8th grade boys, 6th grade boys and 2nd grade boys at different times. That was cool because the whole environment is really positive and all of your coworkers have a similar mindset where they’re just trying to be good role models and they’re all really strong leaders and the kids worship you and you can just influence them- especially the 8th graders they’re my favorite because they’re at such a turning point in life- you can show them that being a good leader and being a role model is a cool thing to do. That was probably the most rewarding work I’ve had.
Describe Your Perfect Date: Going to a bar that has live jazz and just getting a beer and laughing a lot.
Do You Have A Celebrity Crush? Yeah, the singer for London Grammar. I have a big crush on her because her voice is just like, beautiful. And Justin Bieber. Just those two though.
Describe Your Ideal Woman: My ideal woman is very straightforward, says exactly what she thinks, is not afraid to offend people, is bold and is funny. The better relationships I’ve had are ones in which the girl I’m with can make me laugh. Someone who talks a lot is a really important thing because I don’t talk a lot. I like people who can just have a conversation with themselves and I can just listen. But then, mixed with all of that, [my ideal woman] is really underneath it sweet.
What is your best quality? My best quality is that I think I’m pretty good at seeing things for what they are. I’m not a very phony guy- I’ll say what I mean.
What is Something People Don’t Know About You? That I’m really into competitive gaming. I like to spend free time playing Halo on X Box, and I’ve gone to a few tournaments around the US competing. There’s nothing else that gets me more excited and engaged than competitive gaming. I haven’t done it for a few years, I’m getting back into it right now. The last time I went was in 2009 and I went to Anaheim.
Life Motto: “See the forest for the trees.” I get caught up, like I get really obsessed with things, and it’s a different thing every week. It’s important for me to remind myself of my longer term goals because I can get wrapped up in the details of everyday life and kind of forget what I’m going for.
Where do you see yourself in five years? I see myself probably in Europe working as much as I need to to make enough money to travel and visit lots of places and eat all different kinds of food and meet cool people. It could be anywhere, maybe in Germany.
Is there anything left on your Western Bucket List? No.
Was There Ever Anything On It? Yeah, playing on the PAC mainstage. My band Well Wishers did that in Spring 2013.
What are you excited for in the future? I’m excited to get out of college within the next couple years without debt and be able to go travel. Some of the best experiences of my life have been when I’m away from home. It gives you this different kind of energy to be away from everything you know and around all brand new people. You can just kind of be whoever you want to be and just kind of live a little fairy tale one city at a time. That’s what keeps me motivated. I’m doing computer science which is challenging, but keeping in mind that it’ll help me afford traveling in the future is what keeps me focused. That’s my “Seeing the forest for the trees”.