Hey!
Hi! How are you?
pretty good! what about you?
Going good! Big plans for the weekend?
It's my mom's birthday so we're going to celebrate tonight
Awesome, happy birthday to your mom! Do you guys have any fun birthday traditions or celebrations?
We usually have a family dinner, usually eat enchiladas and just have a bunch of family over what about your family?
That's super cool, do you make your own enchiladas? And do you live near lots of your family then? We are pretty low key people so we will eat dinner of the birthday person's choosing and then watch a movie that they pick out and eat cake and ice cream, nothing super major But it's nice to celebrate as a family!
That's cool! Yeah we make our own, I am half mexican so we all love mexican food
Oh hey that's awesome! How did your parents meet?
They grew up in the same town, but were never really friends. Then they came back from college and I am pretty sure my mom was joking with her younger brother about going on a double date and he agreed so then she had to find someone and she ended up asking my mom so that was their first date haha
Haha that is funny, how long did they date before they were engaged?
I think a year, what about your parents? how did they meet
My parents were pretty typical, they were in the same YSA stake in college and that's how they met! My dad really liked my mom I guess and tried to impress her with his superior athletic abilities but she was super not into sports so that didn't work very well! But he won her over somehow clearly because they got engaged and married It's funny how any random people manage to meet! Do you have lots of siblings?
Aw thats so cute, I have three so not a lot for a mormon family lol, but i have two younger sisters and one little brother how many siblings do you have?
Oh little siblings are so cute! Do you get along with them well? Do they admire you and/or look up to you? My siblings don't! I have an older sister then 7 younger brothers and sisters so a pretty normal Mormon family I guess
um i wouldnt say they look up to me, but we definitely all get along pretty great
That's too bad, are they much younger than you are? I would say the same about my siblings, they don't think I'm that cool but we get along okay Do they miss you while you're away at college?
thats good, im actually going to be an incoming freshman, but i will definitely miss them i hope they will miss me a little but i am also really excited to go to college
Oh super exciting, there's a ton to look forward to! What are you most excited about? They'll probably miss you a little bit, I thought my siblings wouldn't miss me at all and they didn't at first but as more time went along they missed me more and more
I am really excited living with one of my best friends meeting more friends and and fun classes i guess What has been the best part of college for you?
It's always better when you're starting college with someone you know, I was lucky enough to start with my best friend from grade school and it was really nice having someone from home who knew me and knew the challenges I was going through and it was really helpful overall to get to start a new chapter with someone who was as stressed as I was! The best part of college has probably been getting to go out on my own and determine the kind of person that I was going to be without any pressure from my parents. I've been free to choose what to study and what friends to have and what to pursue and what experiences to have and that's really shaped my character and personality
That's so cool, i am super excited to be going with my friend i think its going to be really great getting to spend a lot of time with her whats one of your craziest roommate stories?
Yeah you'll definitely grow super close to the people you live with as you struggle through the same things together! What classes are you taking in the fall? Hahaha so I bought a fish my senior year and he was a super cute fish but you're not allowed to have fish in apartments so I left him home and had my siblings take care of him Well my parents randomly decided to go to Europe and sent my siblings off to some cousins while they were in Europe but totally forgot about the fish and the fish died Anyway my good friend from home who was also my roommate thought it was so sad that my fish had died that we had a funeral for it But obviously we couldn't do anything with the actual fish so she made a fake fish out of toilet paper and we sang a song and said some eulogies and had a wake for the toilet paper fish before flushing it down the toilet which is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen because the fish wasn't even real
haha oh my gosh, that is crazy, one time i had a fish, named bubbles, he was like only my second pet ever, but he was a beta which are supposed to live forever right? well i followed the rules on the feed especially for beta fish and i guess i over fed him, and he got constipated so i fed him less and cured hum but he was so worn out from being constipated and all bloated that he died I only had him for like two months so i wasn't super attached, and now it's just really funny to me
Haha yeah it was pretty entertaining, he was a beta fish also and you're right I totally thought that beta fish were supposed to live forever if you took care of them? Oh man poor guy! How old were you when you killed your beta fish? *kidding :)* My parents aren't big animal people so they only let me get a fish when I turned 18. I'm not an animal person either I just wanted to get a fish because I could
That's the same with my parents, i mean i was thirteen, but they let me get a fish, i killed a supposably immortal fish, and we haven't had a pet yet so...lol
Haha they must have thought you were very responsible...I can see why they aren't fans of any of your other siblings getting any more pets! Fish are way more high maintenance than you think they are going to be when you first start out, like you have to change their water and feed them and do all this random stuff you never think of doing when you think about getting a fish
yeah i mean i thought it was easy, until it died so i guess i was a little naive
Yeah oh well, fish are pretty inconsequential in the major scheme of things I guess So what classes are you taking in the fall? What classes are you most excited for?
i havent registered yet, so i don't know what classes but i really like taking biology classes, i am planning on getting a degree in biomedical engineering so im taking my pre requisites at byu What classes would you recommend taking?
Oh I see, it's definitely a hard decision to make to decide which classes you are going to take! Interesting, what has made you decide to want to pursue biomedical engineering? What do you want to do with that? What has been your inspiration? Haha um I'm a really bad one to ask, I'm getting a degree in music composition so I the one science class I was required to take I got AP credit for in high school But I would recommend lots of religion classes, like you never get the chance to study religion as much as you do at BYU in such a formal setting
I like the medical field and i want to help, but i don't really want to become a nurse or doctor. So i think it is a good way to help save lives in my own way, because i also like engineering that's cool what instruments do you play?
Oh that's very fair, out of curiosity what has pushed you away from being a nurse or doctor? Most people go that route I guess I play the piano pretty well but my official instrument in the program is flute, I spend way too much time playing both! I have no life because I'm always practicing
thats cool i play the piano a little bit too i don't want to be a nurse or doctor mainly because it is just so hands on, i would rather help from afar, especially because i hate needles i would also like to help a lot more with just researching
It's a good instrument! How did you get into the piano field? It's a pretty hard instrument to pick up! Oh yeah I totally understand! No matter how much you want to help people there is something too nauseating about being a surgeon or sticking needles in people What would you like to research?
haha yea i think things around genetics mainly, i think that is what interests me most I played the piano for a few years when i was younger, now that i don't have lessons i am not very skilled anymore, but i can still play a little
That's cool, what specifically would you like to look into with genetics? How do you see your research impacting the world and the general health of individuals? Oh nice, playing the piano as a young person really increases your mental and intellectual abilities. What made you decide to stop?
mainly how we can tailor medicine to help specific people with chronic diseases and things like that. I think it would really help people with disabilties I guess i didn't really decide to stop it just kinda happened, it was hard because we had just moved so it was hard to find another teache teacher*
Oh for sure, that's all highly interesting! Have you been personally impacted by chronic disease or disabilities? If there was one specific disease you'd like to cure, what would it be and why? And no kidding, trying to find competent piano teachers is pretty hard! The teacher makes all the difference. I had a nice piano studio back home but left it when I left to co
No i have just seen people suffer things like cystic fibrosis and other disabilities, and i just want to be able to change those people's lives
me here and it's pretty hard to have a viable studio here because everyone plays the piano so everyone just learns from their mom or grandma or relief society president
I actually have never really gone through anything super serious so i feel like it's my job to help other people out haha yeah we have a pretty nice piano at home i don't play a lot anymore, but one of my sisters does
That's very fair, what would you say is your biggest motivator for such a selfless attitude and your feelings of responsibility to help others out who are less fortunate than yourself? Would you credit familial examples, church examples, church standards, cultural values, or some other factors? Cool, good for your sister! The piano is an awesome instrument and the dedication and discipline required to excel at it carry over into all other aspects of life.
I guess just everything in general, i have a good family life and i just feel that i am really blessed and i can do so much more to just help other people in their live's yeah she's pretty good
Absolutely, that is definitely the type of attitude that we need in today's society. I feel like so many problems would be solved if people took their good fortune as a responsibility to help other people out. Would you say you agree with Andrew Carnegie's model of an effective citizen who contributes positively to society?
i have no idea who that is, not gonna lie, but that sounds about right haha
Ha okay that's totally fair, it seems like your general values are in line with what he envisioned for a fully functioning society
yeah haha
It's been awesome talking to you but it looks like I have to head out! Good luck with everything and have an awesome day!