"I have twenty-four nutcrackers..." I have twenty-four nutcrackers, I have three nutcrackers that are non seasonal, meaning I can have them all out all year long, but then I have — the rest of my nutcrackers which are very much so Christmas, related. I’ve a nutcracker that goes up to my shoulder blade. What nutcracker is this? That’s a Christmas nutcracker, my ultimate favorite nutcracker. I have twenty-one nutcrackers and that’s a lot, and I collect them. And my aunt, she doesn’t like them. She’ll come up every year on Christmas, be like, those nutcrackers are terrifying. I’m just always like, yeah, but I like them and I have a lot of them. We get them, me and my grandmother, we get them every time after Christmas cuz that’s when everything Christmas related goes on sale, and we get a lot of nutcracker. I just have — I have one nutcracker in my room that’s a doctor, another nutcracker it’s like a lady and she has like a shopping bag. And then I have another nutcracker and I’m pretty sure it’s Christmas related but I refused to admit is Christmas related because it’s a guy who’s holding like a small little tree in his hand, but I refuse to believe it’s Christmas related. I just like to say he’s Michigan, because you know, there’s so many people in Michigan carrying around trees, that’s a Christmas-related nutcracker. I’m not taking it down.

"How does your clothing style change over time and what about your music taste?" The question was, how does your clothing style change over time and what about your music taste? I would say it changes a lot. I changed a lot, especially during the pandemic. I took the time that I had free because I was doing online classes and everything was online. So I started exercising a lot so I lost hundred pounds during this pandemic, and I feel my clothing style has changed a lot.  I decided to make more bold choices I guess, after losing all the weight. I have always loved fashion as a way to express myself. So I have always used different clothes — I don’t know — but I think it’s definitely bolder after I lost all the weight.  And about music, my music taste usually changes depending on my mood and on the situations that I’m living at the moment. So usually when it’s — for example, exam week, finals week, I usually play music that’s gonna motivate me and make me feel like a superhero or something like that, so I could be all powerful and really tackle the exams.

"...thinking about it now, it feels like a really melodramatic movie scene..." My favorite party story or personal story to tell people is the time that I had a brand new coffee cup, get run over by a school bus when I was in high school and this happened in January. It was the first day back in classes after winter break. I think it was my junior year. And over Christmas, one of my grandmas had gotten me one of the Keurig instant coffee makers and a brand new travel coffee mug to go with it. So — it was my first time using it cuz it was the first day back in class, and I filled it up with some hot chocolate and I was running late as usual. So I’m like rushing to get outside and I get out there and I’m about to drive myself to school, but it’s raining. And it’s kind of a gray and gross and dark day for early January, and it’s early in the morning. So, I’m rushing, I got to get to class, and I’m trying not to get stuck behind the school bus. So I get outside, and my car had this issue to where I couldn’t unlock it with the beeper. So, I had to set my coffee mug on top of the car to get my hands free to use the key and get in through the door. So I do that and I quickly get inside and I hear the bus coming around. So I very quickly back out and start driving through my neighborhood, and I’m going pretty slowly cuz I’m in the development. But at one point, I turned a sharp corner and I hear this thud in the middle of the road, and I wonder like did I hit an animal? Was something in the street that I missed? It was really dark and I was kind of distracted with being late. So I was really nervous that I had hit something, and I pull over, and I step out of the car –thinking about it now, it feels like a really melodramatic movie scene where I’m standing there in the rain and there’s lightning and thunder, and like I said, it’s so dark out and I see my coffee cup lying in the middle of the road right behind me, and the…

"Our house used to be, you know, we all came back from classes this was our place to relax." My roommates and I have been going on walks and going to the park to see the sunset which is really fun. It gets us out of the house, gets us out of this setting cuz you know it sucks cuz our house used to be, you know, we all came back from class this was our place to relax, do a little bit of homework, but we mainly did the majority of our homework outside of our house cuz when we came here, this was like our place to finally unwind. But now it has turned into a, my office, my homework place, my — you know it’s just everything now, so it just sucks that I used to, you know, only relate home to being relaxed and being a little stressed. Yeah, but you know, you are always a little stressed.

"I'd walk in every day, say hello to my favorite fish." When I was in kindergarten, I got sent home from kindergarten because every day I used to walk into the doors and there was a little fish tank in the lobby and I was really really young. I don’t even know how old kindergarteners are, like five or six. But I remember distinctly, I’d walk in every day, say hello to my favorite fish. It was an angel fish, it was silver. And one day I walked in and I looked into the fish tank, and my favorite fish was not there, and I was peering in, I was looking in, looking super, duper hard. And then I walked into the office. I was like “where’s my favorite fish?” And they were like “what fish?” And I was like “my– my angel fish. It was my favorite fish.” And just trying to explain what this fish looked like to them, and they said it died. And so, I started crying really, really hard, and so they walked me to class, and I sat there in class, and I wouldn’t stop crying. And at my school in kindergarten they had this point system where you had a green card, meaning you were behaving well and then you had a yellow card if you were being warned, and then you had a red card if you misbehaved and then you didn’t get a sticker, and then if you didn’t get a sticker you didn’t get a prize at the end of the month, or week, or something like that, something like that. Anyway, they kept shifting my warning, they were like “okay, I’m going to give you a yellow card”, but I honestly didn’t even care. I just remember being so sad about this fish. I was literally crying maybe I think it was an hour or two later, and I was just still crying about this little fish. And so then finally, I remember this moment, the teacher looked at me, they were like “Anna, do you need to go home?” And I just remember nodding, I couldn’t even speak. I was so sad about this fish. Wow, I must have had a flair for the dramatics.

"What is your favorite tree?" There are these six large palm trees right in front of the house my partner and I live in. We moved to this small Victorian house in Florida during the pandemic. And after about two month — about two month after we moved in, we noticed there was this squirrel family living up the palm trees. About one to two hours before the sunset every day they would come out and play. And one day we heard this “pa” sound right next to our garage, and something fell off the tree. When we approached, we saw it was a baby squirrel. It was tiny. We thought it was a hurt, but, no. It actually approached us and was sniffing our shoes and jumping around cheerfully, then it raced up the tree. And now we’ve been watching this family of squirrels for months and we want to make a YouTube channel named, “Life of a squirrel family.” And I love these palm trees because they’re huge and they’re providing the shelter for this lovely squirrel family, and I can’t remember how many afternoons during the lockdown I just sit around the back porch watching them play. That was my story about my favorite tree.

"I'm feeling really grateful for my cat." It's the Friday after Thanksgiving, and thinking about the classic Thanksgiving question -- what I'm grateful for? And this week, I'm feeling really very grateful for my cat. I do not live at home right now, but I am home for Thanksgiving break, home from college, and I got to see my cat again after being away from her for three months. Her name is Lucy, and this cat is my best friend. Last year, when I was a freshman in college, I was not able to go to college. I had to stay at home for the fall semester, so I spent a lot of time alone in my room. Most of my friends were at college. I didn't really have a lot going on around here. I worked sometimes, but I mainly just sat in my room, did my online classes, did my homework, and my cat absolutely loves my room and spends all of her time in here. So, during that fall semester, me and my cat got very close. She was kind of my classmate. I would sit in my Zooms and she would sit on my lap the entire time, and I moved from my bed to my chair to my desk and she just, she'd follow me back and forth. And being at school now and being away from my cat is kind of the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I miss her all the time and so being back home and getting to have -- you know, it's only about four days, but getting to have those four days with her is super exciting. She is sitting on my lap, and I'm petting her now as I record this and I think just being away from all of my pets in general, I forget how nice it is to have a pet. I think they really improve my mood and she really makes me -- just brightens my day as she's fighting me right now. She's a little cranky, but when she's not fighting me like this. It's just so awesome to have a cat around like this. She's the best thing in the world.