But, um, so what was I talking about? JTT, junior tennis team. We make our own team of four to five people and we play each other and I had to sub for someone because -- for a different team. I'm like, "Okay, I'll do it." And then I figured out it was the same time, same night of my game, but if I didn't sub for them, they would have to be disqualified or like forfeit. So, I mean like -- I'm like, "You know, I'm not that mean." So I subbed for them and skipped my JTT. But I mean, we both lost, my team and their team, but I was okay with that because I had a lot of fun with my friends.

Here's the thing. I would actually love to be a bear. If I believed in reincarnation, I would definitely be a bear. That would be great. That's like, number two on my "If Reincarnation Existed" list. Number one would probably be a rock, 'cause like -- this is kind of off topic -- but like, as a human, I can't break the law. Or I can't break like, crazy laws. Like, if I jaywalk they're not gonna like put me in handcuffs and they're not gonna be like, "Oh, you're a disgrace to society," but like, every person has a rebellious phase. And you know, I kind of -- I kind of want to be -- want to be rebellious. But I can't do it as a human because I would get in trouble. But if I were a rock… Imagine, little children. They're trying to break the windows of some creepy old neighbor. They use me, the rock, to break into that window. And there you got it. I broke the law without breaking the law. What are they gonna do, put a rock in jail? No, of course not! And so that sounds pretty great. And like, what would I even do? I'd just exist, honestly. What's the worst thing that could happen to a rock? Like, the worst thing I can think about is maybe if there's magma or lava or something like that. But chances are, hopefully, I don't get reincarnated as a rock in some place that has, like, crazy amounts of lava or something. And like, if I was reincarnated into a rock that went to the middle of the ocean? I'd be pretty chill with that. I think that'd be pretty awesome as long as it wasn't like, deep dark, dark ocean, 'cause then I can't see anything and it'd be kind of boring.

When I was in Australia one time -- ugh, this was such a bad trip. Actually, I was in Australia twice. Um, the first trip was when I was younger. Might have been the first time I ever celebrated Christmas 'cause we didn't really celebrate Christmas until my sister came in. So, I missed like seven years of Christmas, which I don't really, like, care about. I did miss seven years of gifts. But, that's not the point. And yeah, so I remember -- I don't remember much about that trip in Australia, but when I was older, I had like, a whole biking accident and whatnot, and we [were] walking. And Australia is like, known for, for their stupid venomous like, spiders and snakes and stuff. And we were just walking, having a good time, and I, like, didn't notice -- like, the path was, like, dirt. So like, if you have a brown snake -- I, I don't remember what color it was, but I do remember not being able to see it. I don't remember if it was 'cause I just wasn't looking, which is probably the case, or if it blended in. Regardless, I almost stepped on a snake and I like just caught myself. And I was walking ahead, so it was not like anyone could warn me or anything. Um, or anyone who's like, logically looking at the ground. And I almost stepped on it, and I saw it walk away, and it had this like, distinct pattern. And I remember I googled it, it was like the second most venomous snake in Australia. And after that, I ran to the end of the path and I wanted to go home. ‘Cause it was so, like, crazy that it just crossed my path and if I did one wrong thing, I would have been bit by a snake. So that's -- that was kind of jarring.

Tell us about a time you were able to dress up either in a costume or a fancy outfit... Oh, I get to dress up all the time. So one of the things that I love doing is volunteering to be a princess. So my theater group every year has princesses that they send to the fair, and I am always and forever their Snow White. So I have my Snow White dress which I bought myself because, um, I do it so much and so I can do princessing at other parties, and then I walk around and be the character. And I don't know if I can do the voice right now, but I can try to do it for you guys. "Hi!" No. Oh my gosh. "Hi! I'm Snow White. What's your name?" That's not exactly it because my voice is super hoarse from singing Love Story and “Since you've been gone, I can breathe for the first time" yeah... all day yesterday. And then doing a two hour vocal rehearsal after, but it was fun. Okay.

Tell us about a time that you got to dress up... During school spirit weeks, I really like to go all out, like, as much as I can at least. We had something -- like, it's like our homecoming week and like, most of us usually dress up. It's really fun. But there's one kid who's really, really, really good. He always has the best costumes. Like last year, we have something called “neon day”, and he came to school in like a literal neon green like, bodysuit. Like, covered his face, covered every single inch of him. And then he wore a green wig. So he went to school as a broccoli, which was kind of funny, but technically -- basically, he's really good. And so I wanted to beat him that year. And so I remember that one day we had, um, “dress up as a character”, and so I wanted to do a duo dress up with a friend of mine, and we were going to be going as the Good Witch and the Bad Witch from Wicked, and so I was going as the Good Witch. And so I had this cute little pink dress I was gonna wear, and then I did my makeup. I usually don't wear makeup because it takes a lot of time, and also my parents would probably not like that, and also it's just bad for my skin anyway. So that day I had done my makeup. I'd done my eyeshadow. I had a little glitter on my eye. It was really cute. And I mean, it was very poorly done, but I did my best and the dress was awesome. I had planned on going outside of my school to go find a stick that would work as a wand. I even made my own little tiara since I didn't have one, and I made it out of tin foil and it was a lot uglier than I wanted, but it wasn't horrible. I mean, like, it wasn't bad. It just looked more like something an alien princess would wear rather than the type of princess I was going for. And so I went to school and I was like -- what was I about to say? Oh, And so I got to school and I was like, "Yes. No one's gonna be able to beat this. This is…

I have never been hunting, but I have been fishing a total of one time. So. It wasn't, like, actual fishing, it was fishing at, like, a fishing pond thing. It was like a fishing place where they dump tons of fish into the river to make it easier. So a little bit even extra cheating is that my brother was, uh, under the age of six, so we could fish in the six-and-under pond.  So I'm fishing in the six-and-under pond, and I am not catching anything at all because I'm just flat out bad at fishing. Like, I was afraid of the fish. So I finally did catch something and I pulled it out really fast and I just, like, dropped the rod and ran away screaming because it was just, like, so scary. The eyes, it was all moving, ugh! And then some, like, random guy walked up to me and is like, "Do you want help with that? I can tell you haven't done this before." So I'm like, "Yes, please." And he helped me, and my mom said thank you to him. And yeah. Never wanna go fishing again. It's not really my thing.

This guy in my class who I wasn't really the biggest fan of, he's like -- he's not like a popular kid, but he's, like, edgy if you know what I mean. My friend group is more of the soft cinnamon rolls who are nice. Sometimes they can be preppy, but they're usually very nice and they're -- be like -- well, not like, popular. Like, they don't act like a popular kid. They could be a popular kid, but they don't act like popular kids. And so this guy was not at all in my like -- what's? -- radar. This dude, I've probably said, like, five minutes worth of conversation to him in the past two years. And I'm pretty sure the five minutes were probably related to school. But anyway, so he wasn't a friend. If anything I would call him a person I know from the hallway or something. But he was yelling across -- well, no. The girl next to him who was, who was my friend was talking -- was yelling across the classroom to talk to a guy who was at my table who's also a friend.  And she was like, "Do you know NewJeans?" That's a K-Pop group. He was like, "What?" And so the guy who I'm not -- who I'm not friends with yelled over the room, "NewJeans! You don't know NewJeans?" And I was like, "Oh my gosh, I know NewJeans!" And he was like, "Yeah! You know NewJeans?" I'm like, "Yeah! What other groups do you listen to?" And he was like, "No, it's just NewJeans."  But in that moment, I felt a sense of camaraderie, you know. I was like, yes, slay! 'Cause I did not think that he liked K-pop.

But I think they went into one of our cousins' houses, and I wasn't paying attention at all to behind me, because I thought, "Okay. The threat is over. Threat is down. It's fine. We'll, we'll all be fine." But that was when I looked behind me, and there was a pitbull. I think it was the pitbull that hadn't chased at us, but it was the other one that went in a different direction. ‘Cause it, like, went through the alley, then went back to the front. So then I just -- I just was frozen. I was way too scared. I never met a dog like this, especially at this age. And it was pretty big, right? It's, it's a pit bull. It was a whole adult pitbull, and I honestly, like, ah, shiver me timbers, right? Um, so I just stood there frozen. And it started walk -- barking at me all of a sudden, but didn't, like, lunge at me, which was obviously good. And it could have bit me.  I'm not sure -- to be honest, I think the only reason that it chased us, or like ran towards us and chased us, was because we ran. So I thought, maybe because I was frozen at that time, [it] didn't bite me or think that I was playing with it, it didn't chase me. I think that's a really good lesson to learn.

I recently saw this, like, TikTok, and I -- m- -- okay. My new year's resolution was along the lines of, like, trying new things, being more open, stuff like that, because I'm going to college and so this is my last semester. And so I feel, like, that this is, like, the right time to really, like, I can just do whatever. So I joined my school play. I've never been in a play. Um, and, you know, stuff like this. But I recently saw a TikTok about how you should get rejected, not reject yourself.  Like -- um, I can, like, kind of relate to this, because over the summer I didn't think any professors would say yes to me. Regardless, they did not, I got my last email today from my professor saying that I can't. But over the summer, I was like, "There's no way a professor would say yes to letting me shadow with them." And so I just didn't, like, ask. And I waited months and I was like, "Okay, I'll just, like, try." And I emailed everyone, and a lot of people said no, but it wasn't -- many "no"s weren't because they wouldn't allow it, it was because of things like different things going on, stuff like that.  But I realized, like, how true that statement is, of like, you should let yourself get rejected, not, um, reject yourself, because you never know what might happen. Like I never know, if one of those professors happened to have an opening, I could be there just because I asked. And yeah, I got rejected from all of them, but I -- I don't know, that really stuck to me because a lot of times I'm like, there's no way I would ever get it or something like that, and now it's like, "Why wouldn't I get it?" I guess, if that makes sense?  Like you always think about, like, for example, like, college scholarships. Especially like Duke and stuff like that. Um, those percentages -- the percentage of kids who get those scholarships is like 1%, 2% and I'm like, "Wow, like I'll never -- there's no way." But then I was -- like, I don't know. I shouldn't limit myself because I think I can't do it.

One of the biggest gardens I've ever been to I'm pretty sure it was in Singapore. Um. And or n- -- ye- -- ehrm, or it was Malaysia and it was like a glass dome and there was like multiple levels. It was kind of like a ecosystem within itself. Like it had birds flying and flowers everywhere and butterflies and fruit and stuff, um, they're growing. That was really cool to see. Uh, they had like these stairs you had to walk up and down. Um, and yeah, it was really nice. It was kind of like being in an actual rainforest so it was like really muggy and there was trees and vegetation everywhere.