Entrevista

A Young Woman with a Bright Future—Rough draft

Some people exude peace and grace when you are in their presence. I happened to interview such a person the other day at Starbucks in the Hodges library. That person is a University of Tennessee student, xxxx from xxxxx, Tennessee, who is a beautiful, bright young woman with sparkling, brown eyes and shiny brown hair. She is a freshman at theuniversity and currently lives in Humes dorm. We had a great time talking about her future plans, and, during our half hour together, it quickly became clear to me where her inner strength and motivation come from—her strong family ties and her faith.
xxxxxxxx arrived for her interview a little early. Her promptness reminded me of something I once read: A person who shows up late toappointments will have limited success in life. The person who shows up at exactly the right time will often be moderately successful, but the person who shows up early is more likely to have great success in life. If that is the case, then I see great success ahead for Xxxxxxxxx. She is planning to go into logistics with international collateral business or maybe into nursing. She is currently afreshman, but she is obviously goal-driven as indicated by her choice of two majors that require a great deal of work and perseverance. I can see where both majors might appeal to her since she has inherited her good business sense and work ethic from her father who sells insurance, but she also seems to love and has a desire to serve other people, something that perhaps she inherited from herpre-school teacher mother. Currently, Xxxxxxxxx works part-time at Verizon, stocking their advertisements and doing some inventory. I concluded from this information that she has nerves of steel because every time I go into Verizon, it’s a real zoo with people everywhere, long lines, customer questions and complaints. When I asked her about her job, she just smiled beatifically and said that sheliked it. She said that her father taught her that she should always work hard. He once said, “If you have to, work ten hours instead of eight to get the job done.” Again, this was one more indicator that she can handle stress well in her life which further convinced me of her potential for great success in the future. In addition to these skills, Xxxxxxxxx also believes that she has learned theimportance of being independent from her parents who have always urged her and her sister to work hard so that they will be self-sustaining.
When I asked her what gets her up in the morning, she immediately lit up and said, “My friends and family.” She told me that she had missed class on Tuesday because she accompanied a friend who wanted to check out a potential college, and she wanted to goto keep him company. Besides being a good friend, she also deeply loves her family. As I mentioned, she has a loving father and mother, who both have very different gifts. Her mother is the heart of the family and her dad is the head of the family (in the sense that he’s very practical and business-minded). She says that she is very close to her father, whom she admires for his good businesssense and for his calm advice whenever she needs it. She said “He never makes things to be worse than they are, but he never makes them seem better than they are either.” As indicated by the quotation, Xxxxxxxxx appreciates a realistic, honest approach to problems and life. Xxxxxxxxx also told me that she also shares a close relationship with her younger sister xxxxx who will play soccer for MiddleTennessee State next year. xxxxxxxx herself also played basketball in high school as a freshman but quit after her freshman year. While she liked playing, she had mostly joined the team because of her friends.
I also asked Xxxxxxxxx about her family background and origins. She said that her father is actually from Colombia, South America and that he and his family moved to Florida when...