q&a: me!

(one) where were you born?

i was born in moscow, idaho! my doctor's name was maggie and it was purely coincidental that my parents wanted to name me 'margaret' after my great grandmother, but my doctor thought they named me after her and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. i like to think i was her most special delivery in that case. 

(two) where do you go to school?

i go to school in missoula, montana at the university of montana! i study biology and i'm on the pre-med track. i have a minor in creative writing but i might be switching my major to journalism with a minor in biology. it's complicated.

(three) what do you love about your life?

oh goodness! thinking about it, i think everything i love about my life i love because of my family. i love my family to no end. i love my mom who isn't afraid to stand up for herself or what she believes in and i always know that she's there for me. i love my dad who is absolutely the goofiest person i know and says things like "yo" and "ding-bat" and "bomb diggity squat" in every day conversation and sends the best emails ever. i love my little sister who i shared a room with for 11 years and is kind of my other half in that we think the same things, talk the same way, can say stuff like "you know that thing? oh my gosh it's so, you know" and we know exactly what the other is talking about. she's perfect. all together, we are kind of chaotic and our personalities clash just as often as they mesh, but i love that we're all so close. i can't imagine not having a solid family background at all and i pretty much obsess over them.

(four) where would you like to be in five years?

i will be 24 in five years. i hope by that time, i've successfully graduated, studied abroad, gotten into a medical school or physician assistant school, volunteered for peace corps (or something awesome), and moved someplace awesome. i hope to be able to be a practicing physician and if i switch my major to journalism, become a science journalist of sorts and volunteer all over the world for doctor's without borders while writing about it. i have a weird love for viruses.  

(five) where do you get your inspiration from?

i get my inspiration from almost everything. a little kid at walmart laughing in the toy section. a terrible rap song on the radio. the most amazing book i've read in months. lyrics from a song. looking out my window (ha, so cliche). looking at old pictures. blogs. an awesome smelling lotion. coffee shops. walking downtown. magazines. old playlists on my iPod. making phone calls to people i like. pinterest. 

(six) what were you like in high school?

high school. high school. i don't really know what i was "like". i was in most of the honors classes/ap courses that i could take and got good grades. i was in national honor society (a big fat joke), environmental club (i got to save sea turtles in mexico), bpa (short lived), and bear buddies (mentor to elementary kids). my high school was pretty small and for the most part, clique free so i didn't really have one solid "group" of friends. i was more of a floater with close friends here and there. i consider myself to have been pretty shy in high school, minus senior year, and that's the one thing i wish i could have changed about my experience there. there are so many people now i wish i would have tried to get to know better or earlier! but for the most part, i was the wall flower that studied hard, had an average amount of friends, played soccer, involved in club activities, and blended in pretty well.

(seven) what is your favorite kind of ice cream?

cake batter and anything with cookie dough or brownie bits.

(eight) what's your best high school memory?

my best high school memory without a doubt was going to mexico to save sea turtles. it was just an extraordinary trip camping on a beach for a week with a small group of students that i can't really sum up in words. however, if we're talking specific instances... i think one of the best moments in high school ever was the time i got locked on the secret fourth floor. i was a ta for my english teacher and one day was given the task of running up to the hidden fourth floor where the special education offices were. i figured out how to get there, but when i reached the room, i realized that no one was there and it was pitch dark. as i went back down the stairs in a special little secret dark creepy stairwell, i realized that the doors locked from the outside. i didn't have my phone with me and proceeded to sit there to wait for someone to rescue me. after twenty minutes, one of my good friends who was also a ta showed up and being so excited that someone found me... i forgot to make sure the door stayed open so that when she walked into the stairwell, it closed behind her. so we were both trapped together for at least an hour. it was kind of awesome. and i didn't get in trouble. 

(nine) what's your worst high school memory?

we're going to have to dive into the world of tmi's for this story, but i think it's well worth it. being a female, i once got my monthly blessing in the middle of my french class. i went to the bathroom and due to its oh so perfect timing, i had no other option except for needing to go home and change, promptly. i called my dad from the bathroom and told him to please excuse me from school for the next hour so i can walk home and change because i'm having serious womanhood issues and he said he would, no questions asked. so i awkwardly squirmed all the way back to french down the hallway hoping there was no one behind me and by the time i got back, my teacher (who is awesome) runs to me and says that she covered for me, but that i needed to go to the principal's office and the secretary was very angry with me. ummm. i explained to her what was up, which she understood perfectly, but still went to the principal's office. once there, i waited for our ever so welcoming principle named "bob", just "bob", squirming in my chair. he walked in with my secretary and the assistant principal as well. ridiculous? a lot. the secretary told bob that my dad had called and said that he'd gotten a call from his daughter to be excused. in moscow high school world, this is a huge no-no. if you want to be excused from school during school, you absolutely have to go to the secretary's office and call your parent using her phone standing in front of her to listen in on your conversation. there was no way i was going to explain in front of her to my dad that i was having womanhood issues and i knew if i used a "sick" excuse my dad would probably think i was lying, so i had to call from the bathroom. so, the secretary was really digging into me, pissed off as i'd ever seen her, while i'm literally fuming in my chair listening to all of this. finally, bob steps in and says, "maggie, what were you doing in the bathroom?" in which i decided to completely forget about the little censorship device in my head that separates what's appropriate to say from my thoughts, and said loudly without yelling, "I GOT MY PERIOD AND I'M LEAKING AND I NEED TO GO HOME TO CHANGE OUT OF MY UNDERPANTS!" okay, i might have screeched a little. but it was really horrible and he shut up promptly and i think it was the only time i ever saw bob silent and i ended up staying home all day. 

(ten) do you want to have kids? if so, what would you name them?

YES. YES. YES. i love babies. and children. i love everything about the sticky little adorable beasts. my roommates and i all joke about how weird my children are going to be and i'm pretty set on "xavier dennis" "zeus-bob-frank" and "audrey faye". two boys and a girl. i'd probably prefer two girls and a boy, but i can't think of another awesome girl name. not yet.

(eleven) how is college?

COLLEGE! college is college. i think it was a bit of a rude awakening to get to college and realized how much work it was going to be. not the school part (although that was a challenge) but the adjustment and making friends and being independent and being without my family. i mean, i did it all and i did it all pretty well, but none of it was exactly handed to me. i was so excited to get to college but i didn't realize just how not easy it was going to be to find good friends and find a niche. it's worthwhile and exciting to start over and build a life for yourself, but college has a way of making you feel lonely, exhausted, and worthless at times. in my experience. but it is awesome to feel like everything you get out of college is because of the work you put into it. and i put a lot of work into it. and now it's wonderful and amazing.

(twelve) are you a crier?

yes and no. i don't cry in front of people. and when i do cry, it seems like it happens all at once. all of the sudden, i'll cry about every sad thing that's happened in the past month or more. however, i do kind of enjoy crying because once it's out, it feels really good to be done with it. i think it's kind of therapeutic. 

(thirteen) what's the best good thing to happen to you?

yikes! getting a scholarship? moving out? LEAVING MY HOME TOWN? 

those three things are note worthy. definitely. and my parents would probably agree with all three as my greatest accomplishments.

however, if you're asking me, and you are, the best good thing to happen to me was getting picked by taylor swift to meet her after her concert. best night of my entire life. i kind of (kind of a lot, actually) worship her. it. was. the. most. amazing. experience. ever. i think for me it was one of the most inspiring experiences in my entire life. call me stupid, i can handle that. but standing in front of someone who literally made their every dream come true for themselves was amazing. it radiated from her. she was so completely thankful for every kind word i said and i never, ever thought i'd get a chance to meet my idol. you can't stand in the audience of her shows and not feel like there is anything else she should be doing with her life. you feel like it's what she is honestly born to do. i was in complete and utter awe of that alone.