What's Your Secret Sauce?

1. My human capital
1. The first thing I think of under this list is my ability to constantly be multitasking. A lot of my friends can be busy, but if they try focusing on too much at one time, then they have a hard time and I’ve found that I function pretty well while nonstop multitasking. I like staying busy, so it kind of just ends up happening naturally. 
2. My networking skills. One of the most positive aspects of my life is the large net of friends that I have all over the country and work. As a kid I moved a lot and I still travel very frequently, so my friends come from all different backgrounds and places. I think this is part of what makes me the way I am though is because I do have so many different types of friends who are all loving and supportive so I’m able to learn about all different types of people and see the world differently than if just looking at it through my own personal view or experiences. 
3. I’m pretty crafty. In the conventional sense and the funny sense for this one. I enjoy all arts and craft projects, and this has taught me about the importance of seeing things for what it’s made up of. For example, it’s pretty obvious that a painting is cool, but I can look at a specific tiny bottle of paint and see how important that’s going to be in the long run for the finished product. 
4. Humor. I’m pretty sure most people genuinely enjoy laughing and to be entertained, but the part I like almost more than that is the actual making people laugh. For me, if I am able to better someone’s day and bring just a little bit of extra light to it, I feel better about myself knowing that I could make a difference because sometimes it’s the smallest things that make the biggest impacts. 
5. My curiosity. Curiosity overarches into pretty much every aspect of my life and while the phrase “curiosity killed the cat” has been true a couple of times with me, most of the time it’s led to great new skills or discoveries. For example, it’s led to me not being afraid to rope swing across a giant river or making friends over something as simple as asking what their tattoos mean. I think a lot of people have questions that pop up throughout the day, ad they simply just ignore them and don’t say anything. I try not to be that was, and looking back for this assignment I realize just how much I actually question things and how my curiosity can lead me into radically different ways of thinking and acting sometimes. 
2. The interviews:
1. Tiffany- The thing I found the funniest and also most endearing about this interview was her mentions of “how I live life through movie quotes.” After hearing this interview, I realize that I really do make nonstop movie quotes and I’m glad to know that I can be entertaining and she can always count on me for that.
2. Alicia- I know Alicia from a photography class, so it kind of made sense here that she talked about my creativity. Even though, I still appreciate her nod to my willingness to always learn a new trick with the camera or printing process.
3. Jewelia- This is a friend I have that’s a few years younger than I am, so my relationship with her has always been a lot of me being supportive and trying to sort of mentor her through things. That’s why it was especially sweet to hear her say that I’m one of the most supportive people she knows and dedicated to helping those I care about. I’ve had some great friends in my life, so I just try and be as good of one as the new I have. 
4. Montana- I know Montana from art classes as well so she mentions my creativity and ability to do several things at once, but she also said that I make the people around me feel greatly at ease. The idea that I can just chat with people and bring them comfort is something I’m taking as an accomplishment because I do enjoy being so social with a lot of different people. 
5. Belle- As one of my longest friends, I’d say Belle knows me just about as good as anybody and I 100% consider her family. She talked a lot about my having “crazy ideas,” but not necessarily in a bad way. These ideas include feeding a hedgehog in middle school peanut butter pretzels because, hey why not, and it turned into something we’ll always fondly remember. Another thing she mentioned was my love of travel and t always try and see the world as what it can be instead of exactly what’s right in front of me, so I’m going to say that one goes with creativity too. 
3. Final Reflections- In a lot of these interviews my friends talked about me being fun-loving and creatively adventurous. I’d have to agree with this because I think I’m more on the “free spirit” end of the spectrum, so it’s also good to know that my friends think of me seriously too. Especially my friend Jewelia that I sort of mentor, just her acknowledgment of our relationship made me feel like I am actually making a difference in the peoples’ lives that I care about. I didn’t really talk so much about school and typical book smarts in my original assessment of myself, but that did come up a little in the interview section. I think I’m pretty real about the kind of person I am alone and the person I am with other people around, and that was something that I was glad to see reflected in these interviews.