When I give campus tours, I'm always asked why I chose Carleton, especially coming from so far away (California). My answer is never quite the same; there's no one main reason, it was a lot of little positive experiences that led me to Carleton. Sometimes I tell people I have family in Minnesota, sometimes I attribute it to an alumni interview in San Francisco, sometimes I give credit to my twin sister who initially discovered Carleton, and goes here too. Often I mention my visit during accepted students days, when my track coach had breakfast with me, my mom and sister and showed us around, and the incredibly friendly, welcoming students here. In reality it may have also had to do with which other schools accepted, waitlisted, or rejected me, and that I would get to compete in track here. All I know is that I could not be happier with my choice to attend Carleton, and that it was absolutely the best choice I ever made.

I'm not going to lie, Carleton is hard. The academics are challenging, and I lead an incredibly busy life here, often not getting quite as much sleep as I would like, though always enough to get by; I have only ever pulled one all nighter coming into my senior year. I keep myself incredibly busy, because I want to do more than is possible. I have had a radio show every term I've been on campus, and I give campus tours, which I absolutely love doing. I'm also involved in Kids for Conservation, where I help teach conservation an hour a week at Sibley Elementary School. I've been involved in Ebony II, a student run/choreographed dance group, where people like me (ie people who can't dance) are perfectly welcome to join. Outside of clubs and volunteering, I work as a student manager in the dining halls and help out in the Psychology department's Tamarin monkey colony, feeding them and cleaning cages. Even though I do an awful lot of different things, it all comes down to prioritizing and balancing my schedule so that I can still fit everything in and still get sleep and have time to spend with friends, which I think I do successfully, although I would be lost without my Lagniappe (the student planner).

My most significant experience here is track and field. I consider myself a huge track nerd; I absolutely love being a part of the team, and competing. I've had the luck to learn many new events since I got here, so I could compete in the pentathlon and heptathlon. My absolute favorite event is the triple jump-I'm always the happiest when I'm on the runway. As a result, I spend a significant amount of my time at the track, doing skill work, running workouts, and getting to know the team. My non-track friends think I'm crazy, but there's nothing like running repeat 200s to improve a bad day. Running track can be a great stress reliever, where I can focus my energy on a specific goal, and can leave whatever else might be going on in my life at the door. More than that though, it's just a lot of fun, which I think is ultimately the most important part of being on any team. If I wasn't having fun, I probably wouldn't still be running, jumping, and throwing.