About me

So, I’m here at Illinois State University’s Preview program, and we are all in this big group talking about ourselves. We are all going around in a circle, taking turns explaining where we are from, what we like to do, favorite foods and more! Oh great, here goes my turn. “Hey!” I say with a nervous voice, “My name is Cynthia. I was born half-Chinese thanks to Mama and half- German thanks to Dad. I was born and raised about 20 minutes from Naperville, Illinois, and I moved to Naperville after 2nd grade. My house isn’t nearly as cool as Spongebob’s house. I’m a big fan of the colors black and purple. My favorite foods are cheeseburgers and dumplings- they are the best! Oh, and I love drawing, watching and reading anime, running, listening to music, and playing the piano. “Onomatopoeia” is the best word ever. I don’t know why I love the word, but it is just a fun word to say. I think that it’s awesome because it means a word that imitates a sound. For example, “moo” is the sound that a cow makes. The word “moo” is onomatopoeia. Seriously, the worst word ever is the word “legit”. I absolutely hate that word. Its way overused and reminds me of the feeling someone gets when you scratch fingernails on the chalkboard. Doesn’t that just make you want to cringe? Nothing beats the sound of my parents and my boyfriend when they aren’t yelling though. I just love listening to them and what they have to say.”


I’m getting a lot of smiles and my nervousness is wearing down, so I guess I’ll keep going. “I have big turn ons and turn off’s,” I say, “If you really want to see me excited, take me to an art museum or an anime convention, a place where people get together and watch different anime movies. Some people even dress up as anime characters, which is fun to see! I love watching other peoples’ artwork and anime. Something interesting about me is that I draw in my own signature style. If you were to see a piece of artwork, you would be able to tell if I drew it. My drawing style is mostly dark genre, and the body figures I draw are very tall and slender and don’t really follow the average shape of the body but they do look elegant and beautiful in their own way. If you want to turn me off, critique someone’s work while thinking that you are better than anyone else. Also, own up to what you do. A huge pet peeve of mine is when it’s obvious that someone took something of mine and won’t admit it. So, if you’re an arrogant know-it-all or a thief, you might want to stay at least 100 feet away from me. I think I say, “That’s adorable!” more than anything else in my vocabulary. I’m patient too! Once, I spent 45 minutes waiting in a line just to get the 4th Twilight book. I believe in ghosts, but if I get haunted by one, I’ll go Ghostbusters on it and zap that thing to the next world!”

The group begins to split into smaller groups. We are talking more about ourselves. “I have goals in life. Before God says, ‘Welcome! Come on in!’, I would like to graduate college, make it on my own and earn money, get a job in nursing or something related to the body, get married, and pay back my parents for everything they did for me. I am so thankful for my parents.” A few of the group members were mentioning what they were majoring in, so I added, “At this time, I’m majoring in nursing. I want to help people with their health. No offense to those who are business majors, but I would never want to be in that profession. I just think that it’s boring. I don’t know how I would help someone in that profession. Maybe I would be able to set up a business that donates stuff to those in need, but physically I’d just be sitting in a chair at business meetings. I would be helping indirectly, but I would rather be up-front-and-center helping someone in-person. If I did change majors, however, I would look forensics. You know the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation stuff? I think that it’s interesting.” One guy, named Kevin asks me what my favorite movies are and what type of music I like to listen to. I said with a ton of enthusiasm, “My favorite movie is Princess and the Frog! I’ve never seen any movies or shows that make me gag, including the Saw series and Dirty Jobs. I guess that’s what makes me a good candidate for nursing, since they deal with blood and stuff. I love pretty much any techno band, Metallica, and Safety Suit. Hopefully I will be able to go and see one of their concerts-that would be so cool!”

So, the small groups are finally over and the Preview guide tells us that we are going on a tour of the dorms. I get up and walk with the group, when Kevin asks me, “Have you gone to anywhere cool?” I didn’t need a second to think, I simply replied, “The best life experience I’ve had was going to China over the summer of 2009. I stayed in Beijing the first week, went up in the mountains the second week to see the minorities of the area and learn how they live, and then we went to southern China to see my grandparents, who live in Shen yang, which is a really nice beach-area. It was a local reserve area with trees taken down from the mountains, which I thought was awesome. Overall, it was about three weeks long. There was one town that we went to that was very old. There was a conflict that the town was going to be torn down for tourism. They only had enough money to tear half of the town down, but luckily they kept half of it up because you get to see all of the old art and architecture, for example, the wooden doors with carvings. I have a love for art, so seeing ancient art and modern art at the same time was simply mind-blowing!” Kevin’s mouth dropped. “That’s so cool!” he said.

So when the dorm tours were over, the Preview guide asked us “If you could be any animal/creature/character, what would you be and why?” I think that I would want to be an assassin because they have a good reputation for being the definition of awesome. She also is asking what we would bring with us if we were on a stranded island. I’m thinking to myself, “If I were stranded on an island, I would like to have an IPod, my boyfriend, and food, but I guess that if my boyfriend were with me it would not be a deserted island. I would be happy if I had those things though. I would also be happy if I had a million dollars, but honestly, what are the odds of that happening? Someone once told me that you have a better chance of getting hit by lightening while biking to the gas station to buy your lottery ticket than actually winning it. I don’t like the idea of lightening hitting my head and zapping me to death, so hypothetically, if I had a million dollars, I would find a way to get off of that stupid island. Actually, I’d probably make a boat out of the money and get the heck out of there. Well, one can imagine.” I don’t think that I’m going to tell her that though. She’ll probably think I’m nuts!

So the Preview even is over and soon I’ll be in college and just trying to get through all the classes. But throughout my four, or more, years here, I hope to make a lot of friends. I believe that everyone needs to find his/her niche, and then they will be happy with where they are at. I’ve found some pretty good friends, like Kevin, and I’m working on finding my niche. Once I do, these next few years will be awesome!