Q: Since many of your rising juniors from Ap Lang are applying to college or figuring out their future path, did you ever have a moment when you realized “hey, I wanna be an english teacher”?

A: Somewhere between first and second grade I remember being like “oh, I love english, I love reading, I love writing” [ . . . ] I was like I love this, so between then and by the next year I knew I wanted to be a teacher because of all the great teachers I had that inspired me.

Q: If you don’t mind me asking, what was the reasoning behind moving to Virginia?

A: Yeah sure. So it was kind of multilayered. Texas was becoming a lot more hostile towards teachers, and just education in general. For instance the book bans, and even talk of, arming teachers. It created a really hostile environment and it wasn’t fostering great relationships with the kids. In regards to the parents, within my last year there, it  became a lot more aggressive, where they wouldn’t reach out or talk to me anymore, they would just go directly to the principal. I had the kids’ best interests at heart, but there were things like that on the professional level. 

The other side was that Austin was getting hotter and wetter due to climate change, and the grid wasn’t being kept up with during that huge snow storm in february. So I didn’t have power for three days, it was freezing cold temperatures, I was running low on food, and at one point the water went out 

I had narrowed it down to two states, either Colorado or Virginia. Both for the weather and being able to teach as I had mentioned, and so I had already visited Colorado. So I took a trip with my mom to Northern Virginia to kind of check it out. The weather was beautiful, and everyone was so friendly, and I just fell in love with it.

Q:Is there one thing you particularly miss about texas

A: Oh yeah, the food, particularly Tex Mex and Barbecue, I’ve looked all over and it’s just  not the same

Q: Do you have any current hyperfixations?

A: I’m an english major, so it might be a little cliche, but books. I won’t lie, I buy books probably more than I read them. I have two stories just filled with books

Q: What are you reading right now? 

A: So much, I’m just finishing up A Group Forest, and nonfiction I’m reading The Women We Bury, The Women We Burned, which is a memoir from a woman who experienced domestic violence and then she went and reported on it as a journalist. 

Q: If you had one book you could recommend right now, what would it be?

A: I would say Kindred Spirit by Octavia Butler, which is an American writer, so she wrote in the later 20th century, mid to late 20th century, but it is fantastic. It’s kind of a mix between historical fiction and science fiction. So it’s got concepts like time travel in it, but also very relevant social issues.I would highly recommend