First Meetings

Elaina Rusk
Leilani Michel
English 1001-109
15 October 2007

First Meeting

For this paper I had a long list of people that I could interview such as people from a lawyer to a sugar cane farmer and luckily the first person I chose was more than happy to let me interview her for my English 1001 paper. This time around I decided to talk to her in person rather than have an online interview. The day of this interview was my first time ever meeting Sarah Schexnayder, which could be considered shocking since she is my sister’s room mate and co-worker. I will say that I was insanely nervous to meet her.
I had only talked to her on the phone once and that was to set up meeting somewhere so I could talk to het. We both decided to meet at Raising Cane’s and I could just interview her over lunch. When I arrived Sarah was sitting in the booth comfortably in what appeared to be pajamas with messy hair waiting to be called to receive her order. I sat down across from her and introduced myself. We talked about ourselves for the first few minutes and I was surprised to find out that we are related by marriage.
Sarah was born and raised in the small, on the river town of Vacherie Louisiana and has an older brother Michael and a younger sister Alex. She claims that she is a big family person. “Every Sunday my ENTIRE family gets together and we have this big dinner. I never miss it” She was home schooled during her elementary and middle school years but her parents decided to make her attended St. James High School where she surprisingly graduated in the top five in her class. When I asked her why she decided to attend LSU, she told me, “Football and it is one of the best places in the WORLD!” We laughed and she said that she was obliviously joking and the real reason is because of TOPS, all of her family had gone to college at LSU and because she could get an excellent higher education and still stay close to her home. Sarah started out at LSU wanting to be a Biology and Pharmacy major but quickly changed it when she realized how much she hated Biology. By sophomore year she had a solid grasp on what she wanted her to be major who was and still is Kinesiology.
“I really like science but I hate Biology so much. I though about what I could do that was more hands on as a career, help me get into medical school and help me graduate sooner and then it came to me, so eventually I picked Kinesiology.” She told me that ever since she was five years old she dreamed that she wanted to be a doctor or something in the medical field and that her dream was only made bigger when her Aunt Nettie married Dr. Chris Trevino. When Sarah is not in one of her many classes or studying most of the time is devoted to her job at LSU Health Center and Sciences Department. She works as a student worker in the Legal Department; “I do pretty basic work” she says, “I file, answer phones and run errands for the attorneys and even sometimes transfer audio court records into written ones.” She hopes that her job will help her get into a good medical school if not then her volunteer experience at Earl K. Long hospital will. “I did a lot of different things when I volunteered there. Took vitals for the nurses, changed beds, watched some surgeries, and did paper work.” I asked her when the craziest time to work was was and she told me that right after hurricane Katrina was. “All the patients and even the prisoners that were suppose to go to Charity Hospital had to be shipped to Earl K. Long.” Sarah told me about her Katrina experience; she said that her family did decide to ride out the storm and the most damage her home in Vacherie sustained was a down tree and the power was out for a week at the most. “The one thing I hated the most about after the hurricane was the traffic! The volume of people in Baton Rouge got to be too much. It got to be so bad that if I wanted to go somewhere, it had to be something important.”
I asked her what her feelings were about Katrina now that it is two years later and she said that all she wants people to do is shut up about it and that she it totally sick of it. “I mean, I understand that it’s a big deal and all and we should remember it but let’s not talk about it twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.”
Sarah says her plans for her future are still unclear but she knows she wants to go to medical school. “I will go where ever life takes me in the medical field, as weird as that sounds,” she said laughing a bit, “If it’s in Baton Rouge or Chicago or San Diego or even a different continent then that’s where I’ll go. So basically where ever I can have the best life.” She told me that when she isn’t working or doing school related stuff she spends most of her time having fun doing various things. She admits that even though she finds it a tad bit embarrassing, she has jumped on the band wagon and is currently obsessed with the videogame Guitar Hero II. “Its kinda funny actually,” she said smiling, “I get so into it and I get made fun of by everyone for it, my boyfriend especially likes to pick on me for it. I’m actually up to the hard level so I think I am doing pretty well with it.”
She also likes to cook as much as possible; anytime she gets the chance she’ll cook; she is also the same way with cleaning and as confessed to being a total clean freak and some of her friends say that it is so bad that she just walks around with a can of Lysol cleaner and clean everything and anything.. “I very much like to read about science and anatomy, call me strange but it is the truth. I guess I am really into my major” she said chuckling some.
We finished our food and decided to go back to my sister and her’s apartment and talk some more. When both of us arrived at the apartment, Sarah immediately challenged me to a game of Guitar Hero and let’s just say he kicks butt. The last thing I asked her is if she had any advice at all to share with me. She just laughed hard and said, “You really don’t want to ask me that, I don’t give good advice.” She then said she was joking and told me to never take the easy way out because the hard way will get you farther and to follow my dreams to the fullest because it my life and I should do with it what I want. I have to say, I agree with her whole heartedly.