By Jeffrey Laux
Former Brantley Banner reporter Thayla Samuels has transferred her talents to The Blue and White newspaper for the second half of the school year. Thayla is “excited” about the amount of potential she is capable of in her writing skills and hopes to display only her best for this upcoming newspaper.
When you were little, what did you want to be when growing up?
I wanted to be a biochemist because I always wanted to do something with the scientific background, while I also wanted to be able to apply it to human beings.
Why didn’t you pursue it to this day?
It takes a lot of schooling and pressure, that’s why I ultimately decided to not do that because I would be like hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt.
What are you thinking about doing now?
I’m actually planning on doing something that’s completely opposite from that, which is writing.
If you have the option of adopting a baby fox or baby koala, which one you choose and why?
Um, actually a funny story is that my dog is actually named Fox because he looks exactly like a Red Fox. And so I guess for that reason I would adopt a Fox, because I guess they’re just more energized and you have to give them more attention. Koala bears are just so chill, you can almost just leave them by themselves and just let them be themselves. But with a Fox, you actually do have to train them.
Do you enjoy mythological stuff?
I mean it’s cool to read about that stuff because it’s like these people, they imagine this world and they imagined this whole type of philosophy. You imagine these explanations for all of these earthly occurrences that may not be completely accurate, but it’s still really interesting because they’re really thorough. So I guess it’s interesting to read about, but I don’t. I try not to get too involved in that stuff.
What do you hope to achieve by age 50?
Um, well I hope to have a career that I’ve invested in and then a family. I want to be completely comfortable with myself as a whole and just be the best me that I can be at that age.
What is one thing you’re going to have done or not done in your life?
I was actually just thinking about it this morning. I regret not skipping the number of grades that I could in elementary school, because I feel like I honestly could’ve just gone from elementary school straight to middle school if I really wanted to. But my parents aren’t as invested in my academics as I am, so I wasn’t able to do that. Then also just not being as involved in school as I could’ve been back then in all of the clubs and activities.
If you had to choose one thing that you’re most passionate about, what would it be and why?
I’m most passionate about the arts in general, because I feel like those really do shape civilization and society as a whole. It’s amazing that all of these people put their ideas into these works of art that appear to be fictional, but in reality, they’re thoroughly explaining their opinions on real-world problems, and a lot of people read that and that’s why it influences so many people.
If you could buy one materialistic thing and money wasn’t the issue, what would it be?
This is going to sound really cheesy, but a private jet would be perfect because I love to travel.
Where would you travel?
Everywhere, like all over Europe and all over Asia definitely. And then probably some little cities in the US. I’ve always wanted to check out Detroit, Chicago, and other major industrial cities like that.
Are you more afraid of death or not really living?
I’m more afraid of not really living cause I feel like when you occupy this time on earth without really doing anything significant, it’s kind of pointless. I would think it’s better to say that you died young, but you lived an adventurous life than to say that you like lived to be like a hundred years old, but you sat around doing nothing.