I met Jacob for breakfast in the campus dining hall. He is from Hobbs, N.M. and a freshman in college. He’s not entirely sure what I wanted to meet him for. He just knows that I want to interview him for an article on Her Campus. I ask him the first question, “Who are you?”, he stays silent until he says “um I don’t know.” After some contemplation he explains that he doesn’t really feel that he fits in anywhere. “I’m not good at staying in one place.” he says. He prefers to roam around and just do whatever feels right to him. He’s always with a different set of friends doing something he’s never done before or going somewhere he’s never been. Recently he has been taking every single one of his friends to Scenic Drive in El Paso, which has now become one of his favorite places to spend his free time. This is one of the constant stops on his often late night or early morning drives as they typically happen at 1am. He tells me that he’s eager to go explore more if he’s ever given the time to do so. He wants to go everywhere and see everything there is to see.
“I’m different, but I think everyone’s different; that’s not too different for being different.” he says as he explains how he fits into the campus environment. His tastes are constantly evolving and he does what he wants. He is constantly in the campus practice rooms that are part of the music building just playing piano for hours on end. He is also in the campus band drumline (something which he is very passionate about) and can be seen playing his guitar outside from time to time. Music is probably one of his biggest passions and he seems to incorporate it into everything that he does, even his homework (he explained how the binary system helps his drumming). His playlist is consistently getting bigger by the hour as he explores new musicians and music genres that spark his interest. His tastes vary from heavy metal to bluegrass to rap. Concerts are his haven and instruments are his creative outlet of choice.
Besides music, he likes to longboard (down steep hills in particular) and code. “I’ve been trying to make this program that insults the user.” he says enthusiastically. This program would ask for your name and age and then proceedingly tell you that it “don’t give a f*ck.” He also really loves math. He can solve problems that make a lot of us squirm in our seats, so he’s obviously really smart too.
As the new semester began, he’s been trying to improve his life in all capacities. He’s been spending up 7 hours in the library at a time studying, he’s been working out and watching what he eats. He says that he just wants to be a better person.
Jacob likes whatever he wants to like without shame and goes wherever the wind takes him. He’s talented and that’s thanks to all of the hard work and determination that he pours into every new project or task. He has plenty of friends (some of them stopped by to say hello during the interview before walking off apologetically) and he’s passionate about whatever he does. “We’re all trying to find our passions,” he said, “and I think I found mine, and I like watching people find theirs.”
Photo Credit: Alexis Corbello
By: Nicole Liverett