Campus Cutie: Will Reese ’14

Name: Will Reese

Age: 22

Graduation Year: 2014

Hometown: Dayton, OH

Major: English

Minor: None

Relationship Status: Single

Activities: FreeWord, Co-Editor of Libertas

Upon volunteering to interview Will for this week’s Campus Cutie, I did what any self-respecting collegiette would do: I stalked him on all forms of social media. And let me tell you, Will, Her Campus Davidson’s first LGBTQIA Cutie, has a great Twitter feed, probably since he’s always ready to laugh at his own jokes…even though when I asked him to tell me a joke, he replied simply with “No. It doesn’t work like that.” Not only does Will have a sense of humor and a fantastic smile, but he also writes poetry, and is ready to go wherever his life takes him. So without further ado, meet Will Reese.

Top Played Songs on iTunes: “My top played songs are no reflection on my taste in music, but there are a couple songs that I just think are funny or whatever: ‘Tiptoe through the Tulips’ by Tiny Tim, ‘O Fortuna’ from Carmina Burana, and ‘Picture’ by Sheryl Crow featuring Kid Rock.”

Signature Drink: “Whiskey. Or no, Fruit Punch Four Loko.”

Favorite Emoji: “Probably the girl that goes like this,” Will flips his hand over to the side, “since it works for a lot of things, like saying ‘whatever.’ I like letting the other person figure out what it means.”

After Graduation: “I think I’m going to move to San Francisco, but I don’t really have any other plans. I’ve always wanted to write for SNL or some comedy show and that’s kind of my dream job, but in San Francisco I’m looking to do anything. I just really want to be in that city and hang out with friends. I could be working in a restaurant or something and I would be fine with that.”

What he would do with a million dollars: “I would probably seek a financial advisor who could help me invest it in smart things, and I would also pay off my student loans and probably set up some kind of charity or foundation. I’m a minimalist, so money is not super important to me. I would buy food. I love food.”

Favorite foods: “I like everything. I like pho a lot; it’s like a Vietnamese dish. But I like all food. Not very picky.”

If he could travel, all expenses paid, to one place and live there for a year: “Buenos Arias. I studied abroad in Argentina, where I lived in Mendoza for about four months, and I lived in Buenos Arias for five months. It’s an expensive city, so if I could get it all paid for, that would be where I would go.”

Favorite Place on Campus: “It’s gotta be my stoop. The stoop to my apartment. Yeah, I spend a lot of time there. People heckle me sometimes. They’re like ‘stoop kid, on his stoop.’ I live in Ryburn, which is unfortunately right next to laundry so a lot of people walk by and see me sitting on the stoop just staring off into space.”

What he looks for in a partner: “Definitely someone who can spark an exciting conversation on Tinder. I’m just kidding. Unfortunately, I tend to go for people who are irreverent and self-absorbed. Whose talent eclipses their insecurities, I guess. I tend to go for artistic people—musicians, artists.”

An ideal date: “Maybe go to dinner and then a concert or something. I didn’t realize that dates were still a thing and I’ve recently been told that people still go on dates so I need to get on that.”

Will on poetry and FreeWord: “Well for FreeWord, I go up there, and there’s the expectation that people are doing spoken word but I just kind of, like, do what ever I feel. If you give me a mic, it’s going to get weird. That doesn’t tend to be my actual poetry. I’m writing an actual collection of poetry right now for my thesis. Yeah, I love it. Freshman year here I started doing FreeWord. One of my friends was in it and she talked me into giving it a go. And I just started writing.”

And as for his inclusion movement from last year: “I did this Inchworm poem. It was kind of funny—I had prepared this piece for free word after this whole trustee bylaw decision was reached slash not reached. They decided not even to vote on it since there wasn’t sufficient support that changes needed to be made, but the student body was pretty united in revamping the bylaws. So I wrote this poem as other people were performing. I was kind of scribbling it down on paper and it ended up going pretty well. And then some of the faculty members took a line from it and made buttons and stickers and stuff and wore those to graduation so that was cool. I mean, my poetry doesn’t tend to be super political, but FreeWord is a nice platform to talk about things that people don’t want to talk about or don’t have the resources to bring attention to the issue.”

You can find Will on Twitter @WillReese2014, or be sure to check out a FreeWord performance.

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