In primary school, slam books popular among the young girls – passing around these notebooks during recess to answer questions and compare responses. I have only had good experiences with this activity, considering all the personal details you could learn about yourself and others. These notebooks can be valuable especially when the questions are positively driven and personality based, and can have the same effect of a scrapbook when it is discovered years in the future – something that holds memories and can be overall humorous.
I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Her Campus writer, Sarah Patriarca. Despite now being in university, as an icebreaker, I started by asking her to answer a Slam Book questionnaire that I put together (each question was inspired by my older slam books from my childhood and relevant Internet crazes). Afterwards, we discussed her answers and shared some secrets, and I was able to know Sarah for the fun, outgoing and honest person she is.
Sarah shared that she often misspells “neither.” To the editors reading this, this question is for you! I would hope that it is in your best interest to know the word you should be looking for in her work. Of course, I am sure that Sarah is not alone in this world in having to remind herself: “I before ‘e’ except after ‘c’.” Thankfully though, this isn’t something she has to think about as often as before because of the invention (I really mean blessing) of autocorrect.
Sarah answers “yes” to being able to name all of Santa’s reindeers, so to confirm for our readers, I asked her on the spot to name all of them. Let me report that she missed two, but I was still impressed that she was able to recall most of our beloved reindeers. After, however, “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” was stuck in her head disturbing her from thinking of her true theme song, Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life,” and attesting to her great taste in music.
Sarah shared her not so secret talent of dancing, tapping in particular. I say “not so” because it seems that only her recent friends would be uninformed of her gift. Calling all of her university friends: it’s time to start asking her for these dance videos. The cat is now out of the bag. Sorry Sarah, but I think these talents are better shared than kept in secret!
I asked Sarah what her favourite dish was remembering Demi Lovato’s famous response of a mug. In a way, this was a trick question, but luckily Sarah knew that I was asking about food. She loves lasagna, but will settle for any pasta in general. She explains that this is just her staying true to her Italian roots.
She is excited about the announcement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markles engagement. She is especially interested in Markle being the first biracial person to be part of the Royal Family. Sarah also expressed how it would be difficult for her to have a relationship with a prince, considering she would have trouble separating his status with his true self. That being said, her boyfriend has nothing to worry about. Fortunately, Sarah won’t be flying to England to stop the wedding.
In the slam book entry, Sarah was stuck on how to respond to the very last question. We talked about this more in depth, as it was a “heavier” question that she really was not expecting. What I gathered from our chat was a very wholesome response: Sarah would like to leave her kindness as a legacy. She would like to use her life as an example because she has made an effort to treat people equally with respect despite their race, religion or all other factors that people maybe judged for. Her final words would be to encourage others to live with this reminder of kindness, but to also pursue their dreams and live in the moment.
This one on one has been a great experience in getting to know Sarah. We found to have a lot in common beyond the pages of this slam book entry, much of which I can’t share because well… they are secrets. What I can say, however, is that I am glad to have made a new friend.