Q: What makes you happy?

Shayla Parker: I’d say traveling makes me happy. I don’t think I’ve ever been a materialistic person and I’ve always valued experiences more than anything and traveling is one of the biggest experiences you can have. I’m actually attempting to do a whole Europe trip over the summer because I think traveling is how you get to meet people and learn new cultures and the backgrounds of different people. I think that the more people you know, and the more stories and experiences you hear, the better understanding of humanity, in general, you’ll have. You obviously can’t meet everyone but meeting people from different backgrounds really opens your mind to the idea that we’re all just people, and we’re all going after the same things, which I think is happiness. I think traveling gives me that freedom to meet people and experience things and it’s just fun to be out in the world. It’s really easy to get stuck in the same 100-mile radius that you’re in every day. Travelling is the best way to really shake up what you’re doing and heighten your senses of what’s around you, and it’s really easy to ignore the world when you’re seeing the same things all the time.

Hunter Burgon: One of the things that I think makes me happy is music. Music has been a big part of my life ever since I was little, I started playing the piano when I was about 5 years old, and ever since then, I knew I liked music. In middle school, I joined the band at Wakefield, and ever since high school I’ve had either band or chorus as one of my electives. One of the reasons I really like music is because it’s comforting for me, if I ever feel stressed or anxious about anything, I can put earbuds in and listen to some music for a bit. I also think music is one of the things people can connect with a lot. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, music is one of the things everyone has heard, and that’s why it makes me happy.