jocelyn
may 16 2017
You can’t be pretty and kind, I used to think. That’s why Jocelyn’s friendship surprised me, at first.
Jocelyn lived three doors down from me in our first-year college dorm. On the very first night, my roommate and I walked into her open room to find her very extensive collection of nail polish sprawled out on her bed. I gawked at it. “I figured this would help me make friends,” she had joked. Perhaps it had been true, though. Both me and my roommate grew to call Jocelyn one of our closest friends that year. She painted my roommate’s nails that night. Then, in our pyjamas, we chatted over tea. I made conversation with Jocelyn’s roommate about her BBC Sherlock posters. It was a fantastic start to my university experience.
I grew to admire Jocelyn, in a way — her independence, tenacity, intelligence and sincerity. She has a deep sense of who she is and who she wants to be. As I told everyone and anyone when describing her: “She has her shit together.” No one balances school, extra curricular, and fun as well as she does. I interview her in a bookstore. I ask her about who she draws inspiration from, where she’d go to have an adventure, and what success means to her.
foreword
What’s your definition of a good time?
Spending a day with… all the people you enjoy spending time with, (*chuckles*), obviously! Like, usually involves food for me. Going to a restaurant, eating some good food. I don’t mind what we do […] but if we’ve had a good time, like, we know we’ve had a good time. Everyone’s just happy at the end of the night.
Where would you go to have an adventure?
I would want to travel to as many places that I haven’t been, in as much time as I have. I’d probably want to go… like, I want to hit China, Australia, South Africa, more Northern European countries, and I also really want to do South America.
So, everywhere.
Yeah, everywhere. Okay if I had to pick one, I’d want to do a tour of South America with my friends.
What did you want to be as a kid?
I wanted to be a singer, like a pop star — partly because of Hannah Montana and also because I just really liked to sing and I was always annoying my brother with my singing. I also wanted to be a teacher for a bit too.
You would be a good teacher.
(*LAUGHS*) No, I wouldn’t!
‘Cause you’re like composed and stuff. But you don’t like kids.
Nah, I don’t.
Who is someone you admire and why?
I admire Emma Watson because I think she’s done a really good job of spreading awareness for an issue that she’s passionate about which is something I really wanna do with my life, as well. I really respect that.
What is success to you?
To me, success is being happy and satisfied with where you’ve made it in life and being able to do all the things you need or want to do. So, being comfortable in your life while also being able to help others and contribute to the world in a positive way.
