I am constantly inspired and empowered by the strong women surrounding me in my life. I got the idea to feature them and show off their passions and dreams. I want to show how complex and unique each of us are in our own way.
Here is an interview with my friend, Abbey.
Tell us a little bit about yourself:
HelloooOOOooo, I’m Abbey! I’m a 20 year old military brat who grew up in Japan. I like sleeping, watching movies, and makeup. I’m currently a junior at UCLA, adjusting to quarantine life.
What are you studying in college?
I’m a linguistics major!
Why did you choose to study this?
Language is a fascinating subject, it’s one of the most easily overlooked and intricate parts of our everyday lives. I’m not much of a math person, and as much as I enjoy writing, a whole course of it would drive me insane. Linguistics provides me a nice in-between that’s full of new things to learn.
What is your dream job/position?
Depends on what you mean by dream job. In a perfect world I wouldn’t want a job, I’d like to lounge around in my house and paint and chill out all day all the time. But, that’s pretty unrealistic for me. My ideal position for a stable, by-the-book life would be some sort of researcher or editor while also pursuing something in the realm of comic books.
What is your goal in pursuing this?
My goal is to build a life for myself that I’m happy about, and that makes me happy. I want the (financial) freedom to live content with what I have. I want to learn, and preserve my love of learning, and I want to feel fulfilled. You learn a lot about people from the way they speak, write, where they learned it from. I want to understand others as they are.
What makes you passionate about it?
I used to just love languages, but I never spent enough time on one to achieve full fluency. I love how words, or any form of communication really, paint a picture in your mind. Everything comes together in language to form a full picture, the arrangement of the words, their meaning, where the words come from and their past forms. Language is as complex as every individual person. I enjoy the mix between a subject that has BOTH definite and abstract answers to explore, not mostly one or the other.
What do you see your future looking like? (Job, family, life)
I try not to spend too much time on “future.” Far future at least, I prefer to live my life as it is now and plan the steps as I go along. If you were to ask me right now I’d say, I want a house, and while I’d like it to be in LA so SoCal in general, I’m starting to open up to more ideas. I want to keep learning, I want to draw, I want to travel. I want to be married, I want to have children. I want a flexible job that makes just enough money for me to not have to worry about money at every turn. These ideas are subject to change, I’m open to working with whatever the universe offers me.
Are you doing anything currently towards these dreams?
I go to school, I do my work. My field is relatively small, I’m not in a place of major networking opportunity yet. I study other languages on my own. What I’ve mostly been doing is making connections in related but different areas, computer science, anthropology. I like having a supplementary arsenal of resources that help keep me and my studies rounded.
What is your dream life? If you could have anything in the world and have all your dreams come true with no problems, what would your life look like?
My dream life would be to do nothing at all. To pursue only passion and not money would be what makes me happiest. I don’t exactly keep my art secret, but I don’t talk about it too often or show it to people. That’s because it’s for me, and it feels good to do. Trying to force art to become my way of making a living has never really panned out. Not right now, anyway. I’d also like to open a restaurant, which is a fairly new dream of mine. I love cooking, it’s something I never get tired of and is fun to pursue. So my dream consists of art, food, and no true responsibility.
Why don’t you pursue this dream life?
My dream life is really something I can pursue anytime I want to. I’m not saying it can only be a dream and will never happen, but right now it’s more opportunistic for me to go to school. My parents are always there for me no matter what I end up doing, even if they’re not always big fans of it. But, I’ve never wanted to put more difficulties on them than they already have with me. I might as well explore something new, something that DOES interest me, while I have this chance. I have my whole life to do everything else.
Are you happy with what you are pursuing though?
I love learning linguistics. Even if I don’t end up doing it long term, I could never regret this decision, because I’m doing something that I chose that I enjoy. I’m one of those people that starts with me first, but I’ve been doing it for a long time. If I can’t make myself happy, how can I expect to make anyone else happy? I find that when I’m content with who and where I am, I’m of clear head, and more able to give advice to others, and organize the work I truly want to do.
Kimmy Villa 