A Q & A with my favorite reader

Megan Stewart
Nov 2 · 7 min read

Recently, my roommate confessed (more like gloated) in casual conversation that she’d found my blog a few weeks ago and had been reading it without my knowledge. To capitalize on this strange situation, which got me off guard but ultimately didn’t surprise me (she’s always been one heck of a sleuth), I roped her into doing a Q & A session for the blog.

Noel* is Biology major at George Fox University, with minors in Chemistry and Spanish. She plans to become a doctor — with dreams of working for Doctors Without Borders — but carries around a list in her head of additional jobs she’d love to have. For instance, if she had the time, she’d be a part-time dough-roller. She’s the reason I’m even here at George Fox University, offering me the chance to be her roommate, as well as getting me connected to the newspaper, which I now co-run. She introduced me to her friends and they’ve since absorbed me into their friend group. I couldn’t be more thankful for everything she’s done: all the encouragement and advice she’s provided, the smiles and laughter, the late night conversations, the road trips, everything. This is a lighthearted Q & A, centered mostly around my blog, but I hope it demonstrates the depth of our friendship.

Me: How did you discover my blog?

Noel: I discovered your blog [nervous laughter] when I found a piece of paper on the floor of our room and I saw that it was a letter of request to The Oregonian, the newspaper, and I was interested in what you were requesting to write about and we had previously discussed Antifa and so I wasn’t quite sure what that article was going to be for but I was like, “Man, this piece paper is just lying around. I am going to read it. It’s right in front of the door and it’s face up. So, then I looked at it and I found that you had referenced your blog on it.

And what did you do as soon as you, uh, saw the paper? Did you write down the website and…?

As soon as I saw it, I had some free time, so I grabbed my phone and I looked up your blog and I read it right then.

And what did you think? What do you think of my blog?

[Heavy pause] I enjoyed reading your blog because I know you personally and was able to see different aspects of who you are or different sides of it, and different things that I know you had experienced or even part of your childhood, and I think because I know you personally it gave a really different feel to it, and I think it’s the same way that when I went to the most recent play at George Fox — A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder — I knew several of the actors in it and it made the play that much better because I knew who they were as a person and I knew different aspects of their character. And I think knowing you personally added an extra element or depth to your writing that I appreciated and I was able to resonate with.

Oh, okay. Which is your favorite piece so far?

I enjoyed reading about the ways you want to improve yourself. I thought that they were very diverse and were pretty encompassing of a lot of different areas in someone’s life — or just in ways that I think people should become more well-rounded. And I also didn’t know a lot of those, so it was cool to learn about different areas of growth that you were looking into this semester or this year.

You can help me with cooking, right?

I would love to enjoy the fruits of your labor — literally. I look forward to you cooking and trying new recipes, if it ever actually happens.

Ooh, shots fired.

And hopefully maybe on some school breaks, whether it’s Winter Break, if we’re both here, or next summer, or even next year, if you are able to learn your way around a kitchen and get to figure out how the cooking process works and being able to share that with other people. I think cooking with and for other people can be a really rewarding experience.

So, you said that you learned some new things about me. What are some things you learned about me?

I didn’t know that you were interested in learning more about science. I know you have mentioned that that’s a topic that you struggle with and is maybe something that you shy away from, but I also know that you’re naturally curious person and those two things just never really clicked, and as a science major myself, I really appreciated learning that about you as my roommate. I know that we both study very different fields and are interested in very different career paths but it’s cool that there’s still some overlap and that maybe I might be able to share some stuff with you.

Awwww, who knew you were so sentimental. What kinds of topics would you like me to talk about in the future?

[Heavy pause] I enjoy the way that you narrate stories from your own point of view, and I think it may be really cool to hear some more stories from your childhood, or maybe even different experiences that you’ve had on campus or things that you’ve experienced in college that maybe haven’t really seen or are new things for you. I just really enjoy how you tell a story and I look forward to hearing or reading more of those from you.

What’s your favorite narrative that I’ve written?

I don’t think any of your articles so far, or blog posts, are — or that I can remember — are solely focused on one story or narrative. What mostly stands out to me are the little snippets of your life that you kind of weave into a bigger picture or bigger story. The one that stands out for me right now is about Rudy and just different little snippets that you have of your time with him and your experiences that you had growing up with him.

Why exactly did you decide to look at my blog?

You had mentioned several times about writing blog posts and you’d also asked me questions that kind of pertained to them, or that maybe hinted that you were going to include some of those things in your blog post, and that was kind of a motivation for reading them, of seeing how those ideas were just put into a story or narrative, or just like putting those words to paper. And also for a little while this semester, it was just a hidden part of your life from me and, man, I’ve got to know everything. [Laughter]

How do you feel about how I’ve portrayed you in stories?

I personally feel flattered by some of the portrayals. I don’t think I’ve necessarily been a big character in the narrative that you present in your blog posts, but you also have a lot of different facets and different aspects of your life that I’m not part of and so I think your blog really represents who you are and I am just happy that I’m included in it.

Is there anything you want to say to my readers?

Megan’s a really cool person and sometimes she might seem a little weird, and she is, but it gets better the more you get to know her.

How is — ? Okay, how am I weird?

I think that’s self-explanatory.

List some weird things I do.

She loves to sing in the shower. Hold on, I have to think.

Lots of people sing in the shower, Noel.

She eats really weird food. One time I was laying in bed and she had just come home and she was really excited to eat her green beans. They are raw and she just eats them right out of the bag. Another thing that Megan really loves to eat: peanut butter and tortillas. That is it.

She has a very strange sense of humor and is very into the meme culture, which I struggle with sometimes because I’m not as connected to social media or the Internet, perhaps, but you’ll get used to it.

What’s it like being my roommate?

Living with Megan has been very different from my past experiences with roommates. It’s very different when you live with your best friend.

I’m going to cry, I’m going to cry.

And sometimes that’s really hard because you go to bed and you have an exam the next day and need to sleep but conversation just flows so easily and you never want to stop talking.

Sometimes I feel like she judges me for things but I know that it doesn’t impact how much she loves me. I have so many plants right now … I wouldn’t say it’s unhealthy because those plans are turning CO2 into oxygen. They are good for that house. It’s an obsession.

Why do you think I judge you about?

Sometimes you know a girl just needs a whole tub of ice cream, that’s sitting on the floor by my bed while I’m watching Netflix with a spoon still in it.

Do you have any other questions? You can email me. I’ll try to respond quickly.

Megan Stewart

Written by

Co-Editor-in-Chief of the George Fox Crescent

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