Day 1

Name: Geena Hillman
Profession: Full-time student, Northeastern University
Location: Room 219, Melvin Hall, Northeastern University
Question: What led you to this moment? What led you to this place?
Answer: The people in my life.

Her Educators
"There’s not like a single person who has profoundly impacted me. My teachers have been wonderful. But even among all the teachers I’ve had, it’s hard to pick one that has been the most impactful. I mean, I’m closest with my freshman English teacher Ms. Poyser, but I can’t really point to a specific time at which my life has changed after knowing her. I just feel close with her. She’s not necessarily, like, a huge figure in my life. I just enjoy her company a lot.... Probably my favorite project that we did in her class was a poetry book, which was essentially just the compilation of our ten to fifteen favorite poems that we had either come across that semester in class or, you know, remembered from past years and compiled them in a sort of scrapbook type thing. And then we’d give that to whoever was like really close with us or important to us."

Her Mother

"My family was definitely very present. I never felt like my parents were neglecting me. Like, putting their work before me. I mean, my mom is a teacher. And I spent a lot of time with her in her classroom and saw her just being in her classroom. Late into the evening she would bring her work home and include me and my brother in projects and things she was working on and we would want to help her with her schoolwork. So, I don’t know. My mom.... She's warm and fuzzy. She gives really great hugs. Like, huge bear hugs. Her favorite thing in the world to do is to give a good hug. And that’s how she knows she’s met a good person, if they can give her a good hug back. Primary bonding activity with mom is shopping. But, um, throughout high school, like some Fridays after school, especially when I started driving everywhere, we would go to either the outlets and shop for a little bit or go to Starbucks and get coffee. Kind of unwind. Talk about our week. That day. Whatever."

Her Father

"My dad's there if I need a voice of reason. I mean, he’s an attorney so it’s his job to be rational and make sense of his clients’ messy lives, so he’s definitely a voice of reason. To the point where it’s frustrating at times. Like, if we’re arguing about something, I’m never right, no matter what. Even if I’m certain I’m right before we even start talking. We’re close in a different way [than with my mom]. I mean, my dad’s just isn’t the warm and compassionate person my mom is, but he’s definitely a provider for our family and someone you can really count on. I don’t have to worry about things my dad’s involved in. I know that he’ll take care of me, no matter what the situation is."

Her Brother

"He’s definitely an introvert. We’ve always been kind of able to goof around together a little bit. Probably because our family’s not very big, and we only have a couple of cousins, so usually when we’re at family events, it’s pretty much just the two of us with a bunch of adults. We find some way of entertaining ourselves. That started when we were really young and it’s continued. We’re each other’s allies. We cover for each other when that needs to happen. He's in Seattle. We email occasionally and text occasionally, but it’s not constant. It doesn’t need to be. We’re close, not like we talk all the time, but I trust him. I know I could tell him secrets if I needed to. If I wanted to. And he’s fun to gossip with. He’s more interested in my life than he lets on. So it’s exciting to share juicy tidbits with him because I know that he just relishes them. He’s just a little bit more of a closed-off person, not nearly as emotional as anyone else in my family. So, I don’t really know his relationship with them both [their parents]. As a family, we’re on really good terms with each other. We get along really well. We’ll go out and have family game nights, family dinners, and we’ll actually have a good time and genuinely enjoy each others' company. I think there’s a lot about him and his life that my parents don’t really know. And it’s not necessarily negative. He’s just more private. Well, until my brother’s senior year in high school, we were not close at all. I mean, we never really fought, but I just had no idea concept of who he was. All of my friends would ask me, how’s your brother doing? What’s your brother up to? I would just tell them I didn’t know and I had no idea what he did with his time. He spent a lot of time, like, just in his room, keeping to himself. I remember I was hanging out with my best friend Ernie and he asked me about Adam, and I thought for a long time because I wanted to give him a good answer so it was like I was close with my brother. But I couldn’t, and I nearly started crying, so after that point I started making more of an effort. He opened up pretty quickly. I mean, it’s not like he was intentionally closing himself off. He was just never going to be the one to make the first move. I started spending a lot more time with him and his group of friends, and they’re wonderful people. It kind of opened up a whole new social sphere for me, which I wasn’t really expecting. But it was welcome."

Her Friends

"I can’t think of which friends have shaped me the most. Probably Paige. Paige is my closest girl friend. She moved to Napa in fifth grade and we’ve been friends ever since. In elementary school and even through middle school, we were really competitive academically, with the guys that we liked. She was always the one that beat me. She was really my closest friend for a long time. She challenged me in some ways, so I guess she did have some good influence on me, but she was always way more outspoken than me, and when we would compete over guys she would always win. So when high school came around, and we were going to be going to the same high school, I was just envisioning middle school all over again. So I transferred and went to the high school across town instead. I got some space from my closest friends so I could be me without being in their shadow so much. Academically, maybe not such a good call, because I wasn’t competitive with anyone anymore. I wasn’t motivated enough to perform well on my own without anyone pushing me to. But it made me much more confident socially, for the most part. I had to figure out how to make friends without her help. I had a group of friends, like I said, through church. I was pretty close with them through high school and then junior year and senior year I started branching out a little more, and made some friends that were actually from school. Socially, it was never hard outside of school. It was just at school sometimes, because that’s not where my little group of friends was."

Her Boyfriend

"The last summer I spent in Napa I worked in Coldstone for a while. It was a good first job. Good employer. Good manager. Good co-workers. Good ice cream, most importantly. [Laughs] I met the love of my life. He’s perfect. That’s it. Imagine the perfect man. I got him. You get to know a person so well. I mean, he knows me completely. I guess I’m good enough. It’s stupid thinking, ‘Oh, I wish my past was different. Or that my personality wasn’t how it is.’ Why would I change that if he loves it? [Laughs] Right? ...Right now he's on his way to a Glenn Phillips concert. [He plays] primarily guitar, but also piano, bass, drums, whatever. You know those musicians ... Ideally, he would go to a music school, get a degree in sound engineering or some equivalent to that, and work in a studio with musicians recording them, mixing their music. Probably making music of his own on the side."

How Much They Matter

"The perfect day for me isn’t anything big. It’s just being with people that I really love, doing things that we would normally do. I mean, the way I envision my life, every day is maybe not the perfect day, but reasonably perfect. I don’t know if that’s probably really naïve… [Laughs] It’s more important who I’m with than what I’m doing. Definitely. I mean, that’s the way my whole life’s been. That’s probably why I don’t have any huge events that have altered my life. I’m mostly just spending time with people that I care about, and that’s kind of enough."

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Blogger's note: Today being the first day of this project, it was difficult finding an approach to take. Obviously, I've decided that each day my subject will answer the questions "What led you to this moment?" and "What led you to this place?" I hope to get replies such as this one, which reach more into someone's character, as well as answers such as, "Well why do you think I'm here? To get a cup of joe! Where else would I go for a decent coffee?" which will be a bit more literal and lighthearted. I know this was a longer interview, but lengths will vary and the style, I'm sure, will be far more organic once I get into the swing of things. For now, feel free to leave any suggestions or comments. I'm anxious for feedback.