Ashleigh Brady

Name: Ashleigh Brady

Nickname: A.B.

Birthday: Oct. 23, 1986 (Scorpio)

Hometown: Lubbock, Texas

Major: Graphic Design and Advertising

Class: Senior

Activities/Clubs: Drake women’s basketball team, Sports Business Association (SBA)

Tidbits:
-has a tattoo of a chi-rho cross on left side of lower back. “It’s a symbol of not being ashamed of who I am,” Ashleigh said.
-loves to dance
-has a phobia of falling
-teased for having a “mixed breed” accent. “It’s Tex-Iowan,” Ashleigh said.

Favorite movie: Pretty Woman (recent: Slumdog Millionaire)

Favorite restaurant: Nut Pob

Pet peeve: “Hypocrites,” Ashleigh said. “Even though I am one at times.”

What she does for fun: “Hanging out with my friends doing anything, everything and absolutely nothing.”

Favorite clothing item: sweat pants or her American Eagle cardigan

Favorite colors: black and lime green

Role Model: “My Nana. She’s had to deal with so many struggles and adversities with being a single mom,” Ashleigh said. “She’s the most positive, nonjudgmental, caring woman I have ever met in my entire life.”

Ultimate dream day: to travel Europe and see Rome. “I would go look at all the surrounding architecture,” Ashleigh said. “I’m an architect junky.”

If she could change one thing about Drake: heated sidewalks. “So that nobody slips and falls,” Ashleigh said.

If she could change one thing about the world: “To make people understand that we’re all different. And that our differences are what make us all so beautiful and unique and great,” Ashleigh said. “Just because someone is different from you doesn’t mean that they’re wrong or bad. We just have different lifestyles and cultures and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.”

Message to the world: listen to “What’s Going On” by the MTV All Stars

Ultimate goal in life: to have an impact on as many people as possible

Where to find her: the Knapp Center, the computer area in Cowles library, and lunch at Hubbell Dining Hall at 12 p.m. during the week

What gets her attention: smiling, confident, happy people

Looking for: “Meeting people at Drake,” Ashleigh said, “People I’ve overlooked because I’ve been too ‘busy.’ I’d like to meet anybody and everybody.”

Melyvn Henley

Name: Melvyn Henley

Birthday: May 5, 1987 (Taurus)

Major: Public Relations

Class: Senior

Plans after graduation: To work internationally with sports and entertainment

Born and raised: Chicago, Ill.

Family: Only child of a foster mother. (He has lived with over 15 different foster children.)

Drake activities/clubs: Intramurals, Coalition of Black Students, Drake University International Travel (DUIT) Club

Life philosophy: “You can’t force it. You have to let it come to you and enjoy life at the moment.”

Tidbits:
-Studied in Australia and China last year
-Has a 3-ring binder he fills with graffiti drawings
-Loves old classics and black and white films (Some Like It Hot)

What he does for fun: Visiting art museums, talking with people, skateboarding and cooking

Favorite animal: Rhinoceros

Favorite food: Lasagna

Favorite place to be: “A noisy place,” Melvyn said, “I perform better in a noisy, chaotic environment. I find comfort in noise.”

Hidden talent: Jumping rope. “When I was in elementary school it was one of those things you learned how to do if you wanted to talk to girls,” Melvyn said. “It has stayed with me throughout the years.”

What makes his day: Twizzlers, Root Beer, and Cream Soda. “They’re essentials to my life.”

Pet peeve: Talking with your mouth full

Passion: Skateboard culture. “From the music to their art. They just live life and enjoy it,” Melvyn said, “They test the extremes of life and danger.”

Sub-passion: Graffiti. “It’s able to grab you and make you stop and take a look at it and try to figure out what exactly its saying,” Melvyn said.

Graffiti tag name: Point. “In grammar school I was known as one of the smarty kids, so they use to call me Point Dexter.”

First graffiti vision: “My name (Point) with a guy in a mirror pointing to himself.”

If he could change one thing about Drake: “There needs to be more randomness on campus,” Melvyn said. “The faculty should plan stuff without the students knowing and you just have to experience it.”

If he could change one thing about the world: “I would make mean, pessimistic people go to an island very, very far away.”

Ultimate goal in life: “Live like a rockstar; die like a saint.”

Where to meet him: The Bell Center (Tuesday-Saturday around 6 pm), or anywhere around campus. “I’m the guy with the dreads and glasses.”

What gets his attention: “Shoes. I have a thing for shoes- sneakers and kicks. I own about 25 plus pairs of shoes,” Melvyn said. “I have more shoes than my mother.”

Looking for: Girlfriend. “Someone with a sense of humor, who likes to experience new things, and live life on the edge. I like the edgier girls,” Melvyn said.
And nice shoes are a plus.

Robert Kravolec

Birthday: Feb 22, 1986 (Pisces)

Major: magazine journalism

Class: senior

Home: Sonoma, California

Before Drake: spent 2 years in France working at a bookstore, traveling, swimming, and drinking wine

Plans after graduation: to write a fictional novel in Minnesota

Title at Drake: Editor-in-Chief of Periphery

Tidbits:
-fluent in French and speaks a little Italian
-read five books this past week
-carries small beige and black Moleskine notebooks everywhere he goes. “The black ones have deeper, more honest thoughts.”

Favorite place to be: Paris Metro in France. “You get to see people at their worst and their best. You’re always shoved up against someone and they always smell- good or bad. Maybe it’s a pretty girl or maybe it’s a homeless man with knives in his pockets.”

Why you should suck up to him:
-He can teach you to salsa dance.
-He learned to cook from his dad, who is a French chef. “I love to cook.”

What he does for fun: reading, writing, playing blues harmonica, going to blues and jazz concerts, and people watching

Favorite book: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Family member he is closest with: black mutt named Jacques

Passion: typewriters- he owns over 30. “When I sit down to write on a typewriter I feel like I’ve picked up where I left off,” Robert said. “I feel like I’m home.”

If he could change something about himself: “I would have fists like Rocky Balboa,” Robert laughs. “But really, I would like to take the carpal tunnel out of my wrists.” (which he got from typewriting)

If he could change something about Drake: “I would have them fly in seafood. I would have a personal jet filled with fish.”

If he could change one thing about the world: “I would tone down technology. I wouldn’t make it obsolete, but I would definitely tone it down.”

Ultimate goal in life: “I want to feel like I have just eaten a good meal and I’m read to go to sleep.”

Where to find him: Half Price Books (Clive, Ia), Django (a French restaurant in Des Moines), or writing or sleeping in the chairs in Cowles Library

What gets his attention: “Mannerisms- how a person holds their spoon or pen. If it’s something different than what I’ve seen before it can be attractive, whether it’s something said or done physically.”

Looking for: a road bike and, of course, typewriters

15 Minutes of Fame

Everyone you pass is a closed book. Some will make you laugh, some will make you cry, some can bring inspiration, some could change your life, and some may only be good for sticking under your wobbly coffee table. They all have different covers. And they all have different stories. But you may never know it.

The "don't talk to strangers" lecture has been ground into us so fine we don't even remember we're too big to be kidnapped. You go to the supermarket, bustle up and down the isles, then wait in the checkout line in silence, flipping through a tabloid. You wouldn’t dare make eye contact, let alone take interest in the person next to you. They might climb into your cart, release their 10-foot tongue, and steal your coupons.

Since when are we a society that keeps to ourselves? Maybe if we each got 15 minutes of fame we would start taking interest in each other. Then we might stop investing our time in celebrity worlds and start investing in those around us. Then maybe we will realize that we're all not so bad after all. And that each of us is actually pretty damn amazing.

If we start getting to know every single person we encounter everyday- we are suddenly no longer alone. We are suddenly all on the same side. You never know what, or who, you are missing. You never know when you will need someone. Or someone will need you. It's time to get to know each other, starting now.