Tell the people about yourselfA. “I’m from Seattle, Washington. I have 10 siblings. I am a senior graduating with a bachelor’s in arts and sciences. I majored in International Cultural Studies, with an emphasis in communications and peacebuilding. I came in with a business major, but when I got here, I felt like I needed to change. I don’t know why – just felt strongly.”Q. What do you see as the most positive things about yourself?A. “Oh now, this is the ‘conceited’ one. My top five is that I care; sometimes I care more about others than I do myself. I’m caring, friendly, inviting, I love a lot of people, and the hmm, I don’t know, we’ll just do four.”Q. What do you plan on doing after you graduate? A. “I’m not done with my education, that’s for sure. I will be here on campus till July then I am going to China to teach English till the end of the year. Then off to BYU Provo for my master’s in business, right back where I started.”Q. How has your journey been here at BYU-Hawaii, especially with the ICS major?A. “It’s taught me a lot about interpersonal communications, how to better interact with people. I feel like the peacebuilding focus has taught me how to view others as people not objects. It’s sneaky. I’ve done it before. Even treating people like they don’t matter in my life. Every person is just like me. We all have feelings and inherent value. It’s an ongoing process.”I agree. Growing is definitely a process of unlearning and checking yourself. A. “Definitely. It’s an ongoing process of relearning, and reinventing, reiterating, reliving.”Not forgetting the things we reinforce should be positive habits... A. “Yeah it’s easy to get comfortable because the campus is so small. We shouldn’t get too comfortable to the point where we are missing all the opportunities our surroundings have to offer. Again, it’s redoing, reliving, re… cycle, reuse, GO GREEN!”Q. What has been the highlight of your time at BYUH?A. “Definitely Culture Night. I had the amazing opportunity to host last year’s event and really became aware of the importance of your audience. You have no idea who they are, and yet you have to make them your main focus and make it alive. I met most of my friends at Culture Night. It’s such a big event for our campus and our community, and that’s a big thing with Envision La‘ie and all these things. It was great to be a part of that unifying event.”Q. What is your aspiration?A. “That’s a big question, and it’s always a process of rethinking – here we are back at the ‘re’ process. You have to become comfortable with yourself and say, ‘I accept the things that are going on around me, why I’m here, and what am I doing.’ Taking into consideration of where I come from and where I am now, I think I’m just going to say, my aspiration in life is to be happy.”Definitely.A. “Once you do that, once you are happy, you are happy for no reason but yourself. You are doing things for yourself. It’s not selfish or conceited though. It’s allowing yourself to be proud of where you have come from and where you are now and where you can go in the future, and recognizing the power you have to make things happen for yourself. No one’s going to do it for you. People think that if you’re proud of yourself and accepting of yourself, they look at it like you’re being conceited. No, that’s allowing yourself to be proud of the work you are doing for yourself. The main thing you need to worry about is your family and those close to you. You’re always going to have haters.”Q. When you leave BYUH, what do you want to leave behind?A. “My motto right now is #IWasHere. Let people know that you were here. People that I’m close with know they can call me at any time and I will come through for them no matter what.” Q. Do you have any shoutouts?A. “Well, shoutout to my friends, you, and all my home dawgs. It’s been great fun. I don’t know where I would be without my academic advisor, Rowena Reid. We need more people like her. Tammy Fonoimoana. All the people who helped me get to this point. Shoutout to all of you.”Q. Last question: How do you, Tonga, deal with the haters?A. “I don’t.”Uploaded May 21, 2015
Writer: Morgynne Tora
