Erika+Sherwood

I'm Erika, this is a photo of me jumping off of the San Francisco bridge in Ecuador. That's about 100 meters from the bottom of the river. For the first letter of my name I chose the word “**even**”. I selected that word because I feel that my life is fairly well balanced and that I have an even amount of the necessities. Also, I look at the word even as being fair, which I hope is a quality most see in me. I think that I give every person an equal chance when I meet them or come into contact with them. Second, I chose the word “**robust**” because it is a quality that is very typical of my family. We all look at ourselves and see strong, healthy, vigorous people. I especially like the word because I feel that I have done a lot of growing up recently and if needed I would be able to go off on my own. I think that it is very important for women to strive to be robust because we too often get the reputation of being frail and fragile. Along with that, it’s important for a college student to be able to stand on their own two feet, something that I feel I’m completely prepared to do. The third letter was more difficult, but I decided on **"ill-fated**". One of my favorite experiences from my trip to Peru was having my coca leaves read by a shaman. However, it wasn’t one of the most positive moments because the man had literally no good news to offer me. I asked about money, love, health, family, and schooling and for each response I was told that the future looked worrisome and that I should take very good care of myself. The letter K presented me with a few difficulties, as there seem to be approximately 6 adjectives that it begins. After long debate I decided on quite the word, though not very nice, the adjective “**killjoy**” fits perfectly. I usually am the crazy friend that is willing to do the adventurous challenges, but at the same time, I’m the girl that says, “We probably shouldn’t be doing this.” So as much as I always want to have fun, I usually end up being the killjoy that ruins the fun. And finally, for A I chose the word “**awkward**” because every single moment of my life has a little awkwardness to it. In middle school, it was my appearance, as I was all arms and legs and didn’t fit into my body. In high school, it was trying to find my self image and the right people to hang out with. Now, after all of that, it’s more awkward because I’ve found the look that I like, and I’m happy in my own skin, even though many others aren’t as much. So I’ve gone from making my own life awkward to now placing it on others to handle.