Hailey Knowles

I'm into collecting records. So far I have 33 from all different genre’s. There's pop, there’s rap, there's even like country. There's alternative stuff. I like to go around and go to record shops, and places like that. I like photography too, I like to go to abandoned places and take pictures of that stuff. Because I don't know. I just think it's creepy. And it's cool to look at.

I'm also gay. A lot of people wouldn't know that by looking at me. I'm pretty feminine. Not to say that lesbians can't be feminine but when I tell people I'm gay they're pretty surprised. No one can ever guess.

One thing I will say is that in the 10th grade I took myself out of a really dark place. I was honestly just on the verge of dropping out, I was on the verge of just giving up and letting my mental illnesses completely take over of my mind. But I knew that if I did that, then I would end up like my family. And I would end up without an education, and the same life that I'm living now and that they're living for the rest of their lives. I had to get out of it and I transferred schools. I had a really good therapist. I had really good techniques for myself to get over my anxiety about school. And I went in there, and here I am today and I am in my second year of college. It’s a really scary place, I’m glad I got out.

Covid has affected everything for my college experience. I only got to have two semesters and then everything was swept from underneath us. I barely know what it's like to be in a college classroom. I barely know what it's like to actually be in a lecture. Like, I've only taken a couple in person. It's really impacted my social life in college, you know, no one really wants to go out because you're scared, you're going to catch it.

I’m the first person in my family to go to college. My family is a working-class family and no one ever really idealized education at my house. So getting accepted into a college and doing the college experience is a big deal. And actually going through with it. These past two years have really shaped me for the real world. It's just put me out there more and showed me opportunities.

Interview by Kyla Still, Spring 2021