Punning, the trend of clever wordplay, has been known to high school students as a t-shirt slogan mechanism. The activity is considered by most as a way to show off one’s knowledge of homophones and double meanings. Punning to junior Brittany Lai, however, is more of an innate passion than an activity.

Here at George Ranch, Lai is known privately as the queen of puns.

“I’d like to say my puns are quality, but I don’t know,” Lai said, her modesty clearly failing to hide her self-confidence in her wordplay.

Balancing responsibilities of co-presidency of Literary Club, membership of Asian Culture Club, Student Council, and NHS, and enough AP classes to contribute to her academic insanity, the well-educated student never ceases to shock others with her quick wit.

Although seeming to be effortlessly executed, Lai’s puns are actually results of a nervous habit.

“It’s just when you say stuff, I word vomit; it’s just a bunch of jokes,” Lai said. “I make them in the spur of the moment.”

Though known as a pun-prodigy, Lai prefers to keep the attention on her other interests as well. Along with her academic load, she spends her leisure time affixed to Tumblr where she divulges herself onto her page.

“It’s a lot about the stuff that I’m interested in; it’s a reflection of me,” Lai said. “It’s a bit of everything.”

As a supplement to her intellect and keenness for social media, Lai also is efficient in drawing. I’ve witnessed her challenging herself to create an abstract, color-pencil drawing of a “desert scene” in the last 15 minutes of Biology class as well as a painstakingly-detailed drawing made of strategically placed words and hatch marks. Lai vents her pent up frustrations into her art, drawing as a release of her emotions.

“Whenever I feel ‘meh’ or a bit peeved or ‘teenage angst-y’,  I kind of draw everything,” Lai said. “I [also] like drawing humans, they’re very interesting.”

Her interest in humans and the human condition clarifies her ideal dream to become a neurologist. Although it is her aspiration, she is unsure of whether she can handle medical school. Regardless of her future occupation, Lai hopes that the future will hold more opportunities for adventure like “traveling the world”, which is on her bucket list.

“[But] first I’d have to dump out all the water in that bucket,” Lai said.