Howdie, Grace Rangel!

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By Jordan Bradley

 JB: What are some things that currently inspire you?

GR: I would have to say just the little things in life that go unnoticed. I like to notice the things that, you know, we as people ignore on an everyday basis. Like let’s say, for example, the way a leaf will flow in the wind, it’s just going with wherever life takes it. Like weird things like that; I don’t know. It’s just things that we as humans don’t take time to notice everyday. I like to take in the beauty that is around me and what I have right now in this horrible suburban lifestyle. I will just go walk around my neighborhood and find this one tree that just grew and had the coolest way it branched out. And that’s what I do when I want alone time.

JB: What are you passionate about?

GR: Everything I’m passionate about I suck at. So, therefore, I have a passion for appreciating things, if that makes sense. Appreciating wildlife, I love wildlife and nature; that’s one of my big things. I want to work for NATGEO—quote me on that.

JB: What about your wardrobe?

GR: I love visuals. […] I don’t necessarily like clothing, just because I like clothes that don’t flatter me. I like it simply because of the visual, like they way they are put together and stuff like that. Not necessarily the brand or the quality, it’s more of a visual thing than it is what’s on my back. It’s what I see when I put it together. And it’s a little bit more simple now, my wardrobe, than it used to be simply because now I feel like I’m in an evolving process, and I don’t I have the right visual in my head to put my wardrobe in the way I know I want it to be. I don’t have the right clothing the way I see it in my head. But you know it’s simple now and it’s just for the meantime but when the time comes than I’ll be back to experimenting with my wardrobe as far as the visual look, when the time permits, and I’m in a better place financially.

JB: Why do you wear the Bindi?

GR: I don’t have a real reason, like, “Oh are you trying to be accepted into a certain culture?” I am completely not, I respect their means for wearing it. I simply just like it. I don’t have that many great facial features, so I feel like the Bindi adds on to me. And I think its a beautiful accessory, you know, all around. So yeah that’s why I wear it; it’s nothing religious or too deep, you know not too much meaning to it. I just feel like it adds on. I’m not trying to disrespect anyone’s religion or culture, or how some people say its supposed to be for your third eye. And that’s cool and all, but it’s not the reason I wear it.

JB:What kind of music do you listen to?

GR: I’m a very diverse person when it comes to music. I mean it depends on the weather, the mood I’m feeling, the people I’m with. I prefer low jams, or like mellow tunes, complex sounds with very soft vocals. I don’t really have a favorite artist honestly, there is no particular artist that I prefer over another.

JB: So you mentioned you really love wildlife, are you looking to pursue a career in that?

GR: Well, I hope to pursue a career in it, but I haven’t really looked too much into it. But I do want to help save the endangered species. I’m actually doing an infographic on endangered species in journalism right now. I could spend hours watching the National Geographic Wild channel, there is just so much more to what I’m seeing every day coming home, microwaving a snack. There is so much more to see, and if I have the capability of helping the Earth of how it’s supposed to be then I want to do it. And I’m just so conflicted with my ego and myself. Like do I stay here and focus on my materialistic things, or do I go out and get my hands dirty and do what’s really right? It’s such a conflicting thing because I feel as if the world is in our hands, and we aren’t doing anything with it. We are just destroying it, and I know I’m guilty of a lot of it, but I want to make up for what I’ve done and play my part in this world. I don’t know, it’s kind of hard to explain; it’s more of a feeling rather than words well because I’m not really talking or expressing how I’m feeling.

JB: What are the different names you give yourself?

GR: Okay, you know my name Grace is my identity; it’s what people know me as, and I want to complete myself before I let people get to know who I really am. So I name phases in my life of different evolved forms of myself before I complete me. Indigo was just— I didn’t want to be Grace anymore. I wanted to be somebody else, I wanted to experience a different side of me. And Indigo was more of my spiritual side, and I got really close to my higher power, you know my God, and I didn’t really talk to anybody, I focused on just loving and appreciating everything I had and thanking my God for it, and building a relationship with the world and my God and everything else that falls under that. My personal relations and things like that. And now [Virtual] Cig is what I call myself now, which it’s not my favorite person. She is a little bit more angry, and she’s a lot more social which is good because I’ve always has a problem with being social after I isolated myself with most people, but I need to have human interactions and see what others can bring to the table. So she is definitely more social, she likes to have fun. Cig is living a regular teenage girl’s life, she really doesn’t have many goals honestly and I think I’m outgrowing her rapidly. She’s actually a mess.

JB: What are all the different ones you’ve had? Is it just those two?

GR: It’s just those two, I actually made up my mind the summer going to ninth grade on what I was going to do with my high school. And it could take the rest of my life who knows. It’s just a journey to find me and to find my place in the world pretty much. And it’s just different phases and different things, and I document it all. I document what I’ve learned from this time period, and there is no set in stone structure; I just go as I feel. Everything I do is just as I feel.