Meredith Wall
Meredith WallCoe College, religion and philosophy
GSEF Fellow, Cohort 2
“My ideal existence would be alone in a room full of books, coffee, and lemons.”
How would you describe yourself in a few sentences?
My ideal existence would be alone in a room full of books, coffee, and lemons.
If you had to teach someone one thing, what would you teach them?
I would teach them how to make a soufflé. I’ve liked to cook and bake since I was a kid; it’s familiar without being boring. There’s always a new challenge and you can push yourself as much (or as little) as you want. Soufflés are fairly difficult to make, but they are utterly delicious when done right.
What’s the best advice someone has given to you?
Go outside your comfort zone! Cutting my hair short, trying out for the speech team in high school, traveling abroad my second semester at college—all rewarding experiences that I wouldn’t have had if I was worried about failing at something I wasn’t familiar with already.
What will your legacy be?
I don’t get to determine my legacy. Living by looking forward a hundred years would just distract me from living in the present. I can do my best in the moment; I can even act a certain way because of how it might affect the future. Keeping an eye on the big picture is different than living to create a certain legacy. When I think of legacies, it seems so egotistic. People want to leave a good legacy because that means people think well of them as they turn into worm food. Why not just concentrate of doing specific actions in your life because you’d be helping people or making the world a better place? I heartily disagree with the notion of doing something just because it will make people like you.
