Hello! My name is Gray Baker and I am a 19 year-old Junior from El Dorado Hills, CA. I was born in San Pedro but moved to Northern California when I had just turned three. I have two older sisters and a plethora of stepsiblings. Both my parents got re-married to spouses who also had children from previous marriage; so my Christmas dinners are always eventful.
I grew up playing sports, and due to our close proximity to Lake Tahoe, snowboarding was a frequent winter activity. My favorite sport to play is lacrosse. I began playing when I was eight years old after learning that my dad had played some weird sport during his childhood on the East Coast. My father coached me from fourth grade until my senior year of high school and our relationship formed around that bond. My mother is a fantastic woman whom I could literally not live without. Because of her influence, I am picky about the clothes I buy or the TV shows I watch but I also try being the friendliest and most accepting person in the room.
I am also an adventurous person. I am one of those people who love adrenaline, so snowboarding, skateboarding, car racing, Downhill Mountain biking and cliff jumping are interests that I frequent. However, my favorite activity of all time is traveling. I began traveling at a young age when my mom took my sisters and me to England and Scotland in 2003. From there, the thought of going around the world filled my brain. I was fortunate enough to travel to Europe two more times before beginning college. For my freshman year of college, I attended the American University of Paris in France. This experience gave me the opportunity to achieve many things, like travel, yet taught me much more than I could have ever imagined. I visited many different countries during my stay, met new people almost every day and never had a dull view to look at when I went about my day. I had countless epiphanies about life that I felt the need to write everything down. Writing down my thoughts and my encounters with people brought me a lot of joy. What made me happier was sharing my words with people and having it touch them personally. From that point on, I knew I had to do something with my life where I could write my conversations and beliefs, compile them into stories, and have it touch peoples hearts in the most special of ways. Journalism seemed like the correct option. I came to USC for my sophomore year in the fall of 2015 and began taking my journalism courses. I have just been living it up since!
In all honesty, my long-term goal is to become an author, but I am choosing to be a journalist because I enjoy meeting new people and hearing about their lives. Journalism is also a way for me to improve my writing skills. I believe working in a line where accuracy and spelling are detrimental is terrific experience for a writer. Also, having a boss whose job it is to edit also helps my writing.
