“A TOUGH, ENJOYABLE, AND LAUGHING RIOT”

Jessie Denson – age 17. It seems she was destined to be a Hokie ever since she was spotted head banging to metalica in the backseat of her father’s car at the age of 5. Born in Alexandria, VA on January 29, 1992, Jessie is now a freshman at Virginia Tech. Jessie is interested in sports and staying active during her time here at Virginia Tech. She is studying mechanical engineering and hopes that when she begins her career that it not be stuck behind a desk. She just returned this summer after spending an short time in Africa. While in Africa, Jessie learned that her favorite animal is a warthog. Yes, believe it or not, a warthog is this girls favorite animal!
Coming from a divided household, she is an only child but has 6 family members- 2 step brothers, mom, dad, step dad, step mom. Within this household Jessie always played the “best friend” of the parents instead of being the child. Although coming from a divided household, Jessie didn’t let it bother her and she pushed on in life to succeed. This is still present in her life today as she works through the engineering homework given at Virginia Tech. “She is one of the strongest people I know. She won’t admit it, but I see it in her”, said Crystle, “She is good at not giving into temptation or caving under pressure. She accepts challenges in life and pushes on always.”
At a young age, Jessie found her favorite pet at her mother’s house. What she called “her baby” is her cat named Slick. She has had him since she was 7 years old and loves his spastic and crazy ways. She has a total of 7 pets in her life. There are 2 cats at her mother’s house and 5 dogs at the father’s house.
As all people do, Jessie has her likes and dislikes. Jessie likes ice cream, art, sports, and warthogs. While she dislikes people who tend to chew gum with their mouth open and girls who chose to make drama out of nothing.
Jessie met her best friend, Crystle, 8 years ago on a little league softball team. Crystle says that Jessie “is very easy person to get along with” and that she “would do anything for anyone she cares about because she has such a great heart”. Crystle and Jessie have never had a fight within their friendship and feel that that is a pretty big feat. While Jessie may seem quiet at first, once you talk to her or get to know her she opens up and is a lot of fun!
Jessie had been dating her boyfriend, Alex, for 3 years now and plans on continuing her life with him. She truly feels there is a special connection between them. She met Alex through her ex-boyfriend because Alex was his really good friend.
One unique thing that Jessie wants people to know about her is that when she laughs really hard at anything, she sounds like she is crying or some people even think she is dying. So don’t be alarmed when she seems like she is in pain or upset, she is probably just laughing and enjoying life.
Jessie likes to stay involved in sports and be active every day. She is not the typical tom boy though. Although she enjoys sports and being active, she also enjoys art. In high school she took AP art while also being on varsity sports.
Recently Jessie was employed by an engineering company in the form of an internship. While working for them, she made her own patent and really enjoyed her time there. This internship helped to show Jessie what she wanted to do with her life and how she wanted to spend her time.
Jessie wants to get a lot out of life. She wants to be successful in whatever job she decides to do as her career. She wants to be able to support her family and all their needs while also having a happy and healthy family. And until she has a family, she want to be able to support herself in life so that she is happy, healthy, and helping others.
Later in life Jessie wants to repay and help out her aunt in any way she can. Her aunt put up with a lot of crap in her life with the divided families and constant tension in the household, yet she was always was caring and loving towards Jessie. Another important person that Jessie would like to help out is her grandma. One of the nicest and most caring people she knows, has also has dealt with a lot of crap. Her grandma now lives alone after the death of her husband a few years ago. Jessie feels she deserves to be cared for and loved for after all she has done. Even if Jessie simply just visits her to say hello and talk for a bit, she thinks that will make her day all the better because she knows she has someone who cares about her. As Jessie did when she was younger.
Jessie was asked “what would you do in life if you knew you couldn’t fail at anything?” and responded in a way that was surprising. She simply said she would be more adventurous in life. She would join more sports, activities, and even classes in college. She wasn’t worried about a certain job or dating someone famous or anything unrealistic like that. She simply wanted to be more involved. That shows a lot about who she is in life and that she doesn’t look for material things to make her happy, but instead looks for people to be around and enjoy life with. People like Jessie are rare and when you find them you should keep them as a part of your life.