"Kathleen Dwyer, a Girl of Many Wonders"

One might look at Kathleen Dwyer and think of a shy young girl with very close friends. Well, some of that statement is true, but not all of it. Kathleen Dwyer is described as an outgoing, upbeat, happy, sensitive girl. She is far from shy with her vivacious personality and leader of situations. Kathleen works well with other people and college is where she fits in best.

Kathleen is currently studying mathematics at Virginia Tech. She is thinking about teaching, but is not sure of a career for math. Kathleen’s mom was not sure of a career for Kathleen, but she had a feeling teaching would be a part of it. Kathleen’s mom also said “Kathleen needs a job with creativity and personal interaction”. Kathleen might go on a teaching track because she has entertained the idea of teaching English in Japan, after going to a three week course introduction to Japanese.

Kathleen is the youngest of four children in the Dwyer family. When asked about being the youngest, Kathleen said, “I love being the youngest and even though there is an age gap there is a lot of respect between me and my siblings”. Kathleen has two sisters, Kelly and Shannon and one brother, RJ. Kathleen loves her oldest sister, Kelly because she “lights up the room at a party”. She also loves her other sister, Shannon because he is very nurturing and caring. Kathleen is the closest to her brother, RJ because he influenced her to love drag races.

RJ is an influential person in Kathleen’s life. RJ is a mechanic who lives in Austin, Texas. He works on Porches and other foreign cars. Kathleen also looks up to her brother because he is smart. He knows his material and it makes Kathleen want to work as hard as he does. One things Kathleen shares in common with her brother, besides cars is being good at speaking and learning different languages.

Along with her siblings, Kathleen had a secure relationship with her mom and dad. Kathleen’s parents are divorced, but that was not a problem because most parents in the area she lived in were divorced. Kathleen’s dad lives in Alexandria and is remarried. Kathleen was not very close to her father, but he still supported her. Kathleen’s mom is very loving and caring. Kathleen had a good relationship with her mom until her senior year of high school. Even though her mom was strict and hard sometimes, Kathleen always found joy spending quality time with her mom. The divorce between Kathleen’s was not a big deal compared to her siblings’ outlook.

Kathleen is very close to her friends, especially in high school. When growing up, Kathleen went to Catholic school where people moved away most of the time and she lost touch with them, but in high school things were different. Kathleen’s friends from high school are all unique, goofy, and crazy, but they care about the people they love. In Catholic school, friends were not easy to come by because people were moving in and out of the D.C. area very quickly, but not in high school. “Making friends was so easy compared to high school”, Kathleen remarks. A majority of Kathleen’s friend were in the Theater Department.

Kathleen has worked in a couple of different places in high school. Her first job was with SCORE where she helped kids ages 4-14 with computers. SCORE is a tutoring education place where younger kids go to take tests and learn new things. The kids were studying mathematics, reading, and science. Kathleen’s second job is with Tommy Bahamas. She works in retail with high class designs. This clothing can range from $110-$120. Kathleen’s manager is extremely happy to work with Kathleen because “she is a fast learner, awesome worker, friendly, outgoing, and social”. Kathleen had no boundaries when working at Tommy Bahamas because she is the best and a hard worker.

Dancing, going to car shows, drag racing, swimming, and singing are some of the hobbies Kathleen enjoys. Kathleen was on a swim team a few years before high school. She was extremely good at the breaststroke. Kathleen has been singing for a long time. She has taken voice lesson for four years and sings classical music. Kathleen is devoted to drag races, but she is not a NASCAR fan. She is also interested in theater.

Theater was a big part of Kathleen’s high school life. In her senior year of high school, Kathleen auditioned for the play The Miracle Worker in the fall. She was nervous, but she knew it was going to be her show. After auditioning, Kathleen was cast as Annie Sullivan and she was ecstatic. Kathleen loved working in The Miracle Worker, “we had a great cast and even though it was a lot of work preparing for the play it was lighthearted and a lot of fun”. She did a lot of character research for Annie Sullivan; she even joked around during practices and pretended to be a healer.

The Miracle Worker received a lot of attention because a funny clip was on the morning announcements which drew people to go and see the show. The memory Kathleen will never forget was in the last show in the ending scene. The scene is where Helen gives Annie Sullivan a key which shows her Helen wants her to stay. It is a very emotional scene and sometimes it was hard for Kathleen to cry on the spot, but not on the last night.

On this night, Kathleen’s family was in the audience and they had the perfect seats in the middle. As Kathleen was doing the last scene where she was supposed to cry, Kathleen started to think about her family and how they were so proud of her. During the scene, Kathleen started to cry so hard because she was making her family proud of her. The tears kept flowing even through the final bows because Kathleen was overjoyed with emotion of doing a good job at her performance and it was her last play she would do in high school.