My name is Tanika. I’m from Utah. I’m from a very very big family. My grandma has five kids. I have eight sisters and three brothers. They are not all full though. Most of them are half because my dad thought it was his responsibility to repopulate the world. I don’t ever call him dad. I call him Jim.
I’m a theater major. I've been in theater my whole life. And when I graduate I want to go to New York. I want to do Broadway. That’s my goal. Especially in musicals, which is why it kind of sucks there is no musical stuff here at Gardner Webb. After the fall semester I’m going back to Utah and going to school return to my school there. I have a full scholarship back there. And my nieces and nephews are there and my sister’s pregnant again and I just wanna see them grow up before I have to leave for New York. There's just a bunch of different things reasons. And the theater department here works less with the music department than I thought. But I love Mrs. Harrelson. And it’s my major so yeah. Because before my surgery, I used to have Gena’s range. But when I got out, it went down two and a half steps. I used to be a lyric coloratura soprano, and it took my voice down enough so that I was just enough for a high soprano and I was told that I was never be able to hit it or be in that range again. But, Mrs. H has helped me get there. If she wasn’t married and I wasn’t straight than well…
I am 19. I'll be 20 in April. Which is weird. Because than I can say I lived twenty years. I remember when my cousin was born, and now she just got her driver’s license.
Where were you born?
In Price, Utah. It's a very small town. My real father, Jim was in the military and so I lived with him every where all over the United States with my step mom, Lea.
Do you have any brothers or sisters? How old? Are you close to them?
I have eight sisters: Brandy 26, Brittany 23, Danielle is 22, Chantel 23, Shiann 22, Sheriden 19, Michelle is turning 16, and than Mandy. I have 3 brothers: Jimmy and Robby—they are twins and they are 13, and Hunter is going to be turning 8.
Did you move around a lot as a kid?
Yeah. Cuz Jim was in the military. We were mainly in tornado alley—Kansas, missiori, Arkansas, texas for awhile and all over the states.
Are your parents divorced?
Yeah, they got divorced when I was still in the womb and than my piece of crap dad left her when she was pregnant. I have no good feelings towards him. He was a very abusive dad.
Do you want to get married and have kids one day?
I would love to get married and have kids. But I don’t see myself ever actually doing that. I would like to because I love little kids and my nieces and nephews. I have names for girls but not for boys. I'm not as creative with guy names.I just have one picked out. It's every little girls' dream of the big white wedding, having people fight over who is going to be your maid of honor, the dress, the flowers, dad walking you down the ailse. But I can't hold a boyfriend and so, I'm not sure I can hold a husband. I want it but I'm not sure how it'll happen. It's remarkable how I am friends with the people who do bad things to me. Every boyfriend who has cheated on me I’m friends with. I have a problem saying no to people.
How did you come to Gardner Webb?
Well, I got sick in November and a lot of the side effects of that were really really bad. After dealing with that at the college in Utah by myself, it got really hard. I had severe chronic fatigue and it was just really hard and so my mom and my dad live here and when I got cleared it was either here or NC state and I found Mrs. H and so here I am. I researched and they had a theater department and a music department. I just didn't realize that they didn't really work together much.
What do you want to do with your life?
I want to be in musical theater. I don’t care how. I would love to do Broadway. It's ever musical theater actor’s dream. I’ve been working towards that my entire life. I would also love to be a theater teacher because mine ruled. I’ve learned a lot from him-how to teach someone to be better and still be involved in theater, he's a great person. If this don’t work out, I'll probably do something like that. And I’m going to give it a really good try. I mean they are going to have to drag me out of New York. The "I heart NY" shirts are so true for me. I love it. I've been there a lot and it feels kind of like home. And once you’ve been there a number of times you learn the good places to go to eat and no one else does. There's really great tiny, little restaurants that have great food.
Are you dating someone right now?
Hmm. Ponders. I don’t know if I would call it dating. I don’t know what he would call it. I would say no…because technically I just got out of a relationship, with the first guy I really loved. He’s a lot older than I am. And he broke my heart. Just ruined it and so I think it’s my rebound. I think I am more of a fun person to hang out with for him than actual love interest, because I told him that I was leaving for Utah and he was okay with that…and I’m not sure if I necessarily be with someone okay with that so I’m pretty sure we aren’t dating and we haven't talked in like two days. Although I would love to find someone like Chris Keene (theater director). Not Chris Keene himself. But someone like him--the way he loves his wife…I would love to find someone who loves me like that. And I wonder why I haven’t found that and what I’m done wrong. And after every boyfriend has cheated on you, you really wonder what you are doing wrong. And least I have enough respect for myself not to stay with a guy who has cheated. I would never stay with a guy who cheated on me.
Guys suck.
How do you relieve stress?
Singing.
Theater. I love that you can go on a stage and be someone completely different and you aren’t in your world any more, you are outside of it and you don’t have to worry about a paper that is due or if your boyfriend is a jerk. There is something comforting about knowing that you can experience another world even if it’s just for a couple of hours. You can be in Annie and Oklahoma and 1922. I love theater.
I talk to Cheys, the sister that I am most close to. I talk to her about everything. She’s never going to BS me on anything, she will always tell me the truth because she’s the only one that will be completely honest with me, except for my mom. And she doesn’t judge me, but she will tell me where she stands on things. She’s a really great friend.
What irritates you in other people?
Lying. I don’t lie to other people and I don’t expect you to lie to me. I will trust you easily but once you break it, I will probably never trust you again. I hate when people lie to me. And I’m going to find it out any way, so you might as well say it to my face.
I hate people who are dirty all the time. I am really OCD. I am really clean and neat and it irritates me when other people aren’t.
I hate stuck up people who think they are better than everyone else. Know it alls bug me. I was a self professed know it all when I was a kid, my mom said, and I’ve tried to change that because I don’t want to be something I don’t like. I don’t see in myself what bugs me in others.
And people who are religious but don’t practice what they preach and they are the most mean, cruel-hearted people ever, but you get them in church and they are the 'let’s have corn bread and go sit on the back porch' people.
If someone has something bad to say about me, say it to my face, not behind my back I want someone to have the balls to say it to my face. I like things straight and honest. Because than your feelings get hurt immediately and you aren’t led on forever and you can get over it.
What kind of things do you like to do?
Sing.
Theater.
I like to bake. Not cook.
Dance.
Gymnastics. I teach at a studio near here.
Scrapbook.
Softball.
Run--I love to run.
Love to read. Love love to read. I have a huge library. I collect books. I’ll pretty much read any book.
If you could give one piece of advice to the world, what would it be?
Just because something is different doesn’t mean it is bad.
If there was one thing in the world that you could change, what would it be?
People prejudging others. I don’t ever recall getting a Deputy Jesus badge. We have no right to judge other people. We can have our opinions sure why not everyone has opinions but it doesn’t mean they deserve anything less.
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