People of the Pack: Sunny Patel

Sunny Patel is a graduate student studying communication sciences from Worthington, Minnesota.

Morgan Matzen: Do you like living in Worthington?

Sunny Patel: Yeah, it’s a nice place. Small town. You can get to places very easily without having to drive excessive distances. I’ve been living there about six years now. Basically, we’ve always been traveling back and forth from Windom, Minnesota, which is about 30 minutes away. We have a family business up there running the Super 8. We’ve lived in Chicago, Florida and some other places when I was young. I can’t quite remember the details about them, like India. I was born in Chicago and raised for about five or six years in India before I came back here to Chicago. My parents moved to Florida, I don’t quite know why but I was just too young to remember details about that.

MM: Was moving around a good or bad experience for you? Do you remember much of all the places you have been?

SP: The only places I remember are Chicago, India and Minnesota. The rest are not very detailed memories. Moving was kind of difficult, but we didn’t move during any major times, like during the middle of a semester or something like that.

MM: What are you hoping to do with communication studies?

SP: Well, I’m using it as a stepping stone to increase my own interpersonal communication skills as well as understanding the theories before I go on to my second master’s degree in family therapy.

MM: What do you hope to do with families?

SP: I am going to become a counselor and try to create a safe and welcoming environment. I’ll help them where they are, and try to get them where they want to be. I just like helping people, and counseling and psychology was always a second love of mine over science. I just discovered that I love psychology enough to make it my field of interest.

MM: What do you find interesting about psychology?

SP: What I find interesting is just the different dynamics and people’s behaviors and basically their understanding of how they create their reality, versus another person.

MM: Is psychology something your family pushed you to do?

SP: Our culture is very collective. Family is very important as well as relationships. That kind of played into it, but the ultimate decision was my own.

MM: What’s one example of a time when you helped someone?

SP: I am helping one of my best friends try to find their birth parents, but it’s complicated because they are from overseas. That’s one of the biggest things that I’ve been proud to be part of.

MM: What is something that not many people know about you?

SP: I’m an epic nerd. I enjoy the outdoors because I love long boarding, and I’m also a gamer and a Doctor Who fan. I don’t really fall into one niche or genre. I love the environment, so that’s why I love being outdoors. I would take my long board over a car any day.