Share a bit about yourself, your interests, and your stage of life.
My name is Rachael Howden. I am in my freshman year of college and planning to pursue a degree in chemical engineering. I am finishing my freshman year at RCTC and I am so thankful for the opportunity to have an extra year with my family. This August, I will be leaving for college, so I am finding that I cherish the time we spend together even more. I enjoy many hobbies, but some of my favorites are reading, hiking, karate, and Bible study.
Share a core memory from your childhood.
Choosing a single memory is so hard. One memory that I hold particularly close to my heart is reading The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings for the first time with my mom. We were on vacation and stopped at a little bookstore. She was looking for a particular book. Winding our way through the crowded rooms stacked high with books, she stopped and pulled a small copy of The Hobbit from a shelf. That night she started reading it to me. I was enchanted. It was a special time with my mom with a special book and when we finished, I wasn’t sure I wanted to read the Lord of the Rings. How could the trilogy compare with the Hobbit? Despite my misgivings, we started listening to the Lord of the Rings audiobook in the evenings after my sisters went to bed. For months we listened together; bedtime was my favorite time of day. Looking back, I think the trilogy has been an enduring favorite and that is partially due to fond memories from my first time reading it with my mom. There’s something magical about going on a literary journey together.
What is something that you love and appreciate about your mom?
I really appreciate the time and effort she put into homeschooling me. She gave me a love of learning and curiosity about the world around me. She spent many hours reading aloud to me, instilling in me a love of stories even before I could read them for myself. We also spent a lot of time outside. While I wasn’t super outdoorsy when I was little, she won me over to the love of the outdoors in time.
What is an activity you enjoy doing with your mom?
I can’t think of a single activity that stands out. Rather, the small everyday moments come to mind most readily. We enjoy many of the same books and like talking about themes or greater truths found within their pages. We both love hiking, plotting spontaneous trips, belting out MercyMe songs in the car, and drinking tea late at night in front of the fire.
How are you similar and different from your mom?
My mom and I share a similar sense of humor, an appreciation for beauty, a creative bent, a love of chemistry, and a joy of doing spontaneous activities. While we share similar values and hobbies, we do have some differences in preferences. My mom loves Earl Gray tea, but I think it smells quite terrible. She also gets excited about shopping, but I can think of 1001 things I would rather do (including cleaning the bathroom). When packing for vacations, she likes to prepare for several situations while I like to pack in the smallest backpack I can find. (mostly kidding 🙂 )
If you could give your mom any gift, no matter the expense or impossibility, what would it be?
I would give her the gift of a birding trip to find some of her favorite birds. She has mentioned how much she would love to go to Central America to see the myriad of tropical birds, especially the hummingbirds. She also loves puffins and blue-footed boobies, but the most elusive bird on her list is a burrowing owl. On multiple occasions when we were in Florida we drove to places that were supposed to have tons of them, but we never saw a single one. Whenever we go on vacation she likes to bring her binoculars and tries to fit in a little birdwatching around our other activities. I think taking the time to go and find the birds she has always wanted to see would be a really special gift.