KELSEY MAYS
Living Editor
Even though she isn’t feeling well, senior Ruchika Mohla is upbeat enough to occasionally slip words like “zesty” and “weak sauce” into her vocabulary. She’s a biology major who occasionally decorates her Lovernich apartment in whatever festivities are the current rage. This past week, Halloween took to the walls with plastic jack-o-lanterns on the shelves and a witch’s costume hanging on the front door.
The Folsom, Calif.-native said she will miss her Delta Delta Delta sorority sisters after Pepperdine but looks forward to eventually attending medical school.
So you’re a senior now. Any plans this year?
I want to go to med. school, but first I want to take a year off. I want to get a master’s (degree) in public health or some other field.
So you won’t really be taking a year off, then.
No, it’s just a year off between now and med. school, not a year off-off.
You eventually want to be a doctor?
Si, señor. I want to be a pediatrician, definitely something to do with kids.
Was this what you came into Pepperdine wanting to do?
Yeah.
What about decorating? You seem pretty good at that, with all of these Halloween decorations up.
I feel like with decorating, my abilities go only so far. It takes me a long time to figure out how to do stuff like this. I had those pumpkins and garlands, but it took me a while to figure this out. I’m not creative. That’s why I’m a science major. It shouldn’t take that long to come up with where to place pumpkins on a wall.
What about that picture montage behind you? That looks pretty creative.
Well, (my roommate, senior Alissa Curda, and I) didn’t have any pictures to put on the wall, so when we got our yearbook proofs, we put them all on. Those are basically different pictures of Alissa and I.
So there are just eight pictures of the same person? Are they at least slightly different?
Yeah, they’re different poses. They were all like, ‘tilt your head different ways,’ and a couple are in black and white. See, I could never be an interior decorator. This is the stuff I’d tell my customers to do.
Well, maybe you could be a photographer.
I could.
What do your friends know you as?
Nocturnal. I’m most productive between the hours of 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. I eat and talk a lot. I’m spunky and upbeat. We can just say those three.
Are you in a sorority?
Yes, I’m a Tri-Delt (Delta Delta Delta). I love them. I’m the philanthropy chair right now, and we just put on ‘Fashion For Life,’ which is a program to benefit St. Jude’s Hospital.
Sounds good.
Yeah, that’s Tri-Delt. They’re zesty.
‘Zesty?’ Where did you get that word?
I think from an ex-boyfriend. I don’t know. Somehow, it just found its way into my vocabulary.
It’s a very cool word. Any others?
Another cool word is ‘Shaniqqua’ with two Qs. I used to play soccer, and I was captain of the soccer team for three years. When I introduced myself to the captains of the other teams, I would say, as seriously as possible, ‘Hi, I’m Shaniqqua, with two Qs.’ A lot of times, they’d give me blank stares, but a lot of the time, they would just start cracking up. It would really just break the tension before the game. I really felt like it brought us together. But mostly there were just a lot of blank stares.
How do you spell ‘Shaniqqua’ with two Qs?
S-H-A-N-I-Q-Q-U-A. Shah-nee-kwah, yeah. I don’t know how you really spell it. That’s how I spell it. My name is obviously not Shaniqqua.
Have you used it any time recently?
No, but I’m thinking I should start doing it at Starbucks. When I go into Starbucks and they write my name down on the cup, it’s funny to see how they misspell ‘Ruchika.’ I think the worst one was ‘R-A-S-H-E-E-K-A-H.’ So I always give them some other name, like ‘Rachel’ or something. I think it would be funny to use ‘Shaniqquah with two Qs’ sometime.
11-03-2005
