I asked them to tell me what makes them tick.
It was supposed to be just a fun writing exercise over pizza during the last Feature Writing class before a break last semester, but it turned into so much more – and I had to share.
Matt Trombley’s answer made the girls in the class utter a collective “awe!”
“What makes me tick might sound cliché and sappy, but it’s the closest to the truth as I can get,” he wrote. “What makes me tick, is my wife, Sam. No matter how bad my day is, no matter how many graying hairs I pull out of my head throughout the day because of stress, I always get to walk home and see her smiling face. Whenever I think of the future, she’s in the center of it. I do everything for her.”
For Molly Howard it was hockey. A member of the CSC women’s hockey team, Howard wrote that although she complains about the commitment at times, serving as a role model for other girls – including a recent autograph seeking visit by local Girl Scouts, makes it special.
Alexis Esposito wrote that CSC makes her tick saying it “allowed her to blossom.”
Deven Savage agreed, also crediting CSC for making him tick. He wrote that the school allowed him to meet the “love of his life, Emmalee,” and also made him mature.
“My life would be very different if I chose not to attend Castleton. I thank God each day I did,” he wrote.  

For Chelsey McKinney, it’s the “world surrounding me.” She sees school as the catalyst to get her traveling the world and seeing foreign cultures that she’s so fascinated with.
“I have a mind that won’t sit still and I need to know what’s out there,” she wrote.
Becka Roe wrote about her time back home with family, and the little things like smelling her father’s morning coffee and being greeted with “good morning Sunshine.”
I bet her dad would love reading that because as a dad, I would hope my daughters might answer the same.
Mike Divis said “inspiration,” makes him tick, be it a sports team winning for their city or a single mom raising a child.
But for Molly DeMellier, editor of The Spartan, it’s the pursuit of laughter.
“I live to laugh and make others laugh,” she wrote. “This natural high keeps my world turning.
“Getting a laugh and putting a smile on someone’s face can have the potential to change their entire day.”
This assignment was meant to be a fun way to get some creative writing and share with classmates, but to me it became more – and I thought it would be neat to share.