Along with family, Mackenzie held the friends she made at LMU in high regard. In addition to a college degree, she appeared to have scored an entourage of friends that made her college experience whole. Keeping her relationships a priority, along with adventure resulted in her professoriate in YOLO (You Only Live Once). Check out the video below by Lonely Island Boys who apply this term.
“It was this ongoing joke between friends that myself and my best friend were the professors of YOLO. We offered a graduate level class for all of them. It was this ongoing thing. Some nights I’d say, you can’t do homework tonight, you have to go on an adventure. We tried to constantly have moments of adventure and spontaneity. On the morning of graduation my best friend invited us over before we walked, the whole room was set up as a mini ceremony. He delivered a hilarious, yet tear-jerking commencement speech and gifted us all with a YOLO diploma. It was obviously a big joke, but it was so meaningful. It was such a perfect ending.”
Graduation day may be over, but Mackenzie continues to embraces YOLO into her own Art of Doing. She uses this term to mean treating life like a constant adventure, but to also have a strong faith.
Interviewees in The Doers Series are asked the same 20 questions. One set of questions are about life to-do lists, also known as bucket lists. Below are Mackenzie’s insights, which are in harmony with what she spoke about prior in the interview: travel, friendship, service, relationships, and faith.
What would you encourage people to do once in their lives?
Travel the world with their best friends
Within the next year?
Find somewhere to volunteer consistently
Within the next week?
Write a letter to someone you love
Today?
Pray
Pillars such as these are the make up of Mackenzie, a young adult equipped with a solid foundation of values, belief in herself and care for others. These are some of the many reasons I asked her to be part of this series. She has an ease in which she can have a room buckled with laughter one day, then deep in prayer the next.
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