Joseph Shwalenberg Interview

I got to interview our classmate and fellow English major, Joseph Schwalenberg, for this assignment. He’s a senior this year, and hopes to write a novel in the future, so I wanted to ask him a few questions about work, his plans for the future, and the books he loved in the past. In his introduction, he said that he didn’t read much in high school, but I assumed that he fell in love with books at some point if he wanted to write one. I really enjoyed how he answered most of my questions with a story, not just a sentence or two. He’s a storyteller at heart.

I know you said you hated to read in high school, but did you have a favorite book when you were younger, perhaps a picture book or an elementary school-aged book? When I was little I used to read the “Little Critter” books by Mercer Mayer. I had like 20 of them. My favorite one of the series that I had was the Christmas one. I don’t know what it was about that book but I just loved how he would describe the whole Christmas …show more content…
If you could work at your dream job, what would that look like for you?

My dream job would be something that didn’t require me to keep a schedule. Obviously I would like to make a ton of money, but I’ve never really been the type of person that wanted to provide a lifestyle that I couldn’t really participate in. Like a doctor or a lawyer has to work insane hours, and although they are paid well, they can’t really enjoy life because they’re working all the time.

I think I would enjoy being an author. Giving lectures at colleges and symposiums would be kinda cool. Or maybe a motivational speaker, that would be fun. But, to answer the question directly, my dream job would be . . . a business investor. Like, I would invest in other people’s ideas and businesses and then make a profit. I wouldn’t have to manage anything or run a company of my own, I would just profit off of the labors of others. With that, I could enjoy life and do whatever I wanted to do. I think that would be