Ashley Mayo
Ashley Mayo, the girl with a need for speed, but a heart made of gold. Upon interviewing her, her personality strikes as a compassionate person, with a strong competitive spirit. Throughout her high school career, track was a big part of her life, but now that she’s in college nursing is Ashley's main focus.
While interviewing Ashley I asked her a few questions to get to know her more. I found out that she grew up in Glendale, California. Her home town was called Sierra Madre. She says that “Its a tiny town which is nice because everyone knows each other.” Which I can relate to since I to lived in a small town where everyone knew each other. In addition to Ashley living in a small town, her favorite type of movies are comedy and drama, because you can’t have life with laughter without a little bit of drama! She also states that Christmas is her favorite time of the year, because of all the beautiful lights and chilling weather.
What was one of most interesting facts I learned about Ashley is that her favorite color is red. She describes red as representing her wild and fiery side, but also representing her loving and caring side. It intrigues me that you can learn so much about a person’s character based alone on their favorite color. Ashley’s favorite color being red, correlates with her experience on the track team, as well as her interest in nursing, since track shows her wild and competitive side, while nursing shows her compassion.
During high school Ashley participated in cross country and track, where she ran the 400m 800m, and 1 mile run. I really have to give it up to Ashley for being able to run such long distances, it showcases how much endurance she has. With my experience running track back in high school, I was a sprinter and anything over 200m I’d probably pass out! Anyway, throughout her track season she faced many obstacles and setbacks that really hindered her from running, one of them including a very painful injury.
Throughout Ashley’s track season I asked was there anything that she struggled with and how did she overcome those obstacles. She mentioned that her coach wasn’t one of the best and that without her team she probably would not have gotten through the season. During the season Ashley endured a painful hip flexor injury. A hip flexor strain is, “a stretch or tear of a muscle in your hip”(www.summitmedicalgroup.com), and is caused by over using that muscle. Since we use our hip flexor to bend down, and lift our legs to walk and run, it’s not uncommon to see this type of injury for some who runs track. Most people would give up and quit, but not Ashley. She was determined and focused on finishing out her season strong. She said that “I didn’t want to stop running, so I just had to push through it even though the pain on the inside of my hip traveled down my leg.” When I was running track in high school I oftentimes would get painful shin splints due to me participating in the long jump event. When I did the long jump event, I had to sprint as fast as I could and jump off of my right leg. Shin splints definitely caused me a great deal of pain, and made it difficult to do anything. But, like Ashley I had an amazing team that supported me and did not allow me to give up.
"She describes red as representing her wild and fiery side, but also representing her loving and caring side."
After learning about Ashley’s competitive side, I wanted to shift gears and explore her compassionate side. Another one of her passions besides track, is her calling to help people which is why she is majoring in nursing. Here at the University of Alabama, the nursing program is one of the most competitive programs offered. So, it is no surprise why Ashley choose to be in this program. She says that “getting to work in the nursing program challenges me and keeps me on my toes.” I asked her was there anything else the prompted her to become a nursing major, and she told me that it all began when she was 8 years old.
When Ashley was 8 years old, she was with her grandfather when all of a sudden she realized that he was having a heart attack. She rushed to the phone to call 911 to tell them that her grandfather was having a heart attack. It took the EMT’s two hours after Ashley called for them to arrive! Sadly when the EMT’s finally arrived it was too late, and her grandfather passed away. I did some research and found out that back in 2011 (little over three years after Ashley's grandfather passed away), in San Diego two hours away from Glendale, California “first responders have arrived late across the city more than 37,000 times to cardiac arrests, chokings, shootings” Which correlates to about “an average of more than two times an hour, every day”(www.voiceofsandiego.org) Since that day, Ashley knew that she wanted to save lives as a nurse.
Like Ashley, I to want to work in the medical field, as a pediatric doctor and specialize in hematology, which is the study of blood. Growing up I’ve always knew that I wanted to work with children, it's one of my main passions. Although more recently I wanted to eventually specialize in blood disorders, primarily because my brother has sickle cell anemia. Sickle cell anemia is a blood disorder that gets its name from how the blood cells are shaped. For normal blood cells, its a round shaped cell, but for people with sickle cell, their blood cells are in the shape of a crescent sickle shape. This in turn causes pain throughout your body, since sickle shaped cells create blockage in your bloodstream. Watching my brother constantly having to go to the hospital, makes me want to help children with blood disorders, to give them a better chance at life without pain and suffering.
Throughout my time interviewing Ashley, I learned two sides of her; her competitive and compassionate side. Ashley strikes as the type of person to never back down from a challenge and that the word quit does not exist in her vocabulary. Her competitive nature plays well into her compassion for caring and loving people, and to never give up on them no matter what challenges face her.