The Wrangler sat down and delved into the life of senior Erik Isaksen, where his Norwegian ethnicity, passions,  future plans, baddies of the world, and epic randomness were all discussed.

The Wrangler: What is your ethnic background? What defines you culture-wise?

Isaksen:  Well, my dad’s from Norway and we have this huge interest in that in our family,we even go to Norway all the time. If you look at my bookshelf, practically 75% of those books are on Norwegian culture and vikings.

The Wrangler: Are you going to immerse your kids into the Norwegian culture? Would you bring them to Norway someday?

Isaksen: Well yeah, I will bring them to Norway, but if they want to be as immersed as I am, that’s up to them.

The Wrangler: What is your passion, simply put what fascinates you and why does it fascinate you?

Isaksen: The outdoors because it is very serene and beautiful, mostly if it’s the Northern outdoors, such as Wyoming and the Rocky Mountains, and especially parts of Canada. Completely and honestly, I have no idea why nature fascinates me, I just have an interest to Northern nature, I don’t know why.

The Wrangler: You are in your ending days of high school, what specifically have you learned/gained from being in high school, and what experiences will you take with you to use in college/the inevitable future?

Isaksen: Friends. The experiences that I’ve had with them. This one girl [my friend] keeps on trying to get me to go to the football games and pep rallies. Actually, yesterday we were arguing for about maybe an hour about why I should go to a football game. So, I think the thing that I would take to college or my future would be that I should try to go to these ‘events’ even though I don’t want to.

The Wrangler: What colleges are you applying to/have applied to, and what will you major in?

Isaksen: University of Fairbanks, Alaska, University of Anchorage, Alaska, University of Boulder, Colorado, University of Texas [Austin], and I suppose A&M. University of Colorado at Boulder has an extremely good, if not the only, bio-astronautics program. I want to major in a lot of things- anthropology, biology, astronomy- because they seem fun.

The Wrangler: If you were to give advice to your freshman self/any other grade in high school what would you say and why?

Isaksen: I would tell my freshman self to work my butt off because everything about me was lazy that year and I knew that it[high school] mattered I just didn’t want to care. My sophomore self was spot on. My junior self was awesome but just a bit less[than my senior self].

The Wrangler: Do you have a favorite quote, a quote that you live by?

Isaksen: There are two quotes that I say almost religiously to some friends just to mess with them, both of them are found randomly on the internet the first one is ‘If people are trying to bring you down, that only means you’re above them’ and the second one is ‘ Your mind is like a parachute, it doesn’t work if it isn’t open.’

The Wrangler: How do those quotes inspire you throughout your life?  

Isaksen: Well, those are very inspirational quotes, they talk about keeping an open mind and thinking and not being pulled down by others. 

The Wrangler: Why do you say them to your friends?

Isaksen: Because I’ve said it once too many times and now it’s just a joke.

The Wrangler: If you could have lunch with three famous people dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Isaksen: Liam Neeson, Jason Statham, and Joe Anderson because they seem like pretty chill people.

The Wrangler: Why do you think Liam Neeson is a “pretty chill person”? Don’t you think our culture has degraded  him down to the “I will find you and I will kill you” Taken guy?

Isaksen: I have seen many of his things and I think Liam Nesson is a pretty chill person. I don’t see him as the Taken guy only, exclusively, he’s the warrior from Rob Roy, the important guy from Batman [Begins].

The Wrangler: If you had to build a team to protect against the baddies of the world, superheroes unlimited, who would you pick?

Isaksen: Liam Neeson, Jason Statham, and Joe Anderson. Liam Neeson is basically a superhero and so is Jason Statham. Also Thor because he’s a pretty sweet guy; all other superheroes are overrated because of too much hype. A bunch of superheroes have been outdone by guys that are ‘normal’ so to speak.

The Wrangler: What are some musicians that you like to listen to, and how do they influence you?

Isaksen: Miniature Tigers,The Decemberists, and Johnny Cash. And I don’t think [ that they influence me] because [unlike] one of [my friends] who knows all the backstories of [their favorite] band members and everything about their favorite band member, I don’t. I just listen to the music. Let’s just say that I could pick from all of my favorite bands and I pick one, I probably know more about that band than the other bands but not enough to completely influence my life or change the way I think, talk, and dress.

The Wrangler: Tell me one of your best personal experiences

Isaksen: I was in Norway, and we [my family] have this cabin out by a lake and there’s and island in the middle of the lake,  and we have these boats that are almost like canoes. One time on our return trip from this island my dad fell in the water off of the boat. There were four of us there: me, my dad, my sister, and my grandfather; me and my sister were just standing there and my grandfather is laughing and taking a picture of my dad. My dad was in a perfectly fine situation, he can swim and he was in no danger at all.

The Wrangler: Do you have any final words/ things to say about this experience?

Isaksen: A quote, ‘Never run when you can walk, never walk when you can stand, never stand when you can sit never sit when when you can lay down, never lay down when you can sleep.’