It isn’t every day that you run into a Polish girl that used to live on a ferret farm in Wyoming, but that is exactly where Caitlin Kwiatkowski spent the first three years of her life. Even though she grew up as an only child, she did have a cousin that lived with her family for a short while she was in the fourth grade, and she views him as a little brother since they grew up with each other and spent a lot of time together. With her background and heritage, she has become, and remains, very close-knit with her family and friends. At the age of five her family decided to move to Pennsylvania for the opportunity of her dad to pursue his job. Her dad chose a profession as a veterinarian and felt that the east coast had more to offer in the ways of working to help animals. In Chambersburg, she was able to pursue one of her passions and become an avid tennis player. She had the opportunity to play all four years of her high school career on both the junior varsity and varsity teams and was fourth on the varsity ladder. Caitlin was presented with the award of most improved player from tenth to eleventh grade when she moved up to varsity from junior varsity. She loves the competition of the game and the intensity of knowing that at anytime, the leader of the match could change. Her teammates really admired her hard work and the pressure she put on herself to always improve her game and whether she won or lost the match, she kept a good attitude.
People that know Caitlin personally say she is very outgoing and always has a smile on her face. She is able to have fun with whatever it is she is doing and prefers to go out and have fun trying new things rather than sitting at home and lounging around. She has an amazing ability to cheer people up even when they are feeling down or unsure about themselves. Her laugh is contagious and when she walks in the room and smiles, you can’t help but to smile back. She could be having the worst of days and when she sees you she still has a smile on her face. Even though she grew up in a little city surrounded by farms and mountains, Caitlin really likes to eat sushi, but says you can never go wrong with her mom’s cooking! All of those home-made cookies and peanut-butter pies really hit the spot! In her opinion, she thinks her mom is one of the best cooks there is and that opinion may be one of the many reasons it was just a little tough to adjust to Virginia Tech. It also doesn’t help the transition with her friends being so far away from home and her going off to different colleges and having to deal with the change themselves. They are all able to see each other after periods of time and it seems like nothing has changed between any of them. They are able to be as close as they were before they went their own ways for any amount of time.
She realizes that once you have to move away from home, you become aware of exactly what it is that you loved most about that place. The smells and the views she once took for granted. The little side streets and boutiques in town. The friendly waves of the neighbors when you pass them on a back road. With all of that in mind, she still knows she will be able to deal with the distance because it is only four hours away and she can still go home and relax with her family on weekends if she feels like going for a drive. It takes some getting used to but she seems to be adjusting just fine. She is starting to make lots of new friends here in Blacksburg but is keeping in very close touch to her friends back home and at other colleges. In her spare time, Caitlin loves to go shopping; her style has a unique twist, and hangs out with her friends and boyfriend, Zane. He has nothing but good things to say about her, and to him, she is the one of the people that can make him happy and cheer him up when it seems like everything that could go wrong is going wrong. Her personality is what he enjoys most about her because she is positive and doesn’t sweat the little things. Multitask is her middle name and she knows when to buckle down and get to work and knows when it is time to loosen up and have a good time. Caitlin loves to go to the movies and can what just about any genre of movie and enjoy it. She loves comedy and it is her sense of humor that makes her able to take practical jokes and laugh it off!
She is in the engineering program here at Virginia Tech, but isn’t sure what type of engineering she wants to do yet. Aerospace or ocean engineering seems to be the way she is leaning at the moment, but she is keeping an open mind to all of the categories in the field. With as many jobs as there are in the engineering world, Caitlin hasn’t decided exactly what kind of job she wants but she shouldn’t have any trouble finding one that suits her with as broad of profession as engineering. She wants a job that makes her happy and supplies her with enough money to keep her and her family happy, but she also wants a job that is challenging and requires her to think outside of the box. With whatever this life decides to throw her way, she will make an influence on the lives of the people she meets because she is such a caring and compassionate person.
