The Flying Taco–your average subpar superhero. She’s got a hard shell (sometimes), but she’s usually a mess of colors on the inside. She has many good ideas, but more often than not, her brain and mouth don’t work in harmony and she ends up sounding like she learned to talk just yesterday. While she has a pretty vibrant personality around people who she has gotten to know and be comfortable with, you can bet that she’ll be shaking in her boots if you give her a microphone and an audience of more than 2 people. Her teachers–Mr. Berkowitz, the high school dean and Human Rights teacher, in particular–always told her that “the more you practice public speaking, the better you’ll get.” She isn’t sure what went wrong along the way, but she experienced the exact opposite of that logic. The more she spoke, the more terror she felt.

However, given the right environment (supportive peers in a small class), she easily excels in classroom discussions– especially about topics she feels very strongly about, equality being one of them. In fact, the more she contributes, the more empowered she feels. Like a superhero battery at work.

Stress and nerves tend to fuel many of her conversations, whether personal or professional. It keeps her talking, keeps her focused. She lives for planning and organization. Her tactic is, for the most part, keep it logical and straight-forward. Stick to the plan. She often attempts to use dry humor to highlight certain points, but that usually ends up serving as a tension breaker. She finds that she is at her best when she stops worrying about the audience and believes in her message. She feels the most comfortable talking about topics she has spent a lot of time researching. She likes having a strong handle on what she talks about. It feels good to get into the swing of things. On the downside, she’s at her worst when she has to participate in debates. It’s too in-the-moment and she doesn’t like not knowing what to expect.