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My name is Margaret Koss and everyone calls me Marge for short –except for my mother, who refuses. I was born on June 20, the sunniest birthday of the year (it actually is, it’s the summer solstice).

I love documenting my world in every form of media possible, which has led me to study English and Film at Lawrence University. I spend my days filtering photos and taking videos of people when they’re not looking.

Margaret Koss

I prefer my mornings to have strong coffee and my nights to have good books.

I grew up in an old Victorian house in Elkhorn, a town in southeastern Wisconsin. Elkhorn is surrounded

by farmland and lakes, boasts the best county fair in the state, and competes in sporting events as the Elks.

My parents love to travel, and have taken my brother and me all over the country; my childhood was filled with road trips, museums, baseball games and walking all day without complaining. I have been to England twice and plan to go back next fall to live for a few months and study English Literature at the University of York (fingers crossed). My favorite state I have ever visited is Rhode Island because it’s a beautiful blue magical place with plenty of ocean shoreline, and my favorite city is New York because every single day you can wake up and discover something new.

I have two sisters and two brothers—all of them older than I—three of them married, two of them with kids and one of them still in college. They’re all pretty good friends of mine and made sure I turned out to be an OK person.

My mom taught me how to be kind, and my dad taught me how to be funny. They both taught me that rather than going into the world and doing well, I should go into the world and do good.

My talents include telling stories, making eggs, recalling any “Glee” plot line, impersonating Kristen Wiig’s “SNL” characters and playing Euchre. My favorite books are Jane Austen’s “Emma,” B.J. Novak’s “One More Thing,” Virginia Woolf’s “To The Lighthouse,” and P.D. Eastman’s “Go Dog Go.” I love musicals, satire and The Beatles. I can eat unlimited amounts of blueberries, avocados and bruschetta. Playing piano, cleaning my room and driving alone relax me. I like waking up early, being awake late at night and sleeping a lot (which creates a huge cognitive dissonance I am trying to sort out).

I like fall the best, but I love each season and have never understood why anyone would waste time hating something as constant and predictable as a season. I can sing, I wish I could draw and I really wish I could dance. I don’t like the idea of bucket lists, but I have a few long-term goals, including but not limited to, going to the Newport Folk Festival (see the Rhode Island obsession?), spending extensive time in France, writing a book of short stories, having a son named Linus and learning to drive stick. And one last thing about me: I like creating series of lists.