Originally published in May 2022
As a Block Club brand manager, Miranda Bigham helps our clients navigate the road to a successful project with a personal touch. In this installment of 37 Questions, a humble nod to Vogue’s 73, we catch up with the former Division I swimmer about what’s on her bucket list, the importance of staying present, and the change she’d like to see in the world.
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How do you start your day—any routines?
I almost always start the day with coffee and oatmeal.
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What’s the last place you traveled to?
Aruba
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What was something especially memorable you did while you were there?
Riding a UTV (utility terrain vehicle) around the island and jumping into a natural pool on one of our stops—Block Club’s own Molly Christman told me about it beforehand.
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What’s the next place you’d like to go?
Denver
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What are you looking forward to most about that trip?
Spending time with one of my best friends, who moved there last year
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Your background is in writing. How did you get into that?
Honestly, I’m struggling to remember a time when I didn’t identify as a writer. I used to think essays assigned as schoolwork were a good time.
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If you had to write an essay with zero prep time, what topic would you choose?
The influence of marketing on the food industry and consumer health
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Besides essay writing, what’s your idea of a good time?
Humans, experiences, and conversations that really allow me to stay present—the ones that make me lose track of time or forget to look at my phone
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Where do you look for inspiration?
Anything that doesn’t take itself too seriously
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What’s your favorite thing you’ve written?
That’s tough! At a previous job, I had the opportunity to interview and write about significant health events that patients had been through, and that was memorable because it felt so personal.
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Do you have a place where you feel most creative?
Not a specific place, but I do appreciate moments of solitude for creativity.
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If you could live within the setting of a book or other piece of writing, which would you choose?
The wizarding world might be the only correct answer here.
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What house would you be in and why?
The quiz told me Slytherin, but I’d like to state for the record that I am a Hufflepuff at heart.
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How about your Patronus?
A panda
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What’s your best habit?
Remembering birthdays
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What’s your worst?
Not drinking enough water
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How do you like to relax?
Anything that takes me away from a screen–going on a run, cooking a meal, coffee with a friend
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Speaking of cooking, do you have any meals that you’d consider your specialty?
Chicken Milanese
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What’s on your bucket list?
Short-term: getting better at skiing, learning to water ski, and running a half marathon
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What’s the last big purchase you made?
It’s a surprise for my significant other.
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Do you consider yourself a good gift-giver?
For certain people, yes
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What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?
I’m not sure the Barbie house has been topped yet.
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What’s something that might surprise people about you?
I swam Division I for three years in college.
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Are there any other skills or sports you wish you could excel at?
Skiing (see the answer to question #19)
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Do you have a favorite time of the year?
I like the anticipation that April and early May hold, knowing the best weather is yet to come.
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How about a favorite place?
The house I grew up in, around the holidays
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Can you paint that picture for us?
There’s always good food, good wine, and we tend to watch the same movies year after year, but it somehow never gets old.
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What’s the best meal you’ve ever eaten?
Sunday supper at my grandma’s when I was a kid
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If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Probably chickpeas, in any form presented
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Who was a person you looked up to as a child?
My brother, sometimes
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Who’s a person you look up to now?
My brother, sometimes
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What’s one valuable lesson you learned from your brother?
Living simply is a real art.
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What lesson do you wish you had learned sooner in life?
So many come to mind. There’s a Maya Angelou quote that talks about being careful when a naked person offers you their shirt, and I think about that one a lot.
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Running with that theme, what’s the worst advice you’ve ever received?
Toward the end of my college years, there were many things I was told I “had to” do in order to get a job, be successful, etc. In hindsight, the pressure we put on young twenty-somethings to “figure it out” is so odd to me.
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What’s the best?
Trust your gut.
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What change do you want to see in the world?
Equal opportunity for womxn in every part of the world, hands down
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After you leave a room, what do you hope people say about you?
“She made me laugh.”