Academics were important to my parents, as immigrants. Education is where it all begins.

I'm attracted to intelligence and creativity and passion - and not necessarily the romantic kind. I want to learn from someone who is greedy for information and light and laughter and the whole world. Someone who celebrates their days and finds inspiration in what other people accomplish.

Deep down, I'm a Texas girl looking for that big romance every girl dreams about. Biologically, I look forward to being a cornerstone of a family. I'll be in my glory when I have a child on my knee.

I believe in love, but I don't sit around waiting for it. I buy houses.

Motherhood has never been an ambition. I don't think like that. I never have expectations like, 'When I'm 19 I'm going to do this, and by the time I've hit 25 I'm going to do that'. I just take things as they come, each day at a time, and if things happen then all well and good.

I'm grateful for the experiences I've accumulated. Of course, there are certain things you wish were not on anyone's list of life experiences, but it's a life. It's a good life. And I like what's there.

I've never been the sort of person who takes things for granted, and I'm not an acquisitions girl. So I didn't feel entitled to a car when I was 16. Of course, I was bummed I didn't get one, because I was an American Texas teenager! But I understood it. I've never gotten my self-esteem from having the newest, most spectacular thing.