Meet Your Fellow Gustie: John Anderson

Do you ever wonder what it takes to be involved in school, extra-cirricular activities, and keep a positive attitude all the time? The answer lies in John Anderson, this week’s featured Gustie.

John is from Bemidji, Minnesota, and is the oldest child with two younger sisters. He likes to fish, camp, bike, wake board, snowmobile, snowboard and take lots of pictures.

On campus, John is a History major, active in the Epsilon Phi Alpha fraternity, a Gustie Greeter and John even finds time to be a member of the Gustavus Choir.

Referring to his “Eppie” brothers, John said, “They are a great bunch of guys that I can always have a good time with.” Another advantage about being a part of this group is the community service that they do. This year, John was very proud that the group raised $6,500 for Juvenile Diabetes this year.

The Gustie Greeters is another group that John is proud to be a part of. “I wish I could do it for the rest of my life!” he said. Being able to be a resource for someone who doesn’t have anyone else is what really makes it worth while for him. “Plus I just really like being hyper all of the time!” John said.

Music is also a very big part of John’s life and the Gustavus Choir has been an outlet for him to express his love of music. “I love to sing and I love being involved with music,” John said.

Additionally, he loves just sitting in his room and listening to music, including artists like Michael Buble or Alter Bridge. John has played the piano since he was young and also plays the guitar
and saxophone. Playing artists like Davie Barnes on his guitar has been a favorite pastime for John.

Although John is a fun, hyper people-person, he also has a more relaxed side to him. “I actually spend a lot of my time in the library or just in my room. I enjoy naps and eating until I can’t move,” he said.

John is also a huge movie buff and loves a movie where it seems like a series of random events, nothing makes sense and suddenly at the end everything comes together. He suggests What Dreams Will Come to anyone looking for a good movie to watch.

The person that John emulates is his father. “He worked his butt off in medical school and worked even harder to make a connection with us,” John said. “He did an amazing job raising us kids and still works very hard to provide for his family.”

Advertising or marketing may be within John’s future, but he is still unsure. “I just
know that I have to work with people,” he said. John also hopes to travel to Germany,
France and Italy one day because “everything [there] is so old. I want to be able to smell the
history!” he said.

John as always tried to live by the motto: “Live life like each day could be your last.” He says that making one person smile each day just to make their day better is his goal “because life sucks and you need someone to make you happy,” he said. “I want to leave my footprints in the sand that way.”

As an upperclassman at Gustavus, his advice to other students is, “Make time to have fun and make friends. Otherwise school will run you down. Take at least one hour everyday to relax with friends.”

A leader within the community and a guy with a great outlook on life, Junior John Anderson brightens up the Gustavus campus.

Photo By: Alex Messenger