Isaiah Blaes Gessner, The Easterner’s social media director, is an EWU sophomore who loves movies and does not love brussels sprouts.

Having to switch to all-online classes in the third quarter of his freshman year, Gessner says he appreciates the freedom that online classes have given him, but he misses the more personal aspect of having in-person classes. 

Gessner has been spending his 14 months of quarantine watching movies and binging new TV shows. His favorite of the year is a movie called “Uncut Gems,” a crime thriller about a jeweler whose debts are getting so high that he has to risk it all or be swallowed by the large sum he owes. Gessner’s least favorite movie he watched is the musical “Cats.”

“I went into it expecting it to be bad,” said Gessner. “And it was worse than I expected. And I had low expectations.”

Gessner said he would find greater joy in doing any other activity as opposed to watching that musical. He rated it a 0/10.

“Please don’t waste the time,” said Gessner. “Do anything else. Sleep, catch up on homework, go hang out with a friend. Anything is better than [watching] that.”

Gessner enjoys writing about sports and listening to good music in his spare time. On top of that, he also found a new love of collecting sports cards during the pandemic. He really enjoys the few signed cards he has and said his favorite card he has collected so far would be his Aaron Rodgers card, as he is an avid Green Bay Packers fan.

Gessner is a marketing major at EWU and would love to land a job doing some sort of social media marketing involving sports.

“The ideal job [would be] if Seattle gets an NBA team here soon,” said Gessner. “[Or just] something sports related. Whether it’s broadcasting or writing or whatever. I could watch sports all day and be happy and feel like I live a good life.”

In a normal world, Gessner loves to spend time hanging out with his friends. He is extremely passionate about being social and getting to know people, and he would love to work a position where he got to be around people a lot.

“I just love the experience of people,” said Gessner. “I really love talking to people and meeting new people and hearing their life stories. I like hearing how people became the people that they are.”

If he could go back in time to any year and warn the people of that day to be prepared for something coming, Gessner said he would go back to the late summer or early fall of 2019 and tell everyone to bask in regular life as long as possible.

“I would tell them…‘Hey, really soak this in,’” said Gessner. “‘Just really enjoy this time, because you’re going to hit a brick wall here in February and March. Things get very different. And they stay very different.’”

Gessner is excited for the state to begin reopening and for life to continue the slow process of getting back to normal.