22-year-old student, Jordan Bailey, majors in Biology and minors in Chemistry at the University of Oregon. Jordan identifies heavily with his past. It determines his future academically, professionally and socially.
Having grown up with little money, as an only child, moving homes several times, he prides himself on his ambition to “be someone” in life that does not reflect his upbringing. He says college was a shock for him. Freshman year he stole the hat he currently wears from a “rich girl.”
Jordan’s dream is to create fully functional prosthetic limbs for people and to be successful enough to support his family—his mom, and half-brother and half-sister, who are eight years old.
Jordan works in an ant lab on the UO campus, he often spends hours at a time in this basement. “I often come in here when the sun is out and leave when it’s like pitch black,” he says. As of three months ago the job pays him and continues to give him experience in a biology lab. The lab specializes in ants, dissecting their mouths and legs, and doing experiments on them.
Jordan’s main project last term was to create paths for the two ant colonies to test if they would choose the best one. He spent days cutting, gluing and orchestrating the tube paths that are still being used for experiments. He treats the colonies with care and often checks up on them even when working on other projects.
The lab dissects and experiments on other species as well, like tarantulas, scorpions, and worms. The worm Jordan holds is a Nerieis Branti and he will be dissecting their teeth to test their wear rate. He loves the hands-on work he gets to do in the lab and doesn’t just view it as work, he’s grown to love his ant colonies and the other animals he does experiments on.
Jordan pays for his education and living expenses by himself and does so in part by working at the pizzeria Mezza Luna, where he has worked for almost a year. He makes sure to pick up any shifts he can to earn extra money.
Jordan is covering a coworker’s shift last minute on a Sunday. He sometimes has to choose between school and work—on this day he had an assignment due at midnight yet chose to work a shift until 10PM.
Jordan says “the best and worst part of working there is all the free pizza” he brings home. Because he lives paycheck-to-paycheck the free pizza helps, but he mostly just takes boxes home for his roommates to eat.
Jordan initiates the cooking for his roommates’ annual home cooked Valentine’s Day dinner. He makes a tedious task in the kitchen go by all too fast by making those around him laugh— his roommate Ella (right) and her friend Jordyn (left). Jordan’s laugh can be described as a Jimmy Fallon-type laughter—it’s so genuine and contagious that you can’t help but laugh at him laughing.
Friendships have been the most important part of life for Jordan. Growing up alone with a working single mother, he often had to rely on friends, and now in college, treats his roommates like family.
The household’s specialties for Valentine’s Day dinner are steak, baked macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, jalapeño poppers and several bottles of wine. After Jordan sets up the dinner table and serves everyone’s food, he and his roommates finally sit down to eat around 11PM, feeling quite drunk. Laughter oozes out of each of them as they thank Jordan for getting the dinner finished. He doesn’t enjoy taking credit, but joins in their laughter.
Jordan picks up his guitar whenever he feels bored or wants to avoid homework. He is self-taught and says he’s not very good, despite playing almost daily for about a year. He came across this current guitar from a friend and payed him $50 for it; his previous guitar was “a shitty acoustic [he] bought from this old guy on craigslist,” but that one was stolen from his house.
Jordan’s favorite song to sing and play is “Creep” by Radiohead. Before he plays this time, he says, “this goes out to all the people who’ve robbed me. I hope you and your family die.” He smirks as he says, “just kidding.”