15 questions with... Gibson Thomas, a Penn women's tennis sophomore

The Daily Pennsylvanian asked Gibson Thomas of Penn women’s tennis 15 questions about her time with the team, her experience at Penn, and her life overall. Here's what the sophomore had to say.

1.   Can you introduce yourself?

I’m Gibby Thomas and I am on the women’s tennis team. I am majoring in political science and minoring in consumer psych and Africana studies, and I am a sophomore. 

2.   What are three words that you would use to describe yourself?

I would say energetic, loud, and friendly. 

3.   When did you start playing tennis? 

I started playing tennis when I was 5 [years old] and started competing when I was about 9. 

4.   What has been your most memorable experience at Penn so far? 

I would say, recently, when we had our first match back on Thursday. It was a really good feeling; I think morale was pretty low in general because for a long time we didn’t know whether we were going to compete next for a long time. So we had our first match in 13 months on Thursday, April 8. I always hope that we will win but I did not know how we would do, obviously because we haven’t competed in so long. And we competed and we won and it was such a great feeling. I was really happy and all my teammates are really happy. 

5.   What is your favorite part about being a member of the Penn women’s tennis team? 

My favorite part is being close with my teammates and having a built-in family at Penn and then us getting to compete together. I think it makes us closer as well. 

6.   Who is your favorite professional athlete? 

Serena Williams.

7.   Do you have any prematch rituals? 

I like to listen to music, and then my teammates and I will listen to music when we warm up. But I really like to listen to "Girl on Fire" before I play, by Alicia Keys. 

8.   Do you have a favorite class at Penn so far? 

I would say, "Intro to Africana Studies." I took it my freshman spring, and it was really informative for me because it felt like it was a lot of stuff that I should know or should have known at the time, that I didn't really know as much about. It gave me a lot of the language and just a lot of information I could use to articulate points that I hadn’t been able to before. 

9.   What is something that most people would not know about you? 

I used to be very into musical theatre — I still am, but I used to perform. I was deciding whether I would come to Penn and play tennis or come to Penn and try to be really active in the musical theatre world. Then I chose tennis. 

10.   If you were not playing tennis, what sport would you be playing? 

I would probably be running track. I used to run track when I was younger, competitively as well, until I was 10 years old, and then I had to choose between track and tennis. And then I chose tennis again. 

11.   What was the last tv show that you binge-watched? 

"Last Chance U: Basketball Edition." It is really good. 

12.   What is your dream job? 

I am deciding between either going into law or marketing.

13.   If you had to pick one genre of music to listen to for the rest of your life, what would it be? 

I would say R&B/Pop if you could combine those. 

14.   If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go? 

I would want to go to Europe in general, and do one of those cross-continental tours. 

15.    If you could tell your high-school-freshman self one thing, what would it be? 

I would tell myself to work hard and then things will fall into place. Don’t stress too much about the end, just take it day by day and work hard, and then things will come together.