TKC: What was the happiest moment of your life?

Killen: For my family or for myself?

TKC: Either.

Killen: Probably for all of us and our family it was finding out I was cancer-free. I was in remission when I was nine and a half. I think it’s definitely changed me. The support group I got from people like me and the doctors were almost like a second family. It’s something not a lot of other people have  , so out of something bad came something good.

“Our mantra at Tekno Bubbles is peace, love, and bubbles. We like to spread love and joy through bubbles, and we find that no matter if we’re at a one-year-old birthday party or at a 100-year-old birthday party in a nursing home, people have the same reaction to bubbles, and it’s a smile. I mean, they’re transported back to a different time–even when you guys see bubbles you probably think ‘Oh man, I remember when I was a little kid on my picnic bench and my mom was making up dish soap bubbles.’ People of all ages, it kind of gives them permission to be a knucklehead for a little bit, and forget about troubles and being grown up.”

“Learning Spanish has been the biggest challenge of my life, but it’s given me a plethora of opportunities. I went to Spain to teach English. I lived in England teaching Spanish. It’s how I met my husband. It gave me the chance to teach at international schools, urban schools, suburban schools. It’s like this little club you’re part of when you can speak another language. I’m not done learning Spanish, and I never will be.

TKC: If you could give advice to a large group of people, what would it be?

Miller: Don’t take anything for granted.

TKC: What have you taken for granted?

Miller: My education here at Kirkwood [because] it’s better than most schools.

“Everyone always gets my name wrong but I’m too scared to correct them. It’s Mary Claire.”

TKC: What was the saddest moment of your life?

“A friend dying. No, I’m gonna say something else. Probably my parents getting divorced. It was really hard to go back and forth between the houses and deal with the drama.”

TKC: Did anything good come out of it?

“Me and my brother got closer.”

TKC: “Why are you looking forward to next football season?”

“I’ll be a senior, and I’ve been injured a lot the past two years, so I’m excited to get back out there. I spent a lot of time on the sideline watching plays and thinking about what I would’ve done or what I could’ve done better out there.”

“I got out of the air forces, took up rock climbing for two or three years, but then I broke my hand really bad so I couldn’t climb, so I took up sky diving, so i jumped for like 25 years until about five years ago. I got about 3300 skydives in. I still have my licenses, still got all my equipment. Anyway, I quit doing that because it’s a social sport when you’re in it for that amount of time.”

TKC: “What is your biggest fear at Kirkwood High School?”

“Girls”

“I just retired from Washington University, and I had writing in mind my whole life, I just never had the time. So I decided to give it a crack and see how it would turn out.”