Raya Sunshine Milliken
Hobbies-exploring/reading horror and romance stories
Favorite food-sushi (without raw fish)
Favorite TV show-Criminal minds

Seventeen year old Raya Milliken was born in Ocean Isle Beach, NC but was raised in Ash where her love of the outdoors and nature first developed. She enjoys the quiet tranquility that living in the country can provide but isn’t afraid to venture out into the city, in fact she enjoys going out on the town with friends. It also helps that even though Milliken lives in the country, she’s 15 minutes away from most cities.
“I enjoy being in nature because it brings me peace,” said Milliken. “It helps to calm my nerves from a busy mind.”
When Milliken isn’t hanging out with her friends or relaxing in the countryside, she’s focusing on schoolwork and passing her classes. Despite her self-proclaimed procrastination, she puts a lot of focus on her schoolwork and keeping an A/B average. Raya plans on pursuing a career as a traveling dental hygienist so she can travel and explore the world while she still gets paid. Her reason for wanting to be a dental hygienist is because she wanted to work in the health field but being a nurse makes her feel “iffy”. Her school of choice is Appalachian State University, Raya’s reason for this is because she wants to be in the mountains, that way she can still be around nature while going to school.
“I feel like I have senioritis as a junior,” said Raya. “I’m a little antisocial and in my head people aren’t going to argue with me if I have needles in their mouth”.
Milliken’s interest in the West Wind was sparked for two reasons, her first was just wanting to get out of her fourth period and her second was a fascination with writing. She wanted something to be a part of that also encouraged her interests and her creativity. Milliken hopes that she can be a great asset to the paper and that her experiences in it can help her be more confident with her writing and be better prepared for college.