I recently became friends with someone who lives on an island, Martha's Vineyard to be exact. I've lived in a suburb about 20 minutes outside of Boston for my whole life, so some of the unique aspects of island life never occurred to me until I met one of my new good friends. While I feel I could fill a lot more space than just these few questions, this interview is a good glimpse of what life is like on Martha's Vineyard and how her transition to a college on the mainland has been!

Who: Emily deBettencourt, freshman at Stonehill College.

Where: The Sem (residence hall at Stonehill).

Note: All of these absolutely amazing pictures were taken by my friend Emily who is the subject of this interview.

Question 1: Tell me about where you live and Martha's Vineyard (MV) in general.

I'm from Oak Bluffs, MV, and my dad's side lives on the island. Fun fact, MV has a Portuguese-American community and my great-great-grandfather brought over a crown from Portugal to MV. My graduating class had about 165 kids in it, and the island population grows roughly five times in size over the summer with the addition of vacationers and tourists.

Q2: What are your favorite things about living on MV?

I think my favorite thing about MV is that it's the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life. There's a big community aspect, and everyone knows each other. Also, screw Nantucket.

Q3: What are some frequently asked questions you get about living on an island?

Some questions I get constantly are things like, "How big was your high school?", "Are you trapped on there?" (no, there's a boat), "What is it like?" Stuff like that. People are shocked we don't have some mainstream things like Dunkin' Donuts.

Q4: What's the most ridiculous question you get about living on an island?

I personally didn't get this question, but someone asked one of my friends if there is electricity on the island.

Q5: What's your least favorite thing about living on island?

It's definitely inconvenient at times, and it's a tradeoff because I feel so lucky to live there but sometimes it can be a hassle. For example, prom dress shopping, homecoming dress shopping or Christmas shopping are inconvenient because you have to make a day out of it and schedule a plan to get what you need. Boat reservations are just really hard to come by in the summer, or if I'm at school I can't just decide to go home whenever I want to.

Q6: What day of the year is a favorite of yours on the island?

The Fourth of July is awesome because there's a parade in Edgartown that everyone and their mother goes to, and it's really cute. Also, I love the fair and fireworks week because it's kind of the grand finale of the summer, and there are so many cool things like the animals and old-fashioned rides and games and fried dough, obviously.

Q7: What are some places you recommend I go to if I'm visiting MV?

I'm just going to list some off for you: Black Dog Tavern for breakfast, Lucy Vincent Beach, Morning Glory Farm, Chillmark Chocolates, Scottish Bakehouse, Mocha Mott's, Backdoor Donuts, the cliffs, Dock Street Café... There's so many little gems.

Q8: What are some examples of slang words on the island?

We say "off island girl bun" to describe that really messy bun that girls wear on top of their heads, or other things like "summer people" or "off island" to refer to taking a trip onto the mainland. "BDog" for Blackdog, things like that.

Q9: Do you have tips for how to be a tourist on MV without annoying island people?

First of all, don't walk in the street, there's a sidewalk. Mopeds? Just don't. This is my own statistic, but there's probably one moped accident per year in MV. You need to know where you're going, don't wander around and get in the way because I'm not on vacation, I'm trying to get to work or pick something up in town.

Q10: Why is MV better than Nantucket?

First off, the people are nicer. Secondly, Nantucket is smaller and farther away from civilization. Third, we're better at all sports. We've kept the Island Cup for 13 years. Fourth, MV has so much more to offer. Fifth, Barack Obama vacations on MV every year, do you think it's a coincidence that he picks MV over Nantucket? No.

Q11: How were sports and living on the island a challenge?

I don't really know it any other way, so I was used to travelling and leaving school for away games. We left school early for away games so we'd take the 1:15 boat and then play, wait for JV, and come back on the 7:15 or 8:30 boat. Basically, you'd come back, shower, do your homework and get to bed after travelling for the afternoon. We were in the Eastern Athletic Conference with schools like Somerset, Bishop Stang, Coyle Cassidy and Bishop Feehan. It was awesome because living on the island makes the team so close because you make so many memories on the trips and on the boat. It was probably my favorite part of high school.

Q12: What's your perfect day like on the island?

One of my favorite days was last summer. My friends and I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and drove 30 minutes up-island to Squibnocket Beach and got there while it was still dark. We watched the sunrise and jumped in the water and went for a morning swim. We watched one of my friends surf for a while, then got an early breakfast. We went to the beach for the rest of the day and played beach volleyball. I'd say eating dinner on the beach is always a good way to end the day and watching the sunset is awesome. Being on the beach all day never really gets old for me.