Tell me about yourself and who Kai Howery is.

I’m a very busy man. I tend to spend a lot of time, you know, scheduling a lot of different things, taking a lot of classes, hanging out with friends, playing games. I’m just a student. I work hard. I try my best to get good grades because it makes the parents proud. I learn a little bit about psychology, been reading up on the brain and how it works. I just find that stuff fascinating. I’m not too crazy different from everybody else. Just working hard.

If you could only wear one color for the rest of your life, which one would you choose?

Black. Black is a color that almost anyone can look good in, and I am no exception.

What is your favorite video game and why?

If I had to pick the one that’ll probably stay with me forever is “Persona 5 Royal”. That game is really long, it has great music, great gameplay and the thing I like most about it is the story.

If you could be any animated character from any show, who would you be?

I can’t remember his first name, but Kirishima [“Red Riot”] from “My Hero Academia” . I just think he’s very funny, very boisterous. I just like what he stands for, very, very manly man in quotes.

If food could speak, what would the gossip be about you?

I would probably be a terror because no one is safe. If food had things to say about me, it would be run because there is very few dishes on this planet that I would refuse to eat. So, I would be a menace to their whole food society.

As a younger college student, what is important to you? What motivates you to keep going to school?

This might be a bit of a strange answer but the thing that keeps me going is the fact that I can. I am of the belief that we as humans have the ability to do what we do for very specific reasons. I am a religious man. I’m a Christian. I believe that God gave us all our attributes for good reason. And so the reason why I persist, why I am motivated to do the things that I do is because I am capable of those things and I want to push myself and see how far I can go.

What’s one piece of advice someone gave you that really stuck with you?

You are worth being loved, don’t let anyone else make you think otherwise.

What is your favorite memory with me [Joseph Haskell, reporter for Crusader News]?

Probably filming the view on the YouTube channel Appreciation Quest. Not to shill, but the filming of that video was just really fun. It was one of the first ones we did, and then we just filmed it, finished, and then got to just hang out, sit on hay bales and talk for half an hour, and it was a really nice conversation. I remember it very fondly.

As a local social media influencer, how many people have recognized you from your videos? 

Not counting, like close friends of mine, because obviously, you know, I have friends and family that are like, “I love your videos” (and I’m like, yeah, well, you’re supposed to you’re…you know me). But I have had three separate people. I work at Braum’s, in the drive-thru. I’ve had three separate people come through that drive-thru and tell me “Oh, I know you from TikTok. I love your videos”. They always make my day. It’s very sweet things that they have to say. Honestly, it makes me very happy that I’ve been able to just touch the hearts of people that I don’t even know. It feels very humbling to have been able to do that. But I count three so far, and honestly, I expect there to be more in the future.

How has being a part of Appreciation Quest affected you and changed your mentality on how you see life? 

Well, I think that the core message of Appreciation Quest of to just look around you and truly appreciate everything is something that I have tried to live by for a good portion of my life. Being a part of this series and really thinking hard about how to apply that lesson to multiple different examples, it’s given the opportunity for me to realize that while I do try to appreciate the things I have, there is always more. There’s always another thing that you can find whether you’re seeking it out or just if it’s right there in front of you that you never noticed. 
But there is always something else for you to look at and put a positive spin on. I truly think that in this life that we live, there’s just so much that we can choose to be positive about. And being a part of this video series has allowed me to really actually apply that and to have a much more happy outlook on life in general and just being able to, well, you know, the name of the game. Appreciate Everything.