Barb Miller, of administrative services, was featured in this issue’s “Who Am I?” You can read the full interview here.

-Where were you born?

I was born here in Fairfax. I was raised in Woodbridge and I married and I live here in Fairfax.

-How long have you worked at West Potomac?

Since 1999. Longer than most of the seniors now. 

-Where did you work before you worked here?

This is my first job at a school, before this, I was a food buyer. I switched when I had my daughter. So I wanted to have better hours, so I made a switch and became a secretary.

-Out of your 18 years of experience, what is one of your favorite memories of this school?

Graduations are always a good time. When we did the graduation, I helped the senior class one year it was really nice. I liked working with everybody. I did transcripts for a couple of years too, that was pretty fun. Seeing where everybody was going to go to college that was nice.

-What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

Chocolate, very plain.

-What is your favorite movie?

The Mummy.

-What college did you go to?

I did not go to college. I did try NOVA. But when I was going to it, NOVA was a lot different than it is now. I would definitely recommend it now versus way back then. I had been working a part time job and they had wanted me to get into the management program there, it was for Marriott. I said no, tried NOVA, and then I ended up and moving and needing to support myself. So, I just got a job in the food industry. It was a whole different business, I mean I did 16 years in that industry before I switched over. I worked my way up from, like a little customer service rep into a food buyer. I was buying food like cheeses for Giant and stuff like that. So we were doing a lot of fun things. Back then college wasn’t as important as it is now to get a job. All I had to do to get this job was have some clerical work, customer service experience, and be able to type 40 words a minute. Which was tough!

-What is your favorite animal?

Cats. I have two cats now, I had three but, yeah I’m a cat lady.

-What is your favorite thing to do in your free time?

Read. I also do some gardening. I have a vegetable garden it’s pretty massive.

-What was your favorite subject in high school?

Actually, I liked English. I had a very good English teacher in my 11th grade. I still remember her. She was wonderful. She made it very fun. We didn’t have the technology in the classroom back then, but she was just really really creative. We did a lot of playbills and we went over some plays and some famous pieces of art. And she really got us into that and writing. She was very encouraging and I’ll never forget that. That was just one of my fun things. And it actually made me start to do a little bit of writing in college but that kind of fizzled out.

-If you were to write something now, what would it be?

It would be an anecdotal book about everything that’s happened here at West Potomac. Everything that I’ve encountered in all my years here, so yeah it’ll be an amazing story.

-If you were a brand, what would be your motto?

Keep it real.