SNAPSHOTS

Place you want to travel to: Anywhere in Europe, like Switzerland or Germany

If you could have dinner with anyone from any point in human history, who would you choose?: Dmitri Shostakovich

Favorite music genre and artist/composer: Classical music. Strauss is so good.

What is the correct ratio of peanut butter and jelly on a PB&J?: More jelly than peanut butter, for sure. Like 70% jelly and 30% peanut butter. 

What type of fish are you: Dory from Finding Nemo. I’m very forgetful; once it’s in my mind, it’s gone.

ZOOMING IN

Q: What college will you attend? What is your intended major?

A: “I plan to attend the University of Texas at Arlington for industrial engineering.”

Q: What extracurriculars have you been involved in throughout high school?

A: “I’ve been involved in orchestra, Junior World Affairs Council, Interact and Academic Decathlon.”

Q: What was the most challenging aspect about balancing extracurriculars and academics?

A: “It was hard to find time to do everything, because you couldn’t create time right? So, balancing your social life as well as all these other responsibilities was really hard at first. My junior year, I was working a job, I was playing music, practicing, I was in clubs. I was also doing school, I had like four AP classes, and so finding time to relax and be with other people was really hard to find.”

Q: What class was the most challenging for you? Why?

A: “My most challenging class was actually AP World History. That class has such a wide scope of what it covered because it covered the whole entire world for four centuries or something. My teacher, Mrs. Moody, she was tough–she wanted you to know the material really, really well. You had to know every single small detail, every single date. It was hard to just have all that and on top of that you had to take the information and create your own perspective on world history.”

Q: Who has helped you the most throughout these last four years? How have they helped you?

A: “My friends in general. As a group collectively, they’ve always been there. Olivia, Elena and Sonika, they’ve always been there since middle school. Just having them there as a person kind of grounds you because they know who you are and you know who they are, and so you can relate to them back and forth as you experience different things. Especially during COVID, I still had someone there I felt familiar with.”

Q: What has been the most memorable part of high school?

A: “The spontaneous things that happen in high school. After school, you hang out with your friends. And you wouldn’t really know what to do, but somehow just found some way to have fun. Randomly going out to the lake or to a fast food restaurant. I think I’m going to miss random small things like that the most.”

Q:  What advice would you give to your freshman self?

A: “As a freshman, I was really anxious and socially awkward. The only advice I would give is to go with the flow. You take what you give, so whatever you put in, you’ll benefit from as well. Don’t be afraid of other people, because I literally talked to no one. I went to school, I came home and practiced. That was it. After the pandemic, I realized people give life meaning.”

Q: What are you most excited about regarding college?

A: “I’m just excited for a new environment. My friends have been grounding me throughout high school and they’ve always been there for me. I’ll have to be exposed to a new environment and new people. It can be scary sometimes, but it’s good to see a fresh start in some types of ways.”

Q: Where do you hope to see yourself in 10 years?

A: “Hopefully in 10 years, I’ll be working in the transportation industry. I love airplanes, so even working locally here in DFW Airport would be amazing.”

Q: What would you change about your high school experience?

A: “I don’t think I would change anything. It’s hard to say that I wouldn’t regret anything. This sounds cliche, but everything happens for a reason. Even the pandemic, there were some really good things that I learned from that.”