Q: What has been the best part about your senior year?

A: “Honestly I think one of the best parts about my senior year is spending a lot of time with a lot of my friends for like one last chance, you know and cherishing those memories. One last time in the play, one last chess meet, I think that’s how I’d answer that question.”

Q: What is a good memory you have from Plainfield East?

A: There’s a lot of good memories, but one I don’t talk about a lot is when I was in the play last year. It was Harry Potter based, and so I made like a good Gandalf joke. I was like ‘You shall not pass,’ and someone was like “Why are you doing this, I bet you won’t try out,” and so then I tried out. I made it, I got a lead role. I was really bad for the first few weeks, then I started to practice, practice, practice, and I got better. I thought I did a good performance, I think that was my best memory. Also because I met a lot of people I normally wouldn’t interact with. I felt like I was able to meet people and I was out of my comfort zone, so that was probably one of my favorite memories.

Q: What plans do you have for after high school?

A: I’m going to go to college. I’m looking at colleges like Urbana, a few in California, two in New York, and one in St. Louis.

Update: He will be attending St. Louis University

Q: How have you changed from a freshman to senior?

A: I think I started to realize the importance of your effect on others. I remember my freshman year, maybe I was a little more quiet and to myself, I didn’t really try to help others. I was inspired by a lot of the seniors that would always try to help me out. I’ve changed now where I’m always willing to help someone if they need help, you know. I even took off my shoes and gave them to a guy at tennis, it doesn’t matter to me, I just want everyone to succeed. I think the shift was really freshman year. It was all about personal success and what I can do for myself. Now, it’s more about others and helping everyone succeed alongside me. Going from self-centered to more group centered.

Q: What was the turning point?

A:  I feel like when COVID time came around, I was just thinking to myself, I can do all these things for myself, but you can never enjoy it without others. Starting my junior year, I started to think a lot more team-centric and with everybody involved. I felt like I was getting much more out of the team having fun rather than just me. In leadership positions, I tried making sure everyone was with me.”

Q: What have you taken away from high school?

A: Don’t always think that you’re the smartest person is what I would take away. If you enter the room thinking you know the most I think that stops you from learning. In tennis I also used to think I was the best, I was on JV and I used to think I was the best. That I should be playing over this guy. In chess when I was at the bottom, I was like ‘I should be above this guy.’ What I think I learned was that I should learn from my teammates and not try to be the smartest or the top dog. Junior year, I spent time trying to learn from them and learn from the smart people like my teachers instead 0f putting it all on myself and trying to do it all.

Q: What’s been your biggest accomplishment in high school?

A: Something I’m proud of is the impact I’ve had on others. Like I said I was very focused on myself, like I’m the star… I think the impact on others, you know, like when a freshman says hi to me in the hallway or like thanks me for all the help. You know, I really appreciate that, because I know I’m making an impact on someone else’s life. Some people I didn’t talk to for two months were like ‘Oh yeah I remember talking to you two months before, thank you for all you did.’ That actually happened to me, so yeah just the impact I’ve had on others.

Q: How would you want to be remembered?

A: I’d want to be remembered as someone who didn’t always have like the ability to do well in courses, you know I don’t speak the best, I’m never really the smartest in the room. I want to be remembered as a guy who always worked hard for what he wanted to achieve. Maybe sometimes he didn’t do it in the normal way, but he did what he had to succeed and he impacted a lot of people.

Q: How will you apply what you’ve learned in your high school career to the future?

A: In the future I want to apply a lot of the things I had to learn in high school, I had to learn to be more disciplined, and I had to learn to be more talkative and express myself in the right way. I also want to continue that and be able to talk to any person going forward in life. Be able to be disciplined and do my work, as I say motivation is temporary, discipline is everlasting. You just have to be disciplined for work. Do what you love too, have a lot of passion and respect. When I wasn’t passionate about a project, I didn’t do well on that project a hundred percent. If I didn’t like my teacher, if I wasn’t respectful to my teacher, I scored lower in the class because I wasn’t putting in the effort. I was hurting myself.

Q: Is there anything you would like to add?

A: Hi mom, and stay humble, stay cool, stay kind.