Friday October 23, 2020: It is 3:45 pm - The end of the quarter! The sun is actually shining, and the birds are chirping (we think- we were actually inside so, upon reflection, we have realized that we can’t really attest to that). The mood is light, the backgrounds are top-notch (some lovely library backgrounds) and the Human of CPS makes small talk as we anticipate the year’s second student interview. I click record. “Welcome, Avinashi.” The interview has begun…
Nora: What is your favorite place in the world?
Avi: That’s a good question. I need to think for a second… There is a place that I can think of. I’ve been here exactly once. I remember it being so amazing. It was one particular regional park--I went on a camping trip there when I was about ten years old for like one night and it was really, really pretty and I’ve been wanting to go back for years. I cannot remember what park, but it was about two hours from here, and I love that. I remember how the campsite was just surrounded by trees on all sides, and there was barely anyone else there. I was with a couple friends from my school and we spent so much time wandering around the surrounding forest and stuff. We ran across a lake at one point and it was really, really lovely. I’d just love to go back.
Celia: What did you want to be when you grew up, and what do you want to be now?
Avi: Yeah, so I think as long as I can remember I have wanted to be a doctor or go into medicine or medicine-adjacent things. It has not changed much, though now I’m thinking research and something with cells and such, but definitely still something in that medicine-adjacent field. I guess career-wise, I’d probably want to study something in the biology/biochemistry area. Probably something with genetics, that sounds really cool! I did a little reading on gene editing and stuff this summer and I’d really love to study that and find out how it can help people and improve peoples’ quality of life.
Nora: Who is the most influential person in your life?
Avi: I’m not entirely sure. I talk to my grandma a lot. Yeah, I’d say she’s been very influential. She tells me a lot of stories and I really love talking to her. I’ve learned a lot from her throughout my life. She tells me stories about her childhood growing up in India and the different things she did with her brothers and how her mom used to read to her on a metal bed that they had on the roof of their house. I just really love hearing her talk about her childhood and all the things she’s learned in her life. It teaches me a lot.
Celia: What is the most interesting gift you’ve given or received?
Avi: Recently, I got a gift from a friend who dropped it off for my birthday and it was a really small mini violin. And it works, like, I could play it, but it’s quite tiny. It’s fantastic. I love it. It’s so cute.
Nora: Is there one object you always carry with you or is especially important to you?
Avi: I don’t know about one particular object that I carry with me all the time. I guess one funny thing that I do have in my purse is a bag of candy from freshman year when I went to go hang out with a friend at a game cafe and we got a bowl of candy and then didn’t finish it, so I put a bag in my purse, but I never took it out and it’s still there.
Celia: What instruments do you play and how has music influenced you or shaped who you are today?
Avi: I play violin and viola mostly. I used to play sitar for a bit. I sing. And I played piano but I sucked at it so I barely count that honestly. Yeah, music is definitely a really big part of my life. I’ve been doing it for pretty much all my life. I’ve played violin since I was nine, and yeah, it’s something I can always turn to. At this point, it’s kind of more than a hobby, it’s very prominent and a way for me to express myself and I love it a lot. I know this sounds kind of cliché, but I find that playing violin lets me express emotions and thoughts that I can’t express in words. There are certain pieces that when I play or listen to them, I just, I don’t know, feel things that I can’t really express verbally? Violin just gives me a really big range of expression. I’ve had to think about what I want to do with violin a lot recently since I have some teachers that push me to consider studying it seriously in college, but I don’t really know if that’s the track for me. I definitely want to continue playing and learning violin past high school. I’ve been considering doing some kind of music minor, honestly. That would be fun.
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