Interview conducted by Samana S.
Tuesday, January 23rd. It’s CPS week! I find Daniel in the Student Commons as crowds gather in the courtyard at the beginning of lunch, looking forward to some delicious bánh mì (which was unfortunately running a little late). We sit down at the bench by the admissions office as CPS Week student organizers pull out some (mostly) conscious-consumerism-themed trivia questions to stall the hungry students until the food arrives.
Samana: Okay, hi, welcome.
Daniel: Thanks for having me.
Samana: Question one. What's something you're passionate about?
Daniel: Sports, both watching and playing them.
Trivia (over the speakers): “WHAT YEAR–”
Daniel: It's also–
Trivia: “–WAS THE COLLEGE PREPARATORY SCHOOL FOUNDED?”
Daniel: Woah that was loud. Sorry.
Samana: It’s okay.
Daniel: It’s kind of more of a recent thing because– I feel like I've always… You know, you watch sports because it's just something you do, but I feel like these past couple of years I've really gotten more into it.
Trivia: “NINETEEN SIXTY IS CORRECT.”
Daniel: And especially because around this time last year, I started following the English Premier League, which is like the soccer league in England.
Trivia: “ON WHAT STREET WAS THE COLLEGE PREPARATORY SCHOOL LOCATED FOR MANY YEARS.”
Daniel: And, that really got me kind of more invested or interested in all the American domestic leagues like the NBA, NFL, and stuff like that. But, yeah, I love my teams, I love supporting them. I love watching them win. Yeah. It's a lot of fun.
Samana: You play volleyball, right?
Daniel: I do play volleyball, at school.
Samana: Okay, cool. All right–
Daniel: –Wait don't you play volleyball too?
Samana: I do, but I’d never played before this year. I just hung out with my friends, and it was really fun. Not doing it next year though.
Daniel: That’s another great aspect of sports, especially when you're playing them, is the connections you make.
Samana: Okay. Question two. What's one of your favorite songs?
Daniel: Songs? Oh, geez… I’ve been listening to “Save Your Tears” by the Weekend recently. I usually prefer listening to kpop, but… I heard that one on the radio a couple of weeks back, and it's been stuck in my head for a long time.
Samana: (Laughs) Okay, what's one item on your bucket list?
Daniel: Hm…
Trivia: “BETWEEN 1945 AND 1949, HOW MANY REFRIGERATORS DID AMERICANS PURCHASE??”
Samana: (laughing) Refrigerators?
Daniel: (laughs) What the [fork]– What kind of question is that?
Daniel: Too many.
Daniel: But no, um, something on my bucket list… I would say probably going to one of the Pacific Islands. I don't know, the ones people always mention are like Tahiti and Bora Bora.You know, you see all the photos, and, it just looks really fun. I know it'd be like hella expensive, but… Maybe when I'm older.
Samana: Are there any bucket list items that you checked off over the course of high school?
Daniel: (laughs) I mean, I don't really have a running bucket list so I can't really answer that. But I will say that this year in particular, I'm trying a lot of things I didn't do in the past. Like I was in CHOREO this past week.
Samana: Oh I saw that! That was great– it looked like so much fun!
Daniel: Thanks. Yeah, that was kind of just an on-the-fly decision that I made. I'm really glad I did it. So I mean there's things like that.
Samana: All right. Question four, how have you changed during your time at CPS?
Daniel: Well I’ve grown several inches.
Samana: (laughs)
Daniel: Okay, I would say–
Trivia: “OKAY, HERE’S SOME INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION TRIVIA…”
Daniel: This might be kind of cliche, but I'd say I'm a much better student now. Because I mean, you know, I did Eighth grade online. And my middle school like really stopped caring when we went online. I had like two classes a day and they were four or five minutes each.
Samana: (laughs) Woah.
Daniel: (laughing) My work ethic just completely collapsed. And then of course you know, I did my first class at CPS and got whacked upside the head with how big of a level jump it was. But yeah, I'm much happier now than I ever was in middle school.
Trivia: “... RESEARCH CENTER SURVEYED AI EXPERTS–”
Samana: What’s one of your favorite CPS memories?
Trivia: “–WHAT PERCENT OF THEM SAID THEY WERE MORE CONCERNED THAN EXCITED ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF AI–”
Daniel: –Winning NCS with the volleyball team, during my sophomore year. (laughing) I know that I barely contributed to that– I spent most of my time on the bench.
Daniel: But just like I said earlier, just being a part of a team is something really great, and just getting to win with all of them and seeing how happy particularly the seniors were, in their last year, was special.
Samana: Okay. All right, that’s it. Thank you!
Daniel: Thank you so much.
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