Leja E., Senior — Interview conducted by Araddhya Tibrewall
March 10, 2023: It’s the end of the first day back from Spring Break. Cool air passes through the upper Scott tables near the Latin Club tree, but it’s really sunny too. I click record. “Welcome Leja,” and the interview has begun.
Araddhya: Hello, what’s up?
Leja: Hi Arrrraaa… *laughs* sorry, hi Araddhya.
Araddhya: If you could only choose one song to play every time you walked into a room for the rest of your life, which song would you choose?
Leja: I would choose “All Star” by Smash Mouth. It would be the exact opposite of how I would walk into a room, so I would say it makes sense as a sort of counterbalance for the neutral-faced person I would be.
Araddhya: What is something unique about you that your classmates might not know?
Leja: Unique about me? I think….I’m not sure if my classmates don’t know this about me, but I was raised in a household that has a lot of cultures in it. My parents are not from here, and they immigrated here when they were, like, in their mid 40s, so I would say me being raised as a pretty much non-American, culturally and familially, is a big thing.
Araddhya: Looking back at your experience at CPS, what is something that you will never forget? This can be a sports team, Drama Tech, Intraterm, a conversation…
Leja: I would say that one of the most memorable moments I’ve had was in Drama Tech—end of junior year. I was in the auditorium with one of my best friends and they had access to the mic in the auditorium, and we had a free period, so we decided to do some karaoke and got walked in on by multiple teachers who just slowly backed up and left. That was one of the most fun times I’ve had.
Araddhya: What are you looking forward to in the future? This can be college, your summer, you last few weeks here…
Leja: I’m looking forward to being out of the Bay Area. I’ve been here all my life, and I’m super excited to go experience a new culture and a city. I’m super excited for college in that regard, because I’m not staying here. And I’m really happy to be able to experience a culture, specifically not West Coast culture, perhaps the East Coast, the rest of the U.S., and Europe too.
Araddhya: Last question, have fun with it—if you could say thank you to one room at CPS, what would it be?
Leja: Which room? Um…I’m going to say thank you to the Math Office side building, because I’ve had a lot of conversations about math there, and my advisor happens to be a math teacher. So I’ve had some very happy, very sad, very neutral conversations in that math office, with varying degrees of satisfaction coming out of that room. So, definitely that room.
Araddhya: Thank you so much, Leja.
Leja: Thanks, Araddhya.
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