Interview conducted by Sofia R.
11:57 a.m: 2023 was winding down when I met Mikey in the courtyard, overflowing with people lining up for the SWIRL holiday potluck. He carried tiny Taiwanese cookies in a metal tin, selling them to all who passed by. We sat at the picnic tables at the top of campus, wet from residual rain but less than everywhere else. I click record. Welcome Mikey. The interview has begun.
Sofia: First question, what's something you're passionate about?
(freshmen pass our table to walk into Scott 12)
Mikey: You want some cookies?
Group of freshmen: I can't.
Group of freshmen: I can't.
Mikey: I feel it. If you want some cookies, please help yourself. They’re Taiwanese and delicious.
Sofia: Thank you!
Mikey: I’d say I'm passionate about–
(more freshmen pass our table as they walk into the room)
Mikey: Have some, they’re some Taiwanese cookies.
(observes pizza on freshman’s plate)
Mikey: Is that from the school?
Group of freshmen: Advising. If you would’ve come, you might’ve gotten some.
Sofia: Advising groups get pizza?!
Mikey: My advising. All right, sorry, I'm getting very distracted. (laughs) Something I'm passionate about… I feel like I'll say CAP– being a CAP senior. It's something I’m super passionate about. I just got out of CAP. We had a great CAP session. I love being a CAP senior because I have a group of eleven awesome freshmen that I met before school even started, and we're navigating the year together and we play lots of fun games, and I make them do all sorts of crazy things, and then give them snacks.
Sofia: Who is the faculty, uh, person?
Mikey: The faculty advisor is Dr. Allen, so Dr. Allen and I just finished judging an art competition that we held with CAP. Yeah, she's awesome. I haven't had her in any classes because she came after I did sophomore year, but she's awesome.
Sofia: She's been my teacher for history for the last two years!
Mikey: Oh, awesome.
Sofia: What's one of your favorite songs?
Mikey: What's one of my favorite songs… I feel like that’ll go to another thing I'm passionate about. I like jazz band. Yeah, I guess I'll say one of the songs I have in stuck in my head right now is Blue Christmas by Elvis. Because that's– we're going to be performing that in the winter forum. So I guess that's a song I like. And I like playing my trumpet. So any song that's on my trumpet. I really liked playing It's Been a Long, Long Time for the band concert. That was awesome.
Sofia: Do you like any music that isn't jazz?
Mikey: Well, I like lots of music. So I'm a big fan of 80s music. I listen to a lot of 80s music. I have a big playlist that has like a thousand million songs on it from the 80s. I love to listen to Queen and ABBA and other bands like that. So those are usually my car jams, and then I carpool with my sister, who's Anne Hassner, and her friend Ettie Sraer. They're both freshmen, so I'm exposed to all the freshmen cool Indie music so I listen to that and there's some nice songs. Oh, and I went to the Arctic Monkeys because of them. And now I love Artic Monkeys. So that's great.
Sofia: Yeah. What's one item on your bucket list?
Mikey: What’s one item on my bucket list… Immediately, I think everything on my bucket list would have to do with travel and going somewhere, so I think the places that I haven't been to that I really, really want to go to. The top of my list right now is Hawaii and India. And then, I think I'd have to say Southeast Asia, and I'd love to go to Morocco. I went to Morocco once, it was a failed trip, and so I have to go again.
Sofia: Why was it failed?
Mikey: It’s a super long story that my friends are really tired of hearing. But, it's- I went on a boat to Morocco, just to go on a day trip from Spain. So I took a boat across the Strait of Gibraltar and then we got there and they said, “the port is going to close for 52 hours. You have to turn back and go on the boat on the way back.” So we were like, “Oh, that sucks”. But we had two hours in Morocco. And so we went, for two hours, around the surrounding towns around the port. And I got some Moroccan authentic dates and then we left. So that's the only time I've ever been to Africa. So I was in Africa for two hours. So I have to get my revenge in Morocco. Yeah.
Sofia: That sounds fun. How have you changed during your time at College Prep?
Mikey: That's a great question. I remember in English I, I sort of realized that I sucked at grammar. Like that I was terrible at grammar. And I think I've really improved my English writing skills and that's something I'm sort of proud of, how I grew in English I.
Sofia: Do you like English?
Mikey: I do like English! It has become one of my favorite courses. It was something- it was rough in freshman year and now I really like my English courses. I’m taking this awesome course with Dr. Rainof, the Body Electric. Hopefully she'll teach it next year for those that can take it, but it's super awesome. And yeah, I super like English. So I guess I've grown as an English lover.
Sofia: Okay! And last but not least, what's one of your favorite College Prep memories?
Mikey: Favorite College Prep memories…
(yet another freshman walks by)
Mikey: (to freshman) Hey! That’s a CAP freshman. (laughs) I think I gotta say a College Prep memory that's unique to the Class of 2024 is making s'mores on Zoom. They sent us– we went to school and picked up these little surprise bags for our freshman retreat. And then in the bag was a candle and marshmallow and a stick and some chocolate. And so we did candlelit s'mores together on Zoom. And it was a good memory because there were a lot of faces on that Zoom, people that I've made good friends with now, that I didn't really know were anything more than s’more grillers at the time.
Sofia: So you remember that positively?
Mikey: Yeah! I think the whole Zoom experience I remember negatively. I mean, so much better to be in person. But the Zoom s’mores I mean, it was so cheesy and fun. We were just giggling about it the whole time. So I think that's a really positive memory. Shout out to Chabon for that. It was a great idea. And then we made real s'mores on subsequent retreats. I think we did like triple s'mores on Junior retreat just to make up. Yeah.
Sofia: All right. Thank you!
Mikey: Thank you very much, Sofia. I appreciate it.
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