Tegbir P., Senior — Interview conducted by Angela Wang
Tuesday, March 21st, 2023, 11:11 AM: We’re sitting in the corner outside the auditorium. Tegbir laughs as his friend Kenzo, just interviewed, switches spots with him. I click record. “Welcome, Tegbir.” The interview has begun…
Angela: All right, first question. If you could choose only one song to play every time you walk into a room for the rest of your life, what song would it be?
Tegbir: Man, let me pull up my playlist to see… “Stirfry” by Migos.
Angela: Oh, that’s a good one!
Tegbir: It's a good song, right? Everyone tells me its overplayed. I'm like, there's no way I can play it too many times. So good.
Angela: It is really good. What is something unique about you that your classmates might not know?
Tegbir: That's a good question. There are not many things people don't know about me. There's a lot I can say. Hmm… not many people know I can sword fight.
Angela: Woah! Sword fighting? Not fencing?
Tegbir: Yeah, not fencing. Fencing is kind of lame. Sorry. Like actual sword fighting.
Angela: How did you get into that?
Tegbir: It's like a cultural thing. I guess I started when I was a little kid, but then I lost for a while. But then I got bored during quarantine, so I went back to it. And so I started practicing on my own, and I taught myself.
Angela: You taught yourself?
Tegbir: Well... Yeah, well, I had some knowledge from before that from taking an actual lesson.
Angela: Woah! That’s still really awesome! Looking back at your experience at CPS or something you'll never forget?
Tegbir: I don't know if this one's good or bad. It's got to be the time Kenzo promposed to me in the middle of Assembly. Yeah, not forgetting that one. I don't know if that's for good or bad reasons.
Angela: *laughs* Did you know [about it]?
Tegbir: No, you know, I was in Assembly. I was studying for a physics quiz, like AP Physics quiz. I was stressing, and I looked up. And all of a sudden, Martin is up there in like the quiet room or whatever unfurling a giant band, and my name was there. Martin was part of it. It was horrible. They were so amazing.
Angela: What does it mean to, like, go to prom together?
Tegbir: Well, I didn't go…
Angela: What?
Tegbir: I know! And I get in trouble for this every day. Everyone tells me I should’ve gone. But yeah, I didn't go to prom. I'll go this year though! *laughs*
Angela: *laughs* Well, it probably is a good thing you didn't go right? Was that the year that everyone got COVID?
Tegbir: See, that's the issue. I didn’t go there, so I didn't get COVID, and I was like, you know, I was happy. Then when my brother went to prom, he came back, and he gave me COVID. *laughs* So I neither went to prom, and I got COVID as well, and it was terrible. The worst of both worlds.
Angela: *laughs* All right, if you could say thank you to one room at CPS, which one would it be?
Tegbir: One room? I don't know which room it is, but it's the one, like, the science room at the bottom story. The first-story science room—the one in the middle. I don't know which one that is, so yeah. That room was the STEM room, so yeah, that's why.
Angela: Were you in STEM?
Tegbir: Yeah.
Angela: Oh, that makes so much sense. What did you like about that program?
Tegbir: The best thing about it would be the class, the people in the class. Because I mean, a year with a class of like, eight kids—you kind of get to know each other in a way that's different from other classes. And yeah, I don't know if you went to the STEMposium, but someone said at the end, I don't know who it was, but they were like—it was really corny—but they were like, "STEM was more than a class. We're like a family." It was really corny, but it was [true]. So yeah, I got to say thanks to that room.
Angela: How was your internship?
Tegbir: Oh, mine was pretty nice, working at a lab at UCSF stuff. I mean, just got me prepped for research as an undergrad now.
Angela: All right. The last question is what do you feel like you've accomplished?
Tegbir: I'd say I accomplished like, experiencing different things across a variety, a little variety of different things. I would say, you know, like I kind of dabbled my toes in a little bit of everything. Or dabbled my fingers? I don't know. I forgot how to say it. *laughs*
Angela: *laughs* I feel like Gigi also said something similar.
Tegbir: (To Kenzo) Oh man. Is it dabbled my toes? Or dabbled my fingers?
Kenzo: Gigi said something similar?
Angela: Not the phrase. The idea, the idea.
Tegbir: I've gotta say the phrase was crazy, and I can imagine her saying that. Dabble my toes. Nice.
Angela: All right. That's the end of the interview. Good talking to you, Tegbir!
Tegbir: Thank you. That was great!
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