Zachary Z., Senior — Interview conducted by Joseph Shelby
Monday, March 21st, 2023, 11:03: As I sit at the benches in front of Ms. DeVane’s office, scouring the courtyard for my interviewee, I hear him call out to me. I click record. “Welcome, Zach.” The interview has begun…
Joseph:
Okay, first question. If you could choose one song to play every time you walk into a room for the rest of your life, which song would you choose?
Zach:
I would say…am I allowed to skip a question?
Joseph:
Nope. Unless you really want to.
Zach:
Okay, fine. I would probably say “Walking” by Denzel Curry. It’s just a fire song and has a good beat to it.
Joseph:
I always ask this, but do you think it would get annoying?
Zach:
Can I play different parts of the song, or does it just have to be the same line?
Joseph:
Yeah, you can do different parts. Is there an emotional value that the song has for you?
Zach:
Okay, then I’d do different parts for different days of the week. Not really, I was more thinking about how other people would think about it. You know.
Joseph: Alright, I get that. Okay, next question. What’s something unique about you that your classmates might not know?
Zach:
Uhh…well, I was born in New York and I lived there for eight years, and I still do not know how to ice skate.
Joseph:
Okay, wait, what’s the connection between ice skating and New York?
Zach:
Everyone in New York loves to ice skate, like in Central Park and stuff.
Joseph:
Okay, that’s cool. Tell me more about New York.
Zach:
I went to elementary school there, then I moved over to California. I mainly remember that. It was just way different from New York, because you could always walk to school since it was a block away, but in California you basically drive everywhere.
Joseph:
That’s true. What’s your most vivid memory from over there?
Zach:
In New York? Probably when I was in Central Park and my dad punched a dude dressed in a Spiderman costume, because he picked me up to take a picture. But my dad had no idea what the guy was doing. He was just like: why are you picking up my kid? It was pretty funny in retrospect.
Joseph:
Wow, okay, that’s pretty unique. Looking back at your experience at CPS, what is something you'll never forget?
Zach:
I think the first two months we had when we came out of COVID. I feel like everybody after freshman year and the year break was so different. It basically felt like freshman year when you’re getting to know everybody, but you had to do it all over again because you didn’t really get to know them over COVID. I just feel like I got to know everybody so much better because of that. So those first couple months were just really memorable.
Joseph:
What are you looking forward to in the future? This could be whatever happens in the rest of the semester, summer, college, or if you’re doing something other than college. Pretty much anything.
Zach:
For the rest of this school year, I guess I’d say when everybody else is done with the stress of college applications. I just think there’s still a bit of tension in our grade, and people are just stressed out. So when that dies off, I feel like it will just be really chill for the rest of the year. And then for college, I’m looking forward to just not being in the Bay Area. I feel like it’s easy to view other places as just, like, a place with different people, but I think you don’t really understand the culture and the energy of different places until you actually go there, so I’m excited to just go somewhere else and fully embrace the different atmosphere.
Joseph:
It’s always exciting to relocate, so I hope you end up having a good time wherever you go. Okay, if you could say thank you to one room at CPS, which one would it be?
Zach:
I would probably say the Latin room just because I have a lot of friends that I’ve been with all four years in there. It’s the only classroom that I’ve had all four of my years. Yeah, so I’d probably say that room. Thank you Latin Room.
Joseph:
Here’s an extra question. What do you think you’ve accomplished in the past four years?
Zach:
I feel like in the past four years, I’ve gotten a lot more mature. I don’t complain as much, so I’m a lot more disciplined in life. I feel like I’m able to do things that make me feel better, because they’re more difficult as opposed to just, you know, doing easy things.
Joseph:
How would you describe your younger self in three words?
Zach:
Umm, unmotivated, complains-a-lot, undisciplined.
Joseph:
So you’ve changed a lot.
Zach:
Yeah, definitely.
Joseph:
All right, that’s all the questions. Thanks for coming down!
Zach:
Thanks.
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