“I went to Fresno over the weekend for my great aunt’s birthday party… so it was like seven thirty and they’re all like ‘let’s go on the dance floor,’ so we all had to dance on the dance floor to ‘groovy songs’ that weren’t really groovy. It was a bunch of old people dancing and me and my cousin, and I was probably the worst dancer. It was very embarrassing for me to be on the dance floor with a bunch of seventy year-olds.”
“What scares you most about the future?” “Probably just college. I want to go to Cal Poly, but I probably can’t get in. Just not knowing what’s going to happen. I want to be so certain that I know what’s going to happen, and I like making plans, so not knowing what’s going to happen – that feeling.”
“What one piece of advice would you give to a large group of people?” “Communicate better.”
“What do you like about music?” “I love music. I listen to it all the time. I like that it’s for everyone. It’s like, everyone’s thing. Whenever I’m kind of sad or not feeling good, I listen to music. Last night, my grandmother died, and I just listened to a bunch of songs and it was okay.”
“If you had to say thank you to someone right now, who would you thank?” “My mom.” “Yeah, my mom.” “Umm, probably my brother. He’s my role model. He’s always just been there for me. My brother has been helping me study for my finals, and he’s put a lot of effort into it, because he’s in Italy right now. He’s taking a lot of his time to help me with that.”
“What is your favorite holiday tradition?” “Seeing my family. I’m probably going over to my family’s houses as long as anyone is there. It’s hard with everyone being busy all the time. Family is supposed to be close, so the chance to see them is important.”
“If you could give one piece of advice to a large group of people, what would it be?” “Don’t take the things you have for granted. Be thankful for what you have.”
“What’s the weirdest present you’ve ever received?” “For Christmas, I got a pet bunny. When I was like, ten, my godmother just showed up with a rabbit. She came to my house, and I opened a little box, and I thought it was a stuffed animal and I grabbed it and it was a little bunny, and it was alive. My mom almost killed my godmother.”
“What is the scariest thing about your future?” “The future’s really scary. I’m having the best time in high school. I think it’s just scary going to college, having to pay for gas, having to pay your bills, and getting a debit card and doing all these things. In high school, your parents are sheltering you. In college you have to be on a tight budget and study a lot and go to work. And after that, you work some more. I’m having the best time in high school, because I’m around people who appreciate me, and I appreciate so many people, and I care about a lot of people, probably more than they care about me. But that’s a good thing, because I care about myself. I finally care about myself and I care about other people because one day, I want them to care about themselves and then care about others, too. I’m scared that in college, you kind of lose all of those people, except for a few. It’s basically just go to school, go to work, and study.”
“How do you express yourself?” “I would say through my emotions. I talk with my friends a lot, about just stuff in general. My friends understand, and they’ll always help when they are able to.”
“When did you persevere through a difficult situation?” “I joined the swim team last year and at the third practice I had a really bad asthma attack and i couldn’t breathe, and that led to a pretty serious panic attack. The problem was that I was in the pool, like lowkey drowning, which is kinda a problem. My sister wa there and she helped pull me out and for like a good hour and a half I was like hyperventilating really badly, and I couldn’t feel my hands or my legs. The lifeguard came over and she was like “what’s going on?” and I was like “oh, can’t breathe, can’t move” and she talked to my sister and my sister kept telling her not to call 911, but they did and the ambulance came and my sister and one of her friends came over and helped my get in the car and took me to the hospital. I was in the hospital for like five hours because they couldn’t get me to calm down and my heart was going not in a good place. The couple days after that, it was pretty difficult for me because I was trying to get back into school and dealing with general anxiety, but I had a group of really good people that helped me push through it. The big thing is, I learned how to ask for help.”
Sometimes I can make myself impersonate Morgan Freeman’s voice.
What would you tell your freshman year self? I would say be organized, but have fun.
Whats your biggest weakness? Second-guessing myself, and thinking that I can’t do something. Are you trying to overcome it Yes? Well, not actively.
What’s the happiest moment of your life? Probably this summer because it was the first time I went to disneyland. My favorite part was getting to go with my friends, even though most people go with their family, because I’m an only child. The hardest part about being an only child is not having anyone to talk to when I’m home alone.
What’s the happiest moment of your life? When I get to go back to France and see all my friends and family that I used to live with. The hardest part about moving to America, well when I was younger, was getting accumulated to the culture.
It’s been hard adjusting to school. The different ways you work, the teachers being harder and stuff. How have you seen friendships from middle school to high school change? It really changed because kids from different schools have come in and people from different groups come in, and some leave.
Hardest part of freshmen year? The hardest part was transitioning to here, but I’ve been here for a while so its gotten easier. What have you been thinking about colleges lately? Well, I’ve been thinking about my sport. I want to go to a division one sport, so I definitely think about my sport and what I want to do when I’m older. That definitely plays a large role.
I find inspiration from simple natural things in life, like simple things from nature, simple things from life, people who are kind to one another.
Whats your biggest struggle? Trying to find balance in life, between school, social life, and training for mountain biking. The one I struggle with most is social life. I kind of like focusing on school and getting better at training.
“What’s your least favorite part of this job?” “I seriously like all of it. Days like these probably.”
“What is your favorite childhood memory?” “Ah man, when I was in second grade, I had just moved to Boston and the Red Sox had just won the World Series for the first time in like 86 years. That was really exciting so I made a bunch of friends. I don’t know that really culminated my Boston experience.”
“What is your favorite question to ask people you meet?” “Where are you from?” “Where are you from?” “Here.”
“What’s your favorite kind of dog?” “Pitbull because my dog that I had for six years was the most loving creature that I have ever seen. They have little square faces.”
“What fruit is analogous to your year?” “A pomegranate because they can be sweet or sour and have a lot of different components.”
“What is your favorite quality about your mom?” “Loving.”
“Where do you wish you could be right now?” “The Griffindor common room. Because it’s cozy and there’s a fireplace and I like fire and it’s fun to watch.”
“Where are you from?” “Lodi, California.” “What do you miss most about it?” “I don’t know, I was glad to leave.”
“Why is Christmas your favorite holiday?” “It’s fun. It’s fun to give.”
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” “SWAT team.”
“It really pisses me off when people are scared of spiders and have no reason. I do. I’m allergic. I could die.”
“What’s your biggest fear?” “Dying… probably because of how my parents talked to me about my grandma’s illness when I was younger.”
“I think when you’re younger your dreams are all about yourself, but when you’re older your dreams are kind of about your children. So, I think, I mean I kind of am living a dream. I’ve always wanted to be a teacher.”
“When I was younger, I wanted to be a zookeeper or a farmer. Now, I want to combine environmental studies and entrepreneurship. Maybe I still want to be a zookeeper though…I don’t know.”
“Music is the voice of the soul and it’s been there for me through everything. It’s the only thing that I have. I wanted to major in recording arts but my parents won’t support it. I do plan on recording my music though. I have a friend that I’m getting together with this week. I want to perform when I grow up but I don’t know if that’s ever going to happen. I have stage fright but I’m doing open mic today at a coffee shop to help get over that…I do those kinds of things to face my fear.”
“I’m the goalkeeper.” “What’s something about goalkeeping that applies to life in general?” “Decision making. You have to be quick.”
“I want to be a landscape architect or a psychologist. I’m good at reading people. Like body language and stuff. I feel like I’m good with communicating with people and being able to let them do whatever they need to do to feel better or something.”
“I want to be a dog trainer because dogs are better than people. They just automatically love you, they don’t need a reason.”
“Isn’t it bad luck to have an umbrella open inside?” “I don’t believe in bad luck.”
“Be kind. Kindness is the most important thing in life.”
“I like math. It’s not that hard to understand, and you don’t really have to study for the tests.”
“People who don’t know me think that I’m like quiet and shy but in reality I have another side to me, and when the song Toxic comes on, Britney just takes over.”
“I needed a wallet, and I heard about duct-tape wallets online, and I was like, ‘I gotta figure out how to do that.'”
“What’s your biggest fear?” “Probably snakes. My older brother used to have one, and it would always get out of the cage and like pop up around the house.”
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” “United States Marine. Everyone knows that… I think when I was four that was all I wanted, like a uniform, a Marine Corps uniform” “What was the saddest moment of your life?” “Hearing that not all of my group of guys that I train with was going to come home.”
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” “I don’t know. Happy.”
“What is your biggest fear?” “Scary movies because every time I watch them I think they’re real and it just gets in my head for, like, a week.”
“What do you like about school?” “Sports.” “What don’t you like about school?” “Homework.”
“I want to be an FBI agent or DEA agent. The DEA is like a Drug Enforcement Administration, so I’d go undercover for them and the FBI…you have to look at dead bodies and stuff, and that doesn’t freak me out at all. I watched shows when I was little, and I knew I wanted to do it since I was ten. “
“I got kicked out.”