(From left to right, top row to bottom) Colin L, Olga M, Luca R, Max G, Jake B - Interviews Conducted by Anna C, Phoebe S, Celia L-D, and Nora W
This week, your Humans of CPS Team interviewed five lovely seniors— Colin, Olga, Luca, Max, and Jake, for our third week of Seniors of CPS interviews. Some were interviewed in quiet bedrooms, or sunny kitchens, while others were interviewed while on Campus! These interviews include responses to various different questions, for the purpose of getting to know our seniors a bit better and to hear about memories from their past four years at College Prep. We hope you enjoy!
Q: What is something unique about you/a fun fact that your classmates might not know?
Colin: I’m a really good cook. I know a lot of my friends know that, but I don’t think everyone knows— I really enjoy cooking. Throughout quarantine I’ve started cooking a whole lot more because there’s not much to do, and I’ve been making more stuff with doughs, like, I made bagels recently. All my family cooks, my dad cooks— the Lyman men cook a lot. He taught me how to cook, and my sister went to culinary school and she taught me how to bake, so I really love to cook, and cook for people, specifically.
Olga: I shared this with my friends the other day, and they thought it was pretty odd— I’m really scared of a lot of different things, especially like… cities, and tall buildings, which seems like a weird fear to have, but I had it when I was younger and really small. I remember I visited New York and I just couldn’t look up because I was so scared, and the same thing happened in San Francisco. Just big buildings in general, I feel like if you look up… just the motion of looking up makes it feel like something's falling? Maybe that’s just me, but yeah, I’m really just scared of tall things. But it’s not even heights; I’m not scared of heights at all!
Luca: I don’t get to tell this to too many people, because it’s too long of a story, but I do think it’s something fun and interesting. It’s about my family, but both of my grandparents, from either side of my family, have almost identical life stories. They both came to Montreal, from Italy and Greece respectively, when they were both very young. Both of them had one boy and three girls each. Basically, my parents have the exact same number of siblings. One boy, who is the oldest, and then two girls who are a year apart from each other, and then another girl, who is like, thirteen years younger. The spacing between their siblings is pretty much exactly the same, and they both have very similar immigration stories, just from different parts of the world.
Max: I’m not a very secretive person. I guess if I had to choose something that people might not know about me, it would be that I can solve the Rubix cube!
Jake: Well maybe not super unique, but I love 3D printing, and I do a lot of that. I run a printing business and design and print a lot of cool things for people. Also, I would say what I was talking about before— with umpiring for baseball, and softball as well. I don’t know, that’s pretty much my life when we’re not in quarantine, because I go to baseball games every night and every weekend.
Q: What is one word you would use to describe your four years at College Prep?
Colin: A few words came to mind, but I guess… I mean, stressful was the first word that came to mind, honestly, that’s all I can think about right now. I try to stick to the positive aspects, but overall, CPS itself is a bit of a stressful school academically. It’s definitely been worth it, but not easy.
Olga: I’d say… exploratory. That is a word, right? ...Yeah, that’s my word.
Luca: One word...probably interesting. It’s always been interesting. Interesting is a good, neutral word, because it’s not like every single one of my experiences have been absolutely positive, but it has been interesting. It always has been.
Max: Enriching.
Jake: Enlightening.
Q: How would you describe your four years at College Prep and the people that you spent those four years with?
Colin: Well, contrasted to Vermont, which is where I came from, the community is more empathy-based, if you know what I mean. Like, I didn’t really hug my guy friends when I was in Vermont, or we didn’t really check up on each other, but with my CPS friends, we hug when we see each other, and we ask like, “How’ve you been, how are you doing,” so I think I’ve developed a sense of empathy that I didn’t really think I would have. And people look out for each other, in ways that aren’t just like backing you up physically or something, so I think I really learned to be more empathetic with people.
Olga: It’s so weird, because it doesn’t feel like it’s been four years— in my head, it’s still two years. I don’t want to say something that’s just about the past year, because that’s sort of monotonous, but I guess relating back to exploratory— I feel like I’m such a different person than I was freshman year. Like looking back, seeing videos of myself talking to my dog, or hanging out with friends, is weird, because I’m such a different person, but not even in a bad way. I’ve kind of been trying not to think about all of this, but I think there’s been a lot of growth. I’ve grown a lot from friendships, and encounters that weren’t necessarily the best for me, but through all of that there’s been a lot of self-growth, and exploration of what I want. I’ve learned a lot about my priorities, academically and relationship/friendship-wise, and I think through the ups and downs, I now know myself a lot better. Pretty cliché answer, but that’s the best I’ve got for now.
Luca: I’m sure everyone feels this way, but it’s always been a little bit of a struggle academically. It’s always, always been like that. But you know, as I said earlier, it’s always the people that kept me coming back. Just talking with them, and hanging around with people. So many fun, different people… it’s just been great. There’s always been hindsight, like, “oh, what if I went here instead of CPS?” but I’m glad I came here, because of the people I’ve met.
Max: My main takeaway from these four years at CPS is the community. It’s kind of difficult because so much happens in the space of four years— it’s hard to select a few things to talk about. I guess I have grown intellectually more than I thought I would shave. That’s partially due to the academics, but it’s mostly due to being surrounded by very smart people. And I’m actually talking about the students rather than the teachers, even though the teachers are probably much smarter than the students. I think I have learned more from the high schoolers that I’ve been surrounded by than from the classes that I’ve taken, even though I’ve learned SO much from my classes. That’s how I would describe my four years.
Jake: I feel like we’ve all learned and grown a lot through high school and I hope we continue doing so in college. I really look forward to catching up with everyone and seeing how you have changed and grown, and I wish everyone good luck. Other than that, I would say I spent probably too much time in my room, working on my computer or just messing around. It’s sort of hard for me to remember what I did before quarantine.