Neela M., senior — interview conducted by Araddhya Tibrewall
Tuesday, May 2, 11:05 pm: We sit under the Latin Club Tree, right before the lunchtime buzz picks up. It’s a nice cool day. I click record. “Welcome, Neela.” The interview has begun….
Araddhya: Hi Neela, what’s up?
Neela: (laughs) Nothing much, how are you?
Araddhya: Doing well. Okay, let’s get started. 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?
Neela: Um I feel like…….maybe….maybe “Hair Down” by SiR featuring Kendrick Lamar, or a song that I’ve been into recently is “Neon Signs” by Suki Waterhouse.
Araddhya: Why?
Neela: Honestly I think they’re really chill songs, so I sort of like the energy, but they’re not, like, super sad if that makes sense. So I like that sort of…
Araddhya: Balance?
Neela: Yeah balance.
Araddhya: What’s something unique about you that your classmates might not know?
Neela: I have two really good ones for this. Ooh, I feel like a lot of people might know this but I’m left-handed, so yes. And also, I speak German.
Araddhya: Wow. Looking back at your experience at CPS, what is something you'll never forget? This can be a sports team, a moment, a friend, a class, really anything.
Neela: One of the things I’ll definitely never forget is that I was on the soccer team starting sophomore year and then through my senior year. I think, especially the community that was built in the team my senior year and our coach—that sort of atmosphere and the hype before games. And also I’d say meeting my CAP group for my first time. I got like driven up to the gym deck steps, and they were all sort of waiting there. I think I was one of the last ones to get there. (laughs) And I just remember that my sister yelled something out the window, something like “Have fun!” and I was very embarrassed.
Araddhya: That’s a cool story! What are you looking forward to in the future? This could be your last few weeks here, summer, college, life with an uppercase L, pretty much anything.
Neela: Something I’m really looking forward to is that in college I’m going to be in a big city and to just…not to say that Oakland is not a city, but it’s not exactly super big. I mean you can walk down to College Ave., but it’s not like having the entire city and a large amount of people and stores and stuff.
Araddhya: Okay this is your last question. If you could say thank you to one room at CPS, which one would it be?
Neela: Oh god. This question. (laughs) Um, that is a good question. I feel like maybe I’ll say…...there’s this little room in the gym that’s, like, where our soccer team has their meetings and talks over plans and strategies before games. And maybe that room, because I’ve had so many fun memories in there.
Araddhya:
Thank you so much Neela.
Neela: Yeah of course. Thank you.