Interview conducted by Sofia R.
11:06 a.m: Excitedly meeting me in the courtyard on a delightfully warm spring day, Nicole and I wander over to the Scott building. Meanwhile, we chat about term papers; Nicole's sophomore paper about the role of Indigenous women in rebellions against Spanish colonies and junior paper about Filipino Labor Unionism in the West Coast. I click record. Welcome, Nicole. The interview has begun.
Sofia: Okay, the first one is what's something you're passionate about?
Nicole: Okay, so as you probably know, I was voted senior superlative for 'most likely to be seen holding a boba while on campus'. So that's one thing. I love boba. I also love calligraphy and just like making my notes really cute, and nice, and aesthetic, and I feel like I've actually put a lot of time into having that type of presentation and enjoyment in order to also kind of facilitate a love of learning in a way. I'm like, oh, it's gonna make studying so much more fun when my notes are so pretty and stuff like that. I had another answer for that but it's kind of gone out of my head. But yeah, those are the two I have right now. But there's definitely more out there that I could probably tell you.
Sofia: You can answer later if you remember! Okay, what's one of your favorite songs?
Nicole: Oh, my gosh. Okay, I prepped for this one. One of my favorite songs right now is Last Train at 25 O'Clock by Lamp. So Lamp is like this Japanese Indie band, and Last Train at 25 O'Clock, I love it because it just sounds really fun. Honestly, it's very upbeat, and it's got drums and fast rhythms and it's just very cute. It makes you want to dance around a little bit, and it just always gets me in a really upbeat mood. And it's about these two lovers who miss their train at midnight. And so they're just exploring the city together. And it's it's just really cute. And I'm like, What a cute life. I idealize that, you know.
Sofia: Yeah. What's one item on your bucket list?
Nicole: Okay, one item on my bucket list is probably to have like a friends or girls trip. I don't know where exactly, anywhere honestly, because I love traveling with my family. But also, I don't know it's just always nice to be able to spend that time with friends away from like, the context of having school sometimes. Maybe like, far away like, I know, Japan, Europe. That'd be really fun.
Sofia: What are you doing on the trip?
Nicole: Um, what are we doing on the trip? I don't know, eating a lot of good food, obviously. Yeah, um, I think we have– there's a road trip in the works right now for a senior trip. Which is really fun. So that's gonna be crossed off soon / hopefully / maybe if we pull through (laughs). But yeah, just like I don't know enjoying the scenery, being like little tourists, but also just like being able to have good friends and enjoying each other's company and just have fun with that.
Sofia: Yeah! Okay, how have you changed during your time at College Prep?
Nicole: Yeah. Oh my goodness. I remember like yesterday, I was thinking about prepping for this interview. And I was contemplating on emailing my middle school teacher and being like 'Hey! How has it been going?' Um, but then I realized I couldn't find her email. So I was like, Oh, I'll do that another time. Anyways, that's a little off-topic. But I was just thinking about how I've changed since middle school. And I think I've grown just much more confident in myself. I remember having, a lot of social anxiety, back in middle school. And I remember like, when I was graduating, my state of mind was not the best. But now I feel like, through CPS, I feel like I've just been able to find good friends and be comfortable with myself, and discover who I am and what my passions and interests actually are, rather than, I guess having to live up to the expectations of others. And I feel like it's just been a great place to grow in that way.
Sofia: And then last one, what's one of your favorite College Prep memories?
Nicole: Oh, okay. So, can I do more than one?
Sofia: Yes.
Nicole: Okay. So, um, I have, oh my goodness. Okay, so I'm gonna start with my first one which is in sophomore year. So it was the only time we beat Head Royce in Womens Volleyball, during the time I was here, but yeah, um, so sophomore year it was semi-finals. So if we won this, you're going to championships and I just vividly remember that last point. Um, basically what happened was I remember like, I think like Amy S., she was like graduating, she like spiked it. And then one of the passes from the Head Royce side like shaked it into like the gym wall. And once the point was over we just ran into the middle like and everyone in the stands dog-piled on top of each other and just started screaming out of joy, because you're going to the championships and that was genuinely like one of the happiest memories I've had CPS because I love volleyball and I love the school team because everyone's always just so nice. And we always have like a great sense of team spirit and camaraderie. And I just really enjoyed that. Ok, and then I'm gonna talk about my junior intraterm and then my senior intraterm. So junior year, I went to Chicago and one of my favorite memories, so I was kind of in an all-juniors room. And okay, Kennedy might not like having this on record. (laughs) Basically, whenever we'd retire from Chicago because it was a huge day of like museum-going and we eat like a ton of food and stuff. So we just went to our rooms. And we would have really deep philosophical chats about life and the meaning of life. And it was a bunch of juniors, plus like one senior, and it was really cute but then also at like eleven p.m. Kennedy would start (laughs)–basically we were all delirious so she just started like performing improvisational slam poetry, it was like genuinely like one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. And you know Cliff, he came into our room and sat down (laughing so hard, unintelligible). And senior year, I’m also gonna talk about intraterm. So um, me and a bunch of my friends, we on the last day had like a ton of time, so we went and walked all the way from our hotel to see the sunrise from the Lincoln Memorial. And it was like a really amazing moment. It was just gorgeous, so peaceful. And I don’t know, there's just like this type of reverence that you have when you're in these like national monuments of these presidents and like huge historical figures, and it's just, I don't know, and it was really nice. That was just a really peaceful joy-filled morning that I cherish for a while.