Paige A, senior — Interview conducted by Angela Wang
[Friday, 2/17/23, 12:00]: We’re in the courtyard at the beginning of lunch. I click record. “Welcome, Paige.” The interview has begun…
Angela:
Nervous?
Paige:
Yeah, but I think someone else told me what their questions are, so I vaguely have some answers.
Angela:
Okay, the first question is, if you could only choose one song to play every time you walk into the rest of your life, what would it be?
Paige:
I don't know if I have like a specific song but maybe like, a very faint like high pitched ringing sound to make everyone vaguely uncomfortable.
Angela:
*laughs*
Paige:
And like, I don't know, I don't have like a song though. But I think that'd be funny.
Angela:
Okay. The second question is what is something unique about you that your classmates might not know?
Paige:
I'm very good at untying knots. I don't know. And I find it very cathartic.
Angela:
Is that like from Girl Scouts?
Paige:
No, just like, I don't know, stuff got tangled in my pocket all the time. So like when I was younger, I just like untangle it, so I got really good at it.
Angela:
Oh, no wonder. Yeah. All right, looking back at your experience at CPS, what is something you will never forget?
Paige:
Um, I guess I mean, this is more like CPS athletics, but like when our relay team made it to state so that was really like, a very fun experience. I don't know very, how I handled it before. So it was like, very cool.
Angela:
That's nice. Is that for swim? Yeah. How does that work? Like relay?
Paige:
Um, so the relay that we made it in was the four by 50 medley, so it's everyone does 50 of each stroke. And then the other one was the 4 by 100 freestyle. And then—the 4 by 100 freestyle is what we did the best in. And so that's just like, yeah, everyone does like, so you do 100, and the next person dives over you and then they go.
Angela:
Oh, okay, because in track they have the baton so I was trying to figure out how you guys do it. All right, um, what are you looking forward to in the future, either in this semester or in college or beyond?
Paige:
Um, I think I'm looking forward to like college and like maybe like post-college stuff doing like research and stuff I'm interested in. Just kind of like focusing in on like, more specific things because like, high school and college is kind of like you're doing a bunch of stuff to like, have broad knowledge, but I'm excited to like, focus in on one thing,
Angela:
What would that one thing be for you?
Paige:
Probably either like geology or archaeology, or something about like, just like that type of like history stuff. Yeah.
Angela:
Nice. If you could say thank you to one room and CPS, which one would it be?
Paige:
Probably the bio room because it was always warm when, like last year it was really cold in the morning and I had bio first period, when I walked in it was always really warm and that made me sleepy. It was kind of, like, annoying though, kind of like trying to keep my eyes open. But it was like, I was still like comfortable.
Angela:
All right. Last question. What do you feel like you have accomplished in CPS or outside of CPS?
Paige:
*laughs*
Angela:
Well, people say like, Oh, I've grown over all these years.
Paige:
I was gonna say something like that *laughs* I don't know. I feel like I've learned to like broaden by like, minded a little bit like I came in very close-minded and like, I have this set of like, rules I'm going to live by and like, I'm just that's gonna stay the same. But like, I've learned to, like adapt to my environment and like, change how I react to things and stuff.
Angela:
If you don't mind sharing, what was one of the rules?
Paige:
Well, my like, main rule coming into CPS was that I was gonna make zero friends.
Angela:
*laughs*
Paige:
So I said I wasn't gonna make friends. You're gonna get attached and I wouldn't be sad when I leave. Yeah. And then like last year, I was like, I'm just like, sad like I need to, like, not do those rules anymore. So I don't know. Lots of learning.
Angela:
That's interesting. What shifted? What marked the change?
Paige:
Um, I don't know. I was like, I saw a lot of people had like, really close friends here and like, they're doing like fun stuff outside of school and like, for them it seemed like school was a comfortable place. And I was like, I don't know school was like, definitely not a comfortable place for me until like this year, because I would get here and just like not interact with like anything or like anyone. But I was like, Oh, I kind of it would be nice to like, have people that I can like talk to and like feel natural at school rather than like just kind of going in and out.
Angela:
Was it hard the first three years or was it just natural?
Paige:
I mean, now I would consider that it was hard but like I didn't know what I was missing out on. So like, it didn't feel hard. And I was kind of like, I was like, I was like justifying… I was like well, I can get all my homework done since I don't have friends to talk to like so it was like, not hard as in like I had more time to like get my work done and stuff, but like, I don't know, it was just like more draining.
Angela:
Definitely. Yeah. Well, thank you for the interview. Nice talking to you!