Interview conducted by Grace Triantafyllos
11:56am: I find Scout chatting with friends near the Hill stairs. CPS Week is in full swing, and we head up toward the mural to escape the noise of the courtyard. I click record. The interview has begun.
Grace: What’s something that you’re passionate about?
Scout: I don't really know if this is something I'm passionate about, but recently I feel like over winter break I got back into my reading kick that I used to do when I was in, like, eighth grade or whatever. So now I'm reading a good amount, and I've read a bunch of books over break, and this week, especially like second semester, now I'm like, “Oh, I can just read instead of doing my homework” or whatever. So I'm getting back into that, which feels good.
Grace: So what books kind of helped you get back into it?
Scout: Over the course of the semester I read The Idiot by Elif Batuman, and then the sequel I finished [over] Thanksgiving break or something, and then that kind of like, I don't know, maybe jumpstarted me…I don't know. I read Zadie Smith—her book White Teeth, which I thought was really good. And then I read a bunch more Ishiguro. I'm a very big fan of his. I got introduced to him by Rainof off last year. So I had read Never Let Me Go, but then last year I read The Remains of the Day and Klara and the Sun on my own, and then over winter break I read The Unconsoled, which was really good. I really love that book. It's like 500 pages of this random pianist walking around this city in Central Europe, but it's like, he kind of doesn't remember anything that's happening, but he does. It's kind of like a mind boggling book, but I thought it was good. And then now I'm reading this series by Elena Ferrante. The first one is My Brilliant Friend, which I think a lot of people read in, like, an English class or something. But there's four books and I'm almost done with them. And it's pretty good.
Grace: What's one of your favorite songs?
Scout: Okay, I'm wearing this sweatshirt right now, and I feel like it's very apt. Can I say album instead?
Grace: Yeah, totally.
Scout: Okay. My favorite album and top album of last year on Spotify Wrapped was Waiting to Spill by The Backseat Lovers. It’s so good. Their first album I think is their more popular one—like, most people know a few songs off of it. But I really like their new album because…I don't know, it's very fluid. Like, all the songs—the transitions to each other are done really well. It has kind of a mix of different, like, sounds and things like that, but it's also kind of about…Uh, I don't know, “coming of age” feels really corny but like, that's kind of what—it feels very timely for senior year and things like that.
Grace: What’s one item on your bucket list?
Scout: Okay, I guess this is something I would want to do in college because I feel like I know, like, I'm going to the east coast, and I am really excited. And I think it'll happen, but what I want to do is I want to go on like some sort of, like—I want to go visit a bunch of people in college, because I feel like that'd be really fun to go stay with people and go see people that I know from here and from other schools. I just think it would be fun, you know, [to] get to go explore, especially like—I'd really love to go to New York City or something and like, go there for a weekend or something. I don't know. I feel like just exploring the east coast but seeing all the people where they're going to college and stuff would be really fun.
Grace: How have you changed during your time at College Prep?
Scout: I feel like I got less annoying. I really feel like if I talked to my freshman year self, I would be really annoyed or something, I don't know. But I also feel like maybe in my relationships with other people—friendships and stuff like that—I feel like I've gotten more open, I guess. Or even if I'm not friends with a greater number of people, I feel like I'm more friendly with a greater number of people, which might be because of COVID, but I also think it just partially is like, I don't know…I think it's cool. I feel like that's kind of our grade right now, and I think this is just like something that happens to seniors. Everyone kind of ends up being like, “Oh, this is our last year. We should, like, be nice to each other. Personally, that's also something that I feel like maybe I've gotten better at or something like that.
Grace: Okay, final question. What's your favorite College Prep memory?
Scout: There might be something that I'm not thinking of, but I feel like I just loved rafting [on] sophomore retreat. That was pretty fun. And I don't know if I would say the night of sophomore retreat was my favorite or anything like that. But I thought that the retreat overall was super fun. And the rafting part I thought was fun. And we were all, like, swimming and hanging out. I thought that was good.