Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself and what hobbies/sports you do.

A: I mostly just like doing track and cross country, I also play piano and occasionally guitar. When I have more free time in the summer, I love baking and swimming, but I am pretty bad at both. Outside of that, I just like hanging out with my friends. 

Q: How is this year’s learning different from last years? 

A: Classes are definitely a lot more challenging because there is more choice in taking APs or ACs. I have had to dedicate a lot more time to studying, especially AP Psych and APUSH. Time management is a lot more important, with trying to balance clubs and sports, but many people have had success there. 

Q: Which classes have you found the most interesting and why?

A: AP Psych has probably been the most interesting because I can relate many of the examples to my own life, especially the memory and personality parts. For example, one of my coaches was talking about how you have to have the right level of thought and anxiety and pressure going into a race or a jump, because not caring enough and being too nervous are both bad. I had learned about that in Psych as the Yerkes-Dodson rule, and it was interesting to see how what I learned could relate to real life events. 

Q: Describe something that surprised you coming back to school this year that you weren’t expecting?

A: I was surprised at how early people started thinking about which colleges they wanted to go to and how much of their career they already had planned out. Going into sophomore year, I wasn’t expecting to start visiting colleges until I was a junior, but many other sophomores already had a top 10 list and most of their life planned out. 

Q: What are your thoughts about personal project? What were some challenges you have faced so far? What are you working on?

A: For personal project, I wanted to learn how to play guitar. A lot of people, myself included, put off most of the work until the last minute but got it done on time. One of the challenges was that it was so self-paced that there was no motivation to stay on track, and it was so open-ended that many people didn’t know how to format the written section. I think that it is a good idea, but maybe for freshmen who might have more time to spend on a project like that. 

Q: If you could change one thing from your freshman self, what would it be? 

A: I would have tried to be more social, because there are so many amazing people I met this year, and I wish that I could have known them sooner. (I would also start listening to Mac DeMarco and wear sunscreen more often)