Welcome back to Roar: The Podcast, Season 4. In this round table podcast, senior Elias Panou, senior Nathaniel Hekster, senior Nicklaus Chui, sophomore Hannah Lane, and junior Theodore Nguyen reflect on the 2023-2024 school year.
Recorded on May 22, 2024
Speakers:
- Seniors Elias Panou, Nathaniel Hekster, Nicklaus Chui, sophomore Hannah Lane, and junior Theodore Nguyen.
Elias: Hello everybody, welcome to Santa Clara’s The Roar’s podcast. My name is Elias Panou. I am a senior here at The Roar. I’ve been at it for four years now. And next to me, sitting here, is a very old friend, Nathaniel Hekster.
Nathaniel: I’m Nathaniel Hekster. I am a senior at Santa Clara High School. And I am the old alternative media editor for The Roar, before Theo.
Nicklaus: Hi, I’m Nicklaus Chui. I’m a senior at Santa Clara High School, and I’m a writer and photographer for The Roar.
Hannah: I’m a sophomore at Santa Clara High, and I’m a writer for The Roar.
Theodore: Hello everyone, my name is Theodore Nguyen. I’m a junior at Santa Clara High School, and I am the current alternative media editor for The Roar. All right, with the year drawing down, you know, it’s,I think like three of you guys here are all seniors, right?
Nicklaus: Yup.
Nathaniel: Three days left!
Theodore: Three days left, it’s crazy. With the year drawing down, I’d like for you guys to give your experiences throughout the past four years. How life’s been at Santa Clara High School and all that.
Nicklaus: If you want to go first, Elias.
Elias: Well, I feel like I can speak for all three of us when I say we all started in the pandemic our freshman year. So, we definitely had certainly a very different high school experience compared to everyone else, but if I were to make the claim and say it was more challenging than anyone else, someone could definitely argue with me on that, et cetera. So, I kind of want to see what you guys were thinking about that original start we had.
Nathaniel: I feel like it’s in character for our dynamic, but I’m about to follow what you just said as the exact antithesis. In a certain respect, it was certainly a lot easier because, well, I think one of the hardest parts about going to a new school is just being in a completely unfamiliar environment, not knowing anyone or anything. I feel like it’s our generation that gets the stereotype, but it’s a lot easier to meet people online over the phone or over Meet, and so we were able to establish that kind of, were able to anchor ourselves before we had to go in, and so, for me at least, the transition from middle school to high school wasn’t very extreme.
Nicklaus: I will actually challenge that assumption. I found that distance learning was actually harder for me. While Nathaniel pointed out that the transition wasn’t extreme, I felt that over the course of the year, it was a lot more difficult for me to have a meaningful education.
To be honest, I was not paying attention in class at all. I was sleeping through class. I don’t know how I got A’s in any of my classes. It’s a miracle. It’s a miracle. Like, thank you to my teachers for doing so much for us and being so understanding.
One thing that I missed a lot during distance learning was the social aspect and meeting new people in person. I really like to talk and meet with people in person rather than online and through text. So, that’s something that I found difficult, personally.
Elias: Yeah, so the grade barriers were definitely sort of stripped down. Because we can give the example… we were actually really – me and Nat – we were really good friends with a senior in our freshman year named Stefan Pantic. The thing is though, we didn’t really – in that class dynamic – we didn’t really feel, especially in the journalism class in which everybody was, all grades were together, we didn’t really feel like just freshmen.
Nathaniel: You know, it wasn’t very intimidating. Yeah. We just felt all… we were just all there. We were just journalism kids. But, I’ll be honest, I completely forgot about the teaching aspect. I didn’t consider that.
Theodore: Honestly though, I think because I came like a year after you guys when (I was in my) freshman year. Just coming back from distance learning and going into high school, I really feel like I didn’t have a lot of social skills or social aspects coming in. I mostly kind of kept to myself, especially in Journalism, where everyone was supposed (interact with) and all that. But Hannah, you came in like two years after distance learning, right?
Hannah: Yeah, I did most of… I think all of my distance learning was over middle school. So…
Theodore: Did you feel a difference in, I guess, social skills or whatnot?
Hannah: Not necessarily because I had a year back, I think in eighth grade before I came into high school, so…
Elias: Hannah, how old were you when the pandemic started?
Hannah: I want to say I was like 12 or 13. But yeah, like 7th grade, 6th grade actually. 7th grade. We came back in 8th grade.
Elias: I was about to say, okay. Wait, so you were in elementary school? Is that what I’m hearing? No, am I tweaking? Alright.
Nathaniel: Some elementary schools end in the 6th or 7th grade. Some of them go really late.
Elias: That was the very first point in time, that era, me coming to America and obviously me and you and I meeting there. And I mentioned earlier, you and I, Nat, we were very old friends from middle school and all that stuff, and one of the things I have to admit, between you and I, especially, ‘cause you, you go into… you mentioned earlier about the social aspect of going into high school and all that stuff. I kind of wanted to note a lot of things. I sort of went into high school kind of like burning all the bridges behind me and all that stuff, but… and I mean that sort of as an instance… I’m very glad that you and I, we went into high school with each other.
One of the things that differentiates my entrance into high school was the fact that I had… Most people go in with this expectation that your friends, you’re going to keep, your friends are what you’re going to keep, and you’re going to move into high school with that sort of same dynamic. Obviously, that never happens, or some friend groups last that long. So I’m very glad that Nat here, being the old friend he is, has been here all four years.
Nicklaus: I think that one of the biggest things about finally coming back and being here with in-person learning, with a social aspect at least, is the sports games and the events.
Theodore: The sports games were, those were the highlights, honestly. Just a lot of school spirit out there makes you really feel alive.
Nathaniel: Yeah. Yeah. It was tough to miss.
Elias: I’ve noticed that our grade – the current seniors – we have a lot less school spirit compared to the others, and I think that we can blame the pandemic.
Nathaniel: That would explain it. Yeah.
Elias: I personally really don’t care about school events.
Nathaniel: Yeah. I thought that was an everyone thing
Elias: You being the dynamic figure you are on campus, Nicklaus, I know you’re dying to say something Mr. CSA President, Homecoming King. What is it that you are dying to get off your chest?
Nicklaus: It’s – you guys. It’s not the senior class. It’s the fact that there are people like you who don’t want to do the events – you don’t care about it – but I feel like that’s the wrong mindset. It’s like, coming in, coming back in person. I was so excited to do any of the events. Like, this BOTC, past three BOTCs, I did Human Pyramid. I did Tug of War. I did the dances. I did everything I could because I felt that I missed out my freshman year. I was like, “I gotta go out and do it,” and I think that a lot of seniors actually came out. There was more turnout this year than last year that came out for the dances because they finally realized, “Wait. We’re going to go through high school without participating in a single event.”
Elias: But the events aren’t what makes high school great. I feel like because we came in from the pandemic, we learned to appreciate the joys and the happiness and all the fun events of high school that don’t take place through school events.
Nathaniel: It’s the mediocre, lackluster education that I came here for.
Theodore: I think it’s less about the events, but more about the people, right?
Theodore: I feel like it’s the fact that we didn’t have much person-to-person interaction. Now that I see a lot of people are coming out to these events and more school spirit is being churned out, right? Because distance learning, it just stole it away from all of us.
I’m going to shift away from the topic, just going into your senior years, right? After a year after missing out, what was something that you guys did differently compared to your sophomore and junior years?
Elias: Expect nothing. Don’t expect happiness, don’t expect lows, don’t expect anything because you really don’t know where you’re gonna be. I guess this is just general life advice and all that stuff. I go into my sophomore year, heavy pessimism. That’s not good for you either. I go into my junior year, I’m kind of a bit of an optimist, I guess, because my courses and all that stuff, they came together very well for me.
I felt like I didn’t have that much, even though I was taking APUSH and all that stuff, but I sort of had a lot of free time. I was free. I was developing a lot of connections. I was out dating and all that stuff, so I feel like it was… I have the amount of optimism, but as I’ve come to realize, it doesn’t falter on you. You come to this point in time where it’s like, don’t make any expectations. Don’t set out goals for yourself, or well, maybe that’s a bad idea. But don’t expect yourself to do or want to have to do something, et cetera.
I came in, I wasn’t like, “AP Lit’s gonna be the greatest class ever.” I didn’t come in like, “This fourth year of journalism, I’m gonna make it rock” and all that stuff. I didn’t do any of that stuff. And you know what, I think I’ve had my best school year so far for it.
Nicklaus: What did I do differently? Something I did differently this year is that I was a lot more relaxed with my classes. I remember freshman year, I didn’t care about any of my classes. It was distance learning. I literally didn’t get a meaningful education at all. So I ignored all that and then sophomore you’re just getting back into it, feeling the actual grind that you have to do in order to get good marks in order to do well in your classes. I was doing a lot. After that junior year, I just stepped up a notch. I went from one AP to four APs, and I just put everything into it.
I tried another sport, and it took a lot out of me physically and mentally, but going into senior year, I decided that I wanted to still try my best but not burn myself out. This year, I took four APs again. Well, technically five, if you count the AP Macro and AP Gov combo, but I decided to put a lot more time for myself, which I think is important for juniors, sophomores and freshmen, and incoming freshmen as well. You should have a healthy balance and you should trust yourself and trust the work that you’re doing and you should try your best.
Theodore: Did you guys all like… how should I put it? Freshman year, you guys were all laid back and everything. But then sophomore (year), instead of trying a little bit (as) juniors, you guys just went full blast. Now senior, you’re realizing maybe it’s not that worth it, and you’re relaxing it a little bit.
Nathaniel: For me, it was a little bit different. Right now, I’m going full throttle, basically. This is the first time I’ve taken more than two AP classes consecutively, and I’m doing what Nicklaus is doing. I’m taking four and a half, depending on how you count it. I definitely could not have managed Journalism on top of all this.
Freshman year, I was literally playing Minecraft and (Microsoft) Flight Simulator during class. Like I have a very distinct memory of Mr. Ansaldo was saying, “All right guys, get to work,” and I was landing a 737 in San Diego, but—
Elias: A future pilot in the making folks.
Nathaniel: Yes, sir. Right. Yeah. After freshman year, I took my first honors class, and then I took an honors and AP class. This time I regretted not taking more challenging classes. But actually, to be honest, this is the first year I’m legitimately challenged. Last year, I only got bad grades because I was coasting and spent maybe about five minutes on school outside of school. I was just figuring out how things work.
I realized this year, the merit… what I’m going to take away from high school is not the things I learned in class… except for chemistry. I learned so much in that class, and it’s the one non-AP/honors one that I have right now. It’s more of a way of, like, viewing how the world is. Like, “Oh, okay, no incentives here, so people are going to be crappy here. A lot of incentives here, that’s why everyone’s so good and it’s so competitive.” I’m just kind of figuring out the dynamic. Journalism actually was really good for that as well because I learned that sometimes your boss, not always a really good boss.
Elias: Wait a second, I was your boss.
Nathaniel: For the second half.
Hannah: No, I think that was his point. You taught him that?
Nathaniel: You made sense. Sometimes I would have to have something edited, and they (the former editor before Elias) just wouldn’t do it. I’d keep asking and asking and asking. You never had a problem with that. I think you were looking forward to debating what I wrote.
Elias: It ultimately made a much more streamlined argument. I won’t lie to you so…
Nathaniel: I think it did, yeah.
Theodore: Hannah, this is your first year in Journalism, right? Yeah, it is. I mean, why don’t you give your experiences about it?
Hannah: I think, in the beginning, I honestly was considering dropping it.
Elias: Yeah, everyone has that.
Hannah: I think also, coming into it, everybody already knew each other. I feel like everybody – a lot of people had already been taking that class, so it was like, “Oh, well all these people already know each other.” I wasn’t like feeling like I fit in at first. But I do like it.
I like it now. I don’t know, it’s okay, I think. I mean there’s certain aspects of it that I’m not always super enthusiastic about, but for the most part, it’s okay. Yeah, hey, I saw that.
Elias: No, I, I understand you completely. There’s just, there’s like any classes, there’s the, there’s the bog with the mire, you know?
Hannah: Yeah. And I think—
Elias: Okay, imagine it from my perspective: I’m a freshman, right? Never taken part in any sort of extracurricular school things, all that stuff, right? I’m only there because – and by the way, we had an EIC our freshman year, and she’s been a real massive influence for us.Meliina Kritikopoulos. She is, like me, of Greek descent, so we kind got along—
Nathaniel: Of course, you know how to pronounce her last name.
Elias: —so it was sort of, but their mother… I don’t know if they still are, and if anyone does, correct me, but their mother was a librarian, at Buchser (Middle School), and so she obviously was given the task of looking to students who had some form of aptitude in reading and writing, and she would set them down the course of Journalism. Melina hates it when I credit her mother for it, but her mom’s actually the one, so, yeah. I had never done anything like that before, and I had nothing, no real idea what to expect, especially when I applied. So I’m sitting in the classroom, and I was just too clueless to be scared or intimidated of anything. I had no expectations whatsoever.
Nathaniel: That’s fair.
Theodore: Nick, is this your first year of Journalism, too?
Nicklaus: Yep, this is my first year, so I definitely felt a lot of what Hannah was feeling. You know, there were set friend groups, and then I got put into a section and everyone in that section knew each other. And of course, the Big Mouths were sat next to each other, so I was like, “how do I talk to them?” But it was definitely fun going into it, talking to new people, meeting new friends. I’ve had a really fun time, especially with visuals. Yeah, before—
Theodore: Those photos were fire.
Nicklaus: Thank you man, thank you. Before I was able to become a photographer, I was thinking low key I might drop this class because I don’t have enough time to write all these articles, especially with AP Lit. I don’t know how you do it, Elias. Trying to balance AP Lit and then writing more articles on top of that. But with photography, it definitely gives me a lot more flexibility, and has ultimately led to a big opportunity that I’m hoping to pursue.
Theodore: Alright, I mean, shifting away from Journalism, obviously, let’s focus more on the school.
Hannah: There’s a lot of things, honestly.
Theodore: Well, if you want to give your thoughts about it.
Hannah: Yeah, sure. A big thing for me was the sports season because freshman year I did participate in sports here. Not to hate on our school, but we’re obviously not the best at everything.
Nicklaus: I’d like to interject, the girls’ wrestling team sent a girl to state finals. She got second place.
Hannah: So that’s an outlier.
Theodore: Didn’t baseball go to CCS this year?
Hannah: Overall, our school doesn’t do the best.
Elias: But most schools go to CCS.
Hannah: No.
Theodore: I don’t think so. It’s
Elias: It’s open tourney, isn’t it?
Nicklaus: Oh yeah, boys tennis also went to the finals.
Hannah: You’re a little biased, aren’t you, aren’t you?
Nicklaus: I am. I was on both tennis and wrestling teams.
Hannah: Yeah, I bet you were. I think honestly, especially that’s something you guys can talk about since you played sports, is my freshman year, people wore masks while we were playing on the field. It was definitely interesting to see. I don’t know how they did it. I didn’t because I can’t have a mouth guard in and a mask and be running.
Now, my sophomore year, nobody wore masks that I know of this year. I think it was really interesting to see the changes, not only from quarantine, but as I was getting better at the sport – I played club for it too – so as I was improving and doing more, I think it got more enjoyable, and we had more people come out and watch.
Field hockey usually doesn’t get a lot of viewers, but we did this year, so it was interesting to see.
Theodore: I think it probably has to do with people realizing that they’re probably missing out on the school spiirt and whatnot. I remember last year, I don’t think football had much of a turnout, did they? Or did they have a decent-sized turnout?
Nicklaus: No, they had the same amount of turnout this year.
Hannah: Yeah, they always get a lot of people.
Nicklaus: Yeah, always a lot.
Theodore: I feel like the spirit in football this year was a lot stronger.
Hannah: I think a lot of people, a lot more people came to watch, is what I feel because in my freshman year, a lot of people came to watch.
Nathaniel: I mean, there’s also more people going on the streams too, aren’t there?
Theodore: Well, I mean, yeah, thanks to Broadcasting Club. A little slight plug there.
Nathaniel: We’ve established ourselves now.
Theodore: Actually, you know what, free promo out here ‘cause I’m the president of the Broadcasting Club, and I feel like the reason why maybe a lot of people were watching more was maybe because we had a live stream service going on to help broadcast some sports, especially like maybe the under-reported and the under-covered ones, you know, field hockey, soccer and whatnot.
I think it just all paired together and it was just more school spirit, more people turning out and whatnot. But I think over the years, I feel like the school has done a lot more to use its resources effectively. In some aspects. Do you want to disagree?
Hannah: I disagree with that one.
Nathaniel: It’s a public school.
Hannah: Yeah, I think also a lot of funds that sports raised was put towards football because the school… definitely… It’s horrible.
Nathaniel: That’s what gets all the attention.
Hannah: Yeah, but also if you’re not winning, why do you need the money?
Elias: They bring in the most money. I will. Obviously, it’s always tickets, sales—
Hannah: But they also take everybody else’s money too.
Theodore: Do they really?
Elias: It’s the big vortex.
Hannah: Yeah. They take the other sports’ money, and they bought new padding.
Nathaniel: What was it? $10 for a hot dog?
Hannah: Yeah.
Theodore: Hey. I mean that they make a lot of money out of that, you know?
Hannah: Did they start this year? I know they were planning to have boys’ soccer also have the concession stand open.
Elias: Yeah, they did, but I think they actually shut it down after a few games ’cause it wasn’t—
Theodore: It wasn’t as popular?
Elias: Not to mention lack of volunteers. The concession stand for football games is run by volunteers, but you have the boys’ soccer team, which attracts nowhere near as much attention.
Nathaniel: Oh, if they had hours I would’ve done it.
Nicklaus: Yeah, but building off of what Hannah said, I do remember that my tennis coaches were actually having to buy their own strings and rackets and shock absorbers with their own money instead of getting school funding, because, well, I guess football takes all that.
Hannah: Yeah, it does.
Theodore: I feel like maybe it’s also the coordination of other sports teams because I remember I played badminton – I played for the school team – and there was a lot of struggle between volleyball and badminton to coordinate to get the gym space together because sometimes volleyball just took the court without ever telling our coach, “Hey, we’re taking this over,” or something like that.
Hannah: I think that a lot of attention is put toward football because we have students and teachers who love to prioritize it, and obviously, it gets the most viewers. It’s the most fun thing to go do, or watch, I mean.
Theodore: We love football!
Elias: America!
Hannah: People slamming into each other is real fun. So I do think they get a lot of our money, but honestly, it’s fun, it’s fun. I think it’s fun to go watch a football game. It’s fun to go buy your deep-fried Oreos. I’d participate.
Nicklaus: Hell yeah, I love them.
Theodore: I had my first deep-fried Oreo this year. It was—
Hannah: See, that’s the experience.
Elias: I’ve never had one.
Nathaniel: Never has this country made me want to die. I mean, not that I wish I was dead, meaning that I felt like I was going to.
Theodore: Did you have a deep-fried Oreo?
Nathaniel: I had it last year for, um, what was it called? Broadcasting?
Theodore: Oh yeah, that’s right.
Nathaniel: Yeah, I mean, I never had an opportunity otherwise.
Theodore: Dude, deep-fried Oreos, that was so good. I tried to do it like my sophomore year and I got scammed out of it.
Nathaniel: Yeah, I was never involved in sports otherwise.
Theodore: Elias, we’re going to force-feed you a deep-fried Oreo one day.
Elias: That’s a little freaky.
Nicklaus: It’s worth it. I remember having braces during sophomore year, and I really wanted a deep-fried Oreo, but I got my braces tightened the day before. I was just trying to gnaw on it, and I was crying but at the same time, it was both pain and joy. It was so good.
Theodore: Let’s shift away from sports.
Hannah: Well, we have Homecoming. That was a big… Speaking of, Mr. Homecoming King over here.
Elias: Ah, yes.
Hannah: I think that was a fun experience this year. Also different from previous years.
Nicklaus: Yeah, thank you, thank you. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to win, but I’m very thankful that I did.
Elias: You were hard on that. You were going to win as the Homecoming King. But tell me, how was that experience?
Nicklaus: It was fun. It was interesting. Getting to be on Homecoming Court and getting to ride around the parade on top of the cars, it was a very surreal experience because normally, you’re the ones watching them.
But to be from that perspective, in their shoes, is really different. It was really enjoyable. It was a fun experience. Ultimately, there’s a lot of pressure when you’re on the field waiting for someone to be crowned, and when I heard my name called, I did my little dancey dance.
I turned around and I was like, “Yeah!” and then went and hugged my friend who was my escort. It was fun. It was a really fun experience that I’m glad that I got to have. So if any of you guys are listening to this and want to go for it, just go for it. It’s a chance.
Theodore: I mean, it’s harmless. It doesn’t hurt, right?
Nicklaus: Exactly. Just go for it.
Nathaniel: There’s a saying that my dad and I keep saying, repeating to each other in Dutch, and it translates really, really poorly, but there’s another one in English that’s kind of similar. It’s, “You miss every shot that you don’t take.” If you don’t do it, that’s the worst that could happen right now, right? If you go for it… of course, different circumstances warrant different results, but typically you can’t lose more by going and failing rather than staying and failing.
Theodore: Ehh, I feel that’s a bit subjective.
Nicklaus: I mean, a question that you never ask is already an answer that is no, so…
Theodore: That’s true.
Nathaniel: Yeah, that’s actually what it says. You already have a “no,” but go out and you might get a “yes.”
Elias: So, would you call it the “highlight of the year” for you, Nicklaus?
Nicklaus: Actually, my highlight of the year was when I got my first-ever win in SCHS sports history on the tennis team. I was going against Mountain View… oh, sorry, Hannah. No, go ahead.
Hannah: No, I went to high-five you.
Nicklaus: Oh, I’m so sorry. High five, high five, I didn’t see you, but whatchamacallit, it was my first one ever in my three years of sports, which is kind of embarrassing actually, but, you know–
Theodore: A win is a win, right?
Nicklaus: A win is a win, and I had a really fun time that game. It went into overtime twice, and you know, we came out on top.
(Chatter)
Elias: Did the other guy walk in with a broken leg or something?
Nicklaus: I exited with a broken leg actually, uh, broken knee. But yeah, I reinjured my knees a few times. You know, it’s fun stuff.
Theodore: Win some, lose some.
Nicklaus: Win some, lose some. Yup, that was my wrestling experience last year. Plug for the wrestling team. Guys, go for it. The rumors that you get hurt. It’s not true.
Hannah: Yeah guys, go for field hockey, if you’re a girl, join the team.
Nathaniel: Immediately preceded by you saying you’ve broken your leg multiple times.
Nicklaus: It was not like broke my leg. It was more like injured my knee… Yeah, nearly, nearly broke my neck, but yeah, that’s it.
Nathaniel: Oh my gosh.
Theodore: We’ll just ignore all those previous injuries.
Elias: Bro walks around with a neck cast. Oh, you nearly broke his neck, guys.
Nathaniel: “Go to work, guys, I only got grazed.”
Nicklaus: Sports is definitely a fun experience to do at SCHS, and I think any of the activities here, actually, including clubs…
Theodore: Oh, yes, clubs.
Hannah: But if you’re playing sports, don’t expect to be winning.
Elias: Yeah.
Hannah: Especially at SCHS.
Theodore: Woah, woah.
Nicklaus: Okay, okay, okay.
Elias: I will pay you money to keep that in.
Hannah: Go ahead, keep it in. Quote me.
Theodore: What, what about the rest of you guys’ highlights of the year? What’s your highlight of the year?
Nathaniel: I was never involved in anything other than classes. I was very uninvolved, but I think this year, the best part is when I walked out of my fifth and final AP test and realized, “Hey, you know what? For the relative amount of studying that I did – zero – I actually did kind of good.” I was really happy. I’m certain I passed all of them. At least fairly certain. I’m glad that at least the classes that where I had a very pessimistic view on actually did a lot better than I thought. Maybe I’m just a little bit of a pessimist in that department.
Theodore: Could be worse.
Nathaniel: Could be worse, yeah.
Nicklaus: I’d definitely get you there though, the post-exam clarity is crazy.
Theodore: Yeah, it’s like… taking that AP test, I knew I was probably gonna be cooked either way. But then I took a look at the question and I was like, “This ain’t bad as I thought it would be.” I walked out of that feeling a little bit better, right? It was either, “it is what it is, or you know what? I got it. I got that in the bag.”
Nathaniel: Yeah, the AP College Board gods felt a little merciful this year.
Elias: Unless of course you were taking AP Macro.
Theodore: How bad was macro?
Nicklaus: That was bad.
Nathaniel: Really? You had Macro this semester, right?
Nicklaus: I had Macro this semester. I had the final right beforehand. I actually got a good grade. I got a 90% on that final. I went into the AP exam. Not good.
Nathaniel: Really? If I had Macro this semester, I feel like I would have aced the Macro exam, but I didn’t study at all. It was my fault.
Nicklaus: No way. Some stuff was forgotten out of the curriculum, so we wouldn’t have been able to answer the questions that way.
Nathaniel: Yeah, there were a few things that were just completely out.
Elias: I’ll tell you what though, I am historically bad at math, and it’s not because I don’t understand it. It’s just because I don’t know how to study for math, but this year I got my highest ever, math grade, on a test, a 75%.
Theodore and Nicklaus: Congratulations!
Hannah: Wait, what? Did you just say 75%?
Elias: Yeah, a 75%. I can assure you I’m not a bad student, a win is a win, but…
Nathaniel: I can vouch for him. He’s not that bad of a student.
Elias: It’s just that when you think about this… the experience, it’s very surreal to be walking out of a math class like you’ve just defeated Thanos himself, we’re getting a 75%. So I will call that my yearly highlight.
Nathaniel: It’s a very specific and unique high while taking a test. It’s going like, “Wow, I know all of this. What are these test makers thinking?”
Hannah: Yeah, something I never experienced.
Theodore: What score are you getting on the test? 100!
Nathaniel: 100!
Elias: I am infamous for my negative 5% on an 8th-grade math test. Showed up late, forgot to write my name, and got every single answer wrong. I got points deducted at the very end. But if you’re hearing this Ms. Winslow, it’s alright. I forgive you.
Nicklaus: Alright, Hannah, go ahead, what were you going to say?
Theodore: What’s your highlight?
Hannah: Oh, my highlight. Oh, I don’t know. We, oh, actually I do have a highlight. It would be field hockey. We won. We won a game. Yeah, we actually did.
Nicklaus: Congratulations.
Hannah: We had went out to Saratoga and there was a bunch of frat looking guys yelling at us as we were walking in, saying like we were gonna lose and stuff. It was their senior night, so it makes sense, they had like, spirit and stuff. We’re not a good team and they’re known to be good and they just rebuilt their field. They have all this ego.
As we were playing the game, guys were barking at us.
Nathaniel: Oh my gosh.
Hannah: Yeah, they were barking at us from the stands and yelling, “Scoreboard!” Even when we were tied. We ended up winning, and I think it was a really fun experience.
Theodore: That must have shattered their egos really badly.
Hannah: Yeah, I think it did, especially because it was their senior night. So it was like, losing to a school that doesn’t really win that much was kind of brutal for them.
Theodore: That’s gotta be depressing.
Nicklaus: Everyone loves an underdog story.
Theodore: That’s true, that’s true.
Nathaniel: Except for the established people.
Hannah: But you also can’t be yelling “scoreboard!” the whole time and then lose.
Elias: So hold on, were they were yelling “Scoreboard!” while they were losing?
Hannah: Yeah. Well no, we were tied. I think it was 3-3 and then, yeah.
Nathaniel: Either way, they put themselves there.
Theodore: I mean, honestly… there were a bunch of highlights this year, but I’d say the biggest one is the formation of the Broadcasting Club this year. You know, we made so, so much achievements, so much strides in that.
Nathaniel: Made so much money. That’s what I thought you were going with.
Theodore: You’re a great jokester. You’re a great jokester.
Elias: What are you, a Greek politician?
Theodore: You know, we had 500- 400- 300. You know, all the money just disappeared all of a sudden, right? I kid, I kid, but broadcasting was particularly a rough start for us. We had some really mediocre gear we ran about, but as time went on…
Nathaniel: Before the club, we started with basement equipment, yeah.
Theodore: Hey, but hey, look what we got now. We got support.
Hannah: We’re out of the basement.
Theodore: We’re actually on the first floor now, you know.
Elias: We made it out the hood.
Hannah: The trenches, the-
Theodore: I wouldn’t say we made it out of the hood yet.
Elias: Straight out of Santa Clara, y’all.
Hannah: These suburbs don’t treat you right, huh?
Theodore: Look what we got now. We have the support of the district. We got an actually decent camera set up. We have equipment. We have some amount of money. But the best thing of all is we had a great time. Just a wonderful experience with everyone out there. Streaming BOTC, sharing memories. You know, eating all those deep-fried Oreos for the first time.
Nathaniel: I mean, that’s the most that you can hope for, right? It’s just a good time.
Theodore: Exactly, exactly. I think that’s the best highlight of this year, and I really hope that we can all share the same experiences moving forward.
Hannah: Yeah, definitely.
Elias: You know, I have to say, with the year coming to an end, I’ve really enjoyed my time in America. I won’t lie. I’ve come to really love Americans. I think you guys are remarkably kind. It’s the way you guys like to just talk to strangers. That’s one of the things I love to bring up to people. You don’t talk to strangers elsewhere.
I remember being little and staring at the peep, or like at the door well, you know, the little eyeglass you have just to make sure you don’t end up running into any of your neighbors. But here, that’s something you sort of want to do ‘cause there’s like this sense of community and all that stuff.
But at the end of the summer (or) sometime during the summer, I will be moving back to my home, Britain, and I will say this year, my senior year, my final year here in America has really helped put into perspective this just… I really love Americans, you know. I feel like I’m going to miss a lot of you guys and especially people here at this table right now, not you Theo.
Hannah: Woah!
Theodore: Wow.
Elias: I’m going to miss all y’all, and I just think that the experience of this year helped me come to realize that there have been moments that have been really a lot of good stuff, things that I probably shouldn’t delve into, but I have to admit, so thank you all for that and the last four years of being in Journalism, too. That’s definitely something that differentiates my high school experience and in the American high school experience in general from most, if not all, people. That’s helped me once more see and make those connections and those bonds that help you see a whole country, let alone just a handful of people in a completely different light.
So yeah, that’s pretty much my final takeaway for this year. What do you guys have for your final takeaways?
Nathaniel: Honestly, I’m walking away from my high school experience with a lot more positive view on public school in general. I started with freshman year, and as Nicklaus said, I detracted absolutely nothing from any of those classes, except, uh, except for some, some great skills on the Boeing 737. I was going through, and I think I completely uprooted my definitions and my assumptions that I make about school.
Honestly, I learned that in order to learn something, you have to put in your own kind of effort. It’s not just taking hard classes. Of course, that helps if you want to match your view, but you get out what you put in. In hindsight, it seems blatantly obvious, and like, “Oh my gosh, of course!” But, you know, I just thought, “You know what, I’ll go to a hard class, just do all the homework in the back of my mind on autopilot, and I’ll be good,” but that’s not the case. Taking AP Calculus, I might have taken a lot away from it, I might have taken the same amount if I took normal calculus, or if I took BC, but it’s just optimistic that I’ve come out. I’ve developed kind of an idea of, “You know what, things aren’t really that bad.” Well, I’m glad to be proven wrong. Let’s just say that.
Nicklaus: I keep coming… going to graduate like what next week, I think I have a very positive view of the high school experience. I met some amazing people, including the people at this table. I’ve met new friends, had new opportunities, found new interests. If you told middle school me that the current me would be into working out, be into running, be into talking to other people, I would have said that you were insane.
Now, I’ve come here, I’ve learned so many new things. I’ve got to experience so many new things. I’ve gotten to essentially change and evolve as a person. And I’m very thankful to SCHS for allowing me to do that. As I leave, I’m going to be kind of sad. I will miss the staff here. I will miss underclassmen that I’ve met. But, you know, Bruins squared – SCHS to UCLA. Yes, sir. Let’s go.
Elias: What’s your takeaway from the year?
Hannah: My takeaway from the year? I think I’ve learned more to just stop caring. I feel like, okay, wait, that sounds wrong.
Elias: No, no, no, I know exactly what you mean.
Hannah: I think Freshman year, I was more concerned about social aspects of life, more like making sure people liked me, making sure I didn’t say things that would upset people. Okay, that’s making me sound bad.
I think this year I’ve come out of my shell more, and I’ve definitely learned to like, “Who cares? It’s high school. I’m gonna be in New York in two years.” It’s whatever. I think that’s my main takeaway. I’ve definitely talked to a lot of new people this year, and I enjoyed it. Playing sports, I love it. All of that, honestly.
Theodore: I think my takeaway this year, it’s always good to try new things, right? Because years prior, I was sort of in my own shell, right? But I’m kind of glad to be able to start a club too, to get to know a lot of new people, both new and old – just pretty much find a way to connect with them and be more out there, right? It doesn’t hurt to be out of your shell more often. That’s kind of the biggest takeaway that I have. With that, we thank you everyone for listening into one of our few final podcasts of the year.
This is your host Theodore Nguyen signing off.
Nicklaus: Oh, this is Nicklaus Chui, signing off.
Hannah: This is Hannah Lane, signing off.
Nathaniel: Nathaniel Hekster, signing off.
Elias: And this Elias Panou, signing off.