Unswamped

Vicky is an artist and senior in high school. We talk about the akwardness of presenting yourself, friendship, and her best friend Keira. We discuss watching Netflix, TV shows, and movies. Then we talk about capitalism and the necessity to work, the relevance and purpose of rest and breaks, and discipline. We finally talk about relationships and marriage. We also venture into the concept of wastin...

Sanjana Kumar is a first-year at Princeton, a big learner and an—although this is a subjective understanding of the word—prolific high schooler. In high school, she was part of many clubs and did many things outside of school as well. I ask her about how she views high school, others, and her work ethic. We talk about things that feel like a chore and I ask her if she ever feels like she needs to...

Khyber McFarland is a skateboarder, a musician, and a high school senior. We talk about his hand injury. Then I ask him about being young and the differences in your age and school grade. He talks about his development of introversion, attraction as he's grown up, and how he and I were both class clowns at some point. We talk about not being able to connect with others and my imposter syndrome. He...

Jared D'Onofrio is an English and Creative Writing teacher, an almost ex-writer, and a could-be-life-of-the-party. We talk about drugs and why he thinks it might be good to take them when he's 80 years old. He talks about his thoughts on religion and shares the philosophy of life he came up with unconsciously while living life. We also talk about friends and how he is an "anti-social but not unfri...

York is a health nut, an experienced cross-country runner, and a first-year at Carnegie Mellon University now. Our conversation centers around self-improvement in the context of athletic performance and life. I ask him about nutrition and figuring out how to deal with food binging and injuries. He reflects on having a "why" behind our actions, and about trial and error in finding the right way to...