Lizzo Cremins ‘19:

“I play badminton, and I went to state last year for it. I’m pretty good; I started playing in middle school gym class, and it was fun at that time because it wasn’t so competitive; it wasn’t to the point where the only reason I was doing it was to win tournaments for my team. At this point, I play because I’m good at it, and I’ll continue to do it because of that. But things feel like cults these days. Once you join a sport or club, you can’t quit regardless of how much you dislike it. Like you can if you want to, but it feels like you really can’t. Like choir; I love singing, but that passion has faded over time because of the focus on the competitive and technical parts of class, You have to do everything right and it has to be purposeful, we can’t just do something for enjoyment anymore. Choir isn’t my favorite thing anymore because of that mentality, but I’m literally in madrigals; I even had to try out for it. Once you join something, there’s so much pressure to stay with it. Same with badminton. There’s so much pressure to be good that I work myself to the point that I don’t want to play anymore. Of course, there’s still times where I love what I’m doing and I’m happy to be involved, but once you play something so much, it’s like why am I still doing this? I’m literally just hitting the same shot thousands of times, why am I still trying?

Alex Torres ‘20:

“I have no idea what my passion is; I’ve been all over the place. Right now, it’s baking but I feel like it’s changed a lot since I was a kid. I’m not in any rush to find out what my passion will be later because I know I have lots of time to figure it out. It’s baking right now just because I just wanted to try something new a couple of summers ago, and I ended up loving it. I made a cake and it turned out super nice; I’m still shook that it turned out that well. It didn’t hurt that I learned fast and gained lots of skill quickly. I can’t even remember a specific interest I’ve had in the past, that’s how often it’s changed. I think it changes so often because I’m so indecisive and I really just want to try everything that catches my eye. I’ve been indecisive since I was little. My parents have been supportive and pretty chill about all my hobbies. They love the baking hobby because they usually get to eat whatever I make, so everyone wins.”

Thomas Peterson ‘21:

“This year I’m going to be on Snowball staff and best buddies. I kinda wanted to be one of those guys that mentor the new incoming freshmen, especially the boys. For me, when I started freshman year, not many guys that I knew did snowball, so I wanted to be the person that helps guys through stuff if they have questions. I just want to be there for them. For boys, it’s hard to talk about ‘deep’ stuff. On snowball, I was in a group with only 3 guys and a bunch of girls. I was always bringing up that it was hard for me to talk about my feelings or ‘girly stuff’ with my friends. For me it’s easier to talk to girls about stuff because they will actually listen to you and are willing to give advice. I still don’t tell my guy friends much; it’s hard and it’s just a topic guys don’t really talk about. Boys will joke around and stuff, but you never know if they’re just kidding. When I was younger, I kind of shied away from helping people, but I realized that I needed to change, so during freshman year I became much more nicer and reached out to more people. When I went on fall snowball, it changed my life. It wasn’t like I was a mean person before, but I wanted to help people the way snowball had helped me.

Maeve Seyer ‘22:

“I doubt myself a lot. I’ve done it my whole life. I’m the youngest, so a lot of times I’m wrong, according to my older sisters. I don’t really get along with them all the time, so that contributes to it. I think I can be a bit much, so I try to tone it down. I just talk a bunch and I’m aware of it. In middle school, I had some shaky friendships so it was hard to be confident in my friends and myself and just do things by myself. However, I haven’t really been nervous about freshman year yet, and even though it’s only been 2 weeks, I’m coming into my own [skin] and I’ve been able to just walk up to people and start conversation because it’s a different atmosphere. I’ve known people in all my classes so it hasn’t been that bad. I was a little scared after my first day, because it hadn’t hit me that I was in a new school until that day. I think I’m becoming less doubtful because I’m adjusting much better to SC. I like learning, so I don’t really doubt myself in an educational setting, it’s more about adjusting to the new environment.”