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February 20, 2015 Trevor News Page 3 Keeping Up with Alumni The Class of 2018 discusses high school, Bridge, college, and life By Taylor Bachelis RACHEL GOLDSTEIN BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY Tell me a bit about what you did for Bridge last year. Last year for Bridge, I decided to make a documentary about my grade at Trevor. As a lifer at Trevor, I felt I wanted to somehow capture the emotions that came with senior year, so I followed around some classmates with a camera throughout the major events of the school year. The final product was an hour and a half piece. What did you learn from your experience? Because I hope to one day be a movie director, I think that creating this documentary was a major first-step for me. I had done smaller projects before, but nothing like what I embarked on last year. Mr. Schaffer really helped me learn the ways of documentary filmmaking. However, I think that what I am most thankful for was how throughout the process I became closer with my grade. There were a few people whom I filmed that I really had not spent time with prior to filming. I think I became a lot closer with them, and it was really amazing to reflect on growing up and going to Trevor with them. If you could have done anything differently for Bridge, what would you have done? I think the only thing I would have done differently for bridge would be to have organized and conveyed my film differently. I think I made a few mistakes throughout the process, whether it was how I planned things or how I pursued things. Otherwise, I honestly feel as if Bridge was one of the most amazing experiences I've had so far. What is college life like so far? So far college is great! However, college is a lot different from Trevor. It was really hard at first to get used to the amount of people. Instead of the 65 kids that were in my graduating class, I now live with 3,600 students. It was hard adjusting to college at first, and there were times that I really wished I could go back to Trevor and be with my friends and teachers again, but I've realized this is just a different chapter of my life and I have to embrace it. I've continued my passion for film here by joining two film clubs and also worked a little on the literary magazine here. What adjustments have you had to make from high school? Although Trevor teaches students to be very independent, I think I've become even more independent here. You have to take care of yourself in college. You have to create your own niche, your own schedule, your own work habit. Any advice for us high schoolers? If I had any advice for current Trevor students, I would honestly say to cherish high school as much as you can. Coming to college and talking to kids who went to very different schools across the country has made me appreciate the high school experience I had even more. Trevor is such a great place, and it is so nice to be in a small community where you know everyone. For the senior class, I would say don't freak out too much about college. If you don't get into your first choice, that's okay! At the end of the day, you'll probably end up happy wherever you go. Look at college as a holistic experience. You're going to meet people who are completely the opposite of you. Be okay with that. Embrace that. Learn from them. Similarly, you're going to have a lot of freedom, both academic and outside of the classroom. Take advantage of that as well. Take classes you wouldn't normally. Meet people you've never met. And most importantly, have fun. IAN SHERMAN NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY If you could have done anything differently for Bridge, what would you have done? Nothing. What is college life like so far? College is ultimately a proactive experience. Socially, you have to leave your dorm room to meet new friends. Academically, teachers are available, but you have to make an effort to build relationships with them. If you don't want to join any clubs, you won't. However, if you put yourself out there, it's hard to imagine you won't have a great time. It's very much what you make of it in the best way possible. What adjustments have you had to make from high school? Not many. One of my favorite aspects of Trevor is that the school truly builds students who are both motivated and friendly. In college, proactivity and a great attitude are the keys to success. Any advice for those of us still in high school? JOSH LOVINS YALE UNIVERSITY Tell me a bit about what you did for Bridge last year. I did an internship at a hospital. You know, following surgeons around, standing in ORs watching people bustle around doing this and that, trying not to get in the way. Or at least, that was the official project. The bulk of what I did and learned was on the unofficial side of things, though. What did you learn from your experience? I learned a lot, I think – probably more than any other three-month period of my life. As to what, that's very difficult to say. "There is something to complete in this demonstration. I have not the time." If you could have done anything differently for Bridge, what would you have done? I would not have done the internship and would have made the "unofficial" part of my project the official project. What is college life like so far? Agonized over this question. I know it's completely obnoxious to say this (I'm only saying it to reassure you, Taylor, that I actually put a lot of thought into this and that it's not out of laziness – God, I hope it's not out of laziness! – or lack of consideration or respect for the question that I'm only writing the following), but I actually wrote 1000+ words trying to do justice to this question (especially with respect to the parenthetical, which I dislike), and I realized that what I was writing was no good and that, as with most questions in a questionnaire that asks lots of potentially big questions, my response would inevitably take at least one of the following four paths: (a) it would be too condensed and would lack so many intermediate steps that it would be virtually unintelligible to anyone but me, which, I think, would make it effectively the same as if I didn't respond at all; (b) it would be an obnoxiously short, smart-alec, arrogant circumvention of the question (something tautological and stupid like: "College life is very much the same as life before it, if only with respect to the 'life' part"); (c) it would be way too long (because of the nature of the question(s), it would probably require more than most essays, I think), and even if I had the time, I wouldn't be so arrogant as to write that kind of response in a newspaper questionnaire where people are not looking to read the tedious, introspective, and potentially self-involved reflections of just another college student, reflections that would almost certainly not come to any kind of a conclusion, not simply because I haven't finished college; or (d) it would be dishonest in one of the many ways that it's possible to be (e.g. saying things that might sound good but that I haven't thought about enough – colloquially referred to as "spewing"… this has overlaps with (b); saying things that I've heard other people say but have never really "happened upon" myself or don't have any genuine understanding of – see last question; saying things to reassure – whether to reassure you seniors that college life is great in this or that way or to reassure my teachers that I'm having a good time, which I am, by the way… "good" is a very different word for different people, though; saying something laconic and humorous and clever and satirical – i.e. (b), which is a kind of dishonesty, in a certain way… "a kind of disingenuousness" would probably be a better way to put it; etc.). Whether this response falls into any of those categories (maybe it falls into all of them… something can be too long and too short, depending on what you're using it for… the way you're looking at it) you can judge. What adjustments have you had to make from high school? I primarily work in libraries, now, instead of at the writing center and my couch at home. Any advice for us high schoolers? Maybe. But nothing I trust enough or feel justified in giving at this point. The word "advice" itself is interesting. I like to say that advice really only ever amounts to a reminder… something that lets you know you've gotten somewhere when you get there. That is, as is so often said in the prefaces to good advice, you should basically never trust it unless you already agree with it, in which case it acts more like a verification than a suggestion.

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