Thea Bertolini, Emily Sandy

Senior Brandon Matura

“I’ve been playing football for over four years. It’s a grind for sure, but keeping yourself humble and working every day with the rest of your teammates is really something that I am proud of and the rest of the team is proud of. It’s built me up as a person, and I use it to humble myself and look at situations in a different light. I think I’ve looked at situations more maturely (because of football). Instead of being rash about making certain decisions, I use what I’ve learned from my coaches and other players: that you can take a step back and think more and make a more well-thought-out decision.”

“I went bungee jumping one time. They had this ropes course, and at the end, you could either choose to walk across the path or bungee jump down, and I decided to bungee jump. It was called Go Ape. It was a really interesting experience. You just felt like you were dropping. It was an interesting feeling (to let go), not having anything in your way and just falling down.”

“I was chosen to be part of the German National Honor Society and it’s a really exciting thing because I’m a big German nerd and I’ve worked at the Christkindlmarkt before and it’s just what I do. It’s just an honorary thing and it’s called Delta Epsilon Phi, but it’s high school and middle school and I just think it’s cool.”

“I’m probably most proud of where I’m from. I’m from the Middle East and I’m also Muslim so I try to make that a part of my identity as much as I can. Since I’m living in a Western culture and civilization, I attempt to keep myself grounded with that and not really forget who I truly am. My religion doesn’t affect me a lot in my day-to-day life, but some things (do), like I don’t have the same philosophies and mindset as everyone else, so I try to take my religion and apply it to my life in a way that I can still function normally. I always try to be nice to everyone and be judgment-free and treat everyone equally—I really take that to heart.”