“Something that has changed my high school life had to have been being involved in tons of pointless drama with my close group of friends and ending up losing most of them…” -Lucy Ward, junior

“I did not know how to play the saxophone or how to get it in the right position but I learned how to and that’s a big accomplishment,” –Samuel Meyer, 6th grade

"When I get older I would want to pursue dance because it’s a way of expressing myself in ways that I would enjoy and have fun doing." -Ke'shon Mosby, 7th grade

“I’ve been to a lot of places but there’s still a lot of places I have not been. My wife and I spent a month in Vietnam, and that was really cool, a really great adventure. I’d like to go back, but if money is not an issue, I might like to travel through South America, and use some of that money at the end of the month to take a cruise to Antartica. It’s an expensive trip, you go from the...

“If I could travel back to any time period it would the medieval times. It would be that time period because that's when the world starts coming out of the dark ages and starts creating the art and culture of today, which you can still see in our daily lives.” -Eleanor Phillips, senior

“I prefer drawing, but I do like digital art because I have an Ipad pro and an Apple pen. So I use that a lot, and I think its cool because I wanna be an animator when I’m older. I want to create my own cartoons.” -Nyla Burns, freshman  

"I am very curious to see what is going to happen in my future. I’m really not nervous about it. I want it to happen. I want the future to come to see what I can accomplish and how much I can do to change the world.” –Reggie Coleman, junior

"I had anger issues, so my counselor at my old school would talk to me, and she would get to know me not as the Madison who always got in trouble, but as the Madison who is really smart and really caring, and she inspired me to [want to] be a counselor," -Madison Hathaway Wheeler, 8th grade 

“You can express your feelings and emotions through other music, but with singing...it's actually saying the words that you feel and getting the expressions and emotions out,” -Riley Wild, 6th grade 

“I like to travel because I just love to see different cultures and the interactions between people. It’s so weird to see how privileged America is and the difference between the material wealth of places, but still how other places seem to be so much happier.”-Hannah Stern, sophomore

“I think our city needs more equality because there is too many instances of people feeling singled out or not included.” -Erin Reed, sophomore

"My favorite part [of Hamilton] was the ensemble because they told most of the story. Most people would pay attention to Hamilton or Thomas Jefferson, but the ensemble told most of the story...I'm going to be in musical theater next year so it showed me it's not just singing, it's not just dancing, it's not just acting, everything comes together...everybody has a part," -Ean Johnson, sophomore

“I like to write poetry, I like to write songs, even though they suck cause I’m more of a free verse writer, and I like to play my ukulele. It’s a very calming instrument for me, if I’m feeling anxious, I’ll just like sit down and I’ll play it for like a few minutes and I’m feeling better already, it’s a very therapeutic instrument, with a very unique sound.” -Demi Brown, freshman...

"I feel like that would be a great honor to be president, but its like, you stay in your lane, you know what you do, and I don’t feel like I am capable of doing certain things. The kind of impact I would want to make, I would want to making everything a unity. If you notice that in America, everything is like a competition, everything is separated. Not trying to make it a race thing, but everything...

“What I like most about this school is the academics, the teachers–well, some of them. The students are nice here… they try to help you go further, like how now I’m earning high school credits and I’m in seventh grade.” –Mariah Slaughter, 7th grade

"[A good friend] is somebody that’s loyal. They always have your back. Somebody that’ll keep it real with you instead of just being fake." —India Nettles, sophomore

“My biggest pet peeve: when people are hypocrites. When someone tells me not to do something, and then they go around and they do it themselves, or when someone isn’t very good at something and then they try and tell me that I’m not doing the same thing correctly, it’s kinda shady. No tea, no shade.” -Laurencia Meyers, freshman

"If I could go back in time I’d probably go back to when I was 4 years old and my sister was 14, at the time and I didn’t really get along with her. I wish that I could kind of savor that moment and time with her before she left because it was like a blink of an eye until she went to college. I haven’t seen her since, if I got the chance I would like to get a closer relationship with her or at lea...

“I want to accomplish making it big.  Being known...for having an impact on people...giving back to the community, having charities...because ‘coming from nothing’, me making it big would like to give back to the next generation.”-Micah Lawery, sophomore  

“My ultimate goal in life is to be known and looked up to. I want to be looked at as an inspiration for my fashion, and my personality. I just want to be really known for that.” -Mariah Watson, senior

“My biggest struggle in my life this far, basically, was in my 8th grade year. First semester was really good, but during second semester my grandpa passed away. It caused a big turn over in my life both positively and negatively. First, negatively because finishing that year off and becoming a freshman was hard. My grades dropped very bad and I lost my focus, all I could only think about was my...

"I want to be an elementary school teacher because everyone in my family says I have this draw towards little kids...its just kids like my sister's friends will come up to me and be like ‘do you want to play?’ And they might not even know me."-Meghan Brickey, freshman 

“My biggest dream is to become a professional dancer. I was inspired by this Korean dancer, Jung Hoseok. He does usually street dance or hip hop.” -Maribel Barragan, freshman 

"I would say that music has been a big part of my life...but in guitar, I didn't feel myself progressing. It was very frustrating a lot of the time, and I wanted to try something new and something that I feel like I could thrive in. I wanted to do visual art, and over the past two years, I've grown so much as an artist. [When I started] I could only do stick figures - I can still pretty much only ...

“If I had the opportunity to travel in time, I would travel to the future. I chose futuristic travel because that is one entity of time that I would never know about. I can research and learn about the things that have happened historically or in the past. I would like to see what that future possesses so that I could make an impact in the present day.” - Rayna Blackshear, college counselor

"I think my most distinctive quality is that I like to problem solve. I am always doing puzzles--I have more puzzle apps on my cell phone than I can count. Even this weekend I did a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle in less than a day. And I always have crossword books, or various word games and that kind of thing, or board games, all sorts of stuff like that. I’ve just always been a huge puzzle fan a...

"I like acting because I can be myself and somebody else at the same time, or I can combine the personalities and make a different personality. " - Jie Cruesoe, 7th grade

“My oldest memory was going to new Mexico with my family, and staying at this place called the El Rey. It's a place that is beautiful; the pool is lined with blue tiles. I remember we kept getting locked out of our room, and we had to keep getting keys every time we unlocked the door. My dad had the worst sunburn that trip.” -Natalie Welborn, freshman   

“Every night [over winter break] I stayed up to 1:00 for no reason, just talking to friends...I love talking to my friends...they’re super nice and they’re really supportive...whenever I need them they’re there.  They’re supportive of certain ideas I have sometimes, and they’re just really nice to me and I’ve never had friends like them.” -Morgan Rega, 8th grade ...

“My family is very important to me because, without my family I would be nothing but a poor 14 year old boy. One of the most important is my mom because she is the one who inspires me and basically the one who raised me. The second is my dad because I didn't really have a father when I grew up and he came into my life and raised me to be a young man. The third is my uncle. He helped me to become...

"I'm a very humble person. When it comes to pride, I'm cool with just living that down. I care about others, a lot. There's nothing wrong with putting others before you..." -Reyna Russell, junior  

  "Life goes on. Don’t let anything ruin your stature, don’t let anything ruin your personality. That’s like one little thing, just, life goes on. Keep pushing and you’ll be okay."-Mariama Adero-Robinson, junior

“I want to help my grandmother wrap Christmas presents, like I normally do every year. That’s like our Christmas tradition.”-Trenay Caruthers, 8th grade

"Being at this school, and especially being at an art school, you’re constantly thinking about the future, at least in my perspective. I’m constantly thinking about the future, and what’s next for me, and whether or not I should stay on this path, do performing arts, or do musical theatre, or if it’s truly worth it. But all in all, whether or not I do it in the future, (and when I say do it...

"Do not put too much value into what other people say about you. Especially if it comes across negatively, that you need to look at that person and determine, 'Do I respect them?' and if I do, then maybe I need to evaluate what they've said. If I don't respect them, what does it matter?... I know what's true and what's right," -Rusty Smith, high school counselor

"The slime business really took off. I think we were the most successful class business that the maker space has ever had. And then there's also my plant watering system; you water one plant and it waters all of them. And I gave so many presentations on that, and everyone thought it was so cool because I used color water and you could see through the tubes. And I had some power points on it that we...

If a close friend asked and genuinely wanted your opinion but you knew they'd find it painful, would you tell them the truth? “Yes, because I wouldn’t want them to continue doing what they’re doing because that’s them hurting themselves; and a friend wouldn’t let another friend do that. If (you do,) you’re a horrible friend.”-Elijah Bivins, senior  ...

“Family is most important to me. I have a husband and two wild boys, and I have an eighty pound lap dog and a cat, and they are...they’re home. Like, you can go out and do things and be things and dream things, but I think everybody needs a home.” -Michelle Oyola, middle school English teacher 

“If you could go into the past, what time period would you visit?” “I would go back to when I had money. Like last summer.  I’m just playing! I want to go to the 80's and 90's. It seems like so much fun. Food and stuff didn’t cost that much, or cars or houses, nothing really cost that much. And all the parties, hip-hop music started, and I just really would want to go.” - Nakayla Lawery,...

“Would you like to be famous? If so, for what?” “I wouldn’t want to be famous in the way that most people are; I don’t like having that kind of attention on me. But I might want to be famous in my future occupation, which is archaeology -- not a very ‘famous’ job -- because being famous there wouldn’t attract mass attention, but would still be impressive in that line of work.”...

"I would (want) to see what my life would be, go to the future and not return. So I would stay in the future."-Camryn Day, 7th grade.

When was the last time you felt real passion in your work? How is passion important  to you and why? “The dance concerts are times that I feel passionate about dancing. Especially the last one because I really felt like I was finally free. I felt like all my hard work and training that I've had has paid off. Since I've only been dancing for one year it was kinda a memorable experience for me.’’

“Would you rather have little friends and a lot of success or a lot of friends and little success?” “Little friends and a lot of success because I mean nowadays like friends you ain’t even got friends nowadays like I would have lot of success and little friends because I ain’t gotta worry about people switching up on me and it’s less drama and no money."-Richard Ellis, sophomore...

"I’m in Ars Nova and high school band. I got into it because I’m really good with music theory, and one day I just decided that I wanted to play the trombone, because I used to play the cello, but I didn’t like it. So I played the trombone and I was a natural and I love it now."-Paul Notaro, 6th grade

" [GCAA is] pretty nice. Since this is my first year, I haven't really experienced all of it. At my other school, we didn't switch classes, and the school wasn't this big. This is a new experience for me.” -Heaven Uhuru, 7th grade. 

"I guess my biggest fear is that I don't live up to my potential, that I fail at life."

“When I was a little kid I used to go over to his [my uncle’s] house a lot on my mom’s way to work.  He used to play guitar, so he taught me how to play guitar...as I continued to play it became more fun.  It just happened. It made us [he and his uncle] closer because he taught me how to play it, so it made a little bit closer because we both love guitar.”- Jordan Gorham, 8th grade

“If I was famous for engineering and inventing something that would help extend people’s lifespans, then yeah...because I could be helping people and I would be getting credit for it...I help people with homework sometimes.  It makes me feel really good.  I help myself when I help them.  I think it helps me because I’m helping myself become a better person and to understand life.”-Hannah R...