One of my biggest influences, a former co-worker and close friend, is Nicolas Sajous, or what everybody calls him, Nick.
Nick is currently 22 years old and was a proud Chief of Santaluces Community High School, being a part of the graduating class of 2019.
Nick was not one of those students who was very active in school, doing clubs or extracurricular activities. He was more of a regular student doing what most students do, which includes: waking up, going to class, and going home. But his not being a part of anything special doesn’t stop him from being proud of the high school that he went to.
I began our interview by asking him “What are your favorite memories here at Santaluces?” Nick said that lunchtime was one of his favorite times because he was able to “chill with the homies,” saying that it was always a “Good and fun time.” This is usually the case with most students because they prefer to interact with friends than do schoolwork.
For most teens, schoolwork is just another stressor in their lives and interacting with their friends relieves that. Teens don’t realize the significance of school until a few years later when they realize that they messed up. The classes in school of course don’t teach you any real-life skills but they help your brain. School helps you comprehend and use critical thinking which later on in life does help you out.
Since Nick graduated four years ago I decided to ask him, “Are you still in touch with your friends from high school?” This is a more eye-opening question because most people don’t believe that you can keep a lot of your friends from high school. However, Nick’s statement proves this thought incorrect. He said yes most of the friends he has/talks to now are high school friends. One can still have high school friends if their friends were real friends, to begin with.
I then asked him, “Do you miss high school?” Nick said, “I missed the environment.” He said that being around people your age and seeing how everyone is different in their own way was very fascinating to him. This is a very interesting answer because most people would say their friends or their teachers or even maybe their class but never want to see people’s uniqueness.
Students, oftentimes, make fun of other students who express themselves in unique ways through either their clothing or their personalities. This is because students are not used to seeing other kids that are different from them and when they are different, they like to tear them down which is not how it should be.
Social media can play a huge role in this because since so many people who are on the internet they are making bullying seem normal. If you do anything on the internet, you are going to receive hate from hundreds and thousands of people in the comments with no remorse. The only way we can change this is to first acknowledge the hurt we are causing the people who are experiencing this bullying and then stop to become more understanding of these individuals.
I then asked Nick “How has high school changed you as a person?” He said that high school changed him as a person by allowing him to see how caring he can be to other people. He said that he realized that everybody has a good side in them even if they like to act hard and tough on the outside.
This is so true because no matter how hard you think you are, everyone has a soft spot for at least one person. Students, mostly males, feel the need to act tough all the time and you don’t. Don’t try to be someone you’re not because it will just end up eating you inside in the end.
The very last question I decided to ask Nick was, “How was your overall experience here at Santaluces?” He said that his overall experience was an eight out of ten because of the homework and projects knocking his grades down.
Currently, Nick has two jobs working at Publix and Walgreens. He is trying to manage his money better and pay his bills at this point in his life. Nick has not gone to college yet but would like to go for HVAC or engineering. Nick is a person who loves to help everybody so either of these jobs would be great for him. He doesn’t know what he wants to do in the long run but that’s okay because he believes that God is going to guide him on his right path.
