G.A. THE HECHLER FORUM

Gabriela Anderson

“On my first day of freshman year, I was really excited. I [felt like] I had a lot more freedom because in middle school the teachers just kind of controlled us. I took the city bus to school and I walked myself to school, I took myself there and back. It was this whole new freedom that I’d never experienced before. I was just giddy with excitement. As a freshman, I was a big follower. I would do what everybody else was doing and I didn’t really have much individuality. I think one upside of COVID-19 was that I kind of found who I was being around people like my family who I was comfortable with. I would much rather try something new around my family than try something at high school with 500 kids who I felt were judging me. So it kind of helped me figure myself out and become myself. I wish I had another year with my friends. At the end of last year we all got close and this year, we’ve really done everything together. We’re all one big group of people and we all love each other. We only have two and a half more months left with each other. It’s something I don’t really want to think about, I just want to pretend it’s not happening. I’m planning on going to Ohio State University. I’m going to major in mechanical engineering and I hope to work with race cars. I want to design chassis for race cars which is the body of the car. Hopefully, I’ll work in a racing league like IndyCar or some kind of formula league.”

C.B-C.

CODY BENJAMINS-CAREY

“I joined jazz band my first year. Being in a band, you get a good sense of camaraderie with your bandmates, and you work together to create art and music and you can express yourself through it. It’s some of the most fun I’ve had, doing concerts and gigs with my band. Our name is Spontaneous Combustion, and there’s eight of us. I play french horn, so a weird instrument for jazz; It’s not common. [In jazz band] everything’s very spontaneous. People from different bands can come together and play music very impromptu. So you play with a lot of different people, and it’s really about experimentation. You’re always trying new things and pushing yourself to play better. I’ve gotten a lot more confidence in my playing. I used to be very scared to solo and improvise when I first started. I’m not terrified, like petrified, to do that anymore. It’s not a big deal or anything. Lee Morgan is the one I try to emulate the most in my own playing. But my favorite of all time is Charles Mingus. He does more composing than just playing, and I like all of his arrangements.”