Unswamped

Sanjana Kumar

Sanjana Kumar is a first-year at Princeton, a big learner and an—although this is a subjective understanding of the word—prolific high schooler. In high school, she was part of many clubs and did many things outside of school as well. I ask her about how she views high school, others, and her work ethic. We talk about things that feel like a chore and I ask her if she ever feels like she needs to discipline herself to do her work. Ella Lee-Guest makes an appearance. We talked about the college admissions process, doing her essays, and the waiting; she also talks about why college is important to her. I ask her if she reads and how she produces time magically. She talks about her sleep habits and how her some of her favorite weeks of high school were the busiest—the adrenaline rush of getting everything done; sometimes you can’t do everything, planning her stuff ahead, scheduling, and calling a friend. Right when we were going to finish, we started recording again because Ella asked Sanjana a question about sleep. We proceeded to talk about maintaining her habits and being self-conscious.
Transcript and chapter markers:  
https://unswamped.podbean.com/e/sanjana-kumar/ 
Recorded in a hotel room in Hyatt Place Fresno on the last day of our CHSSA State Championship tournament. It was morning of Sunday, April 14.

Khyber McFarland

Khyber McFarland is a skateboarder, a musician, and a high school senior. We talk about his hand injury. Then I ask him about being young and the differences in your age and school grade. He talks about his development of introversion, attraction as he's grown up, and how he and I were both class clowns at some point. We talk about not being able to connect with others and my imposter syndrome. He says its innate to be self-centered, and how it’s okay to care about yourself. He gives his thoughts on drama in high school. We talk about me being swamped and my food binge the night before. We talk about my indigestion and khyber’s physical speaking impediment; him and I’s thoughts on being tall; his thoughts on stress; my stress mentality for junior year, and comparison to others like Keira, Jason, Vicky, Jason, Brij (I've got to mention you guys here or else I think it'd be pretentious), “Agastya” and why you shouldn’t compare yourself to someone with a name like that; appreciating who you are instead of wanting what other people have; and on physical touch and male to male touch--I run off the bus before we finish that conversation.
Transcript and chapter markers: https://unswamped.podbean.com/e/khyber-mcfarland/ 
Recorded in the Francis Parker music (practice) room afterschool Thursday, May 16.

Jared D'Onofrio

Jared D'Onofrio is an English and Creative Writing teacher, an almost ex-writer, and a could-be-life-of-the-party. We talk about drugs and why he thinks it might be good to take them when he's 80 years old. He talks about his thoughts on religion and shares the philosophy of life he came up with unconsciously while living life. We also talk about friends and how he is an "anti-social but not unfriendly" person. He also tells me about his thoughts on parenting and his own experience. In the end, I ask him a few rapid-fire questions. Among them are: how to develop a reading habit, is the bible real, and is the college admissions process a good thing?
Transcript and chapter markers: https://unswamped.podbean.com/e/exploring-curiosity-faith-and-lifes-guiding-principles/ 
Recorded in the Francis Parker music (practice) room afterschool Monday, May 6.

York Bourgeois

York is a health nut, an experienced cross-country runner, and a first-year at Carnegie Mellon University now. Our conversation centers around self-improvement in the context of athletic performance and life. I ask him about nutrition and figuring out how to deal with food binging and injuries. He reflects on having a "why" behind our actions, and about trial and error in finding the right way to eat and train. We talk about comparison and York talks about how others were still faster than him even when he worked just as hard, if not more than them--he explains the way we should think about it.
Transcript and chapter markers: https://unswamped.podbean.com/e/navigating-nutrition-and-motivation-a-runners-perspective/ 
Recorded in the Francis Parker music (practice) room in the morning of Friday, April 5.