What is your name and grade? My name is Kyle Choi and I’m a senior.

What are you looking forward to after graduation? Basically, I’m going to DePaul University as a…cyber-physical systems engineer major…I’ve always wanted to build gadgets and stuff like Spider-Man and Batman. I’m also looking forward to having much more free time and being able to pursue my interests…so I’m gonna try to focus on and find opportunities in that field and hopefully be able to graduate school for robotics.

What was your ultimate goal, regarding sports, academics, and extracurriculars by the end of this school year? Did you achieve them? For track, [my goal is to] win conference…we’re in the middle of the season, so I don’t know if we’ll be there or not…we’ll see. For orchestra, I don’t know, just be the best player I can be, which, I didn’t really practice that much, so I didn’t really reach that goal, but that’s okay. For academics, I didn’t really get into many top schools, so, I’m just like, “Yeah, I’m gonna just barely pass.” My goal in academics has always been to, you know, work smarter not harder; put in the least effort. ‘Cause when I go to college, I’m going to be using ratemyprofessor(s.com). Trying to find the professors that give, like, the easiest work.

Who do you consider to be your greatest role model or hero in life? I guess it would just be, like, the people I’m surrounded by. ‘Cause it doesn’t have to be a specific person. People who, like, do good things…work hard or whatever, ‘cause like, that makes me want to be at their level…I don’t want to be like the stupid guy.

What 3 words would you use to describe you as a person? I don’t know…We’ll use “I, don’t, know.”

What is your favorite song, movie, TV show, and/or game? I mean, I have a favorite restaurant. I guess my favorite game is Terraria because it’s like a game where you can challenge yourself, but you can also, like, relax. It’s like a game with…a lot of freedom. Kinda like Minecraft, but it’s also like an adventure, you know? You don’t know until you play it. You know what I mean?

What is something you wish you could tell your past self? Which past self? I guess right now, I would tell my past self an hour ago to like, wake up and go to Greek Club, and not sleep in. That’s what I would say.

So far, what is your greatest academic, athletic, and/or personal achievement? Greatest achievement? I don’t really have any academic achievements because I never try. Athletic, well, not that good at my sport. Personal? I don’t, I just goof around. The one time I ever tried in a class, like actually tried…I had this history teacher last year…this guy named Mr. Bennett, and his class was a hard class; he gave a lot of homework, crazy projects. The reason why I tried in his class a lot was because the guy, he really talks a lot. He kinda likes to assert his dominance [and point out your flaws]. First semester, I just scraped by without trying, I barely ended with a B; 80%. But then I’m like, “You know what, I don’t want this guy to diss on me at the end of the year…if I get an A, then he can’t diss on me.” So I got an A, and he never dissed on me. And it boosted my GPA by like 0.1 points.

Do you expect to continue doing bowling, orchestra, and/or track and field after graduation? Why or why not? Bowling is like a “for fun” thing. I mean, would I compete? Probably. But I wouldn’t take it too seriously. You never know. The nice thing about bowling is that you don’t need conditioning, you can always jump into it whenever. I probably wouldn’t pursue it like crazy, but it’d be nice. Orchestra…I’m, like, super passionate for music…I’m always gonna be playing music. I might still take the viola seriously for a year or two, but there’s other instruments I wanna learn. I wanna learn how to sing, how to play drums, play the saxophone, play the marimba xylophone. I’ll probably move onto a different instrument, but I’m never gonna quit music. For track, I don’t know. I wanna start playing other sports, like tennis…for fun. ‘Cause I don’t even like track that much as a sport. I mean, I like racing. I’m doing it ‘cause I just wanna play a sport.I do enjoy track, but there’s other sports I like more. There’s a ton of sports I want to play more…especially soccer I’ve always wanted to play hockey…basketball. Track wasn’t a waste though; it’s like the same as orchestra…I’ll still be playing sports.

What would you recommend for the incoming freshman and senior of Niles North? When I was a freshman, I was like…crazy shy…a lot of anxiety, basically scared of, like, everything. I mean, I still am to an extent. I guess my advice would be… “Not everything’s gonna work out, but you should try to be brave…because it might not be as bad as you expect.”

What’s a funny story you’d like to share? Why does it stick out to you? So, I have Varsity P.E. I have it first period, so naturally…I’m always…feeling like I’m gonna fall asleep, but first period especially. This is during senior year. We had to free lift, and I did a couple reps on the bench press, and I was like, “You know what, what if I just, like, close my eyes, like, for five minutes.” And I fell asleep, I fell asleep on the bench. It was the nicest nap of all time, but…a bunch of people just crowded around me, like, “No way this guy just fell asleep on the bench.” So one of my friends grabbed a tube…he put it up to my ear, and he’s like, “Kyle Choi!” And I got scared, and I was just looking up, there’s just like a whole army of people looking down at me. I’m like “Wh- where am I?” And then, freaking…Coach Olson, he’s like, “We almost had to call an ambulance, man. We almost had to start CPR, man. I’ve never had a kid fall asleep on the bench before.” And I’m just like, “I fell asleep? What?”