What’s your name and grade? My name is Ashton Rara, and I’m a senior.
What clubs are you a part of? I’m actually the co-president of Filipino Club. Since freshman year, Gio and I wanted to be the co-president together, so it’s really been a journey. We found this passion for Filipino Club during freshman year, even though it was online. I saw that the community was really tightly knit, and I was like, “I want to be part of this, I want to be the leader, I want to be the one that people could come to for anything.” I’m also the captain of the varsity Valorant team, and will be the captain of the Rocket League team.
Who’s your favorite music artist? Why? For a few years it’s been Tyler, the Creator. I think he takes self expression very seriously because he is bisexual, and I think that self expression is very important for people, because who you are matters to you, and it should matter to everyone else. They should respect who you are as a person. I feel like Tyler really pushed these social boundaries that are currently placed to where it’s okay to be LGBTQ, and I think he’s doing a great job of representing that community and letting people know it’s okay to be who they are and that they shouldn’t hide from it.
What is your strangest habit? I like to keep things as it was, if it worked the first time. Like I think it’ll give me bad luck if I change something from the day before or the last time I did it. One example was when I cut my nails the morning of the Rocket League state finals for IHSEA and we got 3rd despite being expected by many teams that we weren’t gonna make it far in that tournament. And then the next time I had another Rocket League tournament, this time for IHSA sectionals, I cut my nails that morning and we won sectionals.
What’s one thing you hope to see in the future? I hope in the future I get to see more acceptance. I want everyone to be more accepting. I feel like right now it’s a very hateful time for everyone, and I think if everyone was more accepting then we would have less problems in the world…stuff like that.
How would you describe yourself as a food? Have you ever seen those Japanese omelets where they put it over rice and cut it open, and inside it’s, like, completely different than the outside? I think that’s me because on the outside people probably just think I’m some quiet guy. I don’t talk much in class unless I have a friend, so people would think I’m quiet. But when they get to know me they’ll see more of who I am. Obviously that goes for everyone else, but I’m like that little omelet.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve given/received? I think one that always comes back to me is just be who you are. In the real world, people really don’t care who you are, like if you have a job they don’t really care who you are, they just want to get their work done, so why does it matter to other people? It should only matter to you, that you are who you are, because if you hide that then you’re kind of just cheating yourself. So you should just embrace your differences.
If you were given the ability to perfect one skill, what would it be? Probably the skill of hard work or dedication because I definitely do not have that; I’m a huge procrastinator. I think that if I was just able to get myself to do something, like my homework, or dedicate myself to a single task at a time, and not take on like 20 [tasks], it would really improve myself as a student and as a person. I feel like I always try to do too many things for other people, so I’m like a people pleaser, so I feel like if I was just able to get myself to do what I can for myself first, and then help other people, then that hard work would pay off.
What’s the first thing you think of when you wake up? Honestly, I think it’s school. Like I said, I’m a huge procrastinator, and for the past few years I kind of just do my homework in the morning or sometimes even in school, I never really do it at home to be honest. But because of the way my brain functions, if I can get done what I need to get done in an hour or two, then there’s really no point in spending my other free time doing it, so it’ll be the last thing I do.
If you could become famous overnight, what would you want it to be for? I think everyone’s gonna say this, but I think curing cancer, something like that. Something that no one can say they’ve done before. I want to be different, but not because anyone’s forcing me, just because it would help a lot of people.
