What is your name and grade? My name is Tristan Tran, and I’m a junior.
What’s the most pizza you’ve ever eaten in a single sitting? Alright, me and my brother, right? My mom wasn’t home; we hadn’t eaten the entire day. We got two pizzas from Little Caesars—two Supreme pizzas. Oh my goodness. Each was a two-liter Coke, and by the end of it, everything was entirely gone. We both ate an entire pizza by ourselves.
Do you believe in aliens, and why or why not? I mean, the universe is large as hell, right? Like, it’s really big. It’s massive. But the probability that there are aliens out there is… Yeah, I would believe that aliens, some other form of life, exist out there in this giant universe. Even though the chance of life is really small, the universe is so big that it’s very likely that aliens exist on one of the planets in a different solar system, you know?
If your life had a theme song, what would it be? “Life Is a Highway,” Rascal Flatts. I just like Cars, the movie. And actual cars too; I mess with cars a little bit, dabble in that. But life really do be a highway.
What is your biggest regret in life? That I didn’t learn Vietnamese at a young age, because most of my relatives don’t speak English a lot; they mainly speak Vietnamese. And as I got older, I lost the ability to speak Vietnamese, as most Hyphenated Americans do. You lose your language if you don’t speak it a lot, and growing up, my parents weren’t really in the house a lot, so I didn’t speak Vietnamese much. So I just lost that, and I really wish I could communicate with my relatives now.
What’s the worst smell? The worst smell is coffee breath. I had this one teacher—not going to name names—last year. Insane coffee breath. And they would get all personal with me; like, I met with them one time, and it was just a one-on-one. Oh my goodness. It was so hard to concentrate. If you have coffee breath, you need to have a pack of gum with you, please.
Is cereal a soup? Not really; I wouldn’t say that, no. It’s like asking, “Is oatmeal porridge?” No, it’s not, because… soup is from broth, right? And you put bones and stuff in, and that makes the broth. Milk isn’t broth. You get the idea. If it comes from an animal, if an animal makes the liquid, then it’s not a soup.
What is your greatest accomplishment in life? My greatest accomplishment in life, I would say, was getting an A in AP Chemistry. During the first semester of the class, I wasn’t really locked in, as these kids say. I wasn’t really focused on getting good grades, and more so just on passing the class. And then, I remember one time in study hall, Mr. Kretsos, my chemistry teacher, said, “Focus on the learning, and the grades will come naturally.” And so that’s what I did. I decided: You know what? I’ll give it a try. I’ll start focusing more on understanding concepts and actually trying to learn. And on the final, I was really happy to see that it went from a 70% the last semester to an 83%, and then I got an A overall.
What is your biggest fear in life? My biggest fear in life is that when I die, I feel like I haven’t done enough; if I live a life that I’m not happy with. So, my biggest fear is dying with the thought of having lived an unsatisfying life.
What is your motto in life? My motto in life is: “Do it until you understand it.” That’s really what I live by. Like, if I get a C or a D and on a test, I’ll talk to my teacher, get some corrections done, and then keep doing it. Keep doing practice until I understand it. Same thing for sports, too. In ping pong, in volleyball—because you know your boy’s a multi-sport athlete—in any sport.
What is your biggest pet peeve? When someone can’t tell that you’re in a bad mood. Like, let’s say I got back a bad test, and this one guy’s so joyful, while I have the biggest frown on my face. And this guy’s talking about, “Ooh, I did so well. This test was easy. What’d you get?” Like, yo, do you not see me, bro?
If you could get rid of one song in the world, what would it be? One song I really hate is that song that Bruno Mars just released. Oh my goodness, the newest one—that song was horrible. Dude went from catching grenades to whatever the hell this is. Get this song off the face of the earth.
Who is an inspiration for you in your life? I’d say my older brother, because I feel like he doesn’t have everything figured out in life, but he still does everything he can to learn. He’s a big inspiration to me because he’s an embodiment of what I want to be in the future. Even if I don’t know what I’m supposed to do in life, or what I want to do at a given moment, I just try to figure it out.
What would your rapper name be? MC Vroom Vroom—I’m kidding. I feel like Dr. Tran would be tough. Like Dr. Dre? Dr. Tran. That’s going to be my name anyway; in four years, when I become a doctor, type beat.
If you could meet anyone in the world, alive or deceased, who would it be? I’d like to meet my grandpa one more time because he passed away, like, four, five years ago, in June 2020. I don’t know; I just really miss him.
What is the most unsettling dream you’ve ever had? It’s not really a dream, but you know that sensation where you fall and then it wakes you up? Like, this one time I was taking a nap. I was in a half-awake, half-asleep type of state. And I had this dream where I fell off a building. I don’t know why; I just fell off the building. I woke up, I was gripping my bed with both hands. And then I went back to bed, and it happened again. I got up and started doing my work after that. It was actually treacherous.
Is there something else that you want to tell readers that I didn’t mention? I’m a six-foot-seven, nonchalant dreadhead.
