Two years ago, I interviewed Laura Postigo (my wife’s young cousin) shortly before her high school graduation party. I focused on her college plans as well as her experiences at Webster Thomas High School located near Rochester, NY. Now it’s her sister Sarah’s turn. Sarah actually graduated from Webster Thomas about two months ago, but concerns about COVID-19 prompted her parents to delay her celebration until August 8. I sat down with Sarah a couple of hours before her well-deserved party began.

Clay: First of all, congratulations on graduating from Webster High School.

Sarah: Webster Thomas. There’re two. The other one is the one that was in the news. Not mine.

Clay: All right, that’s good. I’m going to ask you some of the same questions I asked your sister two years ago. What will you miss about high school?

Sarah: Probably having a bunch of my friends in the same place and having all the same teachers. I could always go back and visit my teachers and catch up and ask questions to them. This year was kind of weird ’cause it was hybrid, and I’d only talk to five people per day and half of those were teachers. But I’d like eating lunch with my friends and teachers.

Clay: And what won’t you miss about high school?

Sarah: Everybody else. I’m not the most social person, and there were some people that just kind of got on my nerves. And the hallways were always so crowded, which wasn’t much of a problem this year since they split but still…

Clay: So people weren’t real nice to you sometimes?

Sarah: Yeah, nor did they always follow the mask mandate rules.

Clay: I see. Put you at risk, then.

Sarah: Yep.

Clay: So, looking ahead to college, what courses are you going to be taking your freshman year?

Sarah: I know I’m going to have general courses like the English course, some of my honors prerequisites, and I think I’m going to be taking a biology course this semester, but I’m not sure since my counselor is handling my schedule.

Clay: Is there anything you’re worried about or concerned about as you head toward college?

Sarah: Getting lost. I think after the first week I’ll be fine finding places, but that first week, I’m going to get lost. I’m going to enter the right building and then have no idea where to go. And probably putting myself out there to make new friends. It’s kind of hard for me to do that, so that will be a challenge.

Clay: Going back to your selection process, what other schools, besides RTI, did you consider?

Sarah: RIT

Clay: Sorry, so that’s RIT. Rochester…

Sarah: Institute of Technology. It’s like MIT but with an R.

Clay: Got it.

Sarah: I kind of did my college process with my sister. We toured UB, University of Buffalo, University of Rochester, which is right down the road from RIT, where my friend is going. University of Vermont, Nazareth. And I think when I was doing my application process I just only applied to RIT but I had the University of Vermont as a backup, ’cause I applied early to RIT.

Clay: Looking down beyond college, your career choice…

Sarah: Dental school and then some area of dentistry I haven’t decided on yet.

Clay: And at least your first year, you’ll be living in a dormitory on campus?

Sarah: Yes.

Clay: And probably coming home now and then.

Sarah: A couple of times, probably.

Clay: How far is your home from RIT?

Sarah: Roughly a 20-minute drive.

Clay: So that’s not too bad.

Sarah: Just hop on the highway.

Clay: Tell me about the award that you got. I know you got some sort of recognition.

Sarah: There were two.

Clay: Good. Tell us about both of them.

Sarah: So this year in orchestra it was really weird, because it was mostly chamber groups. It’s like a mini-orchestra. So you have one person in each section instead of the usual whole orchestra. Then at the end of the year, we had one concert. We put a bunch of the chamber groups together that had been playing all year. At that concert, I got an award for being the most enthusiastic about the class, being the most helpful and stuff. So I got the Orchestra Award.  And then later at the award ceremony, I also got one of the PTSA awards for academics. So they were really impressed by my resume and all the class I’d taken. Because I’d taken roughly eight APs.

Clay: That’s very impressive. Let me see if I can think of anything else. Are you concerned about your potential roommates? Do you know who they will be?

Sarah: I know who my roommate will be. I’ve talked to her a little bit, but I don’t really know her yet, and I’m hoping I don’t get a roommate from hell like my sister did.

Clay: Yeah, I heard about that.

Sarah: So I’m hoping I get someone I can be friends with, and if not, getting someone I can live with.

Clay: That helps a lot. That pretty much covers it. Can you think of anything you want to say generally about high school, college, or career?

Sarah: I really liked taking my AP classes. They were more advanced classes, so I could be with people who thought more like me. And also I took AP art, which is a little bit different from other APs. It’s just that you make art at a faster rate. So I had roughly two weeks per project, then I would move on to the next piece of artwork. Then it was really interesting to see everyone else’s point of view on how they saw the world. It was really interesting because some of the artwork was put up at district office and then one of the people up there told my art teacher all this work is really disturbing. And he said, “Yeah, that’s what they’re feeling.” I was the one always wearing black, but my artwork was always happy, and everyone else was wearing pastels and there artwork was depressing. So take from that what you will.

Clay: So what kind of artwork did you do?

Sarah: So for college, one of the application questions was “Who are you?” I really had a hard time answering that, so my portfolio question was “Who am I?” and what made up who I am. So I did a bunch of pieces addressing that. So I did some on my family, some on my perfectionist problems, some on how I saw the world and how it affected me.

Clay: Were these writings that you did?

Sarah: Well, I had to do a little bit of a write up, but I did ten artwork pieces on this subject,

Clay: Visual art.

Sarah: Visual art — I’ll pull them out later and show them to you.

Clay: Okay.

Sarah: I was going to do that last night but forgot.

Clay: You had a lot on your mind, so that’s all right. So you’re looking forward to college with some confidence, but with a little bit of concern about getting lost.

Sarah: Yeah, it’s a whole new system that I’m going to have to learn. I learned a whole new system last year, ’cause hybrid schooling is different.

Clay: Now your classes at RIT will be face-to-face? Maybe with a mask?

Sarah: I think mostly yeah. Since I will be in science classes most of them will be in-person.

Clay: They would almost have to be. I can’t think of anything else. I’ll write you up a nice blog and I’ll let you look at it before I post it. That’s only courteous.

Sarah: All my other school years, Laura was always ahead of me; I could really base my experience on what she was going to experience. But she went to a different university, so now I’m on my own.

Clay: You don’t have a role model to follow. You’ll make your own path.

Sarah: Yes.

Clay: I’ll make good on my word and let you look at it before I post it. Thank you, Sarah, and congratulations again.