All nighters, coffee, and comfort zones

The Conversation

The Classic
What do you look forward to most during the school day?

Evelene Chao
SU meetings. That might be a little biased because I'm on the SU, but I really enjoy coming together with everyone else and just talking about basically everything revolving around the school, our day, and what we're going to do over the weekend.

The Classic
What is the best strategy you use to meet your deadlines when you have been procrastinating?

Evelene
This might be a hot take: pulling an all nighter.

I know it's not recommended, but I think every student will have to go through it at least once: cramming all your work that one night with a couple of coffees and espressos and just making it through.

The Classic
What is your favorite place to study and why?

Evelene
I really like this cafe near my house. It's called Bean and Bean Coffee. I've been going there since like 8th grade. I actually did like all my high school stuff there, like that SHSAT prep and all that, and then just last year I did my SAT studying in that coffee house. That place has seen my everything. I have cried there before. That's how bad it was.

The Classic
Do you prefer quiet or background music when you're working?

Evelene
Background music, definitely. I think that's also another hot take. Some people say you can concentrate better in the silence. But you know that saying: “silence is too loud”? Yeah, that's how I feel. I feel like the silence is too loud where I can't pay attention.

The Classic
Do you listen to lo-fi music?

Evelene
Yeah, and things similar to lo-fi. Sometimes, it's literally just a beep or like white noise.

The Classic
What's a hidden gem, spot, or activity at the school that more people should appreciate?

Evelene
A hidden gem? I think the sixth floor lab. That's another biased answer because last year when people from the class of 2025 were still here, we used to hang out in the lab. We didn't do anything horrible. We just, you know, danced because some of them were other S!NG leaders and other FON leaders. So we did some practice.

It was just overall a really nice place. Tears were shed there too.

The Classic
What kind of teaching method do you think is most effective and why?

Evelene
Definitely visual and independent work or group work. If a teacher could explain what the subject is, give us a couple pictures explaining it, maybe a couple videos explaining it in deeper detail, and then give us some work to practice, I think that's like the best way to study because right after you learn about it, you get to practice it and it just kind of stays in your head.

The Classic
What colors and why would you assign your folders for your core subjects? English, math, science, social studies, and world languages?

Evelene
Got you. Okay. So English is red.

I will not take no for an answer. English has always been red. Math is blue.

Science is green. Social studies is yellow. Or orange, depending.

And then I will stick in French. I think this applies to Spanish as well. But language is purple.

The Classic
In a school, you're supposed to learn multiple lessons a day. What's the biggest lesson you learned outside of class from a friend, teacher, faculty member, or any other person in the THHS community?

Evelene
I've learned is that it's okay to fail. I feel like this doesn't just apply to me. A lot of Townsend students have this mental state where it's like 'I have to be the best, I have to be the greatest, or I'm nothing.' But I've definitely had a lot of teachers, because I've expressed this to some teachers before, where I was like, "oh, but I really don't want to fail." And they have expressed back to me, hey, it's okay to fail. It's okay to have a downturn sometimes.