Last week I met with Ashley, a Junior at Teaneck High School and long-time resident of Teaneck. During the duration of our interview, we spoke about her high school experience, her home life, hobbies and so much more. She first describes her high school experience so far as ‘just alright’ since the pandemic impacted her last three months of freshman year and her entire sophomore year. However, she enjoyed school before the pandemic shut school down. We both agreed that being able to experience freshman year in person ‘makes things a lot easier and less intimidating.

  Ashley grew up in Teaneck and went to Benjamin Franklin Middle School prior to high school. She doesn’t know much about her heritage, but her childhood home life consisted of her older sibling (who has now moved out and is in college),  and her Mom and Dad whom she currently lives with. We bonded over the experiences of being the youngest sibling in the family. I spoke about the perks of being the youngest sibling and she added that being the youngest can grant you with “…getting anything you want” and more.

Ashley shared that her interests are singing, listening to music, fashion, and loving animals. Ashley states that for aspirations and goals beyond high school she is still undecided, but she’s leaning toward wanting to be a history teacher. For this, Ashley credits her 8th-grade teacher, who made the class fun and interesting, and she still looks up to her. 

We closed off our interview with a section I like to call ‘Rapid Fire’. I gave her short questions with the restriction of only one to two-word answers. 

Stephanie: What’s your favorite color?

Ashley: Blue.

Stephanie: Zodiac sign?

Ashley: Aquarius.

Stephanie: Favorite song?

Ashley: Kansas [by] Gorillaz.

Stephanie: And lastly, favorite childhood memory?

Ashley: Hmm, probably going to the waterpark!!

It was very fun to interview Ashley and get to know more about her experience in school and of her hobbies and life outside of school. I’m glad that you got some insight on her as well!