Student Interview: Daniel Austin

Interviewer: Joanné Scherman

Joanné: First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself. What’s your name? What do you do for fun?

Daniel: (uh..) My name is Daniel.. I don’t do too much, I play basketball, and I play video games.. (That’s really all..) 

Joanné: Ok! If you had only ten words to describe yourself to someone who’s never met you, what ten words would you use?

Daniel: So.. Kind, caring, I’d like to say funny.. (Joanné laughs) Determined, expressive, (uhh..) Sorry, is that five?

Joanné: Lost count, whatever you did was fine... Ok, I have a little bit more of a fun question right now; if Hollywood made a movie about your life, who would you like to see play the lead role as you?

Daniel: Oooh… Does it have to be like a famous actor? Could it be like anyone?

Joanné: Anyone.

Daniel: Oooh… Are they still going to be their normal age? Because I kind of want to be involved with DaBaby.

Joanné: Yeah? Ok. (hmm…) Tell me a little bit about your favourite memory from high school so far.

Daniel: Oooh, ok. These are good! (uh..) My favourite memory, (uh..) This is a generic one, but being on the bantam boys basketball team. The entire year was just amazing with everybody, we had so many great memories from there. And yeah, it was just fun being in the bantam boys team. We won a tournament, so…

Joanné: Oh, yeah, I heard. Was that your favourite part about grade 8?

Daniel: Yes! I contributed a whole two points to that tournament!

Joanné: (laughing) Very, very good. Next question: When you go on holiday, when do you pack your suitcase? And please don’t tell me your mom still does it for you.

Daniel: (silence) No.,.... (even longer silence) Sometimes…. Anyway! So, I usually do it the day before.. If I’m running a little late, then I’ll do it like a good 10-12 hours before.

Joanné: That soon?

Daniel: Yeah…

Joanné: I don't know about you, but I have mine done at least the week before. How do you pack yours just the night before?

Daniel: A week?! How long does it take you to pack?

Joanné: Like one or two hours?

Daniel: And it takes all week?

Joanné: You know, being prepared and all that.

Daniel: But like seven days before is like… You don't need to be ready that many days before. You only really need (like..) one or two days..

Joanné: Yeah, but then if you're missing something, you're not running out to the store hours before you leave or sleep.

Daniel: Okay, I see your point..

Joanné: It's a good point!

Daniel: (dramatic sigh)

Joanné: Okay, okay. Next question. Which animal do you think would make the best president if the animal kingdom ever rises up and takes over?

Daniel: Definitely the penguin. The spin-off Madagascar penguin. I like that movie. Though, it's not just about the movie, even though I love that movie, and everyone who ever reads this should see it, I just feel like they're smart like that. And they will do anything to protect their people.

Joanné: Okay. That's some good points. If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?

Daniel: Okay, so immediately, the first thing I'm gonna do is at least give anywhere from a quarter to half of the money to my parents. The other half of my money, I’ll probably put it into a college fund, and some other money just to save for me.

Joanné: Okay.. And what would you do with the money you just saved for you?

Daniel: I mean, some video games, but just some. Other stuff, I’ll probably get myself new clothes.

Joanné: Okay, you're being resourceful, I see you. Next question: what did you want to be when you were 10 years old?

Daniel:  I did like and have sort of always kind of, I saw how cool like sports players were, and at the time I played soccer, so. Like, most times I wanted to be a professional athlete. It doesn't matter what sport I'm in.

Joanné: Okay, okay. A few more questions to sum it up. If you could give all LGCA students one piece of advice, what would it be?

Daniel: Um… Well, I hate the word impossible because growing up being told that you can't do something really can change the outcome of someone's life.

Joanné: Yeah, I understand that.

Daniel: I remember the movie. It was about, like, Christmas or whatever. And it had a great quote, which was, “an impossibility is just a possibility they don't yet understand.” And I think that's great. And great thing to just, (like), never think that anything's impossible, because, we have the ability to do whatever we want and whatever we put in our mind to, we can be determined, (like…) Just don't ever think that you can't do something, or don't ever think that someone else can do it better, because if you work hard, you'll be the most talented person.

Joanné: Okay, that's pretty good. How would you define servant leadership?

Daniel: Okay. So it's, (like..), putting others before you, caring about everyone. Not using your power to put you in the best possible position, but to put the people around you in the best possible position. And that, to make sure that not just you succeed, to make sure that everyone succeeds, collectively.

Joanné: Yeah, that's pretty good. That's more than I expected. Wow. Okay. Two more questions, Daniel… How has your high school experience affected or strengthened your relationship with God?

Daniel: So, I think that… Everything I do in school brings me closer. Our teachers lead our, well, community, and then it’s a really funky relationship. Because of that, I've learned that, like, no matter how the devil tries you, just be reminded that there are people around you who aren't giving up on you, and who still care about you. So why should you give up on them? If they're still trying, if God's still trying to have a relationship with you, then there's no point I’m giving up if he's not giving up for you.

Joanné: Okay. Wow. Last question. What do you hope to see more of or change in our school before you graduate?

Daniel: Okay. So I would probably like to see two things. First thing… Have more people join the athletic extracurriculars.

Joanné: Understandable.

Daniel: And the second thing I'd like to see change would probably be… (uh….) For bullying to minimise, so bullying that may not may not be as big as it is... Basically what I'm trying to say is (uh..) you remember (-redacted-) right?

Joanné: Yeah, I feel like not many people noticed that..

Daniel: Until it was like until it was probably super bad. And so I hope that they have recognized how this could hurt someone. (-redacted-)

Joanné: Yeah, no, I understand.

Daniel: But like, these, this, like, you have to remember that the whole point of your duty is just, the responsibility is to make sure that everyone has a good experience in life. And if you don't recognize the bullying that you're paying for them early on, then it's going to be too bad to fix later.

Joanné: Definitely, that's good. Ok, thank you! 

Daniel: Bye!