By Derek Ng
A catalogue of my time at Choate Rosemary Hall.
For my final Journalism assignment (and last ever assignment at Choate), I chose to catalogue the events of my Choate career that stand out most in my memory as I look back and reflect today. Because that's how Choate comes to me now: not as a long string of events one after the other, but rather, as a series of key moments — a stop-motion movie comprised of many disparate frames that mean something bigger only when taken together.
A catalogue of my time at Choate Rosemary Hall.
A picture of me Erica took as we were walking to class after lunch one day in junior year.
For my final Journalism assignment (and last ever assignment at Choate), I chose to catalogue the events of my Choate career that stand out most in my memory as I look back and reflect today. Because that's how Choate comes to me now: not as a long string of events one after the other, but rather, as a series of key moments — a stop-motion movie comprised of many disparate frames that mean something bigger only when taken together.
What links everything on the following list is that each moment, no matter how big or small, meant something to me and shaped part of who I am today. I owe my growth and maturity across the past three years to the experiences I gleaned from all those important moments and to all the people who made those moments what they were.
Additionally, as you scroll through, you'll find interspersed throughout some of the little things that accompanied me on my journey through Choate: the music I listened to, the pictures and videos I took, and other little mementos I've managed to compile. Maybe these, in the end, are the most important parts — they're the tangible reminders of my experiences throughout Choate and memories I will continue with as I head into the future.
September: Under the early September sunshine, amid the smell of grass and moving boxes, I arrive at Clinton Knight house for the first time — the dorm, I didn't know then, that would come to be my home for nearly three years. Walking in and greeting my would-be prefects and house advisers with three suitcases and what can be described only as an awful haircut, I begin to unpack. It's the first of many steps in the long, long journey of high school.
September: Orientation! PlayFair is useless, frankly; I shake what feels like a million hands and make a grand total of zero friends.
September: First classes start to take place. My schedule includes sophomore year English, first-year Physics, Precalculus, World History, and Latin 350 — the last one a class from which I drop to the 300 level in two weeks, as it becomes clear everyone around me is infinitely more intelligent than I am.
September: Cross country is intense. Captains Matt and Griffin and the rest of the team intimidate me to my core. I feel out-of-shape and wildly incompetent as compared to the varsity runners, who, especially after having trained in the pre-season, appear to me like robots crafted in a scientific lab destined for only one purpose: to run.
September: First SAC dance ever. So this — a sweaty, fluorescently-lit mosh pit of teenagers shoving their bodies onto one another — is high school?
September: I do my first load of laundry in the basement of CK, spending ten minutes figuring out how exactly it is one uses a Tide Pod. Do you pop it, shove it in the compartment, or throw it in with the rest of the clothes? (Another discovery: having to separate white clothes and colored clothes is a total myth.)
October: Eben Cook publishes my first Campus Opinions article in The Choate News — starting me on a long, intense relationship with the paper that would carry me through the entirety of my Choate career.
November: I just make the cut for running Cross Country at New England’s, missing my first Deerfield Day.
November: My friends and I first discover Sirinan’s, a restaurant whose sushi rolls and Pad See Ew I would come to revisit many, many times.
December: I take my first Drawing class and get to know Ms. Jessica Cuni, who recommends I try out for the Visual Arts Concentration program.
December: An old friend and I hit a 1000-day streak on Snapchat, an achievement which I am immensely proud of and do not hesitate in telling everyone around me about. In 2019, I outgrow the trend of "keeping streaks" and subsequently lose all of them.
December: Ms. Tracy Ginder-Delventhal casts me as the aggressive, misogynistic Lloyd in the winter theater production Blue Stockings — the landing of a lead role a big surprise for me, as I have close to no proper experience acting onstage. The Blue Stockings cast quickly becomes a tight-knit family as it rehearses, over the winter, the play set in the late 19th century surrounding the introduction of women into higher academia at Cambridge.
Blue Stockings formed a large part of my sophomore winter.
January: I come down with a particularly bad case of the flu and am hospitalized in the health center for three nights. During the daytime, friends come by and visit in their free blocks, and during the nighttime, I try to catch up on the ridiculously large amount of Precalculus homework I'm missing.
January: Serendipitous discovery of Cheek’s Chicken in Wallingford, a fried chicken joint which will soon come to be a favorite. Many Friday nights will be spent savoring the restaurant's chicken and waffles.
February: Precalculus final demands intense amount of studying; my study guide reaches 51 pages in length. Likely one of the most challenging assessments I've ever encountered in my Choate career.
Maybe what I'll remember most about Choate are the radiant Wallingford sunsets that would catch me — maybe walking up the path to the dining hall, stressed out about the amount of homework I'd have to do that night — by utter surprise.
March: By fluke, I’m the new Eben Cook? I join the incoming 112th masthead of The Choate News as the Campus Opinions editor of the paper, as imposter syndrome, nervous excitement, and downright fear course through me.
March: On one of winter's final dreary days, I lead my first Gold Key tour.
March: I join Choate’s weeklong trip to Southern Spain in the first week of spring break.
Left: Nia and I on a Cordoba street. Right: Alcalá la Real .
April: Vlada and I let out screams of excitement in the quiet of the library as we receive our acceptances to the Arts Concentration program starting next year. We are promptly shushed by the librarian.
April: I play JV volleyball — and I love it. Volleyball ends up becoming my all-time favorite sport, though I'm not any good at it, truth be told.
Taken from the Choate Flickr.
April: Long weekend spent at Haley’s house in Darien — a beautiful, relaxing weekend spent biking, swimming, de-stressing.
May: Treasure hunt to the science center concludes with a 3/4 proposal from Mirielle and Izzy, and of course, I gladly say yes.
May: Now that it's getting less cold outside, I spend my Sunday mornings jogging, rediscovering the sorely underrated beauty of the cross country course.
A picture of me Deanna took on a Sunday morning run.
September: Countless hours of cramming and practice papers later, I take the SAT. It’s as intense and nerve-wracking an experience as everyone says it is, and I’m glad it’s over.
September: I embark on junior year with a new set of classes: American Literature, American History, Chemistry, AB Calculus, and Latin 550. A hefty courseload, which I’m surprised I survive.
ArtsCon walking to dinner together — one of the defining scenes of my junior year.
November: Wilson casts me as Lucky in his SDS rendition of Waiting for Godot. Over the winter, I rehearse the scene alongside my three fellow cast members, spending many long winter hours in the Gelb Theater running lines and regurgitating my meaningless monologues.
Erica, Vlada, Nil, and I at Hol Ball 2018.
February: Mr. Ventre asks me to leave Wind Ensemble and join the Orchestra, an offer which I gladly accept. I begin listening to classical music, which would, over the course of the next year, become an integral part of my life.
February: SDS 2019 premiers in the Gelb Theater.
February: SDS 2019 premiers in the Gelb Theater.
March: Promotion to managing editor of The Choate News — guaranteeing a heightened caffeine intake, as I now have the incredibly fun but taxing job of overseeing the entire paper. From now on, it is my job to run editors' and assignment meetings; edit all the articles published by the paper; and otherwise remain in constant communication with over one hundred editors and reporters. Every Tuesday night I will be finalizing proofs and helping section editors with inDesign in the Newsroom until 11:30 p.m., upon which I'll return to my room and begin my homework for the night.
The 113th masthead of The Choate News.
March: I’m accepted as a prefect, meaning that I’ll be living in the same dorm — CK — for a third and final year.
March: I am accepted as Story Editor in the small group of students known as Humans of Choate; it's a deeply satisfying job in which I have the opportunity to interview students, faculty members, and staff members across campus and hear their stories, before I then edit them and prepare them for publishing.
April: Junior spring, the most intense and stressful period of my Choate career, begins.
A film photograph I took at Jojo's Coffee and Tea in New Haven — one of my favorite study spots, especially in my junior spring.
May: Fellow Arts Concentration artists and I paint “the box” — a pink, polka-dotted, and frankly unappealing wooden box that sits in the PMAC gallery for the remainder of the spring term.
May: Stress heightens in my Choate career as junior spring madness collides with relentless preparation for AP exams. Hardly a weekend passes without studying late into the night.
June: I receive honorable mentions for two prizes on Prize Day! Check it off the bucket list.
June: The first and, to date, only issue of The Choate News Magazine is published.
June: The Choate class of 2019 graduates. Among the class are some of the people who meant the most to me at Choate — classmates, fellow editors, lifelong friends. It goes without saying that many tears are shed on the day.
The bosses.
June: A magical week of Rossini, gelato, and bliss in Northern Italy as I embark with the orchestra on its annual global tour.
The Choate horns of 2019: Mary, Rachel, Jayden, Alex, Mr. Welles, and I.
Mr. Ventre's film photograph of us at Villa Mabapa in Lido, Italy.
July: I spend six weeks living at Yale, taking college-level courses in the classical studies and visual arts.
July: Hill House is struck by lightning and catches fire, making junior year the last time I'd ever walk into the building.
August: An entire month dedicated to preparing for the college application process: endless research, studying, and brainstorming about CommonApp essays.
August: I take the SAT Subject Tests. The highlight of my summer.
September: Camp Hazen — two nights living among co-prefects in wooden cabins before school starts.
September: Among my new classes in senior year are Portfolio, Statistics, and Journalism. And of course, to round off my Classics career at Choate, I also take on Greek and Art History.
October: ArtsCon spends a few afternoons at Dexterity Press in New Haven, learning how to operate a printing press while exploring the many studios scattered about Erector Square. Walked away learning a lot while having had a lot of fun.
October: John Legend performs at the newly opened Colony Hall, and by some lucky coincidence, I end up with a seat in the second row. In the frenzy of kids clamoring to give John Legend a hi-five before he leaves the stage, I manage to make contact with him.
October: To follow up on the John Legend concert, Choate hosts its first and only carnival on the Great Lawn by Colony Hall. It was such a memorable night; my friends and I, seated on the Ferris wheel, watched the sun set over the carnival, a moment that recalled the excitement and magic of the carnival scene in Love, Simon — a moment I won't forget. (And I can't complain either about the complimentary artisan pizza!)
October: ArtsCon takes its inaugural overnight field trip to New York City, visiting the Guggenheim and the Met. An unforgettable and exceptionally fun experience.
ArtsCon and the most beautiful sunset of the fall term.
We go to the senior-only Halloween dance as the lead characters of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
November: I attend my first Deerfield Day ever.
Ethan, Naomi, and I.
November: I submit my early decision application to college.
December: Months, or maybe years of nerves, stress, and anticipation culminate in my acceptance to Columbia University. The college application process is over!
January: The coronavirus strikes Hong Kong, where some of my family lives. While life goes about largely unaffected in America and at Choate, my family members, including my mom and dad, spent a few months quarantining at home and not going to work.
January: The Choate Classics Club, which I'm the president of, is recognized by the SAC as an official student-run organization.
January: The Choate Classics Club, which I'm the president of, is recognized by the SAC as an official student-run organization.
February: The orchestra embarks on its annual global tour to Washington, D.C. — a particularly affecting two-day trip as it was longtime conductor Mr. Ventre’s last ever performance with Choate.
Orchestra led to me meeting a bunch of incredibly kind and funny people, and it was a home to some of my happiest memories in my time at Choate.
March: Fellow editors of The Choate News and I push the final issue of the 113th masthead out the door, making it the 36th issue of the paper I've worked on. While I am, of course, immensely glad that there's no longer the need to ingest unhealthy amounts of caffeine to stay awake on Tuesday nights, a part of me does remain sad that such a large part of my time at Choate has come to an end.
The front page of our final, future-themed issue.
March: The 113th masthead hands the reins of The Choate News over to the 114th masthead — ending my two-year career with the newspaper.
March: I leave campus for what I realize only weeks later is the last time — leaving my room, my friends, my teachers, and much, much more behind for an indeterminate amount of time.
Many a memory on Friday night was captured on Naomi's Polaroid camera.
April: Ms. Beste, my Greek teacher, joked in our last Greek class of the winter that “the next time we'll all be seeing each other is over some place like Google Hangouts.” She proves prophetic, though it is Zoom in which Choate begins online learning during the spring, not Google Hangouts. I next see Ms. Beste during my government-mandated quarantine in Hong Kong, and one of the first things she does over the call is apologize for making the joke and claim that she had no idea we’d actually be doing online school for the spring.
April to now: I am social distancing in Hong Kong — in which, since the beginning of May, the coronavirus situation has improved notably. While we all are still taking many precautions, including wearing masks and gathering in groups not more than eight, life has begun to feel relatively normal again. I go about my regular life in Hong Kong during the day, and I attend class online in the night. It’s a strange feeling for these worlds to be colliding like this, but I’m learning to make peace with it.
May: I wake up one morning to find out via email that I’m inducted into the Cum Laude society — but that none of the usual festivities are taking place. Instead, according to Mr. Rogers, a pin and certificate are being mailed my way. It’s one of many year-end traditions that are going virtual, one of the many year-end traditions my senior compatriots and I are missing out on.
May: My final week of Zoom classes ends without much closure, a painfully dull way to round off what otherwise was a rollercoaster of a high school career at Choate.