Senior Spotlight

Hey, dragons! This is our last Senior Spotlight for the 2020-21 school year, and I had the pleasure of interviewing Thukim Nguyen and Angela Chen.

Thukim Nguyen

Thukim Nguyen is a person with a select few hobbies and interests. She enjoys playing video games such as Fortnite and League of Legends. She likes assembling petit blocks—similar to lego sets, but are a lot smaller and cheaper. Her biggest pet peeve is students who aren’t appreciative, respectful, and treat their professors/teachers harshly—forgetting about their perspective and looking at both sides. During quarantine, she began embroidering and learning how to embroider different things. She was interested in this hobby for a while and wanted to make gifts for her friends before college. She’s also been reading old novels and watching nostalgic tv shows that reminded her of her childhood.

Thukim committed to Sacramento State University with an expressed interest in nursing. She plans to finish her remaining pre-requisite classes and apply to various nursing programs. She hopes to become a registered nurse, and eventually become a pediatric nurse practitioner. Healthcare is the field she chose because helping others was always something she wanted to do. Before, she considered becoming a pediatrician or a teacher. With nursing, it gives her endless career advancement opportunities she can choose from, such as becoming a professor/lecturer, etc… Her dream is to become a nurse practitioner because it will give her the option to go to med school and get her Ph.D. There are a variety of paths to choose from with nursing, which made the practice appealing to her.

“I genuinely think it is also because I am extremely indecisive, so having options brings me peace. To me, it seems like a win-win situation because I have options all while helping others and doing what I enjoy at the end of the day.”

This year she wishes to become the best version of herself. She hopes that by the time college comes around, she will become the person she is content with. Like most, she hopes to do well in college since it will be a new and challenging environment. By the end of senior year, she wishes to have in-person graduation that would make the past four years of high school worth it.

“Everyone is constantly changing for the best and the worst, but this year I want to change for the better.”

The expectations of her senior year have drastically changed now that she’s a senior. She expected to have fun and make tons of memories, but the circumstances have changed, and this year was lonely. However, even though she didn’t make many memories on campus, she made many fun moments with her family. Quarantine gave her the chance to spend time and become closer with her family and helped her learn the value of the time you spend with your loved ones.

“You never know when someone will be gone, and covid taught me to value those you choose to spend time with.”

Thukim’s experience at MCHS evolved her to become a different and better person as the years passed by. As a freshman, she said that she was naive and went through a “cringey obnoxious” stage in her life. However, being in a college setting helped her mature and adapt to the competitive environment. Delta college gave the opportunities that helped her find her passion for nursing. Because of Delta, she had the chance to attend guest speakers and webinars where nurse practitioners would speak about their experience in the field. With the help of Delta, she got to make connections and garner more knowledge in this career path.

“People make mistakes, and I am glad that I was able to identify my faults and make changes for the better.”

Thukim’s advice to the underclassmen is to find a major that best fits you but also find your “why” first. Find your interests and if you have a career in mind, find out why you want to pursue it. The best way to put it is to make sure you are not pretending to love a career based on people’s opinions and expectations of you. If you do, you’ll lose a sense of yourself because that path doesn’t fit you or wasn’t your dream. Create a balance between school and your personal life, where you can study but still have fun with your friends and take breaks. Do not compare yourself to others, and don’t worry about what other people think about you. You must focus on yourself and become the person you wish to be in the future. If you are having any struggles or personal problems, reach out to friends or anybody because it is okay to call for help.

“I regret not doing a lot of things in high school, so hopefully you will take those chances and make the most out of being young in high school.”

Thank you, Thukim, for giving us thoughtful advice and a chance to share your experience at Delta and MCHS. We know that you will do amazing in your future career, and we wish you the best of luck.

Angela Chen

Angela Chen has many hobbies everyone relates to, especially during quarantine. Her hobbies include sleeping, binge-watching Netflix and anime, shopping at Trader Joe’s, and scrolling on TikTok for hours. Over quarantine, she started painting and drawing, expanding her creative side. She enjoys listening to music with artists like Machine Gun Kelly, Sam Smith, James Arthur, and Post Malone. She dislikes ASMR and soap-cutting videos because they aren’t satisfying to her. She is very passionate about school and getting a higher education to become successful in the medical field. She also really loves animals and hopes to become a veterinarian to help care for animals in the future.

After graduation, she hopes to attend either UC Irvine as a Public Health Science major and go the Pre-Med route towards podiatry, or Cal Poly Slo as an animal science major and go the Pre-Vet route. She chose podiatry and animal science because these careers best interest her. Her love for animals began from having dogs of her own and volunteering at animal shelters and vet clinics. Over time, she grew to enjoy learning about animals and the sciences. Her interest in podiatry began because it isn’t a career not a lot of people would consider. She viewed it as a great profession to pursue that could help others and leave an impact in their lives.

“I think that whatever career I end up choosing, it’ll be a career where I can help something or someone.”

For her senior year, she hopes to graduate, be happy with her decisions, and attend college with no regrets. She expected her senior year to be filled with fun moments with her friends and a chance to bond with everyone before college. Now that she is a senior, things didn’t work out in the end when it comes to attending school on campus. However, she hopes, at least, there would be in-person graduation to finish the year.

MCHS helped her grow and evolve in many ways. Being in a competitive setting, helped her progress to become productive and pushed her to study hard in school. Surrounding herself with people that had the same drive and personality helped her become motivated and strive for success.

“If I didn’t attend MCHS I doubt I would've had the same opportunities such as volunteering at a vet hospital or working at a podiatrist office, and I probably would’ve never thought of those careers.”

Angela’s advice for the underclassmen is to work hard and not to leave MCHS with regrets. Make sure to not stress yourself out with classes or grades because as long as you’ve tried your best, you’ll be fine. Spend these next few years having fun and making memories with the people around you.

“Have fun and enjoy your high school years because it will go by in a flash.”

Thank you, Angela, for giving us an insight into your experience and your plans. We wish you the best of luck in any career you decide and hope that you will achieve your ambitions and dreams.

To conclude our final article of this year, I want to thank Deadline for giving me the chance to write articles and conduct interviews with amazing people. I appreciate everyone who supported this segment and can only hope for the continuation of Senior Spotlight. It was fun being a writer for Deadline these past two years, and I will forever be grateful for this experience. Thank you.