The Humans of RV project is a weekly column based on Brandon Stanton’s seminal “Humans of New York” project, which seeks to “catalog the city’s inhabitants” through photography and brief interviews. RV seeks to expand on this project with our own “cataloging” of RV students and an examination into all the unique perspectives here at school. 

Note: this transcript has been edited and condensed for publication purposes.

After missing my freshman year and a good amount of my sophomore year, I didn’t really get the full RV experience. But this year, coming into my junior year, I feel like I made up for it a lot. I was able to experience all of the club activities, sporting events, and then see that RV bleeds red and that we are all family. It was really good to be a part of that. 

For my junior year and building off of my sophomore year, I started a club [RVRHS Students for Lemons] with a group of friends which became a really big thing with me. 

I’m very proud of that [Students for Lemons], especially because I started it during COVID-19, where we weren’t able to see people face to face, and gathering with groups of people wasn’t possible. We raised $400 to $500 last year and again at homecoming. It felt really good to just be able to have a sort of impact and rebound in a sense. 

Going back to my sophomore year, I was able to play varsity volleyball which has a really big impact on my life, and then at RV, I was able to expand upon my music career as well. I was able to place in Nationals for my clarinet which is a big deal for me and my family; all of the hard work paid off which felt great. Along with that, I really accomplished going to school and maintaining that balance, having fun, and being able to be a part of that RV family again. 

For my junior year, I want to continue building off of the points before, expanding that and continuing to do better and push at it, maintaining it and not taking everything for granted, and going out and doing whatever I can to really achieve that within the time-limit. COVID-19 really taught me nothing is guaranteed and that in a short amount of time to always go for it- never sit back and watch someone else do it.