John Mai is a member of the Class of 2019 and will be attending University of Houston in the fall. He is actively involved in KHS Orchestra and Science Olympiad.

What’s the best memory you have of your childhood?

It’s a little ironic, but one of my best memories from my childhood used to be something I dreaded as a child: bathing with my brother. While this sort of thing is uncommon in America, in many Asian countries, it’s a pretty standard thing for even parents to bath with their children, probably to avoid letting the hot water go to waste. Anyways, whenever it was time to bathe, playtime didn’t just stop (to my mother’s dismay); we brought a bunch of toys like Hotwheels and action figures with us to splash around with to make the rough scrubbing session we endured from our mother more bearable. Occasionally, against her better judgement, we were even allowed to pour a bunch of body wash into the water, making a bubbly ocean. Of course, I wouldn’t want to attempt this today. I have a sinking suspicion that the whole experience wouldn’t be as fun as it used to be for more reasons than one. However, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish to regain the sense of cluelessness and carelessness that made up my days as a kid. It’s really the ignorance of childhood that made every discovery new and exciting, and as a senior, I’m sort of carrying a similar mindset as I’m moving onto college. So, in all, I guess I’d say enjoy your time in high school exploring. You hear people saying stuff like this all the time, but you don’t really grasp it until you hear it a hundred more.