Kat H.

"Who wants to be normal? Normal is boring."

By: Stephanie P.

Nominate someone for "Humans of SHS!"

Do you have someone whom you think more people in the SHS community should know? Reach out to them and interview them! Then send a recent picture, the best quote from your interview, and their and your full names to rryan@d211.org. This started as a class project, but we'd love to feature as many SHS community members as possible! 

Dakari F.

"I think I was put on this planet to help people and bring the best out of people. I'm religious and one thing that I know is God will judge you off your actions on this planet, so I just want to make sure all of mine are positive and good."

By: Olijah S.

Zane W.

"I want to be remembered as a person who was determined to bring out the good in others. I want to spread positivity wherever I go and not tread on the small negatives that life throws at you. I want to be remembered as someone who took full advantage of life and never looked back. I just want to be known as someone who didn't have any regrets."

By: Matt G.

Phil A.

What motivates you to succeed?
"The fear of being forgotten."

By: Austin C.

Mrs. Mariano

"You are so much stronger when you fall. You might not make the best decision in your life, whether it's with your job, or friends, or whatever. You're gonna make mistakes. But I truly believe that you will get stronger and that you will grow."

By: Jordan B.

Mrs. Wedoff

What is your favorite place on earth?
"I wouldn't say it's a specific place, but I would say it's wherever I'm with my kids."
By: Noah K.

Who or what group of people inspire you the most and why?

"My kids, and it may be weird to say that my kids inspire me, but they laugh easily, they forgive easily, you know? I spaz out and two minutes later, they're forgiving, and want to go play again. I just think that that's an inspiration, to laugh more and forgive more, less screaming."

By: Xavier B.

Mr. James

"Family doesn't have to be blood, but just people that care deeply about your well being. You surround yourself with people you care as much for their well being as you care for your own, and then respectively they do the same, and that becomes your family."

By: Lauren W.

David G.

"Family doesn't have to be biological it's just a group of people who love and care for you and will support you and bring you in no matter who you are. They will always just love you and they will never judge you. Family will always have your back."

By: Amber L.

Devin K.

How do you avoid negativity?
"What is this negativity you speak of?"

By: Dylan K.

John S.

Why do you play football?
"Besides it being fun and that I love the sport, I play football because when I'm on the field I feel like I'm in another world I guess away from the daily life. To me it's like a stress relief."

By: Angelo S.

Elliott R.

"Well first of all, rock and roll is pretty much whatever you want to do with your life. I can like play guitar and put up the distortion all the way and do whatever I want, or I can like play snare drums in my room. So pretty much it's really open to doing whatever you want to do and it's just a lot of fun." 

By: Parker K.

Dhivan P.

"What is life without gains?"

By: Anthony N.

Mr. Fraser

When was the last time you felt truly happy?
"This morning! As I am able to share this interview with one of my favorite students!"

By: Mitch W.

Mrs. Schloemer

"It's not even describable; it's just crazy. It's crazy just to think of the whole process of creating somebody and raising them and them becoming a person. Like the moment he smiles, I completely lose it; it's the best feeling in the world. Yeah, it's tough, but it completely has consumed me for sure. I don't even know how to explain it."

By: Katerina P.

Paige A.

"My mother is for sure my hero. I have never seen any one deal with as much as my mother has and still manage to wake up every morning and know that it's a new day to do something great. She's dealt with cancer and other hardships, and she finds the best in the situations and has always wanted to help me succeed in everything I do. She's been a best friend to me at my lowest time and has been my biggest fan when I'm succeeding. I can only hope to be half the person she is when I grow up. She's amazing and for sure my hero."

By: Micaela E.

Mr. James

"If you are a teacher, and you have the inability to be inspired by students, then you’ll never truly be happy doing your job because their passion is a reflection of your teaching. I am inspired when I see students that are interested.”

By: Jake R.

Ms. Wydra

"Several years ago I had issues with anxiety, and I kinda struggled with that through my life. It got really bad six years ago, and it took me a couple of years and a lot of support from my family and friends and a lot of work from my end to get through that, but I was able to maintain my career and my relationships in spite of it and became a little stronger and better."

By: Estacy S.

Mets H.

"I enjoy working on my YouTube channel, working and recording some footage to be posted. I enjoy doing that on my free time, making some money on the side. I keep myself motivated by thinking about what comes at the end from whatever I'm working on; I think about the success that comes at the end, basically."

By: EJ A.

Jeffrey M.

"I think I'm always happy because a) I like think I have it better than a lot of people in the world so why shouldn't I be happy? Like a lot of people have it worse than me. And b) even when you're in a down spot in life, life is never gonna... You know it's like a roller coaster; you're never gonna be always down. You're going to have ups and downs."

By: David G.

Mr. Stilling

"I want people to believe that I helped make them better, the best versions of themselves that they could be."

By: Austin A.

Vinnie K.

"The biggest challenge I've faced this year was probably trying to pass math. That was a real struggle. I had to fight through it with getting help from my friends, and also my teacher, but at the end of the quarter, I got a good grade. Another big thing I had to do was do my homework, because that's where I struggled a lot along with not paying attention at times, but once I got on the right track, everything became better and I maintained my eligibility for baseball season." 

By: Jakob K.

Julian A.

What is your greatest success in life?

"I would say myself in the sense, not that I am responsible for everything that has happened to me or like all my success, but like God has put me in positions to be successful and I've taken the shots he has given me. So I'm grateful for that, and that's my biggest success, I would say."

By: John M.

Joey E.

"My life goal… it’s pretty typical, but just not have any regrets and just live as full a life as possible, fulfill that old Gandhi quote, 'Live life as if you were going to die tomorrow, learn as if you were going to live forever.'" 

By: Theo M.

Mr. O'Brien

"I came from a very competitive family. My dad coached many state qualifying teams at Palatine, and my mom coached many swimming and diving teams. I wanted to follow in their foot steps and teach the sport I love."

By: Filip C.

Angelina M.

"I guess I'd want to know if there will ever be a way to -and this is really weird- if there is a way to keep your age and travel back into time to where you don't disappear. I wonder if that's ever going to be possible."

By: Kausar M.

Ms. Shade

"My daughter just gave me a letter because she is a senior and they had to write to their moms. She was telling me what she loved about me and that one thing that she said that I taught her was kindness, and I was just, I thought, 'I've done my job.' I think you want people to look back and I want people to remember me as that (even though I do like to yell at children). I was kind and I was good, and after that, everything falls under that umbrella."

By: Kenneth F.

Mrs. Lagioia

“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher, and it was high school students that motivated me. I just love high school students. This time, the experiences you have, the frustrations you have, I identify a lot. I had a really great high school experience myself, so I just wanted to give back and make it great for others too.”

By: Colin M.

Hayley T.

What is your definition of love?
"Caring for someone deeply and accepting every single flaw they have
and even loving and adoring them, putting time aside specifically just
for them, and not judging them no matter what they tell you about
their life or about themselves."

By: Sean A.

Nydia G.

"I remember one day somebody asked me how many kids I have and I said a little over two thousand. I feel like all of them are my kids. My daughters graduated from here, and I can see in every single face my daughters’ faces and it’s how I treat them. I treat them with respect. I treat them with love. And anything I tell them like “pick it up this” or “pick it up that,” it’s the way that I teach my kids.”

By: Ms. Ryan

Mr. Heisler

"There's people I look up to for their values and standards, but I don't want to be anyone else because if you're trying to be someone else, you're always going to be number two."

By: Chyanne U.

Welcome to Humans of Schaumburg High School!

This month, to celebrate "ordinary" people like American author John Steinbeck does in his work, the Ryeely American Studies class will be compiling a catalogue of people at Schaumburg High School whom we think more people should know. We will create our blog in the style of "Humans of New York;" we will conduct interviews and get pictures of our subjects and post them here. Stay tuned for the first installment on Tuesday, March 29th!