INTERVIEW SERIES: Elena

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT [edited for clarity]

Elena: “I’ve always liked music. I know that’s a cliché, but really. I grew up listening to the radio. And on my first day of school at Andrews Academy, during music class, they had everyone stand up and sing their favorite song. As little kids we were like, ‘yeah! Fun!’ because we weren’t self-conscious at that point. I performed ‘Gotta Go My Own Way’ from High School Musical 2. I never really played music until middle school, when I came to TFS, and we had to choose an instrument. My uncle used to be a really good musician…he was a fantastic guitar player, so I’ve always had a guitar at home. It was really broken and old, but I still played it. [Eventually] my dad bought me a pink acoustic guitar—fancy!—and I started getting really into it. Now, since music [classes] aren’t mandatory, and I’ve quit the music electives at school, I’m playing music ‘cause I enjoy it. That’s why I’ve recently visited colleges for music business.”

So you want to go into music as a career?

E: “Yeah…I think, if you have something that makes you happy, you should do it. Even if it doesn’t make a whole lot of money.”

Have you always had that frame of mind or did you have to develop it?

E: “It developed over the years. ‘Cause I always knew what I was gonna do when I was older wouldn’t make me money, to a certain extent, but now that I’m getting older and realizing how some people make more money than others, I’m realizing that it’s better to do what I love and help other people than to make a huge amount of money.”

Is that what you feel your purpose is—to help other people?

E: “I would say, as long as I can make one person happy, then I’ve succeeded. Lots of people would say, ‘I’d make myself happy,’ but…I’m okay with myself. I would be more fulfilled if I could make someone else love themselves. Or, if I could write [lyrics] that would stick in their heart for the rest of their life, as their motto. And that’s what I think is important, because we’re so selfish as human beings sometimes.”

What are you doing in your day-to-day life as a high school student to fulfill those goals?

E: “On the musical side, I’m practicing and honing my skills with the guitar. I’m learning finger-style, so I can do rhythms and stuff. I think it’s important to start honing your skills now, because every little thing you work on now builds up into what you want it to be in the future. On the people side, you have to be willing to see both sides of the story. You also have to hold onto your moral values. And it’s a balance. Sometimes I can see both sides of the story, but I’m no professional, so it’s hard to give advice. But then I remember that I’m going to make mistakes, and that my life shouldn’t be too invested in everyone else, and so a lot of times I have to take mental breaks or breaks from people in general. That’s kind of where I am now. It’s easy to forget about yourself when you’re investing that kind of time in other people, and you have to be aware of yourself in order to really help them.”

I’ve seen that you connect really well with fictional characters, such as the ones from Harry Potter. What have you gained from them that you weren’t able to gain from real people?

E: “With fictional characters…you create a connection with them and they can’t say anything to you that will make you cry. They could die, which could make you cry, but in the end your connection with the character is still meaningful because your personalities or experiences match up. You get to see all sides of the decisions they make. Getting close to fictional characters helps you get to know yourself, too, because you reflect on why you act certain ways around other [real] people. You have to accept that [your feelings] are a spectrum—you’re not always introverted or always extroverted, you’re not always one thing or another—and finding characters like that helps.

I was pretty young when I read the books, before I started really growing as a person. I wondered why the characters would complain about the things they had to do, like go to a magic school, especially when I would’ve loved to do that! But then as I grew older and re-read the books, I started to see more into their personalities and how, as eleven- to sixteen-year-olds, growing up was hard for them. Now that I’m growing up too, I understand what they’re talking about. Experience helped me see those things.”