Wandering through the halls of Hickman, Natalie Parker, who goes by Parker, tries to find their classes for the first time. As a freshman, jumpstart day is the day to familiarize themselves with the school before the pressure is on to get to classes on time and the rush of students appears.
Standing in line to get into the auditorium for the speech about phone policy, Parker shares how they are feeling.
“[I feel] nervous because I have more responsibilities as a coming adult,” Parker said.
They were sad that they hadn’t talked to people and hung out as much as they wanted to over the summer. They feel like now that they are in high school, they won’t have as many chances to do that sort of thing.
Parker looks forward to joining the eSports team and Japanese class but is worried about the cultural differences between the US and Austria, their home country.
“Austrian people are very sarcastic, so I grew up accidentally being mean to people. I don’t mean to, but I’m a bit too literal,” Parker says.
They expressed their worries over not understanding when people use metaphors and references.
“When someone says like, I’ve got eyes in the back of my head, [I’m] like where, where? Can I see?”
Because of this background, they are excited to travel again after graduation.
“I will…be moving away after I graduate, I’ll be going to Japan for college,” Parker said.
They went on to say that they have been learning Japanese on Duolingo and will be starting an official class this year.
Parker acknowledged that since they haven’t had several years of experience under their belt, they might not be very fluent, but that friends have said it’s fun. They hope people will recognize them as a foreigner and not be too harsh.
While on the topic of Japan, they talked extensively about Japan’s clothing and music style called Visual Kei.
Parker explained that Visual Kei is sort of like a subculture of “emo,” with similar color schemes and clothes, but they wanted to clarify that they are not the same.
“It’s a clothing and music style that was made in the late 80s. So sometimes Visual Kei music sounds like classic rock, but it’s not. Visual Kei is kind of like breaking social norms in Japan society. It’s so rebellious. So that’s what they’re trying to do,” Parker said.
Parker is interested in many aspects of Japanese culture including anime, an art style that originated in Japan. They are taking Art One Foundations to hone their artistry skills.
“[I use] a basic pencil or when I’m feeling desperate, I use my professional pencils, but basic pencils are very easy to hold. And then after I finish with my sketch, I get my special pens for manga drawing. And then after that, I get colored pencils and color it in,” Parker said.
They round the corner and come up to a picture of a Kewpie.
“I will not join any sports teams. I will not have the logo on [me],” they said.
However, they reconsidered.
“I will join eSports so I will have the naked baby…on my chest each time I try to go to a tournament.”
