Luci Cassamajor is a senior here at JFKMHS. She speaks from experience as a high school student while still carefully giving us an insight into who she is and who she hopes to become. While others may see her as one of the top students at JFK, Cassamajor talks more about herself outside of that fact, providing readers with a better sense of her personality and mindset. In this article, you may relate to some topics and learn from others as Cassamajor gives us the ins-and-outs of her life as a student and also a teenager. 

Congratulations on becoming November’s Senior of the Month, how does it feel be to honored with this title?

Luci: Honestly, it’s more rewarding than I initially thought. I saw it and I was like “Oh that’s cool”, even when my friends would come up to me about it. Then, when I really thought about it, only nine people get picked for that out of almost 400 people in our grade so, for me to be one of them I feel like that’s very cool and very rewarding. 

You are Vice-President of the French Honor Society, do you believe your Haitian background had anything to do with you joining this club? Why or why not? 

Absolutely, without a doubt. I definitely wanted to pursue French because personally, I am not as in touch with my culture as I would like to be and the language spoken in Haiti is obviously French. So, by me choosing French and pursuing it for the past four years and being really involved in the honor society, I feel like I am paying a tribute and getting closer to my culture.

You were recently elected as the Secretary of the Black Student Union, what inspired you to run for this position in the first place?

As a black woman, I feel like it’s really important for diversity and equity in school and so I feel like Zhane (senior at JFK) starting the Black Student Union was an amazing thing that I knew I would’ve loved to be apart of it. So I really ran for it because I wanted to be a part of it, I wanted to have a say, I wanted to be a voice and I definitely feel like it’s all paying off exactly how I wanted it to.

If you could give freshman Luci any piece of advice, what would it be?

That you are more capable than you think you are. I feel like even now I do it but especially back then, I downplay everything I do and I really discredit myself. So, I think it’s really important if I could tell my younger self that you are worthy, you are doing enough, what you do is good, and you don’t always have to continue to achieve more, sometimes it’s just okay, you are doing enough.

Along with so many other students, you had to spend almost half of your high school experience behind a screen in the midst of a pandemic. How did you manage to stay on top of your accelerated classes? Is there anything in particular that helped you stay focused? 

Genuinely, the pandemic was a horrible time. It was so rough for my mental health but honestly what helped me stay on top of work was my teachers. I feel like they made me want to be involved because there were so many people that weren’t involved and it was showing, and it kind of made me feel bad. When we were in those zoom calls and no one was talking, I felt really bad. So just out of respect for my teachers and out of respect for myself [I paid attention]. Obviously, online you had more resources, you had more time, teachers were more lenient, so I was like this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it’s horrible in the circumstances but you might as well take advantage of all the opportunities. So I feel like I definitely did that and it helped me stay on top of [school].

Do you plan on attending college after high school? If so, tell me a little about your goals for that. 

Yes, I’m actually about to commit to The School of Nursing at Montclair! I’m obviously planning to be a nurse and eventually want to go back to school to be a nurse practitioner; it’s been a dream of mine since I was younger. The medical field is something that’s really important to me for a lot of reasons, and I just feel like there’s a lot that can be done and there’s a lot of care that the world needs. I feel like by being a nurse I can actively care for people. The world is hurting a lot and I want to be able to physically make a change.

If you happen to change your mind about your intended major, what is something else you’d be interested in studying and why?

Hmm… I feel like that’s a really hard question but if I had to pick something I like the idea of social work, child care & advocacy. That’s not something I would necessarily go into but if I had to pick anything else I feel like that best aligns with the values and the reasons why I want to go into nursing.

If you could redo your high school experience, what is one thing you would change?  

I would focus on myself more and realize that people are going to do what they want to do and the only thing you can affect and change is what you’re doing. I feel like this year has helped because it’s so easy to be like “you know, we’re graduating and if people want to act how they want to act, I don’t gotta see them after that”, and I feel like it didn’t need to take until senior year for me to realize that. That there’s always going to be people that have bad intentions for you, there’s going to be people that you grow out of especially in high school. You can grow apart from your friends and it’s really weird. But, really understanding that you are you and that is fine, as long as you are doing you and are doing what’s in your best interest. I’m not saying to actively go out of your way to hurt people, but sometimes leaving certain people out of your life is beneficial for you and it’s just what you’ve gotta do. So, I’d tell myself that.

How do you plan on spending your remaining 6 months of high school? Is there anything you feel like you have left to do before you graduate?

In the next 6 months, I plan to really work hard just because senioritis is very real and my motivation is really deteriorating. Next semester I really have classes that align with what I’m pursuing in college and so I really want to pay attention and get a strong footing with that because I feel like if I’m able to do it next semester, when I go into those classes freshman year of college it’ll be easier for me. And, if I slack off it’ll  hurt me and I’m going to have to pay for it (laughter). Like say I have to retake that class, then I’m actually going to have to pay for it. So, I really really really want to stay determined, which is hard, but I’m going to try my best.

It’s no secret that social media has a strong impact on our generation and influences a lot of the things we do, say, think, etc. Finish this sentence: “If I could change anything about social media, it would be … because…”.

If I had to change anything about social media it would be the standards that they create because the unrealistic standards of social media create a false sense of reality, especially for high schoolers who are really impressionable and it really disconnects people from the world, in the sense that it prioritizes things that aren’t a priority in the world. Obviously, people want to be in the physical shape they want to be in, but at the end of the day, we’re just living life and that’s not really a priority of being in the world. I feel like everyone should be on this world to fill a purpose, and that purpose isn’t going to be being pretty, or being in the best shape, that purpose is going to be helping people, being nice, learning new things, teaching people new things. So I feel like social media has really created a false sense of reality.