“High school isn’t everything. Like, […] the most important thing is to enjoy your time in high school. Yes, you want good grades, and you want to [have] valuable extracurriculars and work experiences but also just enjoying your time with your friends and enjoying the last of your childhood [is important…].”

RBHS senior Madalyn Faber is a very determined person. She is the president for Science National Honor Society, a member of the French Honor Society, secretary of National Honor Society, president of Rotary Interact. She believes that it is important to be accomplished, but at the same time, it is important to stop and enjoy life. For Faber, the destination isn’t everything, it’s the memories that are made along the way. 

Q: What has been the best part of your senior year so far?

A: “The best part of my senior year has probably been [that] I kind of got a new group of friends this year, and I just really enjoyed getting to know them better.[…] I can [also] definitely tell that we’re valuing our time with each other more because we’re all going to go our own ways afterwards. So everything [is]  just […] very chill and relaxed.”

Q: How has your high school career changed from freshman year to senior year?

A: “I feel like my mindset has definitely changed […] on how I approach my work. I feel like my freshman and sophomore year, I kind of [did] everything I possibly [could], [got] all of my work done [and was] high stress all the time. Junior year, I was […] really trying to get out of that, but it’s junior year, so you’re kind of stuck in it anyway [with the] ACT and then all [of] the AP classes. Then this year in particular, I’ve definitely taken a lot more of […] a relaxed approach to [school]. I was like ‘You know what, high school is not [the] end all be all, so I’m gonna try to enjoy my time at school more.’ Sometimes, it’s okay to not do your homework the second you get it. It’s not saying you shouldn’t do your homework, [but] it’s just a lot less pressure on me because I’ve also learned that I’m not very good at coping with stress.”

Q: What’s been the most memorable part of your high school career?

A: “I think the most memorable part of my high school career is definitely the friends that I’ve made and the experiences I’ve had. I went to CIS, which is a small private school, and there’s such a small amount of people in the grade that you get to know. [It was just the] same people and the same personalities for so long, [but] switching to CPS where there’s so many new people and different kinds of people, I definitely expanded my horizon [in] that way [by] a lot.”

Q: Which class or teacher had the biggest impact on you and why?

A: “I would say the class that had the biggest impact on me was Classical and Medieval Culture, which isn’t a class that’s offered anymore. It was taught by Mr. [Jim] Meyer. I really liked that class because it was the first time I’ve taken a class where I was like, ‘This is the hardest class I’ve ever taken, but [I’m] still enjoying my time in it.’ I remember almost half of our class dropped out after the first week. But I actually really liked what [we learned]. I definitely got a lot of pretty bad grades on assignments because it was super hard. But I enjoyed what I was doing the whole time. I really loved having Mr. Meyer as a teacher because I think he has a very unique approach towards teaching. It’s kind of more self-guided for the students, and I appreciated that a lot.”

Q: If there was one thing you could go back and do differently in your high school career, what would it be?

A: “I think I would go back and take some of the stress off [that] I put on myself, like sophomore and junior year specifically. I’ve always been a very competitive person. I have to be doing [a lot and be at the] top of my grade, [but] then I feel like this year, I got a big reality check [when I was] applying to colleges and everything. It’s like ‘You’re not always going to be the best, and that’s okay.’ […] I definitely have just had […] a more relaxed mindset where […] I’m just going to do my best and that will be good enough for me.”

Q: What is the most important lesson in high school?

A: “[…] High school isn’t everything. […] The most important thing is to enjoy your time in high school. Yes, you want good grades, and you want to [have] valuable extracurriculars and work experiences, but [it’s] also [important to] just enjoy your time with your friends and enjoy the last of your childhood […].”

Q: What is one piece of advice that you lived by to get through high school?

A: “You definitely want to be high achieving, putting your all into what you do. [In] high school and everything, you want good grades, and you want to have valuable experiences that can help you later on in life. So I kind of just approached everything in a way that was like, ‘I want to put my all into this because I know that the skills that I’m going to learn [here] are going to help me later on.’”

Q: In that case, what does success mean to you? 

A: “I think for a really long time, success is your grades and what other people think of you. I definitely don’t feel like that’s what it should be, and that’s not what I think anymore. I would say for me right now, it’s more how I feel about what I’m doing. It’s like, ‘Do I feel like I put my all into it? Do I feel like I did my best?’ That’s what was most important to me. I was applying to colleges, [and] the ones that I got rejected from, I didn’t feel particularly bad about it because I knew that I did put my best foot forward. It just wasn’t meant to be. It wasn’t anything that I messed up. It wasn’t anything that I didn’t do enough. It just didn’t end up [that way], you know? That [mindset] felt a lot better for me.”

Q: What does the future after high school look like?

A: “My dream career has always been […] something with […] international law, and it’s changed a lot between then. I did apply to […] almost all international schools for college, and right now, I got accepted into McGill and University of Edinburgh, [in] Canada and Scotland. I’m definitely going to go to one of those two schools. My goal is to do undergrad, probably in history, and then go to law school. I’m not really sure where I want to go, but it has to be a really good school for what I want to do. I’m thinking this is probably going to change. But right now, I’m on the international arbitration route […].”

Q: If there’s one thing you could tell your freshman self, what would it be?

A: “I would say don’t put so much pressure on everything. […] It’s okay to get an A minus. It’s okay to not be doing everything. One of the things I think about is that I remember there was one point in sophomore year, I was like, ‘Oh, if I want to get into a good college, I have to have a bunch of leadership positions.’ So I applied to every leadership position I could think of, thinking I was only going to get one or two. Surprisingly, I got them all. But it’s also so high stress because I’m still in those roles now. So it’s a lot of work and a lot of different things I’m having to do now, which [is] okay, but it’s definitely […] more stress than I wanted to put on myself.”

Q: You’re in a leadership role for a lot of clubs. How do you believe you made an impact on the community here at Rock Bridge? 

A: I think the biggest way I have made an impact at RB is by reestablishing a relationship between the adult sector of Rotary Interact and the student sector. This year, we have been able to engage with a lot of new and different volunteering opportunities on top of what we already do, like Habitat for Humanity and Meals on Wheels, which was very rewarding.

Q: You say that it is important to be accomplished, but how do you know that you actually accomplished something, or do you feel accomplished? 

A: For me it is more of a feeling and not something material. I don’t really care if I get a piece of paper or a medal, [but] more so that I feel pride in what I did and know[ing] that it [had]  positively affected myself and the people around me.