Senior Spotlight: Max Chen (12-1)

How do you feel when you play Ultimate Frisbee?

It’s an experience that changes depending on how serious I’m taking it, who I’m playing with, whether it’s in a tournament or just casual. In its most elemental state, I really like playing frisbee. It’s a sport I have learned to love (I was roped into it in my first few years playing). When I was in middle school, I didn’t really enjoy it as much. I just went because my friends would go and they would bring me along. I really started to enjoy it more when I played competitively in high school. Over the pandemic I was just playing frisbee and doing schoolwork. That’s when I enjoyed playing the most. It wasn’t a game with a goal anymore; I felt like I had the freedom to be expressive with the disk, there are so many dynamic throws and plays one can experiment with. At that point, it becomes more of an art form than a competitive game. When you get to the highest levels, it is a bit like war where each point is really tooth-and-nail and you’re fighting and getting really chippy. That’s cool and all, but I’d rather just mess around.

Can you tell us how you got your scars?

I was biking down Walnut street at 7:00 one fine October night in the middle of cross country season. Unfortunately there’s a pothole that I don’t see (which is conveniently covered the day after). I had literally gone down that street in the morning to get to school and I was totally fine. And so I don’t think anything of it, I’m going pretty fast. My front wheel hits the pothole and I just go flying. I am careening across the street, airborne for a good few seconds. On impact, I slam into the ground, hard. My head is cocked back because I don’t want to hit it, so my chin ends up taking much of the force and splits wide open. That’s why I have a pretty permanent scar on my chin. I don’t think I have many other scars, at least visible ones, but a chin scar is good because most people won’t catch it at first because it’s below my face. The bad part is it’s not as cool as a Zuko eye scar, which would be so sick. But the cons of that are that you have a scar across your face.

Do you have any love advice?

Yeah. I have love advice. My love advice to you– to people– is to not be afraid to go for it. Once you do, you find out that you learn a lot. Everyone’s experiences and expectations are different. You find, based on your experience, how you should move forward. Without those experiences, you will never know the best way for you to approach love. Go with what feels natural to you and don’t be afraid to jump right in if the opportunity presents itself and don’t have any regrets if things don’t go well. You have to fall, you have to fail, to get back up again. Nothing is permanent in life. Some things last longer than others. But to have that experience, in and of itself, is very valuable.

What would you want your peers to know as they apply for college?

If you think you have an easier path to a decent college, you don’t HAVE to go for [a more difficult alternative]. People sometimes overvalue the differences between certain colleges. The difference between a state college and an ivy league is quite negligible depending on how you approach that experience. State colleges are amazing in the fact that they’re so huge and you have access to so many resources and a lot of the resources people don’t even know about. Don’t worry too much about where you’re going. What I hear from everybody is that once they’re in college they’re just thinking about their own college and most people don’t have any regrets. For incoming seniors, be really honest in your applications because it’s just as much about fit as how “good” the college is. Part of the admissions process is the admissions office choosing people that fit their school culture, so don’t fluff up your application too much, and show some personality in your essays. Even though I know it’s a big thing when you’re in the moment, don’t stress too much about the application process because afterwards you won’t think about it as much.

If you could own any album on vinyl, what would it be?

Oh my gosh, okay. Viva La Vida. Viva La Vida is my favorite album by my favorite artist. Having that on vinyl would be really special because I love vinyl as a medium. Something about the physical disk makes listening to music a lot less casual. When I listen to digital music, I put on whatever. Due to the extreme freedom, you have pretty much every song you would ever want to listen to accessible at a click. A lot of artists craft their albums very specifically but I’d say a lot less people listen to albums nowadays since you can create playlists and listen to your favorite songs. I don’t know if people listen to albums shuffled. I feel like I do sometimes. But when you do that the original intention is corrupted. Albums tell a story and you lose out on that when you listen to the individual songs and switch up the sequence. Having something on vinyl forces you to listen to the whole album through and through, and it forces you to appreciate the album as a whole. And I would just love to keep showing my appreciation for the terrific work of art that is Viva La Vida.

Are you jeans or khakis?

I never wear jeans ever. I think I wore jeans once in my whole life to try them on in a department store. I’m khakis all the way. I actually don’t know anything about jeans so I can’t really speak on them. They’re probably pretty cool. People seem to like jeans a lot. But I’d say that khakis are more comfortable, they’re slightly more stylish, they’re a little bit more formal and they’re more versatile.

What are your opinions on school lunch?

I think that school lunch is honestly, like, pretty trash. But because it’s so un-nutritious, it’s almost not unhealthy because there’s just nothing in it. If I was like, “here’s some air to eat for lunch,” you would be hungry, but it wouldn’t have a negative impact on your health. I think that it’s so bland and tasteless and flavorless and so the opposite of calorie-dense and so incapable of feeding a normal sixteen-year-old, probably even a normal twelve-year-old. Like, the fact that they gave the same stuff to me when I was in kindergarten as they’re giving me now, and my body has changed a lot since kindergarten is really telling. So yeah, school lunch, it’s pretty bad. As far as cold vs hot line, I say cold line for the food, hot line for the experience. Because everyone waits for the hot line, and I’d rather not, I’ve adapted by becoming extremely talented at cutting. I don’t think I’ve ever waited for school lunch, unless it was freshman year and I was talking to people. Now, I don’t eat school lunch anymore probably because I’m losing net calories meticulously crafting a way to cut into the lunch line and facing the stress of dodging the lunch ladies’ wrath. Of course, I’m glad it’s there and I’m glad it’s free and I’m glad people have access to it. But personally, I wish that when people said they were trying to make school lunches healthier they would actually do that, but I get that it’s hard. School breakfast is probably even worse because it has a lot of sugar and it’s even sketchier. I realize that I am saying nothing good about school lunch but I don’t hate it that much. The meatball sub is pretty good. The beefy mac and cheese is really good. The sloppy joe is absolutely horrendous. I don’t know why they would even serve that. It’s egregious that they even call it food. The chicken and rice is pretty good. They cook the brown rice well. Yeah, I should probably stop.

What scene in 500 Days of Summer best represents you?

This is a really enticing question. See, you have so many to choose from. Every scene represents a point along the arc that Tom has throughout the movie. It’s so interesting because 500 Days of Summer is a scene-based movie. It literally flips through days and time and it’s non-linear. It’s intended to be that way so the scenes matter so much more than they do in other movies because in other movies the scenes flow together. There’s tons of really good ones, like the train scene between Tom and Summer where there’s beautiful sunset lighting and “Sweet Disposition,” which is probably my favorite song, is playing in the background. It’s beautiful. Another fun scene is the one where [Tom] wakes up in his bathrobe and he’s got the bottle of Jack and he’s going to buy Twinkies. That gets me every time. The IKEA scene is a classic, but it’s almost too classic to choose. The karaoke scene is pretty special too, and represents the beginning of their relationship. It’s like planting the seeds. It really speaks out to me because there’s a lot of good energy in that scene. I can tell all the characters are having fun. Tom is excellent at karaoke. Summer is excellent at karaoke. Even Tom’s friend, I forget his name and I feel a little bad about that, but he is also very excellent at karaoke. I’m going to go with the karaoke scene as my final answer. It’s the start of their relationship, but sequentially, it’s near the end of the first act of the movie. I think that Marc Webb builds up to it really well because you already see a bunch of Tom and Summer’s relationship beforehand. But in this scene for them, they don’t know anything about that. The audience does, but they don’t. It creates this contrast where you see these two very excited young individuals about to enter a relationship, already knowing how it will end. Regardless, to see that is to go back to the start, and that’s where I am at this point in time where I’m hopeful for the rest of what’s going to happen. I don’t know what’s going to happen, I’m just excited to find out.

Do you want to give any shoutouts?

I have so many shoutouts that I almost don’t want to give any. The people who I would shout out, they know. They know that I’m appreciative.