“I’m sad to be leaving LHS,” says senior, Tim Daso, “it feels like I just got here yesterday. But I’m also excited to move on into college and real life.” Daso has embedded his mark into Lakewood, being at the top of his class and participating in numerous extracurricular activities such as jazz band, academic challenge, and soccer. I had the opportunity to talk with him, go down memory lane of his high school career, and hear his plans for the future (and maybe something about his cat).

Int: Are there achievements that you are particularly proud of in your high school career?

Daso: One achievement I am proud of is earning National Merit Commended Scholar because it is not an easy task to achieve and I achieved it. I am also proud of my junior year JV soccer team; we went undefeated last year, and that’s going to be an accomplishment I remember for a long time.

Int: Besides your achievements in academics, what sets you apart from the rest of the student body?

Daso: I would say that one thing I am known for is enjoying math more than a lot of the student body. I enjoy working with numbers like other people enjoy writing or history, and I’ve noticed that math is less popular subject, so you might say that sets me apart.

Int: What advice would you give to class men (specifically underclassmen) who are struggling balancing school with extracurricular activities (or are just struggling with school in general)?

Daso: My advice to underclassmen would be to be proactive with your schoolwork. If you get behind on one subject, it might snowball into more and more subjects, and suddenly you find yourself under a stack of papers three feet tall. It really is hard sometimes to bring yourself to stop procrastinating, but doing the work now will help you out later. Also, even though it is important for colleges to see good grades, it is also important for them to see that you are doing something outside of school, like clubs, sports, and activities. …Having more depth to what you do is very important.

Int: What are your plans for after high school? Where do you want to be in 10 years?

Daso: I am planning to attend a liberal arts college to study math and music. In ten years, I can see myself probably doing something math related–maybe a mathematician, maybe a math teacher, who knows–and hopefully finding a way to change the world and make it a better place. I want to use my math skills to help whatever needs helping and fix whatever needs fixing.

Int: What activities are you involved in (such as soccer, academic challenge, jazz band, etc) and why should students consider joining them? 

Daso: I have played soccer all four years of high school, and I really recommend it to other students because it is a great way to meet new people, and the entire season is filled with fun events like team dinners and futsal that make it more than just practices and games. I’m also on the Academic Challenge team… Even if you don’t think you know enough random facts to be on the team, you’ll fit right in and contribute to the team in a specific topic that you might know a lot about. I also play in the Jazz Band. If you have anything to do with music in any way, you should try out for jazz band because it’s … where a bunch of musicians can make awesome sounding jazz, latin, and funk music together.