Q: What’s your name, and position?

A: I’m Seamus and last year I was copy editor.

Q: Why did you decide to rejoin the Pioneer?

A: The main reason I decided to rejoin the Pioneer was the environment it provided and since the class always gives a reason to write, whether it’s writing your own articles or editing someone else’s. Obviously with virtual classes that environment is much different, however I think that working with familiar people again will make up for that.

Q: So I noticed you usually cover politics, have those interests changed over the past seven months we’ve been in quarantine?

A: Politics is still the main thing that I engage with daily, however the extra free time from quarantine has allowed me to start reading more fiction and watching more movies on a regular basis.

Q: How has it been, adjusting to Senior year in quarantine?

A: The Zoom classes are really hard for me to get used to. During our second Newspaper class, I remember comparing them to the panopticon, because it feels like everyone’s potentially looking at your webcam at every moment and I think that you get much less privacy over Zoom than in a physical classroom. Regarding the content itself though, the first week of school was easy.

Q: What is something you miss about non-remote learning?

A: I miss being around so many other people in an actual classroom. When you see everyone staring into their camera and lined up next to one another it comes across as very artificial, whereas a classroom feels much more suited for learning.

Q: What are you most looking forward to this school year?

A: I’m eager to see if/when they implement some form of in person schooling, since my worry is that the pandemic will persist longer than most students think it will. However, we can never know until something happens.

Q: Dream schools? What do you want to study in college?

A: I’m limiting my scope to New Jersey, so I imagine that I’ll be going to the stereotypical colleges that kids in our school go to, like Montclair or Rutgers. Aside from that, I’ve decided that I’m going to be studying history.

Q: What’s one thing that you want people to know about you?

A: I’d say that on Junior Fun Day I had a friend paint my face so I looked like Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker and if possible I intend on doing this again for Senior Fun Day.

Q: Okay so your Instagram bio says “Communism defender, activism disliker,” can you elaborate?
A: No.

Q: Any secret talents?

A: This isn’t really a secret, but I do art occasionally and I’ve been doing photography frequently.

Q: What’s your favorite song, movie and/or TV show of all time and why?

A: It’s always hard for me to pick favorites for any medium, so instead I’ll just list one of each which I enjoyed recently. I’ve been listening to “Income Tax” by P’tit Belliveau because of how unique it sounds and its surreal music video. Yesterday I watched Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, which is a beautiful looking film and one of the more captivating biopics out there. And for TV shows, I’ve been watching Breaking Bad with a friend and it’s definitely one of the few series I feel like I can watch. I’m not much of a fan of TV.

Q: If you could relate to any movie or TV character who would it be and why?

A: I am like the Joker because I like to tell jokes.

Q: As a journalism student, I gotta ask… have you been watching the news lately? 

A: I mainly just hear my dad watching MSNBC. I’m guilty of getting an unfortunate amount of news from headlines shared on social media.

 Q: If you could describe yourself in 3 words, what would they be and why?

A: This isn’t exactly three words, but I’m intellectually curious, critical, and funny. While my beliefs remain consistent, as I continue to learn, the reasoning behind them has changed. I’m eager to hear new perspectives and to read more thinkers, but I love to apply my knowledge through critique. Hopefully, this year I’ll make that clear. Also a very early trait that distinguished me when I entered the public school system in middle school was probably my sense of humor. I’m sure that not everyone I know thinks I’m funny but at the very least I have a number of friends who do.