The Fourcast is introducing a new segment based off of the widely acclaimed series Humans of New York. Each issue a broad question will be presented, and the responses of a different group of Humans at Hockaday will be featured. This issue focuses on residence students.

Freshman Michelle Chen

“The happiest moment of my life was when my grandmother dragged me in a tiny shopping cart when I was three through the busy morning streets of Beijing as we made our way to the open market, where all the farmers knew my name and let me taste their strawberries, slices of melons and apples.”

Junior Grace Cai

“I spent [the day] at the Dallas Animefest. Laugh if you want, but that day was the first time in my life that I was surrounded by people who were similar to me. When I was first introduced to anime, I only had one close friend who was as interested in it as I was. When I came to Hockaday, however, she cut off contact with me and I was left alone. I’ve always wanted to go to anime conventions, but my mother didn’t care enough to allow me to go. That’s why finally going to Animefest was such a joyous occasion for me. After so many years of isolation from other serious anime fans it was like a breath of fresh, clean air to go to the convention.”

Junior Maria Gonzalez

“My dad brought a mariachi band on the midnight of my 15th birthday and the sound of the guitar and trumpets woke me up. I walked down the stairs to find my dad standing at the entrance holding the door open for all of them to walk in when the main singer started singing “Mi Quinceañera,” which was a song he had written himself. I hugged my dad and gave him a kiss on the cheek, listening to the band play five more songs. I felt like a princess for the half hour they were there.”

Sophomore Grace Zhang

“After a short time of thought about the question during my shower, I realized that I do not have a happiest moment. It came to my understanding that I do not rate my happy moments from 1-10, but rather, I only remember the moment as happy. To me, there is no ‘happiest moment’ that I cherish, or write about in my English paper; there’s only the fact that I have these moments that I label ‘happy’ and that to me is enough to hold onto for a lifetime. I may not have a cute story or a cliché life lesson that I learned, but I have a compendium of averagely happy memories and that makes me the happiest I will ever be.”

Sophomore Ashlynn Long

“Getting lost in New York. My parents got us lost, but it was so interesting to just wander through [one of] the biggest cities in the world. We got off schedule and it was so much more fun just experiencing the non-touristy parts of the city. We’re so used to having to abide by a schedule and be constantly moving, it felt special to slow down and just enjoy the real New York, not the touristy part. It made me feel like I was actually a part of the city.”