“Oh, the Places You’ll Go:” Where did Stuyvesant students live before coming to New York City?

Rui Zheng, sophomore

By: Rachel Vildman

In the seventh grade, sophomore Rui Zheng traded her relaxed southern lifestyle for the fast-paced city life. Zheng originally lived with her parents, siblings and paternal grandmother in Conway, South Carolina, where her days mainly consisted of going to her local public school, returning home at the end of the day, and playing games on the internet. Zheng followed the same routine most days, “listening to the radio on full blast riding shotgun while my dad cruised down the highway to go to Costco and Tanger Outlets,” she said.

Zheng was surprised when her parents announced that her family was moving to New York City. “My mom had been wanting to move to New York City for a long time, but we never really had an opportunity to do so,” she said. “Our actual move was kind of impulsive because a job opportunity opened for my dad, and he took it.”

When Zheng and her family officially arrived, she remembers thinking to herself that “New York City was this great, perfect city and anything was possible.” However, moving to a different state came with a drastic lifestyle change: “Living in the South was a mostly sedentary lifestyle since people usually stayed at home and if they went out, they drove. New York City forced me to adopt a much more active lifestyle,” Zheng said. She also noted that the people in New York City are much more open-minded to different cultures and people, something she saw very little of in South Carolina. In South Carolina, “People really thought of me as that Chinese girl, and not as Rui [Zheng],” she explained.

Since moving to New York, Zheng has come to greatly appreciate the mass transit system. “It is very nice to have public transportation that can take you anywhere you please. Student MetroCards are such a blessing, along with going to school in Manhattan because technically, I can go anywhere I want any time as long as I don’t stay out too late,” Zheng explained. Living in New York City has also given her the opportunity to experience more culture. The biggest gain? “I learned to express myself more and have my own voice, which was something I lacked back then,” she said.

Elizabeth Stansberry, sophomore

By Catherine Ching

Born in the outskirts of Dallas, sophomore Elizabeth Stansberry’s lifestyle was very laid back when she was young: “I lived in the suburbs, but it wasn’t like we [lived] in a farm or anything,” Stansberry recounted. “It [was also] hot, and there was lot of space. I had a big backyard and got to run around a lot [in Texas].” For Stransberry, the most striking difference between Texas and New York City was the means of transportation. “In Texas, we drive everywhere and there’s drivers in most high schools, whereas here, we take public transportation everywhere,” she said. These differences posed a stark contrast to the bright city lights and mammoth skyscrapers of New York.

Her first few days in New York City were like something out of a movie. “I was in awe of the grand city views. I was excited to move here because I’ve been here on vacation before, but it didn’t feel real,” Stansberry recalled. “Our first apartment was in Midtown, next to the empire state building, so it felt like I was on an extended vacation until school started.” However, Stansberry admitted that her transition to middle school was challenging and hard to grasp. “I moved here after sixth grade, which was hard at first because sixth grade is the end of elementary school in Texas, but fifth grade is the end of elementary school here,” she explained. “So, everyone had already known each other for a year. It was like coming to a new middle school as this blonde girl from Texas.”

Stansberry’s transition to Stuyvesant was easy, however, because she was prepared for the academic course rigor and vast number of extracurriculars at Stuyvesant. “My brother took the late SHSAT in ninth grade and got in. He’s a senior. I had information about the school and the opportunities,” she said.

Despite her two vastly different lifestyles, Stansberry continues to identify with both the suburban, southern life and the rich, city life. Stansberry reflected, “I’m glad I go to school here because as far as high school and the academics go, the opportunities are greater here. But Texas was a great place to grow up. You get to learn how to ride a mountain bike, venture out in local parks, and experience nature in your own lawn. BBQ and Tex Mex are the two big pillars of Texas food, and you can’t get those anywhere here.”

Emily Young-Squire, freshman

By Ava Fung

Freshman Emily Young-Squire described crossing the Pacific Ocean from Tokyo, Japan, to New York City as being transported to a different realm. Born and raised in Tokyo, she still holds very fond memories of her birthplace, specifically that of the subway system. For her, thinking about subway systems in Japan brings back happy memories of ice cream vendors and pleasant shining floors. She quickly realized why New York City’s subway system is infamous.

Though the process of moving was not hard for Young-Squire, adapting to the differences between American and Japanese culture proved to be very difficult. In Japan, she might feel like the most outgoing girl, but in America, she felt as if she was the shyest person on Earth. “The one thing was back in Japan, I felt like I was very outgoing and very friendly; I felt like I was louder than everyone else but when I got here, everyone else was so much louder than I was, and I found myself becoming really shy and retreating into my own shell,” Young-Squire remembered. Furthermore, Young-Squire found herself taking advantage of the performing arts programs at her school in America, something she would not have been able to do in Japan.

She misses the people in Japan the most. “I miss generally, just the people there, how pleasant it was, and I guess I just felt like I fit in there a lot,” she explained. “I blended in with them.” However, Young-Squire has managed to find new friends in America as well. She concluded, “I got a feel of the community from Japan, and from there I sort of made my own community here in New York by exploring all the opportunities.”

Katherine Lake, sophomore

By Christine Lin

Sophomore Katherine Lake moved from peaceful Sydney, Australia, to the bustling streets of New York City when she was in fifth grade. Working in the finance industry, Lake’s parents decided to move due to the opportunities New York provided for their business, as well as opportunities for Lake and her two siblings to further advance their education.

“My life [in Australia] was relatively relaxed,” Lake reflected. “We didn’t do anything particularly strenuous or out of your comfort zone. For example, every day I would finish my homework at around 4:30 p.m. after school and then go to the beach for the rest of the day, which is something I would not able to do now in New York.” However, there are some setbacks that come with living in a more relaxed environment. For one, Lake felt restricted on what she could learn and do. “I really enjoy the freedom New York [gave me] to do basically whatever I wanted. I mean, everything is in New York City! I took a trapeze class, just because I could,” she recalled. “Diversity is also a much bigger thing in New York.”

Lake continues to be in awe of some of the everyday sights in New York City. She said, “There was also all this cool new stuff, like snow. And subways. The public transport system here is very emphasized, and once we moved here we had to take the trains all the time. These were all very new experiences for me.”

Still, moving was a lot to get used to; she realized how fast-paced this city is. Her new lifestyle proved to be a stark contrast against Australia’s beachy shores and her old 7:00 p.m. sleeping schedule. Another lifestyle change that came with the change in location was having to leave her childhood friends and family behind. “It was really difficult, in general, for us to make new connections,” Lake stated. Her old community in Australia remains one of the things she misses most about her home country. Lake explained, “I feel like I’ve known the people there for a lot longer, so I have more of a community that I have access to there.”

Despite moving, Lake remains true to her background and has kept a lot of her Australian habits. When asked about some common Australian myths, Lake raved about how she, in fact, did not read upside-down and how Australia, contrary to popular belief, is not swarmed by snakes and bugs. Additionally, she gushed about her love for vegemite, a popular Australian spread made of leftover yeast extract and various spices. “People think vegemite is trash, and vegemite is not trash,” she exclaimed. “It’s amazing. You just need to have the correct ratio of bread to condiment, and it’s absolutely everything.”

“I think that overall, though it was a lot to take in at first, it’s extremely beneficial to not just be in the same place your whole life,” Lake concluded. “It’s very important that people try to do something out of their comfort zone and to put themselves out there no matter what because one never knows what may come out of it.”

Larissa Yue, freshman

By Christina Pan

To many individuals, the idea of change introduces a venture into the vast world of the mysterious and unknown. For freshman Larissa Yue, however, change has played a fundamental role in her life. Born in Pennsylvania, Yue spent the majority of her life in Bellevue, Washington, before moving to New York City the summer before eighth grade.

Stuyvesant is the sixth school Yue has attended throughout her academic career. Ever since her move across the coasts, she has relocated twice: once from Forest Hills, Queens to Tribeca, and again from Tribeca to Times Square.

It was mostly Yue’s decision to move to New York City. Back in Bellevue, Yue often felt limited in the options presented to her. Both of Yue’s parents work in the computer science industry. However, Yue’s main passion lies in the life sciences. In the schools Yue attended in Bellevue, most clubs and extracurriculars were particularly computer-focused, stressing specialized topics like coding or competitive problem-solving. Yue often felt unmotivated and disinterested in the typical lessons presented at her school. She explained, “I often felt like I could be doing more, like I was letting school interfere with my learning, and that on my own, I could be doing so much more.”

In June 2018, Yue’s parents finally agreed to make the transition to New York City following an employment opportunity for her father. “When we first came, I remember the explosive colors, the massive skyscrapers,” she said. “It all felt sort of surreal. I’m finally here, I’m finally living life, almost just like in the movies.”

However, Yue’s family did not originally move to Manhattan. For the first few months in New York, her family rented an Airbnb near Forest Hills, Queens, where she could easily commute to the testing company that she attended in preparation for the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT). Because of this, Yue felt like a “tourist in [her] own home, from an extended vacation that [she] would never come back from.”

After the SHSAT, Yue’s family quickly relocated to Tribeca. It was a major transition from Forest Hills to Tribeca, which borders the Financial District to the south and Chinatown and Little Italy to the east and is home to hundreds of sleek condominium towers and easily serves as a celebrity hotspot for famous stars. For Yue, the move to Tribeca from Queens was almost “larger [than the] transition from Bellevue. [It is] just crazy how diverse things are here.”

Now at Stuyvesant, Yue is presented with a plethora of opportunities. “I could join clubs and events ranging from designing robotic models to creative writing clubs. New York provided me with opportunities for whatever I was interested in,” Yue said. “Here, there is everything.”

She still finds herself reminiscing about her past life in Bellevue. She often wonders what life would have been like back in Bellevue—[what] an alternative story of her life would have been like—with different people, a different school, and a different home.

Throughout countless moves and different schools, Yue remains steadfast in her identity. When faced with the difficult and often painstaking proposition of moving from place to place, most individuals face their predicament with a predetermined perspective of negativity. Yue sees these changes in quite a different light, stating “[Moving] really helps you discover more of yourself. Kind of like unpeeling the layers within. Though I know I’ll probably move again someday, right now, right here, I’m a proud New Yorker.”