Nathaniel Rivera; The man, the myth, the legend. When he isn’t hard at work in school, or chilling at home listening to music, Nathaniel is busy putting his blood, sweat, and tears into articles for the Hawkeye. We managed to get this highly exclusive interview with Mr. Rivera after cornering him at a Subway and proceeding to beg for about 5-8 minutes. Totally non-reluctantly, Nathaniel decided to answer 6 of our many questions that we threw at him.
First, we had to start with an obvious question.
- Why did you choose journalism?
“Honestly, I’ve never been a big writer.” He stated. “I took this class last year, and I really enjoyed it, so I decided to take it again.” In a bold move by Nathan, he decided to double down on this new hobby of his, despite not having much of a past in the activity.
Before last school year, however, Nathaniel used to be in an entirely different school. We decided to ask him how UHS stacked up against the inferior counterpart other one.
- What is your favorite thing about UHS?
“I like how the classes are long, compared to how MCPS had it.” Nathaniel’s previous school had 7 classes instead of the 4-class method we have. He goes on to say the workload is way less of a hassle than at his previous school because of this.
After becoming a Hawkeye journalist, Nate knew he wasn’t going to find everything interesting. We asked Nathaniel what his favorite subjects are to report on.
- What is your favorite subject to write about?
“Probably entertainment or film study, because there’s a lot of aspiring directors and filmmakers in that class and it's nice to see others work towards a goal.” Nathaniel goes on to tell us how much he appreciates the hard effort and dedication all those directors and filmmakers show.
Speaking of things Nate appreciates, he has many other interests that don’t involve his hard work.
- What interests you outside of journalism?
“I enjoy reading. Not just boring long books; I like manga. I like to escape to different worlds, and I like to think how crazy it is how many authors can just make it easier to escape.” Well spoken, Nathaniel.
While the present is fun, Rivera also has some accomplishments from the past!
- What are some of your past achievements?
“I played against a couple of friends a while ago at an arcade doing table hockey. I beat each and every person in a duo, and I felt like I was on top of the world.” A humble man, no doubt. Mr. Rivera says that while it may not be a big achievement to others, it was to him, and that’s what mattered most.
Speaking of the present, it seems Nahaniel likes to keep his future plans at a minimum. When we asked him what his plans were after he graduated high school, Nathaniel had this to say:
“I like to flow in the moment. I don’t necessarily plan too far ahead, because you never know what could happen tomorrow, next week, next year.”
Before we wrapped up the interview, we wanted to see if there was anything else we could get out of Mr. Rivera, but the conversation slowly derailed.
- Anything else we should know about you?
“I feel pretty disappointed in my height. I like to say I'm 5’3 but I'm 5’2 and a half. Haven’t grown since 7th grade.”
I wasn’t expecting such a humorous answer, so I decided to rephrase the question. However, the conversation still managed to take a turn.
- I meant that question as in do you have anything cool to say about yourself, any fun facts?
“I like to argue that red folders are meant for math. Blue folders are meant for english. Not the other way around. Only a menace would switch it. Green is science. Bottom line, it’s for science. No way you can change that.”
Before we could ask any more questions, Nathaniel managed to escape the Subway. Let’s hope he’s out there hard at work on another amazing article!
