HUMANS OF BELLAIRE – Arthur Fowler

“[High school]’s been really chaotic. We started off in ninth grade in the old building. There was a year and a half of online school. Now we’re in a completely new building. It’s been all over the place. I feel like I didn’t really learn anything during COVID. For me, it was more of just a pause, like a really long weekend. 

I’m ready to leave, but I’m going to miss things. I’m going to miss friends and home and being somewhere that I know. I feel like everyone in my community is really chill, at least as someone who’s in pretty much only AP classes. Last year, I had a lot of classes where I was able to walk in between periods with some of my friends. It’s nice to be able to hang out with people, especially after COVID, and be like ‘Oh, I can see someone who I enjoy hanging out with.’

When I was going into sixth grade, my parents sent me off to go backpacking for 16 days in New Mexico with this group of people I’d never met before. That was pretty interesting. I’d never done it before. We peaked six mountains.

I’m still in that group. Pre-COVID I was backpacking pretty much every weekend. After COVID, there were less people in the group, so it’s more like once every other month. In the summer we’re going to be hiking the first 38 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia.

I’m going to the University of Delaware [and] I’m majoring in Art Conservation and Classics. I used to want to be a paleontologist, but then I was like, ‘No, I want to be an archaeologist.’ Then I was like, ‘Maybe we shouldn’t be digging up dead bodies.’ But I really like art and conserving art and cultural pieces. It’s pretty important. I feel like it’d be worthwhile to do, and it mixes the storytelling aspects of archaeology, historical things and art.

I’m in Jewelry 3. I originally learned how to make jewelry in a weird art boarding school my parents sent me to, so I already knew how to use the equipment when I went into the class last year. I really like sculpture, and I also like small things. [Jewelry 3] is just metal sculpture, which I think is really cool. There are a lot of things I’ve given to family and friends over the years. I think a lot of my stuff isn’t even wearable jewelry. They’re things with really cool mechanisms.

A piece of advice [I’d give to students] is you can calm down. It’s okay. If you’re a straight A student at the detriment of your emotional and social health and social life, then don’t be a straight A student.”