Sometimes, we pick up hobbies that we never thought we would. In senior Jeongmyeong (Daniel) Choi’s case, picking up a camera one day was enough to kickstart a new hobby and pastime. 

Although Choi has almost 1,000 followers on his photography-based Instagram account, Choi didn’t grow up with an interest in photography. 

“I wasn’t into photography that much,” explained Choi. “We just had a camera in our house. In my junior year for my AP project, AP environmental science, I took photos.”

Before his senior year, Choi was not very interested in photography, but that quickly changed once he decided to attend the first football game of this school year.

“Starting from the first football game of this school year, I started to take pictures and I started to learn it more professionally I’ll say, from my other photographer friends,” said Choi.

When it came to taking photos of the students at our school, Choi took inspiration from the upperclassmen he saw during his freshman year taking photos at football games and posting them online.

“I saw some pictures in 2019, my freshman year, of seniors back then [taking photos and posting them online],” remarked Choi. “That’s the reason I started to do it.”

Choi has made many happy memories during his high school career, but taking pictures at football games has managed to outshine all the rest of those memories and remains as his “top” memory from high school.

One of the most influential people to Choi during his high school career was a senior he met his freshman year. His friend would often give him tips to help him navigate high school and give him other advice about what classes he should take throughout high school.

“I had a friend who was a senior my freshman year,” began Choi. “He gave me a lot of tips for high school, like classes I should take and what I should do.”

Choi still stays in touch with his old friend, and he remains to be one of the most helpful and influential tools for him currently as a senior. 

“And he’s still giving me tips for college and jobs and everything. So he was one of the most influential factors in my school career,” explained Choi.

Although Choi has taken a huge liking to photography in the past year, photography isn’t something that he thinks will stay with him after he graduates. 

“Even if after I graduate I plan to do photography as a hobby but I never think I’ve thought about doing professional photography. I don’t think about majoring in it as well,” said Choi.

Outside of photography, Choi has numerous other hobbies and extracurricular activities he enjoys, such as honor societies, the Asian American Student Association, and Key Club. 

All of his extracurriculars and  clubs keep him on his toes, and as a result, Choi usually ends up spending most of his days in school taking part in events and activities.

“I’ll say I’m engaged,” stated Choi. “I engage a lot in and out of school, [even] after school. I just have a lot of afternoon activities, so I spend most of my time in school.”

With the pressure of finding a college to attend or having to figure out what to do with their lives after high school, senior year can be rather stressful for some students. When it comes to Choi’s senior year, it has been everything but that. Choi thinks rising seniors should just take it easy and make as many memories as they can. 

“Enjoy your senior year. You’ve worked hard enough so I’ll say enjoy it. Just take some easy classes, that’s what I’m doing right now,” stated Choi. “And definitely take some pictures at the games. So if you have a camera in your house, or you can borrow one from somebody, go to the games and take pictures for the games. It’s really fun.”