Tommy King is a 17-year-old senior at Metea Valley High School who likes to sew, craft, and even has his own tailoring business. Some of his favorite hobbies include gardening, social studies, and making music.
What role(s) do you play at Metea?
My main gig at Metea is being the head of costuming for the theater department. I am the head costumer, so I train all of the other costuming students and work closely with the directors and my tech directors in order to costume shows. [This] is my second year in this role. I have been through a lot of extracurriculars throughout my time at Metea. I started with 10 extracurriculars, and now I’m down to three: theater as a whole, comedy, Youth and Government, as well as choir.
What are your goals and/or plans for the future?
My goals and plans for the future are that I am looking at going into psychology with a concentration in forensic psychology, to either be a forensic psychologist or a lawyer. I’m looking to go to UIUC. I am either looking at human rights law or family law with a concentration on child advocacy.
What is one of your favorite memories from your time at Metea?
Some of my favorite memories from Metea are a dumpster of my first theater production at Metea, which was Jack and the Magic Beans. It was [the] second acting role I had ever done. I met some of my closest friends and got involved with a community that has been instrumental in having my back and shaping me into the person that I have become over the last four years. Another one of my favorite memories [was when] we were all practicing our theater slates in the auditorium, and there was this announcement that came over the speakers, “there are four cars in the band parking lot,” and we’re like, okay, that’s fine. Then, about five minutes later, there were three cars in the band parking lot, and it counted down all the way to one. This one person wouldn’t move their car. There [was] one car in the band parking lot, like John Smith, whoever you are, move your car. It’s become a running joke over the last four years that you know there are “x” cars in the band parking lot. We had just had our most recent comedy meeting, and we got there, there was a thing over the speaker [saying] “there is one car in the band parking lot.” All of the old comedy members, we all just absolutely lost it because it reminded us of our freshman year. We were passing the joke down to all of the younger members of comedy
What’s something about you that people might not know about but is important to you?
Something about me that people might not know is [that] I run a tailoring business on the side. One of my favorite things to do is to sew, and create, and cosplay. I have my own cosplay account, and I do professional gigs, so I like helping people make their clothes fit to them.
What keeps you motivated to come to school every day?
I’ve always prided myself as a, I guess, gifted kid. That label was put on me from a young age, and I’ve always aspired to make my mom proud. She came [here] from England to work and have a better life. She has raised me all on her own as a single mom, working sometimes three or four jobs just to move me into this district and get me the best schooling possible. I do everything I do for her because I want to make her sacrifice worth it.
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