photo by miriam perez
TRE BURGE ‘15 by nina elkadi WSS Intern
Most students at West High dread hearing the beeping of their alarm in the morning, but Tre Burge ’15 has a much different outlook on life. “The worst part of my day is sleeping. The best part is waking up,” he said. “My mother passed in her sleep, so I’m thankful I can wake up every day.” Burge’s mother passed away when he was ten, and every day since then, Burge has turned to something that many only do when forced to for an assignment— he writes. “It’s so weird with me being like a young black kid [with] my big stature. Every time I come to a school there’s a coach hitting me on the back, and he’s like, ‘Hey, comin’ out this season?’ I’m like ‘What? No.’ and they look confused.” Burge leans back in his chair and chuckles at the thought. “They go, ‘Then what do you do?’ and I go ‘Well, I write.’” For Burge, writing is like eating “day-old ravioli.” “You’re hungry; you have nothing else to eat,” he said. “I base ‘hungry’ off of [the fact that] there’s something going on in your life, [and] you don’t know what to do, you don’t have an outlet. My outlet is that writing.” “[To not be] hungry anymore, you eat that day-old ravioli,” he
photo by MIRIAM PEREZ
continued. “That stuff is disgusting, and your hunger is filled; you solve that problem. And you really don’t want to taste that ravioli again. All of your emotions, everything you need to talk about is all on that paper. You don’t want to feel those emotions again.” Burge frequently writes about topics such as stereotypes and the future. His poetry and short stories are filled with powerful phrases about defying stereotypes and having aspirations and dreams in his life. “His writing style is more like freestyle,” said Tom Lindsey, Burge’s creative writing teacher. Burge frequently can recite his stories from his head rather than reading them word for word, which is where the “freestyle” element comes into play. Burge also writes about where he has come from in his life, and what he aspires to do in the future. Burge someday hopes to give back to people. In his other schools, he had to ask his teachers for things such as food and deodorant. ”They saw potential in me,” Burge said. He hopes to live up to that potential and be the positive role model he never had for his brothers. “I feel like those two are my anchors. I want them to depend on me, but really I depend on them entirely. They’re all I have left.”
photo by MIRIAM PEREZ
LOGAN STUART ‘17 by ELEANOR HO
ho.eleanor@wsspaper.com If you asked Logan Stuart ’17 to show you his passport, you would see stamps from Mexico, Peru, Austria, Denmark, Spain and countless other countries. Stuart has been traveling the world for nearly his entire life. “My dad teaches [psychiatry] all over the place. My parents like to travel, so my dad just takes us with him,” Stuart said. Stuart and his family have traveled to over 20 countries in Europe, North America and South America. “I lived in Australia for around a year. I was pretty young,” Stuart said. Throughout his travels, Stuart has had many interesting experiences. “When I was in Malta, an island in the southern Mediterranean just off the coast of Libya, we just randomly saw Prince William. It looked like there was a parade. He drove up in a limo 15 minutes later,” Stuart said. Despite the multitude of places Stuart has visited, his
favorite comes to mind easily. “Machu Picchu is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s really beautiful, and so high that you’re above or in the clouds,” Stuart said. “I think [traveling] has made [Stuart] a more cultured individual,” said Stuart’s friend Orion Staskal ’17. “It’s good that he gets to experience the world and learn more about other areas of the world.” In the future, Stuart wants to travel to countries in Asia like India, China and Japan, as well as Africa. “I don’t think I want to live outside the United States [when I grow up], I just like travel. I like seeing new things,” Stuart said, “I would like to sail around the world. It’d be really cool.” When asked about why he loves traveling so much, he pauses contemplatively before answering. “Traveling has given me a wider perspective and helped me to understand more cultures.”
wsspaper.com december 2014 profiles 11