Caleb Strickland, freshman
My conversation with Caleb started with his favorite hobbies and ended with his evaluation of the meaning of life, but I didn’t expect any less. Caleb is a freshman who participates in Chess Club and Card and Dragons Club. His interests include reading, chess, and filmmaking.
“Mainly just creating things is a good hobby,” said Caleb.
Caleb loves to write and is especially interested in writing for the big screen.
“I prefer [to write] stuff like screenplays for movies, although it could be like regular books,” he said. “From the moment I was born, I loved to create things. I don’t know what it is about it. I feel like I get all this information and I just want to release it somehow in an artistic sort of way. There’s all these images in my head of stories and characters, and I just love to create those things. It’s just really a release to me.”
Watauga High School has been an environment where Caleb feels that he can thrive.
“I’ve been through a lot in my life, and I’m just happy here at Watauga High School,” he said. “I’m autistic, and I’m really finding a home here. I feel like I really belong in some of the groups I’m in.”
He’s grateful for both the classes and extracurricular activities offered at Watauga. Clubs have provided a strong sense of belonging.
“The great thing about clubs is I get to talk to people who have the same interests I do. It’s a great community,” said Caleb.
Caleb describes high school as a “choose-your-own adventure” story due to the diverse range of classes offered depending on one’s goals and interests.
“Watauga High School is a great stepping stone,” he said. “I feel like it’s a great learning place. I’m very glad I’m here.”
Creativity is second-nature for Caleb, and he wants to take it to the next level after high school. He plans to study filmmaking at New York University, or NYU, in New York City. Caleb explained that he has a vivid imagination and fully visualizes storylines, but he’s ready to see his ideas with his own eyes.
“I’ve realized I just want to create visual things,” he said. “I love writing regularly, like book-writing, but I prefer seeing it.”
Caleb described some of his inspirations for his own writing.
“‘Breaking Bad,’” he said. “That’s a great TV series. That’s amazing. I want to do what these guys are doing. They’re able to tell a story via visual mediums.”
He appreciates both classic and modern forms of storytelling.
“You have all those classics like ‘2001: Space Odyssey’ and ‘The Godfather.’ You gotta respect those.” At the same time, Caleb finds inspiration in fun and innovative Youtube channels and content creators.
Caleb aims to one day inspire others with his work the way his favorites have inspired him.
“The thing about art is that anybody can interpret it any way they want,” he said. “I mean, you could interpret something like ‘2001: Space Odyssey’ to be about football. I want to create something that really shows how I think about the world.”
Caleb wants to share his interpretation of the world in the way that feels most natural to him, through art and creativity
“Everyone has their own unique interpretation of how they view their lives, where we’re going, why we’re here,” he said. “Being autistic, I feel like I want to try and shed a light upon that unique view that I’m able to have because of it. I wouldn’t choose not to be autistic because I very much enjoy the way I’m able to see the world and the way I am.”
Caleb credits his unique perspective on life and art partially to his autism and explained that he is grateful he is autistic because it allows him to view life in a distinctive way. He wants to share his perspective with other to help broaden the horizons of society as a whole.
“I want to create something that really makes people think, even if they don’t get it, really makes them think about their purpose here, and that betters them as people,” he said.
Caleb tried to explain the purpose of media in his mind: to change people’s minds and hearts in a positive way.
“Some people will just go about their lives like a ticking clock waiting for themselves to die,” he said. “They don’t really think about why they're here, or purpose, or nature. And getting them to think about that really allows them to enjoy the life they have here. Sure, it’s not perfect, not at all, but we only get one, so we might as well use it.”
Of course, I then asked Caleb the next reasonable question on my bewildered mind at the time, “So why are we here?”
“The sights, smells, and sounds around us,” he said, “you’ll never be able to have that again. Almost every other person will never be able to experience this, and now you are able to. You’re able to experience the wonder that is nature. You’re able to experience art, culture, love, emotions, happiness, sadness, anger, bitterness, anything really. And what do you do with it? I don’t know. But you get to experience it. That’s all that really matters.”
Ultimately, Caleb believes, the beauty of life is discovering what life means to you. There is no universal purpose, but that provides hope and adventure.
“The meaning of this life is what you make of it,” he said. “And that could be helping whatever God you worship. Or helping the homeless. Or getting a cute dog, loving on it. Or you could be president of the United States. I don’t know.”
Caleb is simply here to leave his mark for years to come and, hopefully, leave the world a little better than he found it.
“Everything you do to it is kind of like a pebble,” he said. “Throw a pebble into that lake and that causes ripples, and other ripples. Eventually, you have created a massive chain reaction. They can forget your name, who you were, when you die. That’s going to happen. We’re going to forget who Julius Caesar is one day. But that ripple goes on and on and on. Even if the universe ends, your ripple will still be there as every other ripple disappears.”
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