Graduating Malden High School a mighty ninth in her class of over 400 seniors, Trisha Truong is ready to face the future, while reminiscing on her time at Malden High School. Truong is known to never take herself too seriously, and notes that her friends would describe her as “lit, and [she] would describe [herself] the same”. Truong credits Key Club, Malden Against Cancer, and crew as extracurriculars that have immensely shaped her high school career.
In the fall, Truong will be joining a few other MHS students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She says that “the greatest decision factor was cost, but it still is a great school”. She adds that she also is excited to “spend time with [her] sister there”, as her sister, MHS class of 2014 graduate Tracy Tran currently attends UMass Amherst.
Entering the new and inviting environment that was Malden High School, Truong’s goals were to “meet people and make friends that [she] can see being in [her] life for a long time.” This “required [her] to be a lot more outgoing and become more comfortable talking to people that [she didn’t] know already.” In terms of motivation, Truong states that her “parents” as well as “the future, [and being able to] help them motivates [her] to work hard”. She explains that her “strategy to success was to always compare myself to only myself” because she “knew what I was capable of achieving in terms of grades, so not reaching [her] own expectations made me work harder.”
However much she has relied on herself for encouragement and furthering her academic pursuit, she also gives credit to her cousin, senior Wendy Nguyen. She says that Nguyen was always “inspiring [her] to do [her] best and being [her] number one supporter.”
As for most people, Truong notes that her experience “was all over the place…there were so many good times, like getting to see some of my best friends five classes a day, but there were also a handful of bad times.” She notes that “lowest point was almost failing AP language junior year,” but one of her favorite memories was “freshman year bio class” with science teacher Dana Bowers since she “can’t remember any bad times [she] had in that class.”
When asked if she would go back and change anything if she could, Truong simply responds “no”, without hesitation. She has established strong bonds with many of her teachers and coaches. As a two year member of the MHS crew team, Truong notes that she will most of all miss math teacher and crew coach Sarah Jones.
Truong also expresses her fondness of Malden’s “diversity”, and says that “being part of [MHS], you become more open minded and accepting of other people. It teaches you the importance of this without really even having to teach it.”
For any underclassmen, Truong has a few words, and a famous song lyric: “just have fun, and don’t think about it too much, too much.”
