As I type this, Gabriel Hughes is rapping—inaudibly. To himself. The rest of the class is reading silently and annotating Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark.”
Gabriel is not reading.
Instead, he has “Bad Boys for Life” by P. Diddy playing on repeat in his head, and he rocks his slight body back and forth to the rhythm that only he can hear. His lips move rapidly as he silently spits the lyrics, duck flip of soft dark brown hair bobbing as he moves with a fierce intensity.
He has slipped into one of those moments where a person is so comfortable that he forgets where he’s at. Gabriel has forgotten he is in a Composition class with a dozen other students. He has forgotten to read and annotate. He has forgotten that he’s even at school. The only thing that exists for him in this moment is the pure exaltation of music and rhythm and words.
It’s a joyous sight to behold.
Given how much the Solomon High School Senior loves rap, it’s no surprise that, as a young child, he aspired to be 50 Cent and an astronaut.
The contrast between a rapper and scientist represents the dichotomy that is Gabriel Hughes.
“Gabriel has great intellect and is a very deep thinker,” said Dr. Denise Guy, senior 101 teacher. “I love engaging in conversations with him as he has such an interesting perspective and is very wise to the world.”
Gabriel has the rare ability to engage with ease in both traditionally “high brow” and “low brow” culture. It’s not uncommon for Gabriel to reference the ideas of infamous rapper Tupac and eminent scholar Yuval Noah Harari in the same sentence. He has the rare ability to think abstractly and loves a good debate. He’s very accepting and open minded, and he’s never met a stranger. Gabriel can have a conversation with anyone–regardless of age, race, or gender.
The latter quality will help Gabriel with his goals for the future: he plans to attend Fort Hays State University in order to study entrepreneurship and marketing. He would like to one day own a business. With his natural ability to put others at ease and his love of people, Gabriel is well-suited for business. He has honed his acumen participating in classes like Big Red T’s (BRT’s), Solomon’s student run garment business.
“He is a natural leader,” notes Dr. Guy. “ I'm looking forward to watching him refine his leadership skills in the business world beyond high school.”
In addition to business, Gabriel has also participated in football, basketball, and track while at Solomon. While he takes pride in participating in athletics and BRT’s, what Gabriel truly takes satisfaction in is his ability to inspire.
“I’m most proud of inspiring people to be themselves and to be who they are,” he said. “There’s no reason that everyone shouldn’t be proud of who they are. That’s what I try to tell people every day.”
Gabriel is able to inspire people because he is addicted to being around people. He loves being around others and he understands people in a rare, and seemingly innate, manner. The feeling he gets from being with others is something he illustrates with his favorite high school memory.
“Junior year prom was probably my favorite high school memory,” he said. “It was lit. I had never been to a high school dance at Solomon where we were all dancing and having fun. We were all just jumping around and it was crazy. It was an intense feeling. It was a [heck of a] fun time.”
Gabriel loves having fun and he has a pretty laissez faire attitude. The advice he would offer his younger self, and it can apply to anyone, is to “not trip about anything.”
“If it don’t matter in five years, what’s the point of tripping over it for five minutes?” he postulates.
Photo by Zoe Smith
Editing by 21st Century Journalism