By Alexis Dalton
Hadley Young
Hadley was surprised when she found out she was one of this year’s senior crushes. “I guess I’m glad I got it,” she laughed and told me. “I guess it means people think I’m a good person… or nice and approachable in some way.”
Hadley remembers her old senior crushes, but she was hesitant to reveal their names. Let’s just say that they were also nice and approachable people.
Right now, Hadley’s hardest class this semester is AP Literature and Composition because she must go over to the dark side a couple of times a week. Well, maybe not… that’s just the name of the AP Lit course she’s taking, but the name is daunting. On a similar note, her favorite class is Psychology with Dr. Myers. “I’m really interested in criminology,” Hadley told me as she explained their current unit. “I love true crime podcasts, so it’s interesting to learn about that stuff in school too.
Hadley used to be a Lovett cheerleader, but her Lovett sports career recently came to an end last fall once their season was over. Now she enjoys her newest hobby: Pilates. “Some of my friends started taking classes and I thought I’d try,” she told me. “I’ve seen a lot of videos online and it just looked really fun!”
When she’s not listening to true crime or doing pilates at Pace Atlanta, Hadley loves to hang out with her friends. She enjoys going out to dinner with her friends and then later watching shows together. Right now, her ideal night with friends is getting a chicken and rice bowl at Cava and watching the new series Landman.
Of course, we can’t really know Hadley without knowing all her current favorites…
It was hard for Hadley to pinpoint her favorite food, for she explained to me that she wasn’t picky. She decided that, aside from Cava, her current food fixation is avocado toast. “The Daily has a really good one,” she told me.
Her favorite movie right now is The Longest Ride.
Hadley loves Gracie Abrams. “I am really in my Gracie phase,” she told me as she pulled up her playlist to find her favorite song. “This is so basic, but my favorite is probably That’s So True.” Basic or not, I have to agree – it’s a great song to blast in the car.
Not to bring down the mood or anything, but I had to mention the dreaded word– college.
Like most seniors in February, Hadley hasn’t decided where she’s going to spend her next four years. “I’m very excited and grateful for my options, but I haven’t made my decision yet,” she explained. Nonetheless, Hadley is looking forward to a change. “I’m really excited to meet new people,” she said, smiling. “And I’m ready to have more freedom and be more independent.”
For future reference for the friends Hadley is going to have in college, three words she would use to describe herself are positive, responsible, and kind (if we weren’t already friends, that would sell me!).
Lastly, since this is a Valentine’s Day article, I had to ask her a Valentine’s-esq question. If she could go on a date with a famous person, who would it be? “I would go on a date with Scott Eastwood,” she said, who is the main character in her favorite movie. “Or just the classic Glen Powell,” she added. Can’t go wrong with that!
JD Thomason
JD Thomason thought it was “interesting” being voted as one of this year’s senior crushes. “I’m kind of honored,” he laughed. JD remembers one of his past senior crushes being Bradley Williams (props to him for name-dropping).
JD’s most difficult class this year is AP Calculus AB. His two favorite classes are AP Microeconomics and AP Statistics. When I asked him why, he said they were “fun.” As someone whose schedule is humanities-coded, I didn’t quite understand what was “fun” about these classes. “I like my teachers a lot,” he assured me. “We do fun activities and I have good classmates.”
If JD could talk to his younger, pre-AP Calc-Micro-Stat self, he would advise him to be less stressed. “Spend more time doing things you love,” he said. “Enjoy more stuff.”
The stuff JD enjoys doing right now includes playing video games, fishing, and working out. “I play a lot of EA Sports College Football, Madden, and Fortnite,” he told me. “And I like to fish in local ponds.” One of his newer hobbies is playing poker with his friends.
JD also is a big football player. He’s been playing for twelve years and will possibly be continuing his football career in college. “I’m either going to Georgia or playing football somewhere,” he explained. “So we’ll see.”
After a long day of fishing and poker-playing, JD gets to go home to his four pets. He has two black labs named Jesse and Leland and two cats named Rick and Lucy.
As per usual, we had to go through all of his favorites…
JD’s current favorite food is wings from Three Dollar Cafe. “The Hot Lemon Pepper ones are the best,” he told me.
His favorite movies are Goodfellas and The Shawshank Redemption.
“I’ve been listening to some Eagles recently,” he said when I asked what his favorite song was. “So we’ll go with Hotel California.”
To get in the Valentine’s Day spirit, I asked JD which famous person he would want to go on a date with, if any. “Livvy Dunne,” he said quickly, laughing.
As for the words he would use to describe himself: “curious, funny, and hardworking.” Sound like the perfect person to fish at your local pond with and then grab some Three Dollar wings.
