Senior Spotlight
By: Dylan Powers
Connor Melendez, son of Deb Snelling and Marc Melendez is a member of the Knox County class of 2022. He likes lifting weights and performing in the Knox County band and choir. He also participated in football this year.
Connor couldn’t choose just one favorite teacher. He said, “Mrs. Blake because she has a drive for talent. She always pushes me to do better. She can be pretty mean sometimes but she just wants the best for me. Mrs. Wriedt is very easy to relate to; I like her too. Maybe I’d even say Mr. Green because he’s very funny and easy to relate to. I get along with him very well. The same with Mrs. Llewellyn. We’ve had very good conversations.”
Connor’s favorite school memory has been being in choir, especially this year. “Choir, in general, is just really fun to me. You meet a lot of new people, and they’re just a little bit different from the group. And everybody from different backgrounds shares the common interest that they like singing. One time, specifically, we went to District Choir, and we sang and rehearsed all day. We were on our way home, everybody was tired, and we went to a restaurant. Bella was taking pictures of Ms. Blake, and Ms. Blake kept laughing, and everybody was laughing because Ms. Blake was making funny faces. Everybody was being weird and tired, but we were all getting along and having a great time.” Connor says that also meeting people at events is an experience he appreciates.
The thing Connor will miss most about high school is band and choir. He’ll also miss the friends he’s made good relationships with here in the past years. “The whole mentality about being a senior is knowing that you won’t probably see these people ever again.” (Band was a really good extracurricular for him, and he says that his love for it was rekindled in the last year or two. “Everybody in band - I love them. I love the example that I’ve set in that class. I love the example I’ve put into the choir. I love what I put down. I love what I’ve put into it and what I’ve gotten out of it. I love the meaningful relationships I’ve made, and I love the fact that I’ve gotten to have such a good band and choir director.” He went on to say that the people in both groups are amazing and that he thinks of them as extended families. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt more accepted than I do in Band and Choir.”
A place that Connor wants to travel to, at some point, is back to his birthplace, Cheyenne, Wyo. He says, “It’s literally where I was born, and I hear that they have a really good climate there. It’s very sweet as long as it’s not winter." He said that he would also like to one day go somewhere out of the country, such as Spain or Italy; just somewhere foreign or warm. “Honestly, there’s a lot of places that I’d like to see because I don’t want to only see Missouri.”
If Connor had to choose a superpower, he would want telekinesis or a healing factor. His favorite genres of movies are action with an underdog story, heartfelt comedies, and rarely dramas. He says his dream car is a 2002 Mitsubishi Eclipse. Connor had this car previously but lost it to a collision with a deer.
In the future, he’d like to go to school for something physical and health-related, and minor in psychology. In ten years, Connor says “I’d like to live on my own, be big, see my friends still, and be happy”.