Have you ever thought that a small act of revenge on your sibling would eventually become a hobby? Probably not, right? Well, by finding hidden talents within your creativity, whether it’s drawing, sports, or even engineering– you can make something new out of the skills you build up: Even accidentally. 

Specifically, this human of Montview is Nathan Solomon, a Freshman basketball player at DSST Montview High School in 2024 who discovered that he has a hidden talent and curiosity in Mechanical Engineering. To start, he had developed his athletic interest in basketball only as an attempt at revenge. 

“My dad got a court in our backyard when I was like… nine,” Solomon said, “and my sister was always better at it–so I started just to get back at her.” 

However, he discovered that he ended up liking basketball. Eventually ended up practicing more, enough to the point that his sister eventually fell out of the sport, and he proceeded to play with DSST Montview High School. Additionally, Solomon believes that what makes him truly thrive in basketball…is his inventiveness.

“It all comes to creativity, like with basketball, you have to be creative with the passes you make. I’m probably more proud of my creativity,  it rubs off onto multiple things…Like drawings, essays, basketball, and things like that,” said Nathan.

As he thinks about the spread creativeness has on numerous subjects, he acknowledges that his interest expanded beyond what he thought it could. 

“It’s nothing like what I want to do, I guess it does have something to do with my creativity…,” Solomon said, “I want to be a Mechanical Engineer.” 

Despite his dedication to basketball, he found that Mechanical Engineering was the path he wanted to go down in the future, even when he was younger.

“When I was little, I got in trouble…,” Solomon laughs embarrassingly, “Yeah, my dad put me in time-out and in the room I had time-out in, like the Christmas before–I got these two new RC cars and I had one remote. I was just playing with them and then I found out that I started something. Like- ‘What if I can control them with one remote?’ or ‘What if I can put two motors in one car?’”

Eventually, he found that a peak in curiosity turned into a future occupation, and his ability to jump into anything he faces– is useful outside of basketball. 

So, attending a STEM school like DSST Montview High School, allowed him to be open to more varieties of interests. Though he keeps his dedication to basketball for the next year, he is still invested in the Mechanical Engineering field.