Listen Here: Episode 3 – Jatayo Jones

Harper 0:00
This is episode three of Spartans in focus. I am Harper

Phoebe 0:05
and Phoebe

Harper 0:05
and today we are joined by Sentinel senior Jatayo Jones.

Jatayo 0:09
Hello.

Phoebe 0:11
Hi.

Harper 0:12
How are you today Jatayo?

Jatayo 0:13
I’m doing pretty good,

Harper 0:15
good, good.

Phoebe 0:17
What’s your happiest memory?

Jatayo 0:18
Happiest memory? That’s, I mean, I definitely have many happy memories. pinpointing one is hard, I would say probably things like accomplishments make me happy. And just being with people makes me happy, I guess. But I don’t know if I can pinpoint one exact memory.

Harper 0:42
You said accomplishments, you recently just got into the school of music.

Jatayo 0:48
Yeah.

Harper 0:49
And what did that make you feel?

Jatayo 0:52
That was a very proud moment. Also, because my parents were very proud of me. And that doesn’t always happen.

Phoebe 1:01
Way to through them under the bus. Oh my god.

Jatayo 1:06
I can answer that again.

Harper 1:07
No, we’re good. We’re good. We’re off to a great start.

Phoebe 1:10
If you want to answer it again

Harper 1:11
If you would like to

Jatayo 1:14
What did you ask me?

Harper 1:17
How did getting into the School of Music here at the U of M make you feel? Oh,

Jatayo 1:20
it made me feel amazing. Because I mean, I have I started playing cello in fifth grade as most people started playing their instruments. And I think fifth grade me was just very proud inside because I mean, I really wanted to do cello, but I didn’t know how far I would take it. And it’s something that I want to do for the foreseeable future. So it it made me very happy.

Harper 1:47
Kill it!

Phoebe 1:48
are you looking into like teaching or more like,

Jatayo 1:51
not teaching, I hate kids.

Phoebe 1:53
Okay,

Jatayo 1:53
I can’t do kids. Just just performance. Yeah. Career wise. Not sure where that’s gonna go.

Harper 1:59
I’m gonna agree with you on the hate kids and then pretend I didn’t because I work with kids.

Jatayo 2:02
Yeah.

Phoebe 2:05
To all the jobs to pick Harper.

Jatayo 2:08
Yeah,

Harper 2:08
Camp counselor. fits me perfectly

Phoebe 2:11
Year round camp counselor.

Harper 2:13
Literally. Not even camps anymore. It’s just children.

Phoebe 2:17
What’s your scariest memory?

Jatayo 2:23
I mean, I would like to say I haven’t had very many Scary Encounters.

Harper 2:28
Well, that’s good.

Jatayo 2:29
I mean, we have scary things like car crashes, but I don’t know if that would be

Harper 2:32
Have you? You haven’t been in a car crash though. Have you?

Jatayo 2:35
I have when I was younger, with my whole family, which that was it wasn’t. I don’t know if I was scared, just more like confused, I guess because I was a child. And I was like, what is happening here?

Harper 2:48
But you’ve never been in a car crash since you started driving?

Jatayo 2:50
No. I have messed up my car a few times. I think this best I can give you for scary.

Harper 2:56
Well, maybe instead of scariest memory. What has been a time you’ve been extremely anxious about something like you applied for something.

Jatayo 3:05
Oh, so many times. That’s like half of my life. I’m a very anxious person. Probably my most recent was the U of M audition. But anytime I have concerts or things with theater, meeting new people anxious anxiety filled.

Phoebe 3:26
The social anxiety.

Jatayo 3:28
it’s it’s insane.

Harper 3:29
Speaking of theater, you’re president of the Sentinel Theatre Club. Tell us about that.

Jatayo 3:36
Yeah. So honestly, coming into theater, just my junior year. So I’ve only been doing theater for two years now. I last year when we were voting on our president. I was not expecting to be president whatsoever. Although now I think I definitely enjoyed being president. I think it’s been a good learning experience, because I’m not typically a people person. But theater has definitely forced me to become more of a people person.

Harper 4:09
Theater people aren’t really people. I’m going to be honest

Jatayo 4:12
Theater people aren’t people. Yeah, I’m definitely not a real person.

Harper 4:15
I’m fake too. So

Jatayo 4:20
I don’t know where I was going with that.

Phoebe 4:22
People meeting.

Harper 4:24
You’ve met new people through theater.

Phoebe 4:26
Getting outside of your bubble.

Jatayo 4:27
Yes. It’s helped me a lot outside of my bubble. And really, I mean, being president of the theater club hasn’t really changed much, except for I mean, I get to have a say in things which I do really enjoy because as COVID happened, our theater program started to cripple a bit and…

Harper 4:47
Slipped away like sand in the wind.

Jatayo 4:49
Yeah, it did and I think getting to help pull it together again, slowly, very slowly. has been challenging, but very fun. Very fun.

Phoebe 5:00
Now, this might not be very early in your life, seeing as your memory is not the best.

Jatayo 5:05
I apologize for that.

Phoebe 5:08
What’s your earliest memory?

Jatayo 5:11
Oh, well, probably, I spent, like almost three years of my childhood in Bali, Indonesia. So probably some of my earliest memories would be from then. Which is very strange, just because they have such a different culture. And it’s, it’s a completely different place compared to the US. So having some of my earliest memories be from there are kind of it’s, it’s, I don’t know, it’s nice. I mean, it, it is. I’ve visited multiple times, after that point, since I spent my childhood there. And it’s it’s a very eye opening experience, I guess it really makes you think about other things that we wouldn’t normally think about in the US.

Harper 5:57
If you could ever move back and live in Bali long term instead of just visits visits. Do you think you would

Jatayo 6:04
Yes, 100%. The the priorities when you’re there are just very different because I mean, here in the US, we’re very material focused. And there’s, there’s many things that we worry about a lot that we probably shouldn’t definitely shouldn’t be worried about. In there, it’s just, I don’t know, it’s you just go to the beach and like, go get some good food, and you’re not really worried about that.

Harper 6:26
Are you telling me my chronic anxiety is unnecessary? And I should just go to the beach and eat some food

Jatayo 6:30
It will help Okay. Okay. It’s very stress relieving. Alright, helps. But I’m not saying that’s not important. Because that definitely is. But you know, I mean, in the US, we, we will get very self centered and, and focus on things like very material and materialistic, like, we want things and we have to have things to look cool. But we don’t even need to look cool. Why don’t we want to look cool. What’s the point? You know,

Harper 6:58
Just live your life. Have fun.

Jatayo 7:01
Don’t care about what anybody else thinks.

Phoebe 7:03
It’s the best trip you’ve been on? I mean, I guess living… It’s not really a trip, though.

Jatayo 7:09
Well, I guess that’s the going to Indonesia is probably the only trips that I’ve done. haven’t really gone anywhere else outside of the of the US besides there. Which, that’s a very big trip. It’s, it’s like, typically about 25 hours on a plane to get there, which is it’s, it’s exhausting. But once you’re there, lovely.

Harper 7:39
You said you haven’t been anywhere else outside of the US. But like, inside the US. What’s your favorite place that you’ve been?

Jatayo 7:44
I mean, I haven’t been to many places. I’d say. Just for like a short term visit. I like to visit California. I would not like to be there for a long time, because I know I would get sick of it very quickly.

Harper 7:59
We need seasons, man.

Jatayo 8:00
Yeah, we need seasons. And there’s too many people too much going on. There’s a lot it’s too much.

Harper 8:06
true.

Jatayo 8:07
But I think it’s fun to visit and go see things and whatnot.

Harper 8:10
Actual oceans.

Jatayo 8:11
Yes. Actual oceans.

Harper 8:12
Unlike our, our lovely state of Montana.

Jatayo 8:17
Our oceans are beautiful in Montana.

Harper 8:20
We’ve got gorgeous oceans here.

Jatayo 8:21
Gorgeous oceans

Harper 8:22
Flathead Lake, man. I don’t know

Phoebe 8:24
Best ocean I’ve seen

Harper 8:26
Biggest freshwater lake north of the Mississippi.

Phoebe 8:29
You can still can’t see it on a map though. I don’t get that. Okay. If it’s huge. Why can’t I see it on a map?

Jatayo 8:36
Is it really the biggest?

Harper 8:37
North of the Mississippi.

Phoebe 8:39
I’m, so mad about that.

Harper 8:40
Is it West of the Mississippi.

Jatayo 8:41
It should be West.

Phoebe 8:43
It takes forever to get around that lake and you can’t even see it on a map.

Harper 8:46
Can you really don’t see it on a map?

Phoebe 8:48
No

Jatayo 8:48
I mean

Harper 8:48
I need to look at a map really fast. Hang on.

Jatayo 8:50
Full size US map you can’t see it.

Harper 8:52
One sec. This is really important to me.

Phoebe 8:52
Its so annoying.

Harper 8:53
Also we’re gonna ignore the fact that I said north of the Mississippi. It is West and I apologize.

Phoebe 8:55
I just feel very small

Jatayo 8:55
North of the Mississippi is Canada.

Phoebe 8:56
Feel very small on our big rock.

Harper 8:57
Is it Canada? Yeah, that’s Canada. You’re right. You’re right.

Jatayo 8:58
What else would it be?

Harper 9:00
I don’t know. I don’t know my directions. I guess, my phone’s not loading. I will look at a map later.

Phoebe 9:16
Okay. Anyway, that’s my little rant. You can’t see, it’s huge, okay. I can’t get over it.

Harper 9:27
Okay, next question before we derail completely

Phoebe 9:29
Hurtle into the abyss.

Who is the most influential person in your life?

Jatayo 9:34
Influential person, that would probably have to be my grandma. She, my grandma on my dad’s side. She is Indonesian. So we spent a lot of time in Indonesia because we have family from there but she this this woman she she moved to to America at 18 at a very high or at the peak of racism. If I would say And this she went to Yale. She, for a while, was a CEO of a company she is setting an amazing example.

Harper 10:11
Your Grandmas my inspiration too, like.

Phoebe 10:14
Girlboss

Jatayo 10:14
Just like three or four years ago, she went back to college here at the US because she decided she was bored. And that’s probably the best example in my life. I want to be her when I grow up. I know she’s knowledge hungry and always just learning and doing stuff. She’s She’s going crazy.

Harper 10:33
Wow.

Phoebe 10:33
Going cuckoo.

Jatayo 10:34
I love her. She’s amazing.

Harper 10:36
Did you just say going cuckoo?

Phoebe 10:37
Yes.

Harper 10:38
Okay. Just double checking. So your grandma’s awesome. And I love her, but I’ve never met her. But like,

Jatayo 10:44
You’d love her if you met her.

Harper 10:45
I would love her if I met her. Just from what you’ve said.

Jatayo 10:48
She’s 4’11. she’s tiny. But that

Phoebe 10:52
That makes it better.

Harper 10:53
I want to see you standing next to her.

Jatayo 10:55
Oh, it’s a little scary. She looks like a child next to me. Yeah,

Harper 10:58
Just for context Jatayo, How tall are you?

Jatayo 11:00
I am 6’1 maybe 6’2 somewhere around there so.

Phoebe 11:05
Do you have like a good story about your grandma?

Jatayo 11:07
I have a funny story that came to mind. As kid you know, when your parents. I assume most people’s parents did this. Maybe you’re fighting in the backseat with your siblings and your mom goes. Y’all better stop fighting her. I will turn this car around.

Harper 11:23
Yeah, been there.

Jatayo 11:25
My grandma has her own version of this. She will go and find someone on the street side of the street. And she will yell in her little Asian accent that she will leave us with that man if we don’t start arguing. Now, she never did. But as a kid, it worked. It scared us. We were like No, don’t leave me with that wierd looking man.

Phoebe 11:42
Oh my god.

Jatayo 11:43
Yeah. It worked.

Harper 11:45
I love her even more than I did 30 seconds ago.

Phoebe 11:48
Wow. Threatening children we love it.

Harper 11:52
I don’t blame her.

Jatayo 11:53
I don’t blame her either. Honestly, and I know I was an annoying kid. So

Harper 11:57
Aren’t all kids annoying. Again, we’re pretending I did not say this because please don’t fire me boss if you ever hear this.

Phoebe 12:08
It’s fine. It’s fine. she’ll never. It’s okay.

Harper 12:12
Moving on. I’m still looking at maps of the US to try and find one that will load so I can see a flat head shows up

Jatayo 12:21
I love that for you.

Phoebe 12:22
It doesn’t show up. And it makes me mad.

Harper 12:26
Anyway. Sorry.

Phoebe 12:27
Am I just a little dot in the abyss of the world.

Harper 12:30
That’s exactly what you are. Literally,

Jatayo 12:32
We are your nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Phoebe 12:35
I’m supposed to be important.

Harper 12:36
In the grand scheme of things you do not matter.

Phoebe 12:38
But like if Missoula is a dot on the thing then Flathead has to show up right? That dot would be…

Harper 12:42
Well, flatheads not bigger than Missoula.

Phoebe 12:50
But like,

Jatayo 12:52
yeah, it is

Harper 12:53
is the actual lake.

Jatayo 12:54
I feel like it is. Flatheads pretty big. I feel like it would be

Harper 12:58
I don’t know geography guys. Don’t ask me.

Phoebe 13:01
Anyway, I guess tell us a story. You’ve told us a lot. But just any

Jatayo 13:06
Any story?

Harper 13:07
Pick your favorite story to tell in your life?

Phoebe 13:10
What’s your go to?

Jatayo 13:11
I don’t I don’t tell a lot of stories normally,

Harper 13:15
Talk about your directing experience.

Jatayo 13:16
Oh my directing experience Yes. That was that was definitely a challenge that was for those who that do not know I directed our our sentinels theaters Sentinel theaters show for Thespian Festival,

Harper 13:34
Which is basically just State Theater.

Jatayo 13:35
Yeah, State Theatre and it was a one act show. We did why do we laugh. And that was my directorial debut, which definitely had many challenges. The biggest one probably being that I have to kind of step up and actually like, almost be a teacher, and or I guess, a leader and help control people because many people know that everyone in the theater is wild. absolutely wild.

Harper 14:05
And also it was a challenge because our best stage manager was no longer available for stage managing. Because he was director. Yes,

Jatayo 14:12
I am normally our resident stage manager, and I was not available to do that. Also, just the creative process of directing that show was very weird, just because I had never really done that. And I didn’t, I didn’t really know what to go off of. I was just sending it and seeing what happened. And I mean, it worked.

Harper 14:34
It was also just a weird show to have to direct in general.

Jatayo 14:37
It was kind of a weird show. Yeah. There wasn’t a lot of movement. It was it was sad. Sad, but but happy. You know, it was sentimental

Harper 14:47
Bittersweet.

Jatayo 14:47
Bittersweet. Yeah.

Harper 14:48
What do you think was the hardest part of like moving that show, from or not moving that show but like making that show into something that was able to be performed? Not just in our theater in front of people who maybe don’t know about theater that was, but to the university in front of like, all of the departments in Montana?

Jatayo 15:08
the biggest challenge, honestly, was probably just accounting for the fact that this stage is completely different at the University of Montana. So we, and we were doing, we did a show at Sentinel, and then we took it to state and did a show there. So we had to make sure that we could perform it on our stage and at the university, which posed many challenges with lights, as you would know, sound all our set everything it was.

Harper 15:08
Sound it wasn’t that hard for transporting.

Jatayo 15:39
That’s true. That’s true light lights.

Harper 15:41
I don’t want to talk about it.

Phoebe 15:45
And then so you’re very involved in theater.

Jatayo 15:47
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. If if anything. With that settled theater does I am a part of at this point. And being president of theater club, I help organize and run most of it. And of course, I could not do any of it with the without the help of Ms. Cassidy. She is a amazing human being love her

Harper 16:08
I feel like it’s kind of reversed. You know, she’s doing it. She couldn’t do it without you.

Jatayo 16:12
Oh, yeah. She can’t do it without me either. I hold that lady together. She knows it she says that all the time.

Harper 16:18
She does she I will confirm that. He’s not just bragging.

Jatayo 16:21
She says that all the time?

Harper 16:23
No. There’s like the core theater crew. And I feel like without us, and I’m including myself in that group. Without us she would.

Jatayo 16:32
But I mean, to be fair, there’s so much stuff that she has to realize and do like I totally understand.

Harper 16:37
It’s not just us, like the group will change too. Right? Yeah. Like last year, it was.

Jatayo 16:43
It was like Barrett Barrett. Yeah. Other people? Yeah.

Harper 16:48
Who was even in theater.

Jatayo 16:49
I don’t even remember at this point.

Phoebe 16:52
Do you plan on continuing theater?

Jatayo 16:54
Yes. I had mentioned. Or I’m planning on going for.

Harper 17:05
You’ve talked about stage managing professionally before,

Jatayo 17:07
I’ve talked about stage managing professionally. And I think I think that’s something that I would be really interested in. Because I mean, theater is something that I really enjoy. And I’m hoping that it’s something I enjoy for the rest of my life. And it is if it is, hopefully I will continue with stage managing stage management, or maybe branch out into some other things. We’ll just see where it goes.

Harper 17:28
Knowing you. I can’t imagine you ever not loving theater.

Jatayo 17:32
Yeah.

Harper 17:33
And you know, like, you know it, you know how it works, you know how to run things. So

Jatayo 17:38
And obviously, there’s plenty more that I can learn because high schools theater is so much different than any other kind of theater. But I mean, I have a very good base knowledge, I guess.

Harper 17:47
Yeah.

Phoebe 17:49
Do you have any good like theater memories or theater stories?

Jatayo 17:54
We all went to or a good chunk of the theater kids went to McDonald’s before a show. And we got back and for some reason, somebody brought all the McDonald’s sauce with them. In the car. I will not name names, but we already did a person knows who they are. And they decided that throwing closed things of McDonald’s barbecue sauce was a good idea.

Harper 18:16
They exploded.

Jatayo 18:17
Yeah, as they threw them. They would hit things and explode a few of these went into my car.

Phoebe 18:23
Oh

Jatayo 18:24
It took a long time to clean it did. Some got in your hair.

Harper 18:28
Yeah. went on stage with barbecue sauce in my hair.

Jatayo 18:30
I think. Yeah. A few people got covered in sauce. It was interesting.

Harper 18:36
Our revenge was to buy a bunch of silly string and spray Sam- person’s car. Oh, I forgot about that. We did do that.

Phoebe 18:39
Good save. Good save. No one knows.

Harper 18:44
Nobody knows his name.

Jatayo 18:47
You just said it.

Harper 18:48
I know. It didn’t happen.

Phoebe 18:51
I mean, I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Harper 18:52
Yeah, no names were said. Perfect. But that was a fun theater story. Are there others that you would like to say?

Jatayo 19:01
I’m sure there are.

Harper 19:03
Denny’s

Jatayo 19:05
Oh, Denny’s. Oh, I can talk about Denny’s. I can talk about Denny’s.

Phoebe 19:08
It’s closing.

Harper 19:08
Don’t remind me.

Jatayo 19:09
So the theatre department we have this tradition that after every it’s typically on our Friday nights when we do our show.

Harper 19:17
Friday, Saturday night shows.

Jatayo 19:18
Friday, Saturday. Yeah, our closing night. We have a tradition where we will go to Denny’s afterward, after our show closes for the night. Which is a very fun experience. I do feel bad for Denny’s because it’s a lot of people and there’s typically one server.

Harper 19:33
Danny loves us though.

Jatayo 19:35
Danny from Denny’s. If you’re out there. I love you.

Harper 19:37
We miss you. We hope you’re doing well. With Denny’s closing.

Jatayo 19:40
I see him at Five Guys all the time.

Harper 19:42
I need to come to Five Guys to see Danny.

Jatayo 19:45
But unfortunately Denny’s is closing. So we cannot continue this tradition.

Harper 19:50
Which is devastating.

Jatayo 19:51
and we are trying to find a tradition to continue.

Harper 19:54
There’s really none.

Jatayo 19:55
Yeah, there really aren’t. There’s no restaurants like Denny’s.

Harper 19:58
There’s nowhere like Denny’s. We can just drive where’s the closest studies just drive all the way there after the show every night.

Jatayo 20:05
Oh, God.

Phoebe 20:06
I mean, wasn’t Denny’s closing like super early?

Harper 20:09
Yeah. Which made this year’s we had issues with going to

Jatayo 20:12
Yeah, we didn’t get to do it at all this year.

Harper 20:14
Which sucks like this year’s freshmen are never going to experience the Denny’s tradition.

Jatayo 20:18
But we were hoping that maybe later on they’d open up later and we get to continue and then they closed. Yeah.

Harper 20:23
RIP Denny’s.

Phoebe 20:26
You’re a senior, so Sentinel High School highlight.

Jatayo 20:33
I’m gonna be honest, I don’t know if there’s a lot of those.

Harper 20:36
Meeting me there. Boom.

Jatayo 20:37
There you go. Especially, um, let’s see. My I mean, my freshman and sophomore years, I started out pretty rough. I didn’t really have, I guess. I mean, most of them. And none of us had normal high school experience. Can

Harper 20:52
I interrupt really fast for freshmen sophomore year being rough, Junior Senior, not he met me his junior year. Clearly, it’s all me. Everything’s connected.

Phoebe 20:59
That’s true.

Jatayo 20:59
Well, I think junior year is when I started to do theater, and I was involved in a lot more orchestra activities, I put myself out a bit more in it really did help. But I mean, highlights, it would have to probably be theater, that’s probably been some of the most fun I’ve had for a while. Outside of that. I hate school. But most people do. So. I don’t really go to like football games or anything. So those aren’t highlights. But I would say theater.

Harper 21:32
Um, and as a senior, you get to have like the senior leave early. And you’re doing a thing where you’re still earning eight credits, but you only have five periods. Yeah, talk about that a little bit

Jatayo 21:45
Yes I can. Well, we’ll start off with a little backstory. So my freshman year I was in Indonesia for my first semester. So that put me behind 3.5 credits, which I was very delighted to hear that from my counselor. Hauna, I love you, but come on. So my the rest of my freshman year and sophomore year, I was just trying to catch up on credits. So by the time I got to my senior year, I still needed eight credits to graduate so I finagled quite a few different things. We have Spartan work Co Op, which is amazing. Because I work 24 plus hours a week at five guys, so I can get credit just for working, which so I get two credits from that. I take a zero period

Harper 22:37
and then four classes

Jatayo 22:38
and then four classes. Yes, so I take five classes. But I get I get eight. The extra one was it’s this English thing. I don’t know how to describe it.

Harper 22:52
Dual credit?

Jatayo 22:53
No, it’s, it’s not it’s not a class. It’s not at all. It’s something that I’ve worked with a few English teachers for to get to get my missing English credit. Ah, that’s not a curriculum. It’s it’s kind of just something that multiple English teachers just kind of threw at me and said, If you do this, you can get an English credit. And I said yes. So here we are.

Harper 23:17
Okay. Yeah. So overall very impressive person.

Jatayo 23:21
Very impressive.

Harper 23:22
Yes, like, honestly icon.

Phoebe 23:27
And you already kind of answered this just with the way that you’ve spoken answered the other questions, but what’s your outlook on life

Jatayo 23:34
Outlook on life? I will be honest, it is. It’s not the best, I think with the outlook of our planet. And things as am I going to into that?

Harper 23:44
No, no. Not at all. I’m sorry you just, outlook on life I’m depressed.

Jatayo 23:49
Well, you’re not wrong. But I mean, my outlook on life would just be we don’t have a long time here. That’s that’s pretty much guaranteed. I feel like at this point, we don’t have a lot of time. The world’s dying. We’re all dying. So have fun while you can and enjoy it and screw it. Anybody else thinks do what you want and have fun doing it? Whoo. Yeah.

Harper 24:12
That sounded sarcastic, but like genuinely, I agree.

Phoebe 24:15
Yeah.

Jatayo 24:15
Thank you.

Harper 24:16
You’re welcome. So thank you all for listening to episode three of Spartans and focus.

Phoebe 24:23
And thank you Jatayo for joining us.

Jatayo 24:25
Yes, of course.

Harper 24:26
Our final question for you today.

Phoebe 24:28
Can you make a strange noise for us?

Jatayo 24:32
*Elephant noise*