Six full hours of strait musical hit after hit, the Hella Mega Tour featuring Green Day, Weezer, and Fall Out Boy marks itself as a shining golden memory that flashes constantly in junior Evan Churches mind. In fact, throughout the past few years of their life, Evan has had an electrifying passion for all things music in their childhood. 

However, throughout their upbringing, another special interest they shared with their father spurred another obsession. Ideas and theology of science show up prominently in their childhood correlating with science and aerospace. 

“I used to be very good at making paper airplanes and my dad taught me the aerodynamics behind airplanes,” Evan said. “[My dad] is a software engineer for an aerospace company and he is one of the smartest people I know.”

Evan has been to many museums, including the space shuttle in Los Angeles. In fact, they have seen almost all four that still exist today. Much of Evan’s family share this particular interest leading themselves to hyper-fixate on all things science related.

“I always have had this passion for [science] because of my upbringing,” Evan said, “through science centers, museums, and all that hands-on stuff in my own basement; all because of my dad.”

Their dad has shared many other interests too, like the aforementioned musical ‘rock obsession’. Because of this, many trips have been made to have more experiences buried deep into musical motifs much like scientific theories. 

Evan’s upbringing had a lot to do with ‘pop punk’ as they call it, but they disregarded it as a proper label due to the mass of vibes and genres they themselves currently listen to. Much of the influence, like science, comes from their parents’ influence. 

“When I was really little my parents would listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers,” Evan said, “That’s what I like and it was the type of music I drifted to and was familiar with. I am a very emotional person so finding music that is emotional like that has helped me to feel confident in my own skin.”

This music in particular is what inspired Evan to pick up and learn how to play the base. Having watched a few tutorials, Evan considers it a significant improvement from when they first started to play. They even remark about a video buried in a phone’s camera roll of themselves playing and thinking they were awesome at it, but now they can’t help but cringe at the growth. 

Now Evan plays with the FHC Jazz Ensemble professionally, having three-plus years or so of practice and experience. Along with that, they have the experience of watching professionals do their thing on stage through multiple hours of concerts and bags of confetti. 

“We drove there and stayed overnight,” Evan said, “and that day we went downtown and walked around for a while and while we were hanging around Comerica Park I heard one of the soundchecks [for the first band].”

The Hella Mega Tour was, and they quote, the best six hours of their life. Even if two-thirds of the concert consisted of chaos and half shrieks because they forgot to bring water. Despite having lost their voice, Evan still recounts the experience with admiration. 

Now, as they mature and grow to see a long-term life, Evan’s flaming admiration for music has shifted its course, and now flies wing to wing with a brand new idea. 

“Recently I have reconsidered what I want to do with my life,” Evan said, “If you asked me [when he was younger] what I wanted to be, I was dead set on being a musician in a band and I still do have that passion. But I have realized that, hey, maybe in a long term I wouldn’t be quite happy right?”

Hyper-fixations and museums have fueled this new enthusiasm for a long-term goal. The best part about this is the fact that Evan has still enjoyed all that has led up to this decision. 

“I have looked into and considered [college courses],” Evan said, “and going back to the paper airplane thing with my dad, [me] being in aviation or aerospace. I have always had a dream to fly. It’s also very, very different from what I wanted to be beforehand but I am still passionate about it.”

The future is still very uncertain for Evan but still illuminated with neon lights and stretched across a runway leading to a career that will surely go down in history. And in doing so, they will walk this path knowing that they themselves have chosen it for their destiny, not caring if what happened to them before influenced them here and now. 

“If you think you’ll be happy doing something, go for it,” Evan said. “If you want to go to space, be a musician in a band, or fly an airplane, go for it. If you’re passionate about it, make it happen.”