“Achievement Made! The…End?”
From his Minecraft server admin days to his role as Zephyrus’s design editor, Leon Situ has shaped more than just pixels on a screen. Throughout the 2025–26 school year, Leon never failed to help a floundering layout staff member, respond to 3 a.m. texts, or offer a critical eye to his fellow art staff struggling with perspective. Even while juggling AP Statistics homework, Science Bowl, the robotics team, and co-leading Art Club, he managed to turn countless pages of rough drafts (emphasis on the rough) into creative, visually appealing newspaper spreads.
Leon joined Zephyrus in his sophomore year after being recruited by two extremely passionate staff writers.
“I was in the middle of AP Gov when Lynn-Clara and Valerie ambushed me,” Leon said. “They said, ‘Wow, you do art, right? You should totally join Zephyrus because it definitely doesn’t have only two artists next year.’ So I was like, ‘Sure, that sounds interesting.’”
Throughout his three years on Zephyrus, Leon accumulated countless fond memories and interactions that he considers his most valuable gains from other staff.
“There’s just a certain energy you can’t really get by just ‘working together’ with other people, but Zephyrus is uniquely collaborative in that aspect,” he said. “I think I’ll definitely join a publication or produce something graphic design related in the future.”
You might expect someone who constantly wears headphones in the back of the publication room to at least know some of their favorite songs of all time, but Leon’s a little special.
“I don’t know a theme song,” he said. “But maybe it’d be my alarm clock to wake up.”
Even with a brain made of steel and a will of iron, Leon faced some pretty big challenges over the course of his high school years. Though he’s now permanently burnt out, he “locked in” for his junior year with robotics on top of seven APs and is proud of making it through the most stressful time of his high school career. Leon totally (doesn’t) avoid the overachiever trope, but some personal goals he hopes to accomplish include becoming more confident in talking to people and getting a hypoallergenic pet.
Despite all of his incredible qualities, Zephyrus’s beloved design editor holds a single, yet extremely severe flaw.
“I think chocolate sucks.” Even under a severely accosting glare, Leon powered on. “Translating chocolate into milk or ice cream just doesn’t work. It’s not the same flavor profile. It’s a completely different vibe.”
The wise and aged Leon is, well, wise. However, he has one piece of advice in particular to share.
“Don’t worry about other people. 10 years from now, everyone’s gonna cringe at their past self because they’ve grown, and growing up is realizing all the stupid things you made in your childhood,” he said.
As an incoming freshman at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Leon remains somewhat undecided about his future beyond Edina but wants to pursue something biology-related.
“Don’t be an idiot,” Leon said to his future self. “Go talk to people. Come on now. Stop being introvert[ed], nerd.”
This piece was originally published in Zephyrus’ print edition on May 19, 2026
