This week, we shine our senior spotlight on a student beyond comparison at Concord High School: Jayden Carpenter-Sattler. His bright, funny personality has made a significant impact on everyone who knows him, which is why we are honored to be writing about him.
Carpenter-Sattler has attended Concord from the start, beginning in kindergarten. In those years, he has made countless memories. One of his favorite memories was from when he was in elementary school. This specific memory happened during recess: “They used to give us sleds sometimes when it was snowing, and we would go down this hill in the back of the playground. It was awesome. People would try to climb up the hill, and we would try to hit them. We would get in trouble, but it was still fun to go after them sometimes.”
His main passion is music, so of all his classes, his favorite is band. He explains, “I just really like playing instruments, and it is a good way to wake yourself up in the morning.” He adds that since he puts a lot of time and effort into his musical passion, that takes up a majority of his time when he is not in school.
Senior year has been a big one for Carpenter-Sattler, with many amazing accomplishments. He explains that his biggest accomplishment has been while being drum major for the band: “I was able to win, with the help of the other drum major, the award for best percussion. We ended up getting first place in D class.” He goes on to explain that in that moment he was really excited and proud of the work they put in. Most of all, he was excited because their band director bought everyone in the band McDonald’s.
Courtesy of Jayden
Outside of school, he enjoys writing poetry, being an amateur photographer, going to church, playing chess, and, most of all, music. He shares that his favorite song is “Holland” by Sufjan Stevens, and his favorite show is one on Netflix called The Good Place.
Writing songs and music is a big part of Carpenter-Sattler’s life. He makes music under the name Mud Planet on almost every music platform. His most recent album, Songs of Dogs, was released a few months ago. He shares his songwriting process: “Most of the time I spend songwriting is writing instrumentals because that is what I like the most, actually playing the guitar and the drums. Then at the end of it, when it comes to writing lyrics, I just kind of say the first thing that comes to my mind.”
His future plans are correlated with his music. He shares that he will be attending college to study audio engineering. He first wants to attend Jackson College for two years and get his general education there. Then, after college, he wants to attend Central Michigan to do their music technologies program, while mainly focusing on audio engineering. When asked why he wants to go into this field, Carpenter-Sattler responded, “You are not the one actually making the music, though I love making music; you are not the musician; there is no stress in making a hit record. You are just the person that makes the musicians sound good, and I think that is fun.”
Elizabeth Jordan is one of Carpenter-Sattler’s close friends. She has known him since she was in kindergarten and he was in first grade. They are currently taking two classes together: creative writing and band. Creative writing is her favorite class with him, and she explains, “With creative writing, you see a different side to him. He’s a bit more vulnerable and not always as cocky or sarcastic as he tends to act: more likely to be genuine. It can be refreshing, especially from him.” Last year, she had a few classes with him as well. Drama is where some of her favorite memories with Carpenter-Sattler became. Jordan shares her top memory: “Multiple memories of him are connected to the name “Buffy.” It’s a nickname we found when we searched “nicknames for Elizabeth” in drama class one random time last year. I wasn’t fond of the nickname initially, and we both thought it was goofy, so he started calling me “Buffy” to pick on me or express dramatic frustration towards me.” Jordan explains that his unique character and his confidence are attributes she loves about him. His behavior of being unapologetically himself also is inspiring to her.
Another one of Carpenter-Sattler‘s close friends, Max Lebron, first met Carpenter-Sattler around the summer of their eighth-grade year. In reference to his favorite memory with Carpenter-Sattler, he thinks back to an abundance of times. He says, “Probably all the times we were just sitting in the band room chilling, waiting for band events to start.” He enjoys being friends with Carpenter-Sattler and overall finds him to be “funny and just a chill guy.”
Carpenter-Sattler‘s long-time friend, Brigham Bentley, has known him since the fourth grade. He explains, “My earliest memories with him were playing a game together at recess. I think it was around 2016-2017.” He shares that three words he would use to describe him would be confident, dedicated, and funny.
Mrs. Fiero has had him for a few classes, one of which is this year. She explains what it is like to have him as a student: “He is very crafty with his wordings, and he brings up a lot of topics and concepts that tie to things very well that you would not think tie to it. He is creative in the ways he answers questions, and he is very passionate about making sure he gets good grades.” Throughout her time as his educator, Mrs. Fiero has seen all the ways he has stuck out to her in ways other students do not. She shares that the main thing about him is his vibrant personality. He is always positive and extremely passionate about everything he does and knows. She adds something to say to him: “I am very proud of the accomplishments he has had, and I am very excited to see where he goes with his musical career.”
He explains that with a lot of excitement throughout high school, there is a lot for him to miss. He shares what he thinks he will miss the most: “The people. When I am not in school, I do not really talk to too many people. I usually just play instruments and talk to my grandparents. Being at school gives me a good opportunity to talk to people I am not related to, and it is just refreshing.”
Carpenter-Sattler leaves underclassmen with one last piece of advice. He says, “Do not procrastinate. Procrastination is like spending on a credit card. You get a little extra time to talk to your friends, but after you’re behind on one assignment, they begin to build until at the end of the quarter, you have 1000 missing assignments.”
We want to thank Carpenter-Sattler for having such a bright personality that could light up any person’s day. We wish him the very best in everything he does in the future, especially his musical career!
