Although there are many things that freshman Demian Detweiler is, an average high school student is not one of them. He is something that seems to be fairly rare these days – someone who doesn’t shy away from his or her quirks, and is satisfied with being himself. His hobbies and even his physical appearance (he has a braid down to his low back) vary a little bit from what is considered normal, but that is how he likes it.

“I’d say I’m different. Until this past March I had never cut [my hair] in my life. It was down past my knees. It’s not for religious reasons. I just like it long,” Detweiler said.

Detweiler has a substantial interest in preserving the environment. Like others in the past, he is determined to ride his bike to school every day of the school year in “rain, slush, snow or sun.” However Detwheiler, who is a self-taught unicyclist, would also like to ride his unicycle to school starting in the spring.

“Two years ago, I decided to teach myself to unicycle. I bought a unicycle and I brought it home. I started riding it around my yard. After a month or two of doing it every day I got kind of good. I started to ride around some tennis courts by my house, and after riding on the grass that was really easy. Now I ride around town,” Detweiler said.

Detweiler also said that he hasn’t had a chance to ride his unicycle to school yet because from his house, it takes nearly 35 minutes to ride all the way to school, and he hasn’t had time any morning.

It’s not only his form of commute to school that is unique, but his interests and hobbies are as well. After school on an average afternoon, he can be found working on model cars or airplanes in his garage, or maybe helping out with watering and caring for plants. In the past year alone, he has built and re-built three remote control cars, using Legos and parts of old remote control cars.

“I watched a couple of YouTube videos for ideas, but I mostly just tried stuff and failed a couple of times before getting something right,” Detweiler said.

Airplanes are another one of his interests. It is one of his dreams to get his Pilot’s license, but in the meantime he settles for flying small remote control airplanes that he sometimes builds and often paints himself.

“I fly them out in Marolt, where Para gliders land. It gets hard because it’s windy. I’ve wrecked so many planes out there,” Detweiler laughed.

“There is so much about [Demian] you wouldn’t guess at first: he loves plants and gardening and exotic reptiles. He is also very sweet, funny, creative and very inventive and great at building things,” sophomore Nakiri Gallagher-Cave said. Gallagher-Cave has known Detweiler since the age of four.

Over the summer, Detweiler and his mother kept a hive of honeybees in their yard. They have processed their own honey, and given some away to friends and family. Although the bees are Detwheiler’s most unique pets, they are not the only ones. Detwheiler also has multiple fish and frogs, various fish and sea snails in a small aquarium, a dog, a cat, a bearded dragon lizard, two rabbits, and a number of goldfish in a pond that he built himself.

Many people here at ASD may not have seen Detweiler or gotten the chance to know him yet, as he just came to AHS this year. For elementary and middle school, he went to the Waldorf School on the Roaring Fork, which is in Carbondale.

“I like AHS better than Waldorf. At WSRF, not a lot of people accepted me. People would tell me to cut my hair or wear different hats, but here people don’t seem to care about that stuff. It’s nice,” he said. “The transition was best. I like being accepted for who I am.”

While there are many words that could be used to describe Detweiler – extraordinary, brave, interesting – average will never be one of them, for Detweiler is an outstanding young man.