By Maddy Mabray, Anna Baranowski, Elisa Carter, and Sophie Delaney
WHAT EVENTS IN YOUR LIFE HAVE SHAPED YOU MOST AS A PERSON?
Senior Jonathon Biondo started the school year in a bad mindset, partly because of his experience in virtual classes in the first semester.
“[I was] in such a negative mindset, ‘cause I was in online first semester,” Biondo said. “That sucked. I never left the house, never went out to do anything. [I] don’t recommend online, unless you really enjoy sitting on the couch and falling asleep in class.”
However, he said that getting his first job really helped him get out of that loop, and changed him as a person for the better.
“This year, I started going to the gym and I got my first job at Urban Air, and that actually just shaped my whole mindset and being a positive person,” Biondo said. “I feel like I’m more outgoing because of it.”
• • •
Junior Dylan Noble reminisces on his childhood while looking back at what has shaped him as a person.
“When I grew up, my family didn’t have all that much money. We basically survived paycheck to paycheck for a little bit,” Noble said. “My dad would take me to his work because we couldn’t afford a babysitter when I was younger, and I learned hard lessons like hard working...to do what you’re told when you’re told to so you can keep that paycheck coming in.”
Noble now proudly adds how his family is now doing well financially due to his parents' hard work.
“My family has money now,” Noble said. “My dad has his own business, my mom has her own business. We basically came from paycheck to paycheck to enough money to buy another good house.”
• • •
Something that has strongly shaped junior Kylie Nichols's life is the passing of her father this last summer.
“He actually passed this previous summer in July,” Nichols said. “It was a big event and it really taught me that I need to keep the ones that I love close to me.”
WHAT ARE YOU ‘A NERD’ ABOUT?
When senior Bradley Richard was little, he fell in love with reading about the world and universe, expanding his understanding of the world around him.
“You can just look up at the sky...and it's unlike anything else, knowing that out there is...more,” Richard said.
As he looked at the chaos and order he found, he used the vast number of variations to help him understand the people around him.
“I found understanding of people from [my] understanding of space. There is chaos, and there is order, but it's how you view either of them, that gives them that categorization. Not all order is order, not all chaos is chaotic. It is the machinations of the human mind that gives us those qualities,” Richard said.
When she was younger, freshman Ava Schriber was very interested in books.
“I used to be really nerdy about a bunch of books,” Schriber said. “I would just read all day long.”
Schriber says that she’s moved on from being a ‘book nerd’, now preferring to get into television shows.
“But now, I kinda switched over to TV shows,” Schriber said. “I like My Hero Academia a lot. I don’t think anyone knows what that is, but it’s just a fun show that I really love.”
Junior Dylan Noble is a nerd about all things Marvel. He can state random facts about the Marvel universe that you would have never known if you didn’t ask or research it yourself.
“I am a nerd about Marvel movies. I have watched all of them and I know basically everything like little details inside of it,” Noble said.
He then gives an example of a detail he knows about the Marvel movie Ant-Man and the Wasp.
“The building that they shrink down...there’s a giant battery in it, a Duracell battery, that powers the entire thing,” Noble said.
WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Freshman Kaitlyn Koelling aspires to be a supportive person to those who are struggling.
“I wanna be a person that can help other people,” Koelling said. “Like, actually have a one-on-one conversation and help other people in life.”
She shared that she wants to be supportive for others because having others to support her was greatly helpful in her life.
“I went through a couple [of hard times], and I always had that one person that was always there for me, and it helped a lot,” Koelling said.
• • •
Sophomore Charles Benoist wants to always be there for people throughout his life.
“I want to be someone everyone can count on,” Benoist said. “Not just out for himself or to make money. Someone who is willing to give up something for someone else.”
• • •
Sophomore Molly McGraw wants to be like her dad.
"He’s such a caring person, especially during COVID," McGraw said. "He learned a coworker didn’t have enough money to buy baby food and told her she is always welcome to come over if she needed to."
WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU’VE DREAMED OF DOING FOR A LONG TIME? WHY HAVEN’T YOU DONE IT?
Freshman Kaitlyn Koelling wants to go on a road trip with some of her friends once she’s able to.
“I dream of going on a road trip with my friends,” Koelling said. “I haven’t done it yet ‘cause I’m not financially stable yet.”
Koelling hopes that a road trip with friends would help to deal with some of life’s stresses.
“[I want to] just have fun, because, in our world right now, there’s a lot going on,” Koelling said. “Everybody just needs to take a deep breath and actually relax, and get through stuff.”
According to Koelling, life’s too short to not go on an adventure.
“We only live once, and it’s a short life anyway, so why not go do something crazy?” Koelling said.
• • •
In a similar vein, freshman Landon Ianiri is interested in taking a trip to Alaska at some point.
“It’s more of like a future trip,” Ianiri said. “I really wanna see mountains and stuff like that. [It] just seemed really interesting to me.”
• • •
Junior Janashia Greenlee has dreamed of doing many things in her lifetime, including skydiving, swimming with fish, and trying new exotic foods.
“I’ve dreamed of wanting to go skydiving or swimming with the fish,” Greenlee said. “I like to travel and I want to try a lot of new things. Something I have dreamed of doing is trying new food.”
Something else she has dreamed of doing is traveling, specifically to the Philippines. Although she has never been there, she plans to go one day.
“I have dreamed of traveling,” Greenlee said. “The Philippines is a beautiful place and it has a lot of landmarks.”
• • •
Junior Kylie Nichols has dreamed of going to college for a long time. Nichols has spent a large part of her life thinking about where she is going to go to college and what she will study.
“I have been a nerd about college since I was super young. I literally started planning colleges that I could go to since I was six,” Nichols said. “I want to get my degree in aviation. I have always enjoyed traveling, so I figured that was a good way to do it.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY TATTOOS OR MEANINGFUL MARKS?
Senior Jonathon Biondo doesn’t have any tattoos, but he knows what he’d get if he were to get a tattoo.
“I am diabetic, so I’d get something on my forearm,” Biondo said. “That would be kind of cool, instead of having the medical alert bracelet every single day.”
• • •
Junior Dylan Noble does not have any meaningful marks or tattoos either, but some of his family members do. Noble's siblings have special tattoos that Noble plans to get one day on his body.
“My brother has our last name on his bicep and my sister is getting one on her wrist,” Noble said. “I am planning to get one on my back.”
He adds why this specific tattoo is so special to him and why he wants to get it.
“My dad always said blood is thicker than water growing up and that’s why I dream of having a tattoo on my back, just to know my family is always there for me and will never go away,” Noble said. “My family will always be there.”
• • •
Senior Bradley Richard remembers his scars fondly as learning experiences.
“One time I ran into my bed. I got a nice big scar on my left leg from an exposed bedframe,” Richard said. “It is learning from that hurt that we grow as people. And I find that truly poetic.”
Richard notes that these reminders teach you a lot about life and that it’s okay to have bumps and bruises, while additionally recalling that steak knives are sharp and not to be played around with.
• • •
Freshman Ava Schriber shared about the scar she has on her wrist.
“I was like, five or six or something, and I was on this wagon,” Schriber said. “I put my hand out on the tire, and my mom said ‘don’t do that’ multiple times.”
Schriber defied her mom’s advice, resulting in the scar she still has almost a decade later.
“I did it multiple times, and actually cut my skin open,” Schriber said. “So, I just have this scar now.”
• • •
While junior Janashia Greenlee has no tattoos or meaningful scars, she does have two piercings that she had wanted for a long time before she got them.
“I have two piercings right now, my belly button piercing that I recently got and my nose piercing,” Greenlee said. “I've wanted my belly button and my nose for a long time, but my people wouldn’t let me get it until I turned 18. So when I turned 18, straight up, I got my nose and my belly button piercings.”
WHO IS SOMEONE THAT MAKES YOU PROUD?
Senior Sarah Skelly is most proud of her two older sisters.
“I have two older sisters, Elizabeth and Mariah,” Skelly said. “They make me proud because they’re super hardworking and just have always had specific goals in mind, and just always committed to them, and I think that that’s really inspiring.”
One of her sisters is finally achieving one of the goals she was committed to, inspiring Skelly a lot.
“My oldest sister, Mariah, she went to college for music therapy, and she just recently moved out,” Skelly said. “She’s working as a music therapist in a psychiatric hospital in St. Louis, so she’s actually getting to do the job that she really wanted to.”
Meanwhile, Skelly’s other sister, Elizabeth, is still in college, but on a path to something she cares a lot about.
“My other sister, she goes to Northwest Missouri State, and she’s majoring in nanochemistry,” Skelly said. “But she’s really passionate about what she does, and she just finds everything so exciting.”
Someone who makes sophomore Leanna Welch-Herring proud is her great-grandfather.
“He was in WWII,” Welch-Herring said. “He is someone who always stands up for someone. He was here during the Depression. He was a bus driver for the disabled. He stood up for people during segregation. He makes me want to be a better person every day.”
WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY, AND WHY?
The last time senior Sarah Skelly cried was at the end of her final theater production.
“I do theater at the community college for a group called Young People’s Theatre, and we just did a production of Tuck Everlasting, and we were filming it,” Skelly said. “Our final filming day was on Wednesday.”
She described the experience as bittersweet, given that the theater group has brought many happy memories for her that are now coming to an end.
“It was really bittersweet to have to let it go, since I’m a senior, and I joined in seventh grade,” Skelly said. “But I’m also really thankful for all the people that I met in that show, because if it wasn’t for that show, then I wouldn’t have made a lot of the friends that I have.”
For Skelly, this final show marks the end of an era.
“It’s sad to move on, because I’m not doing theater in college,” Skelly said.
The last time senior Bradley Richard cried was on his last day of senior year in his Teen Health and Wellness class.
“I got to meet a lot of very unique people, hear their stories,” Richard said. “It was amazing really how people you can just pass by in the hallways...if you were put in the same room with them...you could get along with each other, and you could become friends with even the strangest of strangers.”
He feels that although not everything was perfect, this experience was hugely influential in his life.
“I’m...most proud of the fact that I was able to stick to it,” Richard said. “There were some points where I was thinking about giving up, [but] I’m getting my diploma today and I’ve got straight A’s in all my classes. I’ve put in the effort.”
• • •
Freshman Ava Schriber also recently cried about our seniors graduating, but for a different reason.
“It’s not really like a big cry, but I tear up when I think about all the seniors leaving, and my brother leaving,” Schriber said. “I don’t want them to leave.”
Though her brother is a junior, she’s still worried about him graduating next year, especially since that will leave her as the oldest child in the house.
“And then, me having to be the older sister to my sisters,” Schriber said. “[I’ll] have to be the big one in the family, or the biggest daughter. That’s scary.”
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PHOTO AND WHAT’S THE STORY BEHIND IT?
Freshman Ava Schriber doesn’t necessarily have a favorite photo, but she shared a particular photo, featuring her great-aunt, that makes her happy.
“I have a lot of favorite photos,” Schriber said. “One of them, I painted my great-aunt’s nails. She’s a hundred years old, and I painted her nails, and I took a picture of it, and I edited the photo to make it look all pretty.”
Schriber shared that her great-aunt is doing well at her age, hence the caption she put on the photo.
“I just love it, because she’s still alive,” Schriber said. “She’s still driving, and is still going to the casino.”
She added that the photo makes her feel proud, reminding her of her great-aunt’s longevity.
“I just love how old she is, and how she’s lived her life so well,” Schriber said. “She inspires me.”
Freshman Kaitlyn Koelling recalled her favorite photo being taken on her sister’s birthday.
“She was already having a bad day, even though it was her birthday,” Koelling said. “I tried to cheer her up, but it really didn’t work.”
Then, she got the idea to take a picture with her sister, to try to bring some happiness to the day.
“We were just hanging out and chilling, and then I said, ‘well, let’s take a picture,’” Koelling said. “We took a picture, and then we just both started laughing, hysterically, for no reason. I think we were just happy.”
She added that, on top of managing to cheer up her sister, taking the photo was beneficial to their relationship.
“After that photo happened, I guess it did something,” Koelling said. “Just seeing us together, ‘cause we didn’t really hang out [as] much as we used to.”
SENIORS: WHAT IS YOUR FINAL ADVICE TO OTHERS?
Sarah Skelly: “Try not to dwell on things in the past. You can either move on, or you can just get stuck and just be sad. If you’re focused on things that have already happened, there’s nothing you can do to change anything.”
Bradley Richard: “Don't give up. Things only end when you say they will end.”
Krystal Arias: “It's never too late to figure out what you want to do.”
Olivia Anderson: “Don't take anything for granted. Do what you want to do, [and] don't let anyone hold you back. It’s your life.”