Wearing a face similar to that of her sisters, freshman Clare Field has entered high school living apart from her two older sisters. 

“Teachers often relate me to my sisters,” Clare said. “In the beginning of the year, they knew we were related because we look similar. But also teachers that we shared ask how they are doing and what they are doing in life.”

Clare is one of three, or better said five, when including her two dogs. 

Walking the same hallways as her sisters had just years earlier, Clare is offered some comfort in their prior experience. 

“Having two sisters going through the school has impacted me a lot,” Clare said. “I knew more of what to expect going into high school, so I wasn’t as scared. They told me to get involved with the school as much as I can because you can meet new people and friends. The advice and stories they gave me really helped me.”

Having learned from her predecessors’ mistakes and experiences, she finds herself much more ready to take on new experiences, especially entering her first year of high school.

“A pro of being the youngest is being more prepared for many things,” Clare said. “For example, high school. Another pro is that I know I always have someone to talk to because they have probably experienced the same thing.”

While Clare strives to replicate the highlights and excitement of the stories shared with her, she also finds it important to discover something that makes her stand out. 

“We all have similarities and differences,” Clare said. “One of the main differences is that growing up, we all played different sports. My oldest sister, Payton, was a ballerina, my other sister, Ellie, who just graduated last year, swam competitively. I play soccer and golf.”

Each girl took on their own path, and this has greatly impacted in letting Clare grow and become her own person, not just someone’s little sister.

“One reason I chose to play a different sport than my sisters is because I didn’t want to be compared to them,” Clare said. “I wanted to have my own thing. It sets us apart because we all have different high school experiences, and we all made new friends from the sports that we normally wouldn’t be friends with.”

Clare has played soccer since her earliest memories. To start, she wasn’t the only soccer player in the family. Her sisters even played before she had begun. However, being the only sister that stuck with it, it helped her differentiate from the other girls. 

Leading separate lives in their extracurricular activities, it may seem the sister trio are not close, however, this is impeccably far from the case. 

“I’m close with my sisters,” Clare said. “We’ve definitely gotten closer since they moved away to college. When they are home, we usually just watch movies and hang out with our dogs.”

College has brought their relationship closer, and Clare is thankful for this. Nonetheless, with the house recently emptied from its previous state, Clare’s life has shifted.  

“One con of being the youngest is that I’m basically an only child since both of my sisters are in college,” Clare said.

In the last year, Clare has lost her built-in best friends and support systems, and while falling at the youngest end of the spectrum has always been a positive through the advice she receives, she also must face the rest of high school alone. 

“It’s hard being an only child because I don’t have anyone to hang out with twenty-four-seven,” Clare said. “My sister, Ellie, would always bug me to hangout, and I realize I took that for granted now that she’s gone.”

While she has faced a rather dramatic shift the past few months, Clare has still excelled throughout her freshmen year. 

Never having leaned on her sisters to persevere through sports or having them very close in age, Clare has learned how to thrive and adapt to new situations very well on her own, and high school is no exception. 

“Being different brings us closer together because we all balance each other out,” Clare said. “We are all going through different times in our life whether it has to do with sports or just life in general; we all have something new going on.”