Thank you to my awesome family, who helped me become who I am and continue to help me grow into a better person.

Thank you, Mama, for keeping me in check. Whether you remind me to clean my room or go to bed or to thank my grandparents for visiting me, you always make sure I am on track. Thank you for reading my articles and praising my work. Thank you for laughing at anything and everything. You are the happiest, most joyous person I have ever met, and I cannot wait until I have children one day to pass along this inherent love.

Thank you, Dad, for letting me steal your sweaters, music taste, and sense of humor. I love listening to Weezer and Barenaked Ladies with you; I love watching Community with you. I love sitting down and talking with you and showing you new songs I learned on the guitar you bought for me. I miss you every day when you go off to work. Thank you for supporting my music and keeping it real. 

Thanks, Caden, for being a cool big brother and treating me like your friend most of the time. I love watching Community with you and Dad and screaming 2010s pop in the car with you as you drive 2010 miles over the speed limit. Will Bug, thank you for being my closest sibling in many ways. I love talking to you and spending time with you even though your time is consumed by the hundreds of sports you play. You are such a sweetheart and I’m sorry if I gave you dyslexia when I pushed you down the slide ten years ago. Thanks to Ruthie and Asher for being such awesome and stereotypically accurate younger siblings.

Thank you to the wonderful cast and crew of The Curious Savage for giving me something to look forward to at the end of the day.

Toby Cameron, Sully Lower, Jake Barnes, and Keegan Redmond, y’all are some of the funniest people I’ve ever met. Every one of you made going to rehearsal twice as fun, and I’m going to miss you all so much. Thank you Alex Fletcher for being so hospitable to a new freshman in the theater program. You are such an amazing artist, actress, and singer, and it is so easy to have fun around you! Thank you Paige Harsevoort and Josie Butler for always messing around with me right before we go onstage. Y’all are such talented actresses and it is so hard not to laugh at the impeccable delivery of your lines. Thank you Jonathan Mossner for being almost as funny as you are weird. You are probably the best husband I’ve ever had. Audrey Vanskiver, thank you for being my underclassman twin. I’m so glad we got to do our first play at CHS together and I can’t wait to do more with you in the next few years.

Thank you Gia Monterusso for really showing me how to do theater. You taught me how to do my stage makeup and how to put on a mic and so many other important theater details that I cannot possibly include in a mere paragraph. I love dancing backstage with you while we wait for our cue and rolling on the floor laughing at the most random things. It is so easy and fun to act with your easy stage presence and easier smile. I’m so sad that I only have this year with you but I will cherish it as much as I can. 

Thank you to the awesome crew of TCS. I only got to spend a week or so with you lovely people but it was so great to get to know you in the fleeting time that we had. Thank you Alayna Gschwind for being so hilarious and always offering to give me a ride home to or from school. Thank you, Annaliese Hoffman, Aubrey Hibma, Addie McDowell, Abby McConnell, and Yahvi Patel, my wonderful freshman ladies. I loved our quick but fun conversations in the narrow hallway as we scribbled all over each others’ posters and joked around moments before I had to go onstage. Thank you Megan Boersema for being naturally hilarious and always waving to me in the hallways.

Thank you to the wonderful hair and makeup crew for doing everyone’s (you guessed it!) hair and makeup. I loved singing random show tunes and trying to sing reputation songs in the girl’s dressing room with you all pre-show. Thank you for being such sweet people! Thank you Emalea Rooke for always hanging out with me in the dressing room and attempting to fix my nasty, irreparable costume. Thank you for complimenting my writing and giving me daily outfit inspo in WFP!

Thank you Alex Smith for being the best stage director anyone could ask for. You did so much work throughout the two months reading up to the performance, whether that was giving us notes or posters or meticulously cutting out affirmations for the dressing room bulletins. You are the funniest (and most sane) Swiftie I have ever met, and I can’t wait to work with you in later FHC productions.

Thank you Ms. Dykstra for being such a great director for TCS. I’m so happy I got to act in your first high school show and you got to direct mine. You are such a sweet, caring person and I’m so happy that I get to do theater with you for four more years.

Most of all, thank you John Thomas for always being there for me. Your beauty lies in the abstract; you challenge the imagination. I am simply a rag.

Thank you to everyone in fifth hour Writing for Publications for helping me be a better writer (and ignoring how loud I am).

Thank you to my lovely freshman triplets for making WFP so enjoyable. Kathryn Campbell and Addie McDowell, I love sharing quick gossip and giggles with you even when our tea-spilling sessions give me a great deal of homework. I love reading and editing each other’s work and learning from each others’ stories. I’m so grateful and excited that we get to grow as writers together throughout high school! 

Thank you to Juliana Lieuwen, Autumn Vansolkema, and Lucy Yoder for teaching me random things about Taylor Swift. You three are so sweet and I love having WFP with you all. Thank you Rowan Szpieg for laughing at my unfunny jokes and praising my writing. Thank you Elle Manning for being such a talented writer and an even more stylish person. I can see your voice in your work and your clothes. 

Thank you to Sofia Hargis-Acevedo, Eva Harshman, Addy Cousins, and Kiera Kemppainen, our lovely and stylish editors. You four are so sweet and are always willing to help or answer my ceaseless questions. I’m sad that I only have this semester with you guys but I’m so grateful for the brief time we have together! Thank you for helping teach us how to write for publications in a fun and engaging way!

Finally, Mr. George. I don’t know how much I can stress this enough, but please keep teaching at CHS. As soon as I stepped out of your classroom on the first day of school, I told myself that I wanted you to be my teacher for all four years of high school. I want to paint a tile for your ceiling and a brick for your wall and my name on the cover of a book. You were the teacher who reignited my love for writing after the slump of the century. Every time you remind me to stop procrastinating or pay attention during staff meetings, you do so without being patronizing. Every time anyone enters room 139, you greet them with your booming voice and impeccable humor. Every year in your Countless Thanks, you thank each individual student in every one of your classes; you find something special about every one of your students. You have an interconnectedness with your students that I have never experienced with a teacher before. You make me want to teach so that I can be that person for a kid, the person who makes them excited about learning and school. Thank you for being that person for me.

Please keep teaching at Central, Coach.

Thank you to all of my amazing friends who help get through the day.

Thank you, Isla Magers, for being you. Thank you for remembering the handshake that we made in seventh grade and remembering the memories we made together at Goodwillie. Thank you for the fun Walgreens runs where we bought nothing but took pictures in the mirrors and cameras. Thank you for the brief moments before the first, fourth, and sixth hours where we can quickly say hello and goodbye. Even though we have no classes with each other this year and are slowly spending less and less time together, I cherish every moment with all of my heart. I love you so much, Isla.

Jose, Josie, Josie. Thank you Josie Luyckx for being such a kind and beautiful person. I love the daily squeal as we see each other each morning and endlessly compliment each other’s outfits. Thank you for tolerating me when I was a bothersome, insecure middle schooler and picked on other people. Every joke I have ever told you is only funny because you supplemented it with your contagious, high-pitched giggle. Thank you for running around with me in the hallways and always laughing with me at lunch. You are the sweetest, Josie. 

Thank you Yadiris Rofick for coming into my life. Even though I only met you this year and we can hardly spend time together outside of school, I really love our friendship and want to get to know you better. You are so pretty and fashionable and I love your smile. Please know that we will miss you if you go back to Northern. Love you so much girl! <3

Thank you Anna Morris for being a completely weird and goofy person. You are such a talented singer and dancer and I love watching you perform. Your laugh is the most contagious sound I have ever heard. You are so beautiful, Anna, and you will always be my favorite ginger! 

Thank you, Ellie Palmer, for being such a sweet friend. I love aimlessly walking around with you and Ren before our fourth hour and finishing off your almonds at lunch. You are such a talented writer and should definitely join The Central Trend next year! Please know that you are so loved, and I can’t wait to spend more time with you throughout high school! 🙂

Thank you Violet Belsito for being a sweet and joyous friend. I love talking to you in economics and before school. Although we’ve grown apart since graduating from Goodwillie, I’m really excited to spend the rest of high school with you.