When junior Anna Krampe became a youth group leader for her church, she never expected to be spending her Thursday night eating a mysterious concoction mixed and made by the kids in her group.
“One time I had to eat a banana, mustard, donut, and bread and butter pickle as this gross little sandwich thing,” Anna said. “It was one of the activities in this scavenger hunt we were doing, and it was the grossest thing I’ve ever done. We won the scavenger hunt though, so it was worth it.”
Despite Anna sometimes having to do things she doesn’t like—like eating disgusting combinations of food her kids mix up for her—she does it all for the entertainment of the kids, and she loves doing it.
From leading middle schoolers through the Upper Peninsula in the summers to working with a group of seventh-grade girls on Thursday nights, Anna loves all of it.
“My favorite thing I’ve done [as a youth group leader] was definitely the trip to the UP over the summer. I had so much fun there and I loved getting to know the middle schoolers better. Now I have a group of seventh-grade girls that I’m with every Thursday, and they’re so fun. I love them all.”
Being a youth group leader is far from the only thing Anna spends her free time doing, however. She also plays basketball, runs cross country, and loves to relax and spend time with her friends and family.
This schedule may seem hectic to some, but for Anna, who has been participating in these activities for the majority of her life, it is just her normal day-to-day list of activities.
“My dad played basketball all through college, so that was kind of the start of my love for it,” Anna said. “I’ve been playing since about kindergarten, and it’s definitely my favorite sport out of the ones that I play. I love it so much and I really would love to play it in college like my dad.”
Basketball may be her favorite sport, but it isn’t her only one. Anna also loves running cross-country and spending time with her teammates.
She hasn’t only been on the court for over half her life, but she has also been running for much of her time in school. While continuing the family tradition of playing basketball, she is also carrying on her mom’s legacy on the cross-country team.
“My mom ran in college, so I do the sports my parents did,” Anna said. “But really I just started because my friends and I wanted to join Run for the Hills in third grade. My brother was also a runner on the high school cross-country team, which was obviously a very big influence on my experience with it as well.”
It does sometimes become a challenge, of course, for Anna to balance everything she wants to do. This has become especially evident in her junior year as she prepares for many large tests and the beginning of the college application process.
Being involved in as many extracurricular activities as she is, Anna has a wide variety of colleges that she has found appealing for different aspects of her life, but with all the time she takes to learn about these schools, her busy to-do list continues to become more packed.
“It definitely starts to be a challenge to balance everything,” Anna said. “Especially with this being my junior year, which is a stressful year for a lot of people. I definitely need to work on balancing my activities and schoolwork better, but I’m learning how to.”
While her everyday life gets stressful sometimes, Anna loves everything about the activities she has chosen to spend her time doing.
From playing running in the fall to youth group trips in the summer, Anna looks forward to all of her extracurricular activities, especially basketball.
“Basketball is my favorite part of what I do for so many reasons,” Anna said. “I love just the act of playing it, and I especially love the team aspect of it. My teammates are some of my favorite people and I always look forward to practice because of them.”
