Senior Ava Malinowski is known for many things, from Color Guard to her sense of fashion.
Wanting to try something new, fun, and athletic, Ava joined the Color Guard her freshman year. Starting off, she was terrified, having tried many different sports growing up including dance, but none of them stuck. After falling in love with the sport that she’d never heard of before then, she never looked back.
“I went through a lot of sports and I never really found anything that I really liked,” Ava said. I did dance when I was younger, but my dad really wanted me to do more sportier sports like lacrosse or softball or something like that, and then I never liked it.”
Her passion for Color Guard is seen with each practice and competition she participates in. Being only a senior in high school, Ava spins with people more experienced than her, such as skillful college students, in Winter Guard as well.
While she began four years ago without knowing anything about the sport, the different opportunities Color Guard gives, such as band camp and winter guard, have honed her skills. Winter Guard is mainly known for being exclusively Color Guard and no marching band unlike band camp and is a larger competitive version of the school’s team.
Her days at winter guard give her the opportunity to continue refining her strengths with more experienced people outside of the practices with those at her level.
“You get a lot of different ranges with different people,” Ava explained. “I spin with people who are in college right now, so I get a lot of help from people who have more experience than I do.”
Ava and her teammates share a close relationship outside of practices, as well. Monday and Tuesday they have their practices, but they hang out as well and will simply turn their gatherings into an impromptu practice. For her, Color Guard and enjoyment simply go hand in hand.
Besides Color Guard, Ava is known for her unique sense of fashion. Mainly consisting of darker colors and a more alternative look than that which is popular among her fellow classmates, Ava embraces her style with an understanding of how she may look to those around her.
“I think a lot of people would call me emo,” Ava said. “But I really only think it’s because I wear black.”
With the color black often being associated with the well-known emo style, which is short for emotional or emotive, Ava believes her fashion style is often viewed in this popular late 2000s phase.
Knowing this, she is very self-aware about how she is viewed in both a positive and negative way. She believes her classmates may sometimes unintentionally stereotype her before they have a chance to speak with her.
“I think just based on what I wear doesn’t really tell people who I am,” Ava said. “I think I dress dark, and I think I dress alternatively and not like a lot of other people.”
As she spoke to some of her classmates throughout the years, she began to understand how she is viewed in their eyes. Although she has been in the same school with them since childhood.
While she is aware that those who dress darkly are different from the norm and are often seen as people who also act outside the norm, she speaks with her classmates with her usual friendly and sparkling personality, not letting it bother her.
“I’ll talk to a lot of random people in my class and they’re like ‘Yeah you’re a lot [more] normal than I thought you’d be!’” Ava said. “I say ‘Yeah. I’ve been in school with you since like fifth grade.’”
Despite this, she finds a home in Color Guard and her friendships with those around her. With her teammates and fellow classmates, she acknowledges the way she may look from other people’s views but does not think it’s fair to assume what her personality is like at first glance, as people tend to unknowingly do.
Regardless, she simply faces them with a smile that matches her kind disposition—knowing that if people got to know her, they’d see the wonderful person she is on the inside. The girl who used to do dance, but found a sport she fell in love with. The one who wants to be an occupational therapist when she grows up. The one who likes expressing herself through fashion and her bright interior to her dark exterior.
“If people got to know me a little bit more,” Ava said, “and didn’t just judge based on what I wear, they would realize I’m a lot more normal than they think.”
