Walking through the doors freshman year, everyone begins a new story. What some don’t realize is some students start new stories and others just add chapters to the tale started by family members before them.

Freshman Julia Bouma is no stranger when it comes to family involvement in school life. Julia’s mother is not the only FHC alum in her family; Julia is the fourth and final child from her family to enter FHC. It may seem like a lot of pressure to be similar to your family, but Julia has learned throughout the years how to develop into her own person.

“When I was a lot younger, I was like, “Oh my gosh I need to be as good as my sister and brothers,a��” Julia said. “But not anymore as much.”

Like her sister Rachel before her Julia plays volleyball for the varsity team. Her sister currently plays volleyball at Taylor University and during her senior year at FHC she was all conference, all-region, and all-state. Although Julia is entirely her own type of player, she still uses her sister’s accomplishments to motivate her.

“My sister playing volleyball [has motivated me]; I want to be really good, as good as my sister,” Julia said. “She’s really made me feel like I can do whatever I need to do.”

Julia’s practices can run from two to three hours long. Due to this time commitment, Julia has quickly learned to balance everything. She credits part of her adjustment to her siblings who gave her a better idea of what high school is truly like. While it’s easy to get stressed about homework and projects, Julia has found little to no levels of stress. Part of the reason for her positive outlook is the lessons volleyball has taught her.

A huge part of volleyball is the mentality. Quickly, one can go from having a good game to a horrible game just from a mental state. Julia says that from volleyball, she can apply lessons from games to practices.

“Mentality is a big [lesson],” Julia said. “In volleyball, if you’re down and you make a mistake, it’s hard to get back into it. But it’s taught me [that] if you’re far behind or something, getting up there isn’t hard, and mentally, it’s all good.”

Hand and hand with mentality, Julia has learned about passion from volleyball. Julia enjoys going to practices, which some players don’t often enjoy doing.

Because she loves what she does, she works above and beyond the average player. She’s learned all about hard work and how you get out what you put in.

While she’s here, Julia wants to get involved with all FHC has to offer to make the most out of her time here. Although 2021 seems like awhile away, Julia already knows the impact she wants to leave.

“I want to be known as a good student,” Julia said. “And volleyball wise, I want to be a leader on teams [I’ll be] on, and [I want to be] known as a good person.”