As life goes on, new doors open and new opportunities appear. Junior Sam Boezwinkle embraces these new opportunities. He meets new people and finds his passions through trying new things.

Some of Sam’s favorite things to do are some of the things he never thought he would do. The musical is a perfect example of this situation. What began as just something to do in the winter time became a passion of Sam’s.

However, Sam was cautious at first to join the musical.

“For the longest time I thought I would never go into the musical like [my brother] Jack did because I wanted to have my own voice,” said Sam, who was part of the chorus in last year’s production of Little Shop of Horrors. “But I tried it once, and it ended up being one of the better decisions of my high school career.”

The best part of the musical wasn’t just the singing. Sam would never have become friends with some people if he hadn’t taken the risk to try out.

“You saw a lot of diversity between a lot of people, and it was very interesting talking to all of them individually because we had a lot of time when we weren’t on stage,” Sam said.

During the other half of the year, when Sam is not rehearsing for the musical, he is hitting the field under the Friday night lights.

Sam has been playing football since third grade. Although, that doesn’t mean changes haven’t occurred and new opportunities haven’t opened, one of which was a change in position. Up until eighth grade, he had been playing the offensive line. Since eighth grade, Sam has been playing wide receiver and defensive back.

Like the musical, it was the guys on the football team that made the experience so amazing.

“Friday nights are obviously fun, and we enjoy doing it, but the really good stuff would be the spontaneous moments that no one plans for during the summer or practices after school,” Sam said. “It was really fun to get to know all of the boys, and we all had a great time together.”

But Sam wasn’t so sure he would be able to play football this year due to another once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that appeared this summer.

This past July, Sam worked as an intern under the head scientist at the downtown Bio lab. He and one other intern worked surrounded by professional scientists for four weeks. His main focus was finding a cure or way to reverse the effect of Parkinson’s Disease.

“[The Bio lab] really got me a lot of experience for how the actual scientist community runs outside of a classroom and how the labs aren’t really structured,” Sam said. “It sort of goes wherever it wants to based on how the experiment is going, and so it adapts, unlike the science lab we would do at our school.”

Through working on Parkinsonian rats’ brains, Sam gained real-life experience with something he might want to go to college for in the future.

“I feel like science is one of the most interesting subjects, and you can experiment with almost anything that you don’t know,” Sam said. “I like science because a huge breakthrough can happen at any time, and that one idea can have a huge effect.”

Whether it’s the musical, football, or science, Sam is always open to trying new things.

“By trying new things you can get a feel for what you actually enjoy versus what you say you like to do,” Sam said. “By trying new things, I can find stuff that I would never have thought I would enjoy or what I might find is not something for me.”