With a busy everyday life, senior Catie Tuori never has trouble finding things to do throughout her week. She balances swim, a part-time job, and so much more with deceptive ease, and she owes all that she’s accomplished to her supportive parents.

Catie, a swimmer for the school’s swim team, has been swimming since second grade, and for her, the sport is an outlet for school stress and detained emotions, which is part of the reason why she loves it so much. Despite Catie deciding not to pursue her swimming career outside of college, she plans to continue to swim on her own time for the benefits of unwinding.

“I’ll definitely swim for fun because I have some anxiety related to school and other things,” Catie said. “Swimming has always been a good stress reliever for me, and I can tell that since I haven’t swum in a while, I’ve gotten more stressed about certain things.”

Swim was not just a place for Catie to let loose but also as a place of growth. It’s where she learned to balance her school life that includes being a senior and planning for college, swim, a part-time job, and being the editor for the school’s yearbook.

“[Swim is] where I think my discipline and time management skills came from,” Catie said. “I’d have swimming after school and have to make sure I still have time to do homework, study, and socialize.”

Swim was a sort of safe haven for Catie. It allowed her to branch out and meet new people from all over, not solely from her team.

“I met so many good people from not only this school,” Catie said, “but also from a bunch of schools: Eastern, Northern, and Catholic Christian. It was a really good group of people.”

Swim is not the only thing Catie has to juggle. This year, she took on the responsibility of being one of the yearbook editors, which gave her plenty of pressure but not without rewarding opportunities.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Catie said. “It’s a really big honor, and I was happy to be chosen. It’s a lot of work. It’s stressful at times, like right around a deadline.”

The job is not all stress, though. It has helped her to branch out and get to know all of the school’s attendees, including the freshman. She sees it as her job to befriend all students and to learn their stories.

Although being an editor and a swimmer has allowed Catie to meet some wonderful people, her job as hostess at Mana Cafe was not so similarly kind. While Catie may come face-to-face with unkind customers on the daily, she dedicates her view of who she does and does not want to be to the people she seats on her shifts.

“Some people are not very nice if I’m being a hostess,” Catie said. “I think my job has just really taught me how I want to act and how I don’t want to act, [both] when I grow up and as I grow up. You really learn what kind of person you want to be because some people are really, really nice, and some people are absolutely awful. It’s a good experience to have to be responsible for something and [to have] somebody counting on you to be there.”

Although Catie has her plate full with all her current activities, the same can’t be said for when she’s in college. Because her schedule will be changing and will not be as jam-packed with of all her previous high school activities, she finds it important that she stays on task and motivated throughout her college career.

“In college, I’m not going to have a job – at least for my first year,” Catie said. “I’m not going to have yearbook; I’m not going to have swimming. I see [my learned time management] as being a really good way to still instill that will in myself that “Hey, just because you have free time, doesn’t mean you can just hang around and watch TV all daya��. I’m still going to have to be focused on school stuff.”

Having a busy life such as Catie’s can lead to chaos. It can leave one feeling overwhelmed; the need for a backbone to rely on becomes prevalent. Luckily for Catie, she found this firm foundation in her family, who have encouraged her through all of life’s struggles.

“My parents have always supported me,” Catie said. “They’ve [gone] to so many swim meets, [and swim meets] are the worst. They are not exciting because you’ll sit there for hours and watch your kid swim a total of five minutes. But my parents, no matter what, would always be there watching me and supporting me.”

Although Catie can dedicate some of her life lessons to sports and school, her biggest lessons she owes to her parents. They taught her to always follow her passions and to never let anything get in the way of where she wants to go.

“[My parents] always taught me to work hard and never give up hope,” Catie said. “They’ve always helped me to lighten up about things, and they’ve never stopped me from achieving my dreams. My parents have never let [themselves] get in the way of my dreams. They always say, “We’re going to find a way to make it work if that’s what you want to doa��. They’ve always taught me that anything is possible if you want to do it.”