Freshman Serena Thiede is an athlete and a performer. She has dipped her hands in several different sports: dance, soccer, track, and golf, which is her favorite.

Serena started her golf career due to her mom forcing her into it. She did not even like golf at the time, but she learned to love it.

Serena is on the JV golf team which is a pseudo-chaotic time.

“Our team was very interesting,” Serena said. “We all had our different perspectives on things so we’d fight a lot, but not bad fighting. We’d yell at each other, and then make-up.”

It is slightly ironic that one of the more mundane sports has an eccentric team. Despite the quarrels, Serena really enjoys golf, and that enjoyment shows in her skill.

“I was in the top three spots for JV [golf],” Serena said. “I won a trophy which is over by the athletic office, [and I] won a tournament—eighteen holes. The season was great — lots of rivalries. Overall, [it was] a great experience.”

But, not everything goes perfectly. When playing a sport for school, it requires time commitments that sometimes cut into the school day. 

“For golf, I always had to leave Honors English early so I would always miss a lot of work, but I was able to make [it] up fine,” Serena said.

Not only is she a great golfer, but she also roller skates. Of course, roller skating is not as simple as it is just one set of blades. There are several different types: roller skates, rollerblades, and speed skates are a few of them.

Similar to golf, Serena is considering going competitive and purchasing speed skates. However, speed skating is not the only competitive  form of skating, there is also roller derby, but Serena is “not interested in the physical type.”

Just as her roller skating passion is similar to golf, it is also different. Instead of being coerced into it, she joined into this hobby because she wanted to.

“I went ice skating a few years back and I sucked,” Serena said. “I was like ‘I want to get better’, but realized ice skating is hard, so I tried it on wheels and I was good.I eventually taught everyone in my family [how to skate].”

Most people have a happy place, and for Serena, that is skating.

“[We skate] on Fridays so it’s just kind of my cool down,” Serena said. “Golf will help me if I was having a bad day mentally and skating would just be a fun Pastime for me because it is something I really enjoy.”

Serena is also musically inclined.

“I love singing,” Serena said. “I say I’m not the best at it, but my friends absolutely love it when I sing for them so I guess I’m good if they think I am.”

Serena is in the choir and has played the piano for many years. She has considered many different possibilities to take her musical inclination and talent.

She considered joining the band program but prefers choir.

As a performer, there are things that Serena enjoys, and things she hates. Pop songs fall into the latter.

“Most of the time, my pet peeve is singing pop songs. I hate pop,” Serena said. “I feel like pop singers [would] be so much better if they didn’t butcher everything. I just don’t believe in the generic way they do it. You could turn pop good, it just takes a lot.”

Serena is an extremely capable person with many talents, yet like many people, she thinks that she is just a normal high school student.

“My life, I don’t feel like, is super fun,” Serena said. “I mean, I’m like a normal teenager, at least I feel like it. I do normal stuff. I balance sports. I try my best in school, sometimes, not in all classes, but I just feel like I’m not very interesting.”