Sophomore Everett Phipps has his plate full of activities he enjoys. Whether he started them when he was little or he has just recently found them, he enjoys all of his activities for a different reason.

Playing video games and playing the violin, working out, learning about history, or reading for fun are all things Everett enjoys.

“Video games [have] just kind of been there for a long time,” Everett said, “and they’re fun. I like different franchises, so those are enjoyable. I also just have an affinity with [the] violin. It’s fun to play; it’s a pretty instrument, and I just want to be more fit for working out, just be healthier in general.”

Out of these activities, Everett hopes to someday make a career. He would like to be a historian and a violinist. But the violin has another use as well—it isn’t just for his career or the beauty of the instrument.

When he was younger, Everett felt that he had some internal struggles. The violin is one way he has gotten past that.

“In some ways, [the violin] might have helped me focus on doing something more productive,” Everett said, “something more artful than just being a very toxic person.”

Throughout the years, Everett has changed. Through different stages from that time when he was struggling, he has made it to the “determined, driven, [and] confident” person he is today.

“There are different stages, if I look back on it, where I can see that at [that] point, I was a really nasty person,” Everett said, “and then here I was just more of a weirdo, and here I was kind of an emo, and now I’ve just gotten to a point where, sometime last year or maybe eighth grade, I was just improving a lot. I’ve stopped being such a needy person. I’ve realized stuff about life and just set myself down and pointed myself in the right direction, and I’ve just decided to be a better person.”

While the violin has helped him through these stages, he only started the violin about five years ago when in sixth grade. His improvements and changes started before this.

One of the more prominent things that has helped him change was the people in his life such as his friends and influential, trusted adults, that guided him down the right path, especially when coupled with using the violin as an outlet.

“I met a good friend in fourth grade, and he’s just kind of always been there,” Everett said. “He’s very helpful, and he’s a very good person; [he is] just someone I’ve modeled after in a way, as well as also just realizing over time how I treat other people. The people I’ve met, like my teachers—they’ve all helped in different ways.”

Through talking with these people and being around good influences, Everett has made it through his past struggles.

Even more than his friends and teachers, however, is someone that he is around every day. Everett’s dad—though he may not know it—has shown him how to be a better person and is someone Everett is inspired by and looks up to.

“My dad is a very thoughtful, kind person,” Everett said. “He’s the type of person you don’t actively think you’re modeling after; you just know he’s a good person, and, in conversations with him, I’ve picked up on things he does—the way he treats people, the way he tries to communicate. It’s a bit more humbling to talk to him because you realize how you can be really good at something and not be a jerk about it. You can communicate with people and still have good relationships.”