If I’m being honest, I don’t remember anything from middle school other than my teacher telling me I was gonna be a janitor when I’m older, and by how things are looking for my future, she might be right. Looking ahead from that sad thought, going into high school as a freshman I had one goal: blend in as much as possible. I would wear one color hoodies with nothing on them and rockin the classic short, dark brown hair. I kept this look for the first two years of high school and it worked! But who knew not talking to literally anyone would make you absolutely terrified of socializing? I wanted a change, so I did what any socially awkward teenager would do and joined the yearbook. 

This one risk I took for a change was probably the best decision I ever made. It forced me to get out of my comfort zone and made me talk and interview people and go to sporting events which was EXTREMELY scary by myself, but I did it! 

After the first couple of months I could already see improvements in myself. I made so many friends, It was getting less scary to socialize. 

I also wanted to change my look since I was still wearing the basic middle school fits. I started experimenting with random aesthetics to see which one suited me the best (which I still don’t have one pinned down) but I definitely like the improvement in my clothing.

By the end of my junior year I was pretty happy with myself and excited to do it again but I wanted to take another risk and join the newspaper as well as the yearbook. 

Once again, taking a risk was fully worth it! So I kept doing it: I joined the musical, I competed in graphic design competitions and I even did male cheer! 

All in all, everything starts with one risk!