Amaya Wagner: The Freshman

This is an article on the eleventh grader Amaya Wagner going over interesting things about her, what a day as Amaya is like, and what she wants to do when she becomes an adult.

Simon McFate '24

Eleventh grader Amaya Wagner is a journalist for the Muscatine Auroran Today. She does many things, from walking her dog, working at her job, hanging out with friends, to reading books, traveling, and writing.

Amaya also said, “I want to become an elementary teacher when I am older to teach little kids to read and write.”

Amaya has been going to high school for three years now, however I was unaware of this and I personally thought Amaya was a freshman when I met her last year in Journalism 1. Some of the other students at MHS this year also made that mistake. During class she was talking about how she had already been mistaken for a freshman. I instantly recalled last year and laughed about that. When I was assigned to do a story on her I was interested in her hobbies, one of which is reading. I asked what her favorite book was and she said Little Women. I know very little of this book other than it was originally published in 1868.

“It's my favorite because I feel like the characters are very relatable and I enjoy reading about wholesome lovable moments,” Amaya said, “every character has their own struggles and it shows and explains each one. I like to read about real things.”

Amaya at 9 months old.

It seems she likes how well-written the characters and story are. On the website GoodReads, it is rated 4.13/5. There is no doubt that this book is good. She does more than reading Little Women however when she was questioned about her day-to-day she says it's mostly just school, and if not then she is working, hanging out with friends, or taking her dog out of the house.

“Normally I go to school, then I hang out with my friends, and I like to take my dog on walks or to the dog park if I don´t have work,” says Amaya.

Now while school is part of most people's daily routine, some of the other things she said I found to be interesting. It surprised me when Amaya knew about the dog park because some people I know do not.

“A customer will drop off an item that needs dry cleaned, I put it into the system and then send it to Davenport where it’s cleaned. Then when it comes back I package it. It's pretty boring,” Amaya said.

Having a boring job must have some sort of benefit, “but I do like my job because I work with my sister so we have fun,” Amaya said.

It is always nice to have good coworkers, it can allow you to have fun while working and can make a “boring” job more bearable. Doing anything while having fun will make anything tolerable and it seems Amaya found a way to have fun almost every day, as the best “freshman” at MHS.