E Block (Laura)

"I am motivated by people that inspire me. For example, my family members, uncles, aunts, grandparents, parents. I want to prove those people right and prove that they put their effort into someone who’s going to follow through with it. For example, [some] people have senioritis. I don’t want to get senioritis because we’re in school and paying for school and all of these people are here to teach us. Even if you are in college already, you’re going to college to learn, so why not just keep learning in high school? There’s no reason just to give up. I like to finish things when I start things. And also I am motivated by times I’ve come up short. There’s been times where I’ve not done homework assignments. In third grade, I used to be the kid in math class who would never do the homework. You have to go over the multiplication table every single day [if] you didn’t have the homework, so I was always given the times table worksheet. I was always doing it. Now I still have some missing assignments, but I’m much better at it."

"I need to be creating something. I have a hard time when I'm not making something or thinking about something. I tend to find that I mess up more, but then that teaches me what I need to do better. In general, the school gives me fulfillment, my family, and creating. They make me feel like I'm achieving goals. It's always funny. You don't know if your kids are actually listening to you or not, but then you see what they are becoming and what they want to do and you can see that you have some little speck of that that you've contributed. So, y'know, some things that I've taught them, they might not say when they were in high school that it came from that, but now they recognize and appreciate some of the things that we worked on in art class. They’re kind, they have empathy. And they're trying to do things, make things better in the world."

“One of my biggest struggles of my childhood, that's such a good question. Well, I’m from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and I grew up as the youngest of 13 siblings. Being the youngest, all of my siblings have different mothers. So I would say one of the biggest struggles in my childhood was finding time to connect with my extended family and trying to get to know them. Being the youngest meant there was such a big age gap between me and some of my older siblings. So it was really hard to get to know them or to have anything to relate to them. We also didn't grow up in the same house, so they had just a whole different experience than I did, and so it was hard to kind of bridge multiple worlds. You're also a kid, so you don't know what you're doing, but you just know that you crave that. So yeah, I would say that was one of my biggest struggles of my childhood and still to this day”.

"The most influential person in my life is my mom. She worked really really hard her entire time raising me as a single mom. She did clerical work and she ran her office. She didn't have the most glamorous job, but she was well respected at her job. Everyone knew that Ms. Lorraine could do anything. If they needed anything, she had it at her desk. So I've learned the importance of working hard and respecting any and everyone no matter what they do, in terms of their role. Whether it's in a community, whether it's someone on the street, just to have a level of respect. My mom is a caring person who gives up any and everything still to this day. She's 76, and she came to Sandy Spring and did alterations for students, but she's always done that. She gives up her time, she doesn't care about the money. I respect her because no matter what's happening in her life, she always stays positive and continues to give back. I think that's a great way to be."

"My dad has a complicated idea of religion. When I was younger, he explained having an idea when he was surfing of talking to his own surfing god or having gods in his life to help him do or believe in different things. I found that a hard idea to work on. So I was like ‘okay that's cool, I'm glad you have that’ but I don’t believe in it the same as he does. I find it hard to believe that there would be a religion in which any deity would either promote or not stop forms of hate, so I find it hard for myself to believe in a deity. During Meeting for Worship here in Quakerism, when we have the quiet and are supposed to listen for the light of God, I always have that time where my thoughts are rattling around in my own head which can not be that helpful sometimes. So I don’t have a belief in god or a religion, but I like that it is something that people can rely on for themselves to have an idea that they have a higher purpose or meaning in life."

"The last couple of years have been hard for me and a lot of people I know. With everything going on like COVID and political changes, I feel like sports became a way for me to release positive energy and stay active. Especially when a lot of people were just on their phones not really doing much, I used sports as an outlet. The sport that changed my life the most isn't the one I have the most fun playing, but it’s had the biggest influence and that’s basketball. I grew up around it. Everyone my age in my family played it. My uncle lived with us and was really into it. I used to go into the basement and play NBA 2K11 for hours with my brother Kenji. It was a cool part of my life. Then this school’s athletic program gave me the chance to try track for the first time. Without that opportunity I don’t think I would’ve become a two time Nationals Qualifier. I see a future in sports. Maybe on track. Maybe in soccer which I enjoy the most."

“Currently, I do not know exactly what I am going to do, but I always wanted to go to Lincoln Tech, major in culinary sciences, and become a chef. Maybe a personal chef because once I start a family, I do not want to go to work everyday, that is a big thing for me. Also, I don’t want to make the same recipes over and over and over again. So, I think a personal chef could A: pay better and B: just be better overall. I also think that forensics is really cool. You need more education to do that, but I think it pays really well and I am really interested by it. I watched Lucifer like 20 times, not just for the forensics, it’s also a good show. Then, I don’t know if I wanna go into this when I’m older, but I really like physics. Sometimes I don’t like certain aspects of physics class, but I do like physics and the patterns involved in it.”

"I miss the ability to run if I'm being totally honest. It’s an escape from reality, and that applies to skiing too. Everything I do that I actually enjoy, I do because it allows me to take a step back from school and having to constantly think about stuff. Especially with running, because you're on your own sometimes for an hour or more and you're just able to look at nature while listening to some great music. And skiing too, and time wise it’s even better. Because I'm on the mountain from eight in the morning to nine at night, and I'm just there with friends the entire time just skiing and messing around. That's what I wish I could do right now, but when ski season is over and also the fact that I’m injured, it feels like a part of me is missing. Being on the bike is awesome and all, but it's not the same. It's still good for listening to music, but it’s just just staring into nothing. Being able to look at stuff around me and space out is great. But on a similar note, I feel like not being able to run and not being able to ski is just detrimental to what makes me who I am. And not being able to do something that makes you who you are, are you even really yourself at that point?"