Senior Elizabeth Schmidt

“When I was in sixth grade, my entire extended family and I went to Hawaii for spring break. The trip was a cruise around the main islands: Oahu, Kona, Maui, Kauai and The Big Island. While stopping at each island, the 18 of us participated in excursions like hiking, jumping off waterfalls and horseback riding. My family was especially excited to go horseback riding on the beach, however, I did not have the best experience. While we were all on our assigned horses, receiving instruction, my brother’s horse kicked at my horse. In response, my horse jumped up on its back legs, and I slipped and fell, hanging halfway off the horse, holding on for dear life. Thankfully, I did not get hurt, but my family still jokes with me about it today.”

“A happy memory I have is when I got first place in the Sycamore math competition in first grade. I was pretty nervous to do it because it was the first sort of competition I had done and I had studied a bunch for it. In the end it was worth it because I won the whole thing and I still have the plaque in my room.”

“When I was young I was building a treehouse with my friends and I accidentally stepped on a wasp hive at my lake house in Wisconsin. It was a big mistake and I ran away, but I couldn’t get away because they were in my clothes. I brought the wasps into the house so my whole family was swatting at them trying to get them out. I woke up the next day with stings all over and it hurt really bad. I didn’t know what to put on them so I kinda had to just wait for them to heal on their own. My dad went out later and sprayed the hive with a wasp killer.”

“My dad and I had been looking online for a while for a small dog that could be easy to take care of. We eventually found my dog, Bo, and immediately contacted the breeder and asked if we could meet him. The next day we drove out like an hour and a half and we really liked him so we took him home with us.”