When I interviewed Grace, we sat in the hallway outside the black box during lunch. I didn’t think this would be a highly trafficked area but it ended up being throughout our conversation we overheard several snippets from other people talking.
I’ve known Grace for many years and one thing about her is that she’s super easy to talk to. So even with some awkward interruptions during our talk, conversation flowed easily.
Grace was born and raised here in Olympia. She attended Griffin for elementary and middle school. Growing up, she wanted to be a vet, she’s always loved animals and her favorite type is dogs. She has a little dog named Murphy and they often go on walks together.
Grace has always had a connection to animals and nature, she enjoys going on hikes and seeing wildlife. For a while, she wanted to be a photographer and travel the world taking pictures. “I really want to see Scotland, or New Zealand.” As a big fan of the Lord of the Ring movies, Grace wants to visit New Zealand to see where it was filmed.
Grace has wanted to be and do a lot of things in her life. Right now, she wants to be a teacher or possibly a social worker. She’ll be attending Western Washington University next year and is excited to figure out what she wants to study.
Like many teens, Grace struggles with anxiety. Anxiety can make any situation ten times more difficult for someone, it can be really hard to deal with, “Knowing I have friends to talk to is really helpful.”
Grace has been able to rely on her friends for support, and her brothers, Luke and Jake. “They push me out of my comfort zone,” Luke encouraged Grace to try sports, like cross country and tennis. Now, Grace has done cross country all four years of high school and tennis for three. She loves the communities that both sports have given her and the people she’s met from joining the teams. Though she was scared to try something new, it was “rewarding to try tennis and actually be good at it.”
Grace has learned a lot these past few years at Capital and her advice to everyone is to have an open mind when trying new things. “Go into things with a decent attitude.” Especially to freshman and incoming eighth graders, “put yourself out there, do things that scare you.”