Walking across that stage is like signing your life away. You have all these plans and you’re ready to go, go, go. It seems like you will be nothing but busy for the rest of your life. However, this isn’t exactly the case for Senior Breonna Harris.

Harris plans to attend Mercy Medical College in pursuit to become a nurse. If this falls through, all hopes are not yet lost. Harris explains in an interview that her back up plan is to go to an art school that she has a scholarship to. Although this is not her first choice, if you’ve ever seen her work, you would see why an art career would be worth it.

If I were to ask you what your greatest strength was, would it have something to do with athletics, acting, or something relevant to your favorite hobby? Not for this woman. Harris says with tremendous pride that her greatest strength is believing in herself. “Pushing myself through the hardest times [and] never giving up.” She recognizes that one of her faults includes trying to achieve something in a short period of time. She goes on to explain that doing so frustrates her easily.

In her spare time, Harris loves to draw and paint “simply because it’s so peaceful; so relaxing and [it] eases [my] stress and sadness.” Shocked that someone would reveal such a feeling, I asked what sadness kept over her. She says that sometimes when she sits down, she thinks of what she could be doing better, sort of like a self-reflection. “I don’t really have many people to inspire me to do better, which saddens me inside. So I draw and paint, it makes me happy. Like it’s my medicine.”

When asked if she thinks she has made something of herself so far, Harris emits, “yes definitely; a more strong and joyful person!” She goes on to explain that she has changed herself by putting more effort into her work — both schoolwork and artwork.

Family usually plays a key role in our daily decisions. This is on the contrary for Harris. Her mother believes that she is not going to successfully achieve becoming a nurse because Harris apparently jips school all the time, even though it’s the schools fault for counting her absent when she is in fact, present. She doesn’t let what her mother thinks get to her anymore. “I try MY hardest and I know I have friends to support [me] if anything goes wrong.”

Some teachers may say Harris is a pleasure to have in class whereas others might say she’s so quiet and never emits a word at all. If you got to know Harris, you would agree with this contradicting statement. If you talk to her, she will talk back, and in full bloom.

Harris admits that she has changed a lot since freshmen year. She states how she didn’t care about school, but she mainly didn’t care at all. “I thought it all was going to be easy since middle school was. But now I do care, [and] more than ever. I want the best; therefore I will try my best.”

As for future freshmen, Harris advices that you “don’t wait till it’s too late. Don’t goof around and think everything is all fun and games. This is high school. Take it seriously if you want a good future; keep your grades up for employers will be reviewing your high school year.” Her future senior advice is simply to “apply for scholarships, you won’t regret it in the end. It will save you A LOT of money when it comes to college.”

When asked what her favorite school year was, she says back when she had choir class in her junior year. Overall, she says it was a really fun year and everything went smoothly. Her worst year was like everyone else’s: freshman year. She tells of how she always skipped school and when she did go, she was always late. “I barely had any good grades.”

Our insightful conversation ended when I asked if she had anything to add. And her addition was quite amazing. “Most people look at me and think that I’m a normal person. But deep inside I am strong. A very nice and wonderful person, if you really get the time to know me. I will always try to help you if you are sad or down. And I always put others first before me, why? I don’t know. It just makes me feel like a better person.”