![“[My biggest challenge] is balancing school work, friends and family in high school. [When] you go to school, you learn a lot, you go home and you have so much homework so you have no time for family or friends. In life, you need a good balance of everything. When you have so much homework, it's really hard. Sometimes I don't get all my homework done and then there's consequences later. I’m still working on that. Usually, I go home and I try to take a break for a while. I'll talk with my family, go on my phone and have a snack. Then, I'll try [to] get some homework done. If I don't get all that done, I tell myself it's fine and I go to sleep because getting a lot of sleep is important.” - Samantha Doolittle, 9](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/DSC_0265-900x600.jpg)
Samantha Doolittle
Ruthvi Tadakamalla, Sports/Newsletter Editor
• May 31, 2023

Camden Wilford
Angie Ren, Staff Writer
• May 19, 2023

Stephanie Fussner
Amelia Bothmann, CJ1 Writer
• May 16, 2023
![“[Baking] is a stress reliever, and it's something I do in any mood. It’s a way I express my love because I bake cookies for people I care about and always get excited when they try a new recipe. I bake oatmeal cookies for the healthier people in my family or chocolate chip cookies. I even bake brownies sometimes. I love getting different types of chocolates. I usually get the Tonys chocolate from Whole Foods, and I cut them up. I like experimenting with new recipes. I always love trying new recipes. I'm open to anything. It took me over four years of trying to make perfect cookies. [I would tell other people] to never give up, always try new things, experiment and have fun.” - Gracie Mcleod, 9](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/DSC_0010-900x600.jpg)
Gracie McLeod
Ruthvi Tadakamalla, Sports/Newsletter Editor
• May 4, 2023

Elena Potsou
Katherine Tovrea, CJ1 Writer
• May 3, 2023
![“I was looking forward to my freshman year since this is my favorite sport and I was [just coming back from being] out for two weeks because of a stress fracture on my foot. During practice my arm started to hurt to the point where the coach started to notice so I started to take it easy a bit. A few days later I had a freshman game and during warm up I was throwing the ball and my elbow dropped and broke so I had to get surgery. I’m upset because I have worked hard to get to this point and now I won’t be able to play for all of the West season and probably summer ball. It’s been really helpful having my team support me while I still go and support them. It just really sucks because I feel like I would be playing my position [often], but now I'm not playing at all so it's just all over now.” - Ethan Brookshire, 9](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/DSC_9019-copy-900x600.jpg)
Ethan Brookshire
Katherine Tovrea, CJ1 Writer
• May 2, 2023
![“[My biggest challenge is] making friends because I’m not from here [and] I’m not very social. I’m from Portugal. I came here five years ago. I couldn’t understand anything because the language was different. I had to learn English. [My biggest inspiration for soccer] is Christiano Ronaldo. [Because we’re both from Portugal], I feel like I’m sharing an experience with him.” - Miguel Gomes Goncalves, 9](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/unnamed-1.jpeg)
Miguel Gomes Goncalves
Ruthvi Tadakamalla, Sports/Newsletter Editor
• May 1, 2023

Kate McCammon
Nora Fussner, CJ1 Writer
• April 26, 2023

Hannah Hampton
Nora Fussner, CJ1 Writer
• April 25, 2023
![“The best advice I’ve learned from a sport is that the sport depends on you and so does your team, but it doesn't define you. I learned this about a year ago, when my team [the AFA Fillies] was having a chat on the way out of a tournament. I recently played goalie [for soccer] and I took a lot of the blame on myself but I can't let that define or stop me. So I have to work harder to get back to my original position. It changed my perspective from not wanting to go to practices, or not wanting to put in the work at home to motivating myself to do those things. My mom also told me something similar [making] me think that if two people are telling me to do it for me, then they’ve got to be right. People should learn that you should work hard at your sport, but make sure that it doesn't affect what you do in your life and [how you] play. I've been putting in work nonstop and it’s paying off. So I would also [tell] to anyone struggling with getting motivated that if you just push yourself to do it, you’ll eventually have to depend on it.”
-Faith Mosher, 9](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/faith.jpeg)
Faith Mosher
Juli Moellenhoff, CJ 1 Writer
• April 24, 2023