Author Spotlight
Lucy Stephens
Surrounded by chatter about prom dresses and beach vacations, senior Georgie Fraser kept her eyes locked on her Canvas app, checking grades — not paying attention to the conversation with her friends.
Scheduling a study plan for upcoming tests seemed more important than helping her friends pick between a satin or sparkly dress for their senior prom.
Since freshman year, Fraser has spent her whole high school experience focusing on unit quizzes, honors classes and AP tests — not football games, school dances or the latest gossip.
It wasn’t until the last semester of her senior year that she realized that after this year she and the friends she had put off hanging out with for schoolwork and studying would be attending different colleges. This would inevitably force them apart, causing her to rethink her past choices of blowing off plans or studying and start living in the moment.
“I feel like I was just always focused on my grades and my future,” Fraser said. “It’s really hard to not think that way, but now that I’ve gone through it, I wish I knew sooner.”
She documents her memories with photos and takes mental breaks from homework and studying by taking late-night ice cream runs and talking on the phone with friends. Changes she had made since her realization to take a step back from school and spend more time with friends.
“Trying to find a balance between studying and also spending time with friends is really important,” Fraser said. “[I recommend taking] the time a couple of times during the week to study and then spending the weekend with friends.”
She’s still planning her schedule for her upcoming final exams in the last month of high school, but she’s also allowed herself to be more lenient with her agenda, saying ‘yes’ to many of the plans she is invited to.
“I remember that I’m not going to have this opportunity in a couple of months,” Fraser said. “Knowing that it’s going to be ending soon makes me want to do so much more.”
Light blue face paint was streaked on her cheeks and arms, iridescent glitter sparkled in her hair and she was sporting her new Lancer Nation jersey — senior Emaline Handzel was ready for her very last Lancer Day football game.
She had been waiting three years to be a senior at this monumental game. She would finally get first dibs on the seats right by the fence, at the very front of the student section and would be able to lead chants like “Go Bananas” and “Do It.”
“[My friends and I] go to the [Lancer Day game] and stay the entire game even if we were losing,” Handzel said. “Everybody’s so excited for Lancer Day and the football team is just ready to play.”
Since her sophomore year, Handzel has been dressing in her Columbia blue wardrobe and attending as many sporting events as possible including baseball, volleyball, soccer and football. According to her, these games are a great way to start conversations about the game with different peers and meet new people.
“[The games] are a good way for everyone to socialize in such an easy setting,” Handzel said. “It’s not awkward or anything.”
While she has been eagerly supporting East’s sports teams since her sophomore year, during her freshman year, the whole school was unable to attend any sporting events due to COVID. This encouraged her to take advantage of the rest of her high school years and support as many teams as she could.
Whether it’s a game with bleachers packed full of East students or one where the student section can barely be seen from the field, attending as many games is a piece of advice she would pass down to any underclassmen. Getting decked out with layers of face paint and glitter has been a highlight of Handzel’s high school career.
“You never know who you’re gonna talk to at those games,” Handzel said. “You’re gonna meet so many new people just by being there.”
Then-sophomore Abi Limbird couldn’t decide what was worse, sitting alone in the locker room for an hour or throwing the shot put for an hour. Most days she chose to sit the dreaded hour in the girl’s locker room for the duration of the track practice her parents made her attend.
It wasn’t until she met two upperclassmen who made her realize that maybe the sport wasn’t about how far she could throw a shot put but who she was doing it with. While she still hated throwing the shot put, she at least had some of her friends to do it with. After practices and meets she would go get ice cream with her track friends and said hi to them in the halls.
“It was just this new group of people that I’d never hung out with before,” Limbird said. “It wasn’t even the sport itself. It was just the environment and the community of people.”
Limbird continued to join committees, clubs and sports at East, all to meet as many people as she could. According to her, there’s nothing to lose and you could end up meeting some of your best friends just by branching out.
Her friends have roped her into many of the clubs she is currently involved in, like Student Council. After hearing the stories from her friends on StuCo about how exciting it was, she decided to run for sophomore representative.
Through StuCo, she got to know many different teachers and students, including one specific influential figure in her life — StuCo sponsor and history teacher Brenda Fishman. Fishman encouraged Limbird to involve herself in Academic World Quest — a trivia competition between high school teams around the nation. Through this activity, she was able to scout out the University of Maryland during a school trip — the school she is attending this fall.
These ripple effects that have stemmed from meeting people around the East community are another reason she is adamant that underclassmen branch out and meet as they can.
In her now-senior year, Limbird has a connection with many of her peers and teachers through her commitment to StuCo, yearbook staff, IB diploma and other clubs and sports — and a hatred of the shot put.
“I don’t think feeling locked down by one group of people is necessary,” Limbird said. “You can be friends with everybody if you want to be.”
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