Q: What got you interested in photography and the Horseshoe?

A: “My mom has a pretty nice camera, and I just kind of messed around with it. And I was like, ‘Oh, I’m pretty good at this.’ I really like it, and I’ve been doing it since like, seventh or eighth grade.”

Q: What’s the hardest thing about baton? 

A: “Getting a skill and then having it very consistent for a week and then coming back that next week and not being as consistent just because the warm up was a little off.”

Q: What’s your favorite part about being on Horseshoe staff? 

A: “I really like it. I made a lot of friends in there, so it’s kind of sad to see them all go, because they’re all seniors, but I don’t really get to talk to the yearbook one people. I’ve learned a lot of things from it, like team building skills and just overall good skills for life.”

Q: What were you feeling when you placed top three in your age division for Artistic Twirl at nationals?

A: “I didn’t know that I had gotten third, and we were standing there, they had called the top five people.I knew I had gotten at least first to fourth, and then they called fourth place and it wasn’t me and I thought ‘there’s actually no way this is happening right now.”

Q: What are your favorite places you’ve traveled for baton and why?

A: “One of my favorite places is probably I went down to Missouri, and we got to go on their field during their halftime, which was really fun. I got to basically get the college field experience, which was awesome.”

Q: How did it feel to get the opportunity to go to Italy for Baton Worlds?

A: “So me and my duet partner were warming up. And then one of my other team members came up to me, and she was like, ‘Oh, congrats I’m so happy that you guys qualified.’ And I was like, “What? Tell me you’re joking.’ I pulled my duet partner off the floor and told her we were going to Italy.”

Q: When did you start doing photography and why? 

A: “My seventh grade year. My mom encouraged me to do it, and I was messing around with her cameras.”

Q: What are your favorite accomplishments in photography  and what did it take you to achieve them? 

A: “So I started an Instagram page for my photography recently, and going from zero to like 50 followers in two days was kind of big for me.”

Q: What’s your inspiration for photography and who is your role model?

A: “My mom is definitely my role model because she sacrificed a lot for me. Baton is really expensive, with traveling every other weekend and having hotels, travel fees, everything with that, competitions, which get really stacked up when they’re every weekend.”

Q: How has baton changed your life and how long have you been doing it?A: “The aspect that you meet different people all over the world. Because I know people from Texas, I know people from California, Washington. So getting to make relationships like that that you never really think you’d make is really neat.”