The scritch-scratch of pencil on paper, the steady hum of voices vibrating in the air, the smell of body oder of sweaty High Schoolers, not the most perfect environment to interview someone, but it was good enough for the interview. Anna Connett, age 15, sat in front of the long desk, ready to give a talk about her past and future year. With chattering students and too-hard seats, we began our conversation.
For the first part of the conversation, her new year resolution from last year was brought up.
“My last new year’s resolution was to get better grades. And it worked. I definitely had more B’s last year and more A’s this year.” That wasn’t the only thing that changed with the year 2024.
“Around August, I joined Cross-Country. I used to hate running, but now I like it. I didn’t even want to join the team; my mom made me. Plus, I wanted to meet some new people.”
Where there are accomplishments, there are challenges she had to overcome. “Challenges I have that I’ve faced this year are not studying for tests and getting bad grades. Another struggle is getting shin splints, which is your bone cracks, and I couldn’t do any physical activities.” But she was still able to get over these obstacles and accomplish her goals. Which is very impressive and should be applauded.
Anna had been doing Cross-Country for a while now, meeting new people and setting new records for herself. “I got a new PR for a 5K. I made a few new friends, named Alani, Alexa, Kaitlyn, Victoria, and Jada.” She also added, “I am closet to Trinity and Alani, they are my running besties.”
She has been running since August, so she has had many months to work on her times. “My time for the mile is 6:48 and my 5K is 24:15. I could train more to help lower these numbers.”
When asked how she could improve her time and distance she said, “I could train a lot more to lower my times, like running and stretching on my own personal time.”
The conversation then switched to her new year’s resolution, and what she wanted to do in the year 2025. “Some goals I’ll make for next year is to focus more on myself, my mental health, and becoming more social.” All of these are good goals to have. Hopefully she is able to achieve them all.
