I was really impacted by Mrs. Duenas, Mrs. Patterson, and Mrs. Lunson. When I first entered upper school I didn’t care about my school work and had no motivation to do any of my work. Mrs. Duenas was my ESS teacher at the time, and she showed me how to do school work and how to study; she really helped me improve my work habits, setting me up for success in the future. Mrs. Patterson was my Advisor and my English teacher for my sophomore and junior years; Mrs. Patterson was always there emotionally and supported me when I was struggling. Mrs. Lunson is my art teacher and has been since I was 12, Mrs. Lunson is one of my biggest supporters when it comes to my art. She always helped me and presented me with new opportunities and competitions; it’s because of her I still love art.

 

The small class sizes can be a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you can form really close relationships with teachers and peers. On the other hand, having such small class sizes can make it difficult to branch out to other friend groups because everyone is already comfortable with their designated cliques.

The summer before freshman year, my art teacher, Mrs. Lunson, convinced me to enter this art competition that had me draw something inspired by Texas culture. I painted something last minute in roughly 45 minutes. I was not particularly proud of it, but it ended up winning first place. I didn’t know it won until it was announced during chapel, and at the time, going up in front of everyone as a freshman was already embarrassing for me, but on top of that, the representative of the 11th district of Texas in Congress was on zoom and asked me a bunch of questions. I had no idea any of this was going to happen and had to improv answers to these meaningful questions about a painting I did not particularly care about. It was incredibly embarrassing.