As Talia Lassiter, 8th, sat down, she adjusted her skirt and oversized t-shirt and smiled at her new classmates. Looking up at Ms. Mullin with a glow in her eyes, Talia envisioned a bright future in Journalism.

Friends are important to Talia and her best strength is being able to understand how her friends feel.

“My friends are people who make me who I am, and I care about them a lot,” Talia said. “I always know how to help when they’re upset.”

Cody Goodson 8th, had more to add to this.

“Talia is a great friend because they support me even when I am sad.”

Ronaldo Gonzales, 8th, also appreciates Talia’s friendship.

“Talia is a good friend because she’s very nice, social, and extroverted,” Ronaldo said. “She has made me kinder than I was before when I hung out with people who were mean and gloomy. Talia is also more talkative than other people I know, which to me, is something a great friend would do; otherwise, they would make me feel as though they don’t want to talk to me and end things quickly.”

Other than friends, Talia loves music.

“Music is like a pathway to my heart,” Talia said. “It is cheering in dark times, helps me understand emotions more, and release this information to the crowd. My all-time favorite musician is Cavetown because I like his lyrics and relate to a lot of his songs.”

Cavetown wrote a song named “Hug All Your Friends,” which inspired Talia to give Ronaldo a matching frog necklace.

“It was really kind of Talia to give it to me when she probably could have given it to someone else,” Ronaldo said. “It was great because no one else has ever given me a gift like that, so I definitely appreciated it. I wanted to pay her back for it, but she refused.”

Profile by Haydee Bermudez