01-10-11
interview with emily
I met Emily when I met her parents Jim and Joy. She’s the younger sister of Hannah, and she has two more younger sisters as well. Emily is a firecracker. She’s tough yet full of passion. She isn’t afraid to tell you what she’s thinking and I know this girl is going places. I enjoyed our interview, and I encourage you to share your thoughts or ask her questions in the comments below.
JM: Please tell us a little about yourself.
ES: i am almost sixteen (finally!) and i am a sophomore at a high school i love. i moved to this school from a dinky little charter school in Gilbert. the academic portion of the school was not up to par (and some of the kids weren’t that great either). i like to read and i do it constantly. writing is one of my favorite past times and i like to think I’m really good at it. i like school not just because of the friends I’ve made but because of my really cool teachers and just the feeling of being a part of a big school. i am in the ASL (American sign language) club and i am trying to find ways to become more involved in my school. i have a dog who is my pride and joy. she is such a character and i love her so very much. i like to sing and music is very important to me. i use it as an escape from my surroundings. walks are my favorite medicine and i take one whenever i can. I’ve been told that i always look upset and angry but I’m actually a quite serious person. i think a lot about everything. i am a very loud and opinionated person and i have no problem telling people what i feel. i am always there for my friends and i am (a lot of the time) the person they come to for help. i like being there and comforting them, and helping them through whatever problems i can. i may not seem like it sometimes, but i am a very compassionate person.
JM: Why did you choose to be in the ASL club?
ES: i’ve always been interested in learning a new language and i have yet to come upon one that is really interesting to me. i like the idea of knowing someone who can speak the same language as me but in a different way, like sign language. so i’ve begun with the group and next year i can take the actual class.
JM: This is the middle of your first year at a new high school. But you didn’t go to one of the feeder junior highs, you decided to leave a small charter school. Tell us about how and why you made that decision, and how has it panned out?
ES: my mom and i had been talking about me going to mountain view for a long time. it’s close to home and its where my mom used to go so she was a little biased. after my last year of junior high at a charter school in gilbert we decided that i would not be going back; mainly because the academics were not up to par. after a lot of struggling (on mostly my part) we decided mtn view would be the best place for me. it has worked out better than i expected. i fit in well and i have lots of friends. i enjoy doing all of the true high school things like joining clubs and going to football games. it’s a perfect fit.
(photo credit: Hannah Schroeder)
JM: You have a good relationship with your parents. What advice would you give to other kid’s parents if they wanted to have a good relationship with their kids?
ES: the reason i get along so well with my parents is because my parents are very open and that helps me to be open with them. they are very understanding and helpful and they do their best to not bring me down or get mad at me for my mistakes. they do their best to help me up, dust me off, and prepare me for the next big crisis (as a teenage girl i have a lot of those). parents just need to remember that every kid is different. they can’t hold their children back from who they want to be. and they can’t be condescending. children need help sometimes but parents can’t hold their hand throughout their whole lives. let go and let the child live and screw up. if parents hold on too tight their relationship with their children will become complicated and strained and that’s not good for anyone.
JM: You’ve been involved with some social activism in the last couple of years. Could you name a group that you are involved with and why you believe in the cause?
ES: i have been involved in some social activism. invisible children and laundry love are two of the organizations i have been involved with the most. laundry love is an organization my parents came upon that helps those who cannot pay for their laundry. my family, along with some other family friends, go to a local laundromat once a month and pay for people’s laundry. i have gone to a few protests and i always enjoy standing up for what i think is right. sticking up for the underdog is a priority of mine and when i feel like someone is being treated unfairly i will confront the situation head on. like when the person in charge of a peaceful protest is yelling at a pastor who made comments about our president and gay people. yes that has happened before. 
people are people and we all need to be treated like what we are, human.
JM: What is Laundry Love?
ES: laundry love is an organization that my parents found out about from one of their friends. we go to a laundromat the first friday of every month and we pay for people’s laundry, whoever shows up. it’s been lots of fun and the people i’ve met are really nice and happy to share their stories.
JM: what do you think of those television shows about teen mothers and fathers?
ES: i find that the shows about teen parents are not trying to over glamorize the idea of becoming pregnant at a young age, like most of our society today. while giving them their own tv show and paying them may give others the idea to get pregnant and on tv is a bad idea, they don’t try to show that it’s a good thing. the tv shows show how complicated life will really be for everyone in the family. so yes i like them, but people may not have the best of intentions when trying to get on the show.
JM: Do you have an internet link you’d like to share?
ES: the only link i would like to share is for to write love on her arms. this organization is very important to me and has helped me a lot throughout the last 2 or 3 years. i want people to learn more about it and realize what they do and how they are helping people.
to write love on her arms is a non profit organization that helps teens and adults with addiction, depression, and different forms of self mutilation. they have people you can email and talk to and if you go on their website you can share your story. the staff even travel and speak at different cities around the nation. their purpose is to create a community of people who can all talk and share stories and just be there for each other. sometimes sharing your story and admitting you have a problem is the hardest and most helpful part of the journey.
(photo credit: Hannah Schroeder)
12-27-10
interview with hannah
I met Hannah because she is the teenage daughter of my friends Joy and Jim. Hannah has become a friend of mine. She is smart and beautiful, and I can’t even begin to tell you what a creative and gentle soul she is. I have faith in the future because of her.
JM: Please tell us a little about yourself.
HS: I am currently a junior at Gilbert Classical Academy, a college prep school. And when they say college prep, they mean it. I can definitely say that the amount of work that is given to college students does not faze me at all, it is the idea of the adult-like maturity and responsibilities that I will need to quickly adapt to while living by myself that is scary. As you can tell, college has probably been the number one thing on my mind recently. (Or at least somewhere in the top five). I do not intend to go to school in state after I graduate. No, it is not that I have a problem with the local schools, in fact, they’re actually not bad. I have lived in Arizona my whole life and I almost feel that if I don’t leave when I have the chance, I will be stuck. And plus, I want some seasons other than summer. For college, I want to either go into the field of education or global public health…anything that has to do with helping kids. I love kids. After I get my BA or BS (whichever it happens to be…still in the process of deciding if I want to take a more artsy or medical route), I plan to join the Peace Corps. From there I think I will decide if I would rather get my Masters and continue on in my field on my own or stay with the Peace Corps. And somewhere in there, there will be a marriage and babies but that’s not necessarily something that can be planned.
That’s academic/goals side of me. I also enjoy music; listening and playing. I have been playing the cello for seven, going on eight years now, took bass guitar lessons for a couple years because it’s similar to the cello, I am a self-taught, amateur guitarist (don’t expect me to be a prodigy – I’m not), and recently I’ve had a fascination with trying to learn piano. The only instrument that I can read music for is the cello. All of my musical endeavors were started due to a sort of domino effect – the cello triggered the bass, the bass led to the guitar, the guitar led me to the piano. And none of it would have happened without my mom. When I was going into fourth grade, my mom told me that she had always loved cello music; loved the way the cello sounded. She wanted to play it when she was younger, but her teacher was mean, so she quit. And that was it for me. That year I joined the orchestra. And my very first year, I hated it. At first, I couldn’t understand how to read the music and I had to learn all my songs by ear, which really frustrated me. Of course, my mom wouldn’t let me quit. And thank God for that, because I would have quit in a heartbeat. It seemed unfair then, but I look back now and realize what a pivotal point that was for me. If it hadn’t been for my mom, I would never have thought to play a musical instrument. Ever.
So…there’s a little peek into the inner-workings of Hannah.
JM: You are a creative person. Since I’ve known you, you’ve explored music, painting, and photography. What does art mean to you?
HS: For me, art is a catharsis. It is expressing the elements about yourself that cannot be communicated through words. It’s my stress reliever; my hobby; It’s in my genes. It’s always on my mind. I view my world as a photograph – I am always trying to see the image in front of me as I would through my lens. I want to see the objects in front of me as the finished product in my head before I even pull the camera towards my eyes or put the pencil to paper.
Art is life. It is in everything everyone does all the time. Everyone does things in a different way…to me, that’s art. To take something – an essay topic, a room, a pair of shoes, a piece of paper, a website, a sandwich – and put a little bit of yourself into it is art. People are beautiful, and to take an object and make it show the elements of your unique beauty can only be defined as art. Art’s in everything and everyone. It is everything and everyone.
JM: You are a social activist. What drives you to care about others when so many teens are driven by popularity and the “mean girl” culture?
HS: For me, it’s difficult to understand why anyone would be motivated by the “mean girl” culture. It might be genetics; my parents are caring people. It could just be the way they were brought up, and likewise the way I was brought up. My parents always told me 1. to treat others the way I would like to be treated, 2. to put others first, and 3. would you like it if I did that to you? Of course, this all stemmed out of the “conservative Christian” way of life that they had at the time, but the lessons are still valuable and important to me. So naturally, I grew up asking myself if I would appreciate it if so-and-so was mean to me, and acting on those thoughts versus whether or not what I was about to do would make me happy. I can really appreciate the example my parents set for me when the church wasn’t able to. Some of it is just being willing to acknowledge my own hypocrisy and that of others, and trying to deal with it instead of turning a blind eye. It’s amazing to me how a church Sunday-school can teach children songs about wanting to be sheep (followers of Jesus) versus Pharisees, yet turn out the biggest batch of Pharisees I have ever seen in my life. It’s amazing how people can claim to follow Jesus – the guy who hung out with hookers, tax collectors, thieves, murderers and the like – yet so strongly oppose those very people – the out-casts, the different ones – that he had an explicit love for.
But back to teens…I’ll be honest, teenagers are selfish. Possibly the MOST selfish people on the face of the earth. American teens, that is. Or teens from any other country as privileged as America. And we’ll try to deny it, but it’s so obvious that the only person on our minds is ourselves. We’ve never had to work for anything, thus automatically assuming we deserve everything, and never appreciating that which we do have. And I think this goes for a lot of adults too. To me…something seems amiss with this whole mentality.
Some people see activism as a negative thing, which is something that I all together do not understand. How can the desire to help people be bad? I may be a “bleeding heart”, but at least I have a heart to bleed from. I don’t know…sometimes it seems that it should be common sense and common decency to treat others the way we want to be treated, to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, to care about people. I know for a fact that if I was a little girl in Africa who had contracted HIV and I knew there was someone out there rich enough to pay for my vaccination, I would want them to do so. I think we all need to go back to Kindergarten when we were taught to share with others, to be kind, to use our inside voices (notice how many people that get air-time are extremists?), to treat others with respect, and to be kind. Obviously, we didn’t get it the first time.
JM: can you attach a drawing or a photo that you’ve created?
HS: Sure can!
JM: Would you like to share an internet link with us?
HS: How about…5 million links? Just kidding, I don’t have THAT many, but I will have to narrow it down quite a bit…how about my top five?
http://www.invisiblechildren.com/about
http://www.endhumantrafficking.org/about
http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/about/aboutus-home
http://www.toms.com/our-movement/
Funny story about the first link. I was just perusing photo bucket, looking for pictures of Africa for a school project/presentation type thing when I came across a picture that said children are born with these arms (picture of arms) not these (picture of guns). This really piqued my interest, so I typed in the web address that was in the corner (invisiblechildren.com) and read all about it…it’s incredible, really. As an American, it’s so hard to imagine that people live like that…anyways. You just have to check it out. Educate yourselves…the websites for those organizations are EXPONENTIALLY cooler than Facebook can ever dream to be.
I want to thank Hannah for taking the time to answer my questions and be so open and honest. Please feel free to ask her any questions in the comments below.
11-29-10
i love spray paint
so i’ve had this tin since high school.
and let me tell you, it was pretty styling then.
i’ve kept my make up in it for years, and it has always sat on the bathroom counter.
but sometimes those things that we see everyday become invisible,
and we can’t see how ugly they are.
thank you spray paint.
04-16-10
“be safe”
Most people will quote these words to me as I walk towards my scooter. Coming from another rider, it’s a friendly thing to say-there’s camaraderie in it, but coming from a car driver it can be frustrating. I understand what they are saying-they want me to stay whole and hale. But I wonder if their behavior has changed in response to having a friend ride.
Let me say I am safe. I began my love affair with riding by taking a motorcycle safety course. I am hyper vigilant. I am always aware of my relation to cars on the road. I never text, talk on the phone, talk to passengers, look at a map, read a magazine, put on makeup, or eat while driving. I never even listed to music. I only drive. I maintain my scooter with regular services and replace the tires when they require. I know that my safety depends on my level of attention. Most motorcycle accidents considered the fault of the cyclist involve substance abuse. I never drink and ride.
Which leads me to say…if a motorcyclist is involved in an accident, it is most often due to the inattention of other drivers. I ask you: are you safe? Do you consider the lives of others on the road as you enter your vehicle? When you tell me to be safe out there, I hope that you are safe. Because my life is in the hands of others.
*update* My friend Monica took this shot
08-13-09
baby eleanor
Tuesday night, my friend Sarah gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. I witnessed the birth of her last baby as well, and I am always in awe of the strength and beauty of Sarah. She is a wonderful mother, and she inspires me with what she does. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being my friend, Sarah!