Growing up with a sister who is close in age to me means we do a lot of things together. We hang out with the same group of friends, go shopping together, talk to each other about what goes on in our lives in great detail, and so on. It also means we know almost everything about each other, big or small. 

Putting all this aside, we’re still two different people with different interests and hobbies. There are some things my sister does that I don’t know the whole story behind—but that’s exactly why I chose to profile her: to get that whole story and bring it to life. 

My sister, Avery, or Ave for short, is 15 years old and a sophomore here at McCaskey. I asked her to meet me outside of Mr. White’s classroom, room 201, at JP McCaskey during 4th period, her lunch period. She agreed and met me in the hallway. 

As she came around the corner, I noticed her (then) blue hair was pulled into two ponytails. Her bangs lay against her forehead, just above her eyebrow piercings. Her other piercings- she has a lot– shone in the light. She was wearing her black puffer coat, but I knew that before I saw her. I could hear the sound of the coat as her arm brushed against her side from a mile away. Her black sweatpants covered the top of her white platform converse sneakers. 

She smiled when she saw me and sat down next to me on the checkered floor, leaning against the lockers on the wall. I started recording and began asking my questions.

When the topic of mental health came up, Ave recalled a time back in 2021 when she was struggling mentally and was admitted into an outpatient day program— from 9am-2:30pm, she practiced coping skills, had group therapy, and participated in other activities. It was there that she figured out she had a passion for drawing.

One of the staff members there, Mr. Dan, introduced the idea of using art as a form of coping. “I wanted to express myself. What I couldn’t put into words, I put onto paper- drawing wise,” Avery said. 

At first, it didn’t work. She thought it was useless, and it didn’t help much— but she persisted. The more she drew, the more she realized that each drawing had meaning behind it. “I don’t draw consciously wanting to have a deeper meaning behind them— it just kind of happens,” Avery said.

Drawing also helps to keep Ave in the moment: “It keeps me self-aware. I get to stay in touch with what I’m feeling, and I get to deal with it healthily.” 

Mindfulness is important to her because when she’s not being mindful of her thoughts, feelings, and actions, she doesn’t live; she just simply exists. Like a robot being controlled by its program, she doesn’t feel like she has much control over what she does or how she feels. Zombified. 

This is part of the reason why she draws. It gives her the ability to have that control over her life: “I get to draw things that resonate with me, things that actually mean something to me, and that makes me happy. I still have control over something, even if it’s just a picture.”

Ave thinks everyone should have something that makes them feel good about themselves. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks of it; it doesn’t matter how big or how small; it doesn’t matter if you just found it, or if you found it long ago. No matter what it may be— if it makes you happy, you’ve done something right.