Ms. Hayes is a teacher at Osbourn High School, teaching English to the lower half of the grades. She was asked a list of questions querying about her life in high school, and it turns out it was very complicated.

To start, Ms. Hayes considered herself the perfect student. Having the perfect grades, doing activities, becoming a drum major, and being kind to the people around her were of the utmost importance. She was considered a kind person by many people in the school, up to the extent that the people around Ms. Hayes at the time thought she was one of the nicest people they had met. The reason for that was because of how apologetic she was. Because of how small her school was, she had the opportunity to do the morning announcements over the intercom every day. Whenever Ms. Hayes would do the announcements and happen to stutter, she’d apologize profusely and that left a mark on the people who heard the apologies.

Ms. Hayes sailed pretty well over her first three years of high school. When senior year arrived, though, it was pretty rough, as she started to go through some mental health issues, forcing her grades to take a deep dive down, nearly making her not able to attend the college she was planning on going to. She ended the year with the 4th lowest grades in her year.

What was able to get her through the trudge of that last year were her aspirations, one of which was her English teacher, named Ms. Davis. Ms. Davis was very accepting of all their students. Having her room be akin to a sanctuary, a place for everybody, regardless of who they were. Ms. Davis’s room influenced Ms. Hayes even today with how she designed her room, decorating it to give off an inviting presence. The other aspiration was Ms. Hayes’s band director Mr. Stewart. When she was in band, she looked up to him, wanting to be like him.

When high school ended, Ms. Hayes moved on to college. After not being able to get into music school, she decided to go into teaching, as she was good with kids, and she eventually went into teaching English, much like her idol Ms. Davis. All of this helped Hayes become the Ms. Hayes we know today!

When asked if Ms. Hayes had advice for students who have problems getting through high school, she responded, “I’d say get involved, engage yourself with school and the parts of it. Even if it means doing a ‘cringy’ teacher’s activity. If you immediately write something off just because you think you’re not going to like it, you’re not going to like it ever and have less fun in the class. Try your best and make the most of it.”