I am currently a senior in high school at Liberty Christian School and I can honestly say that changing schools was one of the best decisions I ever made. Growing up in a small town is extremely hard. Everyone knows everyone else’s business. People never move away. It is a continuous cycle of families generation after generation. I am happy to say my family is not one of those families. My parents bought a ninety acre horse ranch in Decatur, Texas with hopes that my brother or I would fall in love with riding horses. I never stuck to riding, but I did last one horse show longer than my brother. (I only did one horse show.) My mother’s dream then ended when I chose pageants over English riding. Anyway, there are three elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school in my town. I went to Carson Elementary. Back then, life was good. The biggest problem of the day was who I was going to play with on the play ground. Then in middle school, life just gets complicated. With my speech impediment it made it harder and harder to communicate. Also, in middle school is when people tend to have their first “boyfriend”. Girls are guy crazy and guys are girl crazy. Middle school is also where everyone was allowed to play team sports for the school. You weren’t considered popular unless you were on the Volleyball or Basketball team. I was not an athlete in school. I actually left school early to go to dance. In middle school, dance was my life. I didn’t have time to go to football games on Friday’s or volleyball games Tuesday night. I did cheer though! On Thursday nights in seventh and eighth grade I would cheer for the A and B teams and then rush over to Denton to go to dance class. I didn’t have a social life. But again it was just middle school. Around the eighth grade I really wanted to move schools. I begged my parents to tour Liberty Christian School. They just continuously said no. They said I didn’t need to move schools to be happy, just to continue being the best version of myself. I also knew no one at Liberty. At the end of middle school I had just made the Freshman cheer team and was ready to make a real identity for myself.

I was wrong.

I will say without a doubt I had the worst high school experience straight from all the stereotypical high school movies. I loved to cheer though. Being on the sidelines made me feel like I actually belonged somewhere. It gave me a rush. In school, it was hard. I constantly found myself alone. Even though I had friends I rarely hung out with them outside of school and my so called “Best Friend” at the time turned out to actually hate my guts for reasons I still do not know. I felt like I was in a funk. I recently listened to the song Modern Loneliness by Lauv and all I can say that every lyric is true. Especially the lyrics, “Love my friends to death but I never call them, I never text them.” Communication now is struggling, but that’s another topic. In the middle of my Freshman year things got harder and girls just got meaner. Most of the time the mean girls are mean because of jealousy and insecurity, but when you are going through it you don’t realize that. I got mean notes from cheerleaders and honestly felt like I didn’t have a purpose. I felt like this until I found my yearbook and newspaper teacher Mrs. Alano. To this day she is one of my favorite teachers of all time. She let me cry in her room. She let me write stories that inspired me. She even introduced me to people who wanted me around and valued my opinion. Yearbook and newspaper became my safe place in the walls of Decatur High school. Nearing the end of my freshman year things were looking up. I decided to quit dance and focus on cheer. (This was easily the dumbest mistake of my entire life. I miss dancing so much.) I tried out for JV Cheer Captain and that was not my best idea. Not that I did not enjoy being cheer captain, but the drama that came with it was instant and all consuming. I ran for captain against one girl. I wrote three bomb essays and had Mrs. Alano check and edit them, created a colorful and well thought out scrap book, and had an interview with three judges who watched tryouts. I worked so hard to be captain, and then let the girls on the team steal the joy I once found in cheer. It was hard to try and unite the team when everyone was so divided. I learned a couple of crucial things while I was captain: put your feelings aside, lead by example, and always have a positive attitude. I tried to carry this into every practice and game. But most of the time I would get in my mom’s car and just cry. I was miserable. On top of all of that, the cheerleaders and administration did not get along. Cheerleaders were constantly brought in for vape checks and other infractions. It was hard to lead a team into making good decisions when they did not want to follow. This really put me in a funk and my parents began to notice that maybe Decatur was not the place for me to be.

So now you are probably asking so how does Liberty fit into all of this?

You could say God puts people in our lives for very specific reasons. Right before my sophomore year of high school I met the Stockton family on vacation in Broken Bow. Ginger Stockton, the mom, works for my dad in his development company in Broken Bow, Oklahoma as an interior designer. Ginger has a son named Travis who is a year older than me and a daughter named Kaycee who is my age. They attended Liberty Christian School. By the end of the weekend Travis and Kaycee became some very influential people in my life. I ended up becoming friends with both of them and that year went to Liberty’s homecoming with Travis as friends. When I walked on campus it was the most beautiful campus I had ever seen. It was all decorated for homecoming and it was such a cool experience. I fell in love with the school instantly. After homecoming I practically begged my parents to let me transfer every day. In November my parents toured Liberty without my knowledge. A week later I had an interview with the principal and was accepted. That day I toured the school and purchased my uniforms. I was ready for a change. After finishing my first semester of sophomore year at Decatur and some hard goodbyes, I embarked on my new challenge: Liberty. This was the first time in eleven years I would not be attending a Decatur school. I was so nervous when my first day came. I honestly felt I was the shiny new toy everyone wanted to look at. But, my transfer was not as smooth as I would have wanted it to be. I didn’t make friends right off the bat. Everyone was standoffish because they did not know me. At the time, I was dating Travis and he introduced me to his friends and we all became good friends. They were great but they were not my people. I still had a hard time fitting in because Liberty is exclusive when it comes to friend groups. I now began the search to find my tribe. The cheerleaders were not my tribe. The cross country runners were not my tribe. I am great friends with all of them but they were still not MY people. And then I joined the track team on a random impulse. I was a tragic runner, not good at all. I didn’t care though. I found the best community of teammates and coaches. (A special shoutout to Coach Moyer, Jordan, and Rich for always making me feel welcome and acting like I was a good runner.) I even became the “momager” of the team the next year! (I didn’t like the term manager.) I had the best time with these girls. They even convinced me to join, last minute, the annual Liberty Christian Mission Trip. That year we went to Panama. I was part of an amazing group and had probably one of the best times of my life. That trip introduced me to so many people and really gave me my purpose back. Being in that environment inspired me. On the flight home I began reflecting. Not only has Liberty made me happier, but it has helped me grow my relationship with Christ. Even though now I spend way more time studying than I did at my old school, I actually make time to hang out with people who love and inspire me everyday. I feel better equipped for my future. Now, I am not saying Liberty is perfect. No school will ever be perfect. Liberty was the place for me. I am now more serious about my studies and have become super involved. My parents say moving to Liberty was one of the best decisions of my life. Life is not perfect but it is what you put into it. This new “life” for me gave me the opportunity to reinvent myself, not for anyone else but Haleigh. Liberty gave me the new beginning I was searching for.