Lauren lives, eats and breathes softball. The West Linn Senior, who is naturally heartbroken that she’s not able to see her final year on the field, has now decided to turn her energy and attention to preparing for her freshman year playing for Chemeketa Community College in Salem. In fact, on the day that the Governor announced that high school would remain closed the rest of the year, Lauren was deep into reading a book her coach recommended, all about team building.

“If I’ve learned anything from this experience in quarantine, it’s that you can’t always wait til the last minute to do something because unexpected things happen all the time,” she says.  “I’m fixing my procrastination issues now, to stay more on top of things.”  Good thing for her, since she’s tackling a hefty degree in astrology once she gets to college.

That’s not to say that she hasn’t enjoyed the senior year that she did have on campus.  Some of her highlights included going to football games. “At last we were in the front row and could show off our dance moves,” she says.  She also had a fantastic time at Winter Ball with her friends and boyfriend and has loved spending time with her crew at the Oregon Coast.

About her senior photo experience, she says, “It was SO MUCH BETTER than I expected. I was seeing everyone else’s photos in fields, and among flowers, and while they were gorgeous, that wasn’t my style. I didn’t know if we could get shots that made me feel like me, because I like different things. But I had a LOT of fun with it and love the way my pictures turned out.”

For now, Lauren’s just looking forward to the day that she can hang out with her friends.  “And I just want to get outside and play softball again.”