Do you know your neighbor- Anne Russell

I have the good fortune to be sitting next to Isabel Jenkins this go round :) We have been friends for several years- we met in 6th grade! But we became especially close last year in bonding over AP world studying and laughing through Mr. Behler's English class. I am so thankful that we did! She remains one of my closest friends this year and we have a lot of fun together.

If you don't know Isabel Jenkins, or Isa as I have called her since middle school Spanish, you are missing out! Even though she sometimes seems quiet, she really has a lot of great things to say. Usually her silence means there is something on her mind, and probably something important.

She is very intelligent and very talented. She has been in several plays at Henry Clay-including the one coming up this weekend!!- and she never ceases to impress me with her acting skills! And she does very well in school, though she might not freely admit it. Did I mention she is also humble? Plus she's a really talented viola player. (Or is it violin? I can never remember the difference :P)

I think the color that best fits Isabel is yellow- the color of her walls as well as her bright personality! She is almost always in a cheery mood and when she's not, there's usually a good reason. She makes you laugh, she brightens your mood, she is just a nice friend to have around! She says she doesn't know what she wants to do yet, as many of us understand, but I imagine in 5 years she will be doing whatever she puts her mind to- she is ambitions, but she has the room to be so. I think Isabel is a bright and curious puppy, always asking questions and not taking no for an answer.

Isabel is definitely not afraid to be involved! As I said she has been in numerous school productions as well as orchestra, but she is also a part of Young Life, Beta club, and she and I and some others have been trying to start a badminton club because hey, it's what we like to do. So we bond over our limited athleticism as well ;)

The longer I know Isabel the more I found out that we have in common! It's nice to have a friend that understands so much about how you process things, what makes you tick, your favorite and least favorite things, and our friendship is something I will always appreciate. Especially our tendency to engage in deep conversation at the randomest of times, such as when we ended up playing ping pong at her mom's work when we had planned on studying for an APUSH test together.

We're both very competitive people so we keep each other at our best and always push each other to be better. We share a lot of the same struggles and can vent to each other about what bothers us, what we're passionate about, what confuses us, anything. Plus she's always good for a laugh.

And that's my neighbor for you!