This week’s senior spotlight features a familiar friendly face around RMA, Lauren Seale. Joining the RMA family in ninth grade as the Ann McPherson Weaver scholar, Lauren’s bright, kind, humorous spirit have surely added a dash of sunshine to everyone she has come into contact with ever since the day she set foot in the school. As the multi-talented person she is, Lauren not only lends her voice in the RMA chorus, but also in the Tar River Children’s Choir (this being the ninth year!), plays tennis and cheerleading, leads the STARS tutoring club, plays the piano (beginning her eleventh year!), ukulele, and guitar, created the science club for future doctors, RMA Anatomy (in her junior year), is this year’s Upper School SGA President, debuted as Jesus her sophomore year in the hit play “Godspell” and played an adorable six-year-old in “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown!” While all of these extracurricular activities are impressive, the fact that she has consistently taken higher-level classes, including AP Modern European History, AP Calculus, and AP Chemistry, and has excelled in them, earning the title as Head Marshall for the 2016-2017 school year, Lauren’s grades and work ethic are just as notable as her talents.

But, taking a step back from everything that will undoubtedly look impressive on her college applications, Lauren’s character and personality far exceed anything that could ever be written on paper. Leadership is her strength and she has never been afraid to stand up for what she believes to be right, which is something I have always personally admired. She’s a friend to everyone and everyone’s friend. Bhavisha Gulabrai says, “Lauren is full of amazing qualities that everyone around her notices! Not only is she very responsible and intelligent, she is super fun and one of my best friends!” Lauren’s amazing qualities undoubtedly affect everyone, with Thomas Griffin commenting, “Lauren has been a great addition to our senior class as she lights up everyone’s day with her personality and smile. She is a great girlfriend and an even better friend that is always happy to lend a helping hand.”

Having had several classes with Lauren, from being the only two in our grade to take French with Ms. O’Brien to tenth grade Music Performance with Mr. Leonard, I’ve been privileged to be her friend and see her sweet personality shine everyday. Lauren’s quickly made herself a staple at RMA and, without her, there would undoubtedly be a missing piece to what is the beautiful jigsaw puzzle of the senior class.

To learn more about Lauren, please read the following interview:

1. What colleges are you applying to? Which one (if you have one) is your first choice and why? Right now I’m applying to Duke, UNC, Wake Forest, UVA, Clemson, Vanderbilt, and UGA. I’m really not sure which is my first choice, but it would probably be either Duke or UNC.
2. What sports do you play and what is your favorite parts about playing them? I play tennis and I am on both the cheer and shooting teams. I love tennis because you really have to think when you play; it’s a very independent sport and it is just as much a mind game as a physical one. Cheer is just so much fun because I get to go out and support so many of my friends on the football team, and hang out with a bunch of really awesome girls. Shooting is another one of those pretty independent sports, but my favorite part about shooting is probably being able to go out and shoot with my family and friends on Sunday’s and just let my mind not be on school work for a few hours.
3. What’s your favorite place to go for long lunch? Long lunch is something I rarely get to enjoy because of clubs, but I really like Tokyo Express. On the days where I have a meeting during Flex, I can go through the drive through and be back at school in time to still eat it with all the other people in the senior room.
4. What do you plan to major in while in college/what would you like to do when you grow up? I plan on majoring in Biology or doing some sort of Pre-Med track. I’ve always wanted to be some sort of a doctor, though I’m still not entirely sure what kind yet.
5. So far, what is your favorite class you have taken at RMA? Over the past 4 years I’ve loved a lot of classes, so I don’t know if I can really narrow it down to just one class. Honestly, I’ve really enjoyed the majority of my classes in high school.
6. What animal do you most identify with and why?  It is going to sound really corny, but probably a seal because it is my last name after all. But if it weren’t a seal, I’d probably be a monkey.
7. What Grey’s Anatomy character do you think best reflects your current mood? April Kepner. I’d love to say Meredith Grey, but she just always seems to have everything all together and never lets anything phase her. April and I both have that kind of stressed and frazzled but happy personality going on.
8. What is the scariest experience you’ve ever had in your life? It’s going to sound really kind of crazy, but I’m pretty sure my house is haunted (seriously, ask some of the girls in my grade, they will tell you)! Stuff has moved when no one else is home, and my house just really creeps me out. So, with that background information, here’s the real story. After a football game one year, I had a couple of girls all come and spend the night at my house. We are in my sunporch, watching a horror movie with all the blinds closed and the lights off (of course) when we started hearing knocks on the windows. So naturally, we freak out. After we had calmed down and my dad checked the yard, we kept watching the movie. Then it happened AGAIN! We all sprint out of the sunporch faster than I think I’ve ever run in my entire life, and then I find out it was Thomas Griffin and Oliver Bissett coming and knocking on the windows trying to scare us. We worked it all out with them and went back to the movie after the guys promised they wouldn’t do it anymore. Then we hear another knock. I felt sure it just had to be the boys being spiteful again, so I threw open the curtains and was face to face with a clown’s face staring right back at me in the window. I immediately fell backwards and screamed as loud as I could when my dad takes the mask off and starts laughing from outside. I still haven’t completely forgiven him for that since I’m terrified of clowns! (Sorry that was kind of long, but it’s a great story looking back on it now!)I
9. When you were little, what was your favorite toy to play with? My sister and I would actually wake up as early as we could on the weekends when we were little so we could play with our Barbies. I was given this giant “dream house” for Christmas one year, and we would just play and play with our Barbies in that house for hours every chance we could.
10. What is your favorite quote and why do you like it so much?  I don’t have a favorite quote, but one that I’ve seen that sticks out to me is “Normalicism is like a paved road. It’s easy to walk on, but no flowers grow.” – Vincent Van Gogh. I actually read that for the first time in New York this past year with my family, and it’s just stuck with me ever since. Everyone needs a little bit of “different” in their lives!