Nicole Souydalay, Heritage Events Editor
Hi! My name is Nicole and I am a reporter for the Horizon. Most of my free time is spent taking personality quizzes, chatting with my friends, or just getting distracted on the Internet. I have an obsession with washi tape, too many fandoms, astrology, flower crowns, and string cheese. I’m an optimist and a total dork who laughs about every second, but I’m still serious and very passionate about issues I care about.
![I think my passions have stayed the same but I’ve definitely grown and learned a lot especially about Westwood, academics in general but I’ve enjoyed the year I’ve really had. I would say also more mature, and also academically I think I’m smarter just because I’ve learned from a lot of people, a lot of students, a lot of teachers and theyve really helped me grow. Honestly, yeah I really do [think I met my goals]. My grades have been pretty good this year, there’s been some points where I shouldn’t have procrastinated as long, but I learned from that and that’s okay. Even though the friend-making process has been slower than I’ve imagined I still have made friends. I’m enjoying IB but I plan to drop out after my sophomore year just because it’s not what I want to do, but I’m glad that I have the opportunity to go to WAS and next year APUSH and just learn from that but I plan to drop. I’ve always had that goal [of being an entrepreneur] since I was 8 or 10, I kind of had it set for a while, but through the principles of business, marketing, finance I’ve learned a lot more than I’ve thought in that class honestly, so I think it’s clarified that point even more that that’s what I want to do.](https://westwoodhorizon.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_0008.png)
![I think I’ve accomplished most of the stuff I wanted to do, but I think I need to work on my WAS taking notes skills and public speaking. I think in debate, I’ve gotten a lot better at speaking in front of the people and like, having a lot of voice and not stuttering as much. In orchestra, I’ve become a little bit of a better leader, like I’m in first chair, but I’m not used to leading other people, so I think I’ve become a little bit better of a leader, in that aspect. Then, ways that I’ve improved. I’ve gotten to know the school a lot better. I volunteered in this debate tournament and then I had to show people the classrooms, and most of the classrooms I had no idea where it was, and then after this, I think I know the school a lot better. I just love how [Westwood] is so diverse and there’s so many things you can do, like you can fit in, if you don’t fit into one group, there’ll always be another group out there for you that you’ll be able to join, and have like a community around you.](https://westwoodhorizon.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Junna-Castel-April-1.png)
