For the past four years, Senior Helen Chin has been running cross country, indoor and outdoor track, and also the summer training for cross country. Chin’s cross country team feels like a family to her, which emulates a wonderful atmosphere to be surrounded in. Chin says that she “really [enjoys] the confidence the girls team has because of a four-year championship streak.” And also “the fact that everyone knows they have to keep training hard is what I like most,” is what Chin likes most when asked about her favorite aspect of cross country.
During Chin’s junior year, she struggled a bit through school and running which she openly described as a “downward spiral.” Although that year was difficult for her, Chin encouraged that “it was nice because after hitting rock bottom you can only go up.”
Entering college next fall, Chin plans on becoming an active part of a cross country club at the very least. For Chin, running has turned into somewhat of a lifestyle and learned that after a while without running “it begins to feel weird to not run and keep in shape.” She also feels that it “was difficult to balance academics with sports in the beginning [for her] because [her] junior year was [her] first time taking so many AP classes and [she] ended up having no time for sleep ever.” However, to Chin “it does get easier with time and senioritis.”
The athletics aspect of Chin’s high school experience has placed a lot of unforgettable highlights in her mind. These highlights vary from moments of someone stepping it up or out sprinting another person at the finish line. The dearest and most humorous memory Chin has is of “Joviana Morin (a 2014 graduate) stepping in some form of fecal matter at least once a season, for both cross country and track.” Chin mentioned that “it became something of a (kind of gross) running joke” that will “probably be the first thing that comes to [her mind] when [she] thinks back to high school running.”
Cross country has been an important part of high school for Chin, however along with that tremendous interest in running, she also finds pleasure in studio, video games, and going out with friends.
