Ananya



= Ananya the Great =

By Shweta Modi
Meet Ananya, an optimistic eighth-grader who currently goes to Herbert Hoover Middle School. Her great attitude and hyperactive energy makes everyone around her smile. She has dark brown eyes and dresses casually, and “not in anything that could make her feel uncomfortable during the long school day.” Ananya’s past and plans for the future define who she is now and makes her a unique individual with lots of determination. **Growing Up ** In Ananya’s case, growing up could be defined as a thrill ride. She was raised in Woodbridge and lived in an apartment called Aspen Manor. Ananya remembers that her old apartment had a long corridor, and she lived at the very end. The whole building was different shades of brown and there were only two bedrooms in the house. She was respectively a “wild child” and made everyone stare whenever she passed by. No, she was not a shy girl, but a talkative one. Five traits to describe her would be “hyper, bossy, disobedient, a bit unkind, and unnaturally happy.” A strange fact about Ananya is that she preferred playing with the boys in preschool rather than the girls. Because of the cut-off date, Ananya had to go to pre-school twice. In her Woodbridge school, she loved playing with Barbie’s and ponies (the girly stuff), but when she moved to Edison, she became more of a tom-boy. Ananya got tired of playing dress-up with the girls, so she played with the plastic animals with the boys. Moving on, one of Ananya’s favorite childhood memories was to jump from couch to couch. This just further clarifies what I mean when I say that she was hyper. Not only that, but she also enjoyed pretending she was a dog. She would run all over the house on all fours and bark so loud, that it would be a surprise if the neighbor’s couldn’t hear her. Surprisingly, she did have friends who she would ride bikes with, friends who didn’t mind her random singing. However, it is not much of a surprise that she possesses many of the same traits that she used to have even now. Ananya is still hyper, weird, happy, and crazy. She now __loves__ to draw and music has become a part of her now, too. In a lot of ways, Ananya is the same as she was thirteen years ago! **School ** School: a place where teenagers can start feeling the pressure of college and beyond. Sometimes it can be stressful for Ananya and many other students to keep up with all the work that is being assigned, while maintaining a good grade in every subject. But Ananya does have support from her many friends, such as Nazifa, and stays her happy self most of the time. The one thing she can’t stand is the whole popularity business going on. She personally feels that everyone should just be themselves instead of trying to fit into the “in” crowd. Other than that, she doesn’t have any other major complaints. She admits, “Nothing special is going on. Everything is the same. I’m in honor’s math and English (yay) and that is by far the only real change.” In other words, so far the eighth grade is going pretty smoothly. **The “Fav’s” ** Now let’s move on to Ananya’s “favorite’s list.” When I asked her what her favorite TV show was, she had to think for a while. She finally told me that “I don’t watch television very much, but if I had to pick my favorite show, it would have to be //SpongeBob Squarepants//. The cartoons in this show are hilarious to me and it serves as a nice pass-time.” In addition, her favorite books are __Warriors__, __Artemis Fowl__, __The Sight__, and __Diary of a Wimpy Kid__. All of these books are very popular right now, and it is clear that she is a big reader. Her top four movies are “Eagle Eye,” “Happy Feet,” “iRobot,” and “National Treasure,” again, which are all movies that are commonly liked. However, Ananya doesn’t just lie across the couch all day just watching TV and movies or reading; she has many different hobbies and activities she does on a daily basis. In the Hoover orchestra, she plays the violin, practicing music to perform in upcoming concerts. She says that she really loves listening to music, and it is obvious why she decided to play an instrument. She also does small jobs at places such as J.E.I. Not only Ananya get tutored there for math and English help, but she also takes the time and patience to grade other people’s work and is rewarded with some extra cash. Nowadays, colleges are looking for more than just grades, and Ananya is aware of this also, so she works a little, which will surely come up on her record. Ananya truly is a well-rounded student with a distinct attitude. **Riding the Time Machine ** Many of us are unsure about our future and what we want to accomplish beyond grade school. Conversely, Ananya knows her future as clearly as Professor Trelawney knows Harry’s Prophecy in the //Harry Potter// series. According to Ananya, “I want to become a veterinarian and earn a lot of money. I might not have any pets, but I do love dogs and wish to have one when I am older.” To become a vet, she will finish High School, go to college, get a bachelor’s degree in Rutgers University, then go for higher studies in Cornell University,…and the rest of her future is unclear! Ananya might not realize it now, but she has gotten a large chunk of her upcoming years all planned out, while many of her peers are just unsure of what they want to be when they grow up! Ananya also wants to live in upstate New York. In her opinion, “the view is beautiful there and I want to live there for the rest of my life.” Her house will be big (every kid’s dream) with many rooms. There will be a pool in the backyard and the design of the house should include many windows for light to come in. She knows for a fact that she will have a dog, but doesn’t know if she wants to raise any kids. But if she does, “One is enough.”

Only time will tell if all of Ananya’s ambitions will come true, but one thing is for sure- she’s never going to lose her optimistic attitude and passion for talking!