"I can find something good about almost anything," says Sarah Conklin. "I tend to be a generally happy person. Things don't get me down."
Take school, for example. Sarah is a junior at The Center School, located in the Seattle Center, and she doesn't like it there. "It's too small," she says. "There are not enough directions you can take, and not a lot of structure. It's kind of boring, with no potential to meet new people.
"I want to go somewhere else," she continues, "but my parents won't let me. I'm stuck there." But it doesn't get her down, and she still enjoys some classes.
"Usually my favorite subject is math, but not this year," she says. "This year it's chemistry, taught by Mr. Pender." He makes the subject matter fun (right now they are studying different types of chemical bonds and reactions), Sarah adds, and he accommodates all kinds of learning styles. "If you don't understand," she explains, "he is willing to change how he teaches until you do."
Three days a week after school, Sarah takes ballet at Dance Fremont from Miss Vivian. (With no comment about sexism, she notes that male ballet instructors are called by their last names.) She has no great aspirations as a ballet dancer. "I just like it," she says.
Sarah's father Evan is American (a plumber by profession), and her mother Ede is Canadian. Sarah was born in 1990 in Victoria, B.C., her mother's hometown. Her parents lived in Seattle but, says Sarah, "I think they went to Victoria before I was born on purpose, so I would have dual citizenship."
Her friends tell her she has a Canadian accent, "but I can't hear it," she says. Sarah doesn't say "aboot," but she and her 39 Canadian relatives all say "eh?"
Sarah has a 29-year-old half-brother, Adrian, on her father's side. "Adrian's job has something to do with fiber optics," she says.
Growing up, Sarah has spent a lot of time in Victoria, and her best friend Becca lives there, next door to Sarah's grandparents. When they were younger, she and Becca used to have a two-person book club. They would throw down an old quilt in the forest near their houses, and read the same book, usually one by Newbery Award winner Polly Horvath, Becca's mother.
From kindergarten through eighth grade Sarah attended Salmon Bay School in Ballard, and many of her friends went on to Ballard High School (another reason she'd rather not be at Center). The Conklins lived near Carkeek Park until Sarah was 7 years old, when they moved to northwest Queen Anne. "When we moved in, our house wasn't like this," she says. "It's always changing." Right now the living room is a soft, restful shade of green.
"The neighborhood is pretty quiet," Sarah says, "except for when a parrot lived a few doors down. Mostly old folks and toddlers live here."
She doesn't like to be alone, and many of her friends at Center live elsewhere on Magnolia and Queen Anne. But now that she is 16 she has her driver's permit-she'll get her license in February-so by next summer she may be able to get around more easily on her own. "My parents haven't decided yet," she says.
With her friends, Sarah listens to music ("I let them choose because they're pickier"), goes skating or swimming on weekends and even travels. Last summer, when she wasn't hanging with her cohorts at Golden Gardens, she went to Maui with a friend and her family. (She also went to Italy last summer with her parents.)
Her friends' behavior matters to her. "It saddens me when I know they're making mistakes," she says, "when what they do has bad consequences. It kinda makes me mad when it's stupid, and they know it."
Even though Sarah is a big believer in karma-which says that people get what they deserve-it also kinda makes her mad when people don't get what they deserve.
"People have the ability to be mean to each other, because they don't see the direct consequences of it," Sarah says. "Nothing is personal anymore. I don't know who lives at the end of my block" (except maybe a parrot).
For college, Sarah says she would like to attend the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Many of her Canadian cousins have gone to UBC and liked it. "The campus has a good feel," she says.
She'd major in psychology. "I'm interested in figuring out why people do things," she says, "why something is OK or not OK with them. Also, what is the connection between different areas of their lives."
What else about Sarah? She has a "shy and tall" cat named Scott. Her favorite color is pink. The only foods she doesn't like are beans and bananas, which are "slimy and gross."
Maybe someday she'll find something good about bananas.
Teru Lundsten is a freelance writer living in Queen Anne.[[In-content Ad]]
