Ballroom dancer win Distinguished Student Award

Taylor Barrett is a proud member of the Extreme Ballroom Dance team. She’s been with the organization since it began ten years ago and loves it.

“We like to think of ourselves as a family — like a dance family, and each person has their own individual part, but we always have fun and we know when to have fun and when to be serious and it’s a lot of fun,” Barrett said.

Barrett would like to continue with ballroom dance, eventually teaching others. There’s something about dance that hits home with Barrett.

“I just love the beat,” Barrett said. “I can’t control myself when the beat comes, I have to always move. I just have a passion for it.”

The teacher who nominated Barrett for this award commented on how positive she always is. A positive attitude is important to her.

“There’s a quote and it goes, ‘The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty and the pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity,'” Barrett said.

With the increased grading weight from taking AP classes Barrett has a 4.239 GPA. She keeps up in school even with all the dance practices, student government involvement and a job.

“It’s all about the balance,” Barrett said. ” I try to get my homework done as a top priority. I think education is important and the extracurricular activities come after.”

Through it all Barrett has a pretty simple philosophy about how to live her life.

“Always be kind to everyone around you because you never know how you’re going to influence them,” Barrett said.