As she finishes her Spanish project, freshman Kennedy Brooks realizes she has leftover steak to make tacos. She grabs some extra ingredients, and begins preparing them.

“I cook when I can,” Brooks said. “It’s fun, and it’s not very stressful, and I’m not being told what to do, you know? Even if I’m following a recipe or something, it’s like, I still have room to make mistakes.”

But cooking is just one of Brooks’ hobbies. One of the most important ones to her is basketball, which she said she’s played for a long time.

“I’ve been playing basketball since I could walk,” Brooks said. “My mom was my first coach, and it’s just always stuck with me. It’s always been my sport.”

Brooks is on the girls’ JV basketball team. She said she enjoys being part of the team.

“I like being able to be a team with other people and stuff, off of the basic skills that we learn in basketball,” Brooks said. “I like knowing that I could be independent but also have a team that’ll back me up in situations. “

Alongside bringing her enjoyment, Brooks said that playing basketball helped her learn life lessons. She said that it helped her handle conflicts better, like one she had at a recent basketball tournament.

“We were doing so good but then we messed up the play,” Brooks said. “I just got upset and I had a little moment and I yelled at one of my teammates. But then, [I calmed down and] it brought me back to where it was like, ‘Okay, you can’t yell at everybody, okay, it wasn’t her fault.’ And then I brought it back, and I went and apologized.” 

Besides basketball, Brooks said her girlfriend helps her through difficult situations. She said her girlfriend helped her after she had moved back to her mom’s last minute.

“Two days before school started, I ended up living back with my mom, so I had to restart everything, go shopping all over, and do everything,” Brooks said. “It’s better now, it’s just at the time it was very stressful, just getting everything back into motion. [My girlfriend] helped me through a lot of it. She let me cry [when] I had my moments where I just wanted to yell.”

Brooks said that she tries her best to be upbeat most of the time, describing herself as ‘goofy’.

“I just don’t like being upset,” Brooks said. “I like being happy and I’m very playful. I just like to make jokes, make people laugh. I like to laugh. I don’t really care when people judge, I’m me.”