STANWOOD — Silver Merideth, 17, is a senior at Lincoln Hill High School, the alternative campus in Stanwood. For the past two years, she’s been volunteering with Project STAND, a team of teens who paint murals for Church Creek Park.
Question: How long have you been at Lincoln?
Answer: Since the beginning of my sophomore year.
Q: Have you had a favorite class in high school?
A: I really liked when I was a sophomore and I took Mr. (Thomas) Stanley’s English 11/12. He doesn’t teach here anymore. He’s in the Peace Corps, but I got to skip a grade in English and that was really nice.
Q: What do you like about English? Is it the reading, the writing or both?
A: It’s both, but I want to be an author when I grow up.
Q: What made you think about that?
A: I wrote some short stories when I was younger. I’ve written a couple in the past few years, too. I just liked all the creative things I was able to come up with and share with family and friends.
Q: What genre do you write?
A: Generally, fantasy.
Q: Do you have a favorite author?
A: R. L. Stine. I am a huge fan of R. L. Stine. One of my friends knows how big of a fan I am and took me to “Goosebumps.”
Q: What are your goals for senior year?
A: I want to have 300 hours of volunteer work. I’ve heard that aside from sports and acting, you could letter in volunteering. I already have 150 hours.
Q: What kind of volunteering have you been doing? What did you do with the STAND (Stereotypes Alternatively Defined) project?
A: We decided to do a mural to show not all high schoolers do all bad.
Q: You mentioned that your mom has been an important part of your life?
A: Yes. She just taught my brother and I to work hard, and everyone has different stories, and you don’t know what’s going on in their life, so just be kind and helpful to everybody.
Q: Have you thought about plans after high school?
A: After high school, I’m going to go to Skagit (Valley) community college and after that I’m going to transfer to a university.
Q: What do you want to study?
A: Creative writing and childcare.
Q: Why that combination?
A: A few years ago, I got to work with some of the kids from my church, and I really liked it. They were in preschool.
Q: What do you like to do for fun?
A: I like board games, video games and sports.
Q: You’re a student representative for the school board. What’s that like?
A: Mr. (Ryan) Ovenell (the principal) and I have meetings on Monday, usually during fifth period. We talk about the school’s progress over the last few weeks. I write it all down and then I go and report it to the school board on Tuesday afternoon. It’s not very nerve-racking.
Q: You had a role in Lincoln this year being expected to have a yearbook for the first time in years?
A: I was one of the students who suggested a yearbook to our leadership teacher. There were about four other kids.
Q: What did you do over summer?
A: I went to Evergreen Girls State (a summer civics camp) the first week and then I also worked on the mural. That’s how I got so many volunteer hours.
Q: Do you have a favorite short story you’ve written or a favorite idea you’re kicking around?
A: Teenagers who have supernatural abilities. The government kidnaps them and tries to control them for their own purposes … the teenagers escape because they hate it there. They’re constantly being experimented on.
Q: So you like dystopian?
A: I do like dystopian, probably because of the pop culture it’s had recently. I think it’s also becoming cliche and it’s nice to have things on a happier note than that.
Q: So you like happy stuff, too?
A: What I like to do is (write about) people who have certain negative circumstances, but they always come out positive. I think that’s how life goes, too.
Q: For creative writing, what would be the ultimate dream come true?
A: The ultimate dream would be to have a lot of fans and readers, like J. K. Rowling, like write the next Harry Potter series, basically. That might be overshooting it, like reaching past the stars.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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