“I want to write a book someday about young adult literature,” Maddy Burroughs said. “I want to put emphasis when I’m older that I knew the struggle to be a teen once too.”

Burroughs, sophomore, has a dream to be an author and has plans to attend the University of Florida and be just like her sister.

Burroughs has always been on the A and B honor roll and takes school as seriously as she can.

She takes an Advanced Placement course world history and is in honors classes for biology and English.

She has a lot of support from her family, which is so important to her, especially her 24-year-old sister, Samantha, who lives in Florida.

“We are insanely close being that we are eight years apart, though we weren’t always so close when she lived with us,” Burroughs said. “She used to push me down the stairs. It was awful.”

Burroughs’ 2-year-old dog Sally, who is a boxer mix, is important to her as well.

In the future, Burroughs sees herself with more dogs, and she wants them to act like Sally because she said Sally is an easy-going dog.

Burroughs is involved in many extracurricular activities. She has been in Student Council for almost two years.

She likes the amount of community service Student Council is involved with like cleaning up For-Mar, a nature preserve that offers hiking and biking trails, and the pride that comes with it because she feels like she can actually make a difference for the people around her.

Band is another activity that she enjoys and has been in for five years.

Burroughs plays the trumpet.

“Band is a very big stresser to me, but I could never quit because that is like giving an arm away,” Burroughs said.

She also participated on the dance team.

“I grew up dancing, and I have been (dancing) for 10 years now,” Burroughs said. “I love how it’s a fun way to express yourself and simply not care what anyone thinks.”

Although this is her first year on K-Motion, Kearsley’s dance team, she danced for SSGA in Davison for 10 years before that.

She would love to have kept dancing for SSGA but due to scheduling conflicts, she no longer has time for it.

Burroughs’ main priority is to remain happy and not let anyone get in her way.

Her favorite quote is from Emma Watson.

“All I can do is follow my instincts because I can never please everyone,” Watson said.

“It’s my favorite quote,” Burroughs said, “because it shows that you can be unapologetic and unashamed of who you are regardless of what anyone thinks of you because, after all, that is all that matters.”