To be a sophomore during times when people are uncertain the school will shut down or not isn’t exactly an ideal scenario, but Briley Simpson makes it work. Being able to always stay optimistic and cheerful has definitely helped Briley, but it hasn’t been easy. To Briley, the pandemic is just something we have to make work and get through together.  

If she were able to travel back in time and change something about her upbringing she wouldn’t change anything: “Honestly, I probably wouldn’t travel back in time because I think everything happens for a reason and I’m happy where I am,” she said. Briley’s motto in life is that kindness matters. “I wish that people would be nicer to each other and just realize that we are all the same: we just need to love each other and get rid of the hate in the world.”

A huge thing in Briley’s life is soccer, which she has been playing since she was three years old. She plays Center Mid on her recreational team and Center defense for the school team.  “I really like the friends you make on the team, and I love the working together aspect,” she said. Briley plays with one of her best friends, Allie Boyd, on the soccer team. “She’s basically me but in a different font,” Briley explained. Soccer is also a pretty big thing in her family. Both Briley and her brother play soccer, and sometimes they even watch Liverpool games together as a family. “I don’t know why we watch Liverpool, really. My dad likes them, and we kind of started watching them because of him.”  She doesn’t know if she’ll be playing soccer after high school, but even if she doesn’t, she knows she learned a lot of valuable life lessons like working hard and getting along well with others. 

Her life in school has been pretty hectic with the school closing and Covid cases going up, but she still loves the school all the same. She has met some of her best friends here like Allie Boyd, Lilliana Roloff, Claire Simpson, and Anna Gayler and loves how there are so many different classes for different career paths. Some of her favorite teachers are Mr. Peace and Mrs. Peters. “Mr. Peace’s class is so chill and relaxed, but I also love Ms. Peters because she’s so creative and cool and down to Earth,” she said. Some of her favorite hobbies are listening to music, reading, drawing, and, of course soccer.  Her favorite genre currently is indie pop, and her favorite bands are Wallows, The Aubreys, and Taylor Swift. “I love the vibes they give off their songs; they just make me happy, and they don’t really have a bad song.” Her heroes are her parents, “because they encourage me while I’m down and they motivate me to do my very best in everything.” Briley’s dad is also a teacher at Heritage Middle School. “It was [weird], but it also made middle school easier to go into; but every day kids would come up to me and tell me how mean he was and I would just laugh because he definitely is not like that at home.” All in all, Briley is a very interesting and optimistic person to get to know.