Melissa Merritt, a senior at PHS, works to the best of her ability to juggle anything in her path. She also participates in many activities in and out of school while also navigating through long hours of schoolwork.

Q: Tell us some of the activities you do at school and outside of school.

A: Over my high school years, I’ve done cross country, indoor track, outdoor track, and Nordic skiing. Outside of school, I compete in triathlons and love to do anything active. 

Q: What hobbies do you enjoy doing?

A: I dabble in many things, including skills that are tedious to learn and also pretty useless. I can ride a unicycle, juggle, and play the accordion, and it’s only a matter of time before I learn how to do all three at once. When I’m not refining my clown abilities, I like to play the piano, bake, and do graphic design. 

Q: What are your plans after high school?

A: After high school, I will be going to London, England to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I’ll spend a year and a half doing service and teaching people about my religion. I’m super excited to get to experience a different culture while also sharing my love for Jesus Christ. 

Q: What are some of the challenges that you face while trying to balance everything?

A: One of the main challenges I’ve faced is getting overwhelmed when I have a lot going on. To overcome this, I try to stay focused and be in the moment wherever I am. I try to stay caught up in school so that I can be more present during sports or other activities.

Q: What life skill learned here will be most valuable in your future?

A: The most valuable life skill I’ve learned from high school is probably choosing my priorities. There’s lots of sports, clubs, and activities to choose from, but I’ve had to learn to choose the ones that truly make me happy and are worth my time. 

Q: What is your favorite memory from high school?

A: My favorite memory is probably anytime from the cross country season of my sophomore year. The people from that team will always be some of my best friends and we had a lot of fun adventures together. 

Q: What is your proudest athletic or academic accomplishment?

A: My proudest accomplishment would probably be our team winning state cross country my sophomore year. Our team and Cody’s team had been close all season, but after losing to them at conference, we weren’t sure if we’d be able to pull off a win. We all ended up having a great race and winning. We had spent two years working for a team title, so it was really special to achieve that with my teammates and friends. 

Q: What goals have you set for yourself that you’ve achieved?

A: During the ski season this year, I set the goal to score team points, which was daunting because I was still pretty new to the sport. I ended up accomplishing that goal many times, which was awesome because it was really fun to be able to contribute to our team score.