Freshman Peyton Pawlusiak walked into the boiling hot Mercy gym bright and early on her birthday, August 25th, ready to start high school. Both nervous and excited, Pawlusiak was/is ready to make her impact on Mercy High School, both academically and “extra-curricularly”.
Pawlusiak has been horseback riding since she was seven years old and is currently on Mercy’s equestrian team. Her newly acquired 13 year-old paint horse and she compete in hunt seat, western and jumping. Although she is the only freshman on the team, Pawlusiak loves her fellow teamates and how welcoming they are.
“They’re so accepting and it doesn’t matter my year,” said Pawlusiak. “I do get the frosh teasing though.”
In the spring, Pawlusiak plans on joining the track team. She wants to follow in her older brother Parker’s footsteps and run in the 100, 200, and 400 meter sprints and the 4×1 and 4×2 relays.
“Parker was the one who actually got me going with running,” explains Pawlusiak. “I was a middle schooler when he was running track at St. Mary’s Orchard Lake, and we’ve had a bet going for years that I’ll beat his times.”
Although Pawlusiak loves all her extra-curriculars, she realizes the importance of a good education and always puts her schoolwork first. She genuinely enjoys learning new things, and her favorite subjects are history and biology.
“I really like how in history, you can learn so much about the world, different cultures, and religions,” says Pawlusiak. “I joke that one day I’ll do something so great that it will go in a history book. I really like biology because it’s interesting to truly see all the facts about life by doing labs and investigating.”
Pawlusiak cannot wait for the beginning of the school year dust to settle. She hopes to join the science club this year and the forensics team her sophomore year.