Jasmine Jennings

Jasmine Jennings is an actress, singer, artist and student. She is a layered human being with many passions and talents. As a part of CET [Community Ensemble Theatre] and the Dance Body Club, she exhibits many skills. Jasmine enjoys performing and hopes to pursue that in the future.

“I feel pressured to improve [in the] future and fix everything that’s soon to come,” Jasmine Jennings said. “I feel a lot of pressure on my shoulders from older people telling me to break the generational curse.”

Jennings, along with many freshmen, faces pressures for a successful future amidst societal expectations. The stress of changing the world for the better as a new generation is prominent in Jennings’s eyes, and so is reaching her goals. She knows what she does and doesn’t want for the future.

“I really hoped to be a successful and famous actress, which I will be. I want to make sure to have fun in my life and not just be like a boring adult that has kids at 25,” Jennings said. “I just want to live my life.”

Jennings knows that achieving her goals involves seizing every opportunity that comes her way. These opportunities serve to improve her experience in the future.

“I think I need to work harder with the opportunities that I’m given with CET and all these audition opportunities,” said Jennings. “I feel like I should take all of them but also not take every single one. I feel like the ones that are the most important are the ones that will come to me easily,” Jennings said.

Jennings aspires not only for personal success but also to serve as an inspiration for others.

“I really hope to be an idol for girls that I don’t know. Just girls in general. I want people to look up to me as someone they could be. I feel like it’s important to have that sort of person to look up to who isn’t your own. So I guess I want to inspire,” Jennings said.

Lee Greenberg

Lee Greenberg is friendly, kind, creative and artistic. She’s a hard worker and is involved in a lot of activities due to caring about many topics. Greenberg tries extremely hard in school to ensure she has the knowledge to decide what she wants to do in the future.

Extracurriculars play a big part in this, as she participates in Mock Trial and other clubs, including the Red Cross Club, Ecology Club, Student Athletes Club and Board Games Club.

Greenberg and Jennings both feel similar pressure for their futures.

“I think that there’s definitely a big pressure with having perfect grades, doing like 10 extracurriculars, being a good ‘leader,’ and it’s just to a point that it sometimes feels practically impossible to be good enough, even if you’re working on stuff for 12 hours a day.”
Greenberg has hopes for a successful future, considering her wide array of interests.

“I would like to go to either Michigan or MIT for college,” Greenberg said. “I would also like to travel, and I want to have a job that either helps the environment or makes enough that I can donate to help the environment. I also want to do more volunteer stuff in the future.”

Lee knows that the future she hopes for will have obstacles, but she still remains positive and excited. Greenberg wants to spend her time doing what she loves.
“I’m pretty excited for my future,” Greenberg said. “Although I don’t try to waste my life waiting for the future, I feel like there’s so much more I’ll be able to do, like travel and stuff. I have always envisioned that my job will be something that I look forward to and enjoy every day. I don’t want to waste my life waiting to retire.”

This excitement for the future trickles down into Greenberg’s everyday life.
“I’m pretty happy right now. I have a lot of really good friends, I like all my classes right now and I love being busy with everything else. Sometimes the pressure for perfect grades gets a little overwhelming, but my parents have never pushed me to get certain grades, so I know that the only pressure is coming from me.”

Millie Sandstrom

Millie Sandstrom knows exactly what she wants and how to get it.
“Being a hard worker is my identity,” Sandstrom said. “So that’s really important to me, and I know that if I work hard, then I can get there. I know that reaching out to coaches for soccer, keeping my GPA high and reaching out to people who will help me get into college even this early is the right path.”
She is part of many extracurriculars, such as the Michigan Tigers soccer team and Community Ensemble Theater (CET), but finds that there will be a point where she will have to pick one.
“I’m always worried that, at some point, I can’t keep up with the people who are fully invested in one or the other. And I think that’s hard. And it’s like, that’s something that’s really stressful sometimes.”

Sandstrom sometimes finds it hard to remember that she’s a teenager, and she doesn’t need to have it all figured out. Like Jacob, Sandstrom has a clear vision for her future.

“I want to go to Columbia College in New York, or NYU,” Sandstrom said. “And I’ve always wanted to go to New York City for college and in my 20s. Just be there because it’s like, it’s like the dream city, and my best friend lives there. I love my family. But it is like I want to explore somewhere new and exciting. So I’m really happy that I have, like I’m really lucky that I have the resources to be able to go there, like I go to a good school.”
In the future, Sandstrom hopes to find a job that keeps her on her feet while using her intelligence. Sandstrom wants her job to be in a field that fascinates her, like athletics, and to hold some sort of leadership role. Along with her college plans and job hopes, she has aspirations for how she will be viewed.

“I want to be known and respected, but not necessarily famous—at least not too famous. I want to be creative in what I do and be doing something that actually matters.”

Sandstrom is hardworking and believes that she is on the right track. She is confident she will get there and knows her value.

Daniel Jacobs

Daniel Jacob is a tennis player, a companion and someone who values time with friends and family. Unlike Jennings and Greenberg, Jacob feels more pressure in the moment than in the future.

“I think there’s kind of just pressure in the present,” Jacob said. “Just kind of everyday stuff, like work in school, sports and stuff like that. So I think maybe subconsciously, I’m thinking, ‘Oh, if I don’t do all this good stuff now, I won’t be set up for success in the future.’”

Stress, often rooted in societal expectations, is always present for Jacob when it comes to his future.
“I think I’m a little stressed with schoolwork,” Jacob said. “I think it’s not like a ton, but I think there’s always kind of like a little thing in the back of your mind, whether that’s for the present or whether you’re like, again, subconsciously thinking for the future. If I don’t do well on this assignment, or if I get a bad grade, I’m not going to be set up and prepared.”

Jacob envisions a future where he is successful on his own terms and comfortable in his profession. In order to get there, he is working hard to prepare himself for getting into the college that is best for him and then taking the next steps. He also works hard in his sports in order to continue putting his best foot forward. Jacobs envisions a future that will provide him with happiness.
“I envisioned myself being so successful in some aspects of my life,” Jacob said. “That’s why I’m trying to work hard right now. So later, it can be a little bit easier. I would like to be kind of like, maybe, a software engineer and kind of lead a team, sort of a big company. I think that’d be fun.”

Jacob hopes to lead a happy life by spending his time doing what brings him joy and what is ultimately best for him.