Emily Freehling

The Senior Scoop is a collaboration between the school administration and the Class of 2023. It gives seniors the opportunity to share their experiences and aspirations. In this episode, Chris Ming interviews Emily Freeling, a senior who excels in sports. They discuss her achievements in basketball, her plans for the future, and her gratitude for her family and coaches. Emily also offers advice to younger students to always put in extra work and strive for improvement. The Senior Scoop is an opportunity for the community to hear directly from the senior class about their experiences, hopes, dreams, and reflections. The Scoop is a result of a collaboration between administration and the Class of 2023. We hope you'll enjoy chilling with us each week as we dish up a sweet treat of accumulated Wolverine wisdom 13 years in the making and introduce you to the fantastic young men and women who will soon become AGS alumni and tomorrow's community leaders. I'm your Senior Scoop host, Chris Ming, the proud superintendent of the Augray Sims School District. Thanks for listening. Now let's dig in. Good morning, Augray Sims. This is Mr. Ming, and I am here on a wonderful Wednesday morning. The flowers are blooming, the sun is out, and the temperature is actually on the rise, and I'm here with another senior guest. So welcome, everybody, Emily Freeling. Thanks for having me. How are you, Emily? Good, how are you? I'm doing well, thank you. So you're a little nervous to do this one. Yeah. We'll name the elephant in the room here. Why are you so nervous? I don't know. I don't like speaking in front of people. Well, that's a little bit of a surprise. I mean, homecoming queen, correct? Yeah, that was nerve-wracking, too. Well, this would be another obstacle you have to overcome, right? As you advance out of your high school years, there will be many times in your life when you have to sit down across the table from somebody and have a conversation. Yeah. We tend to call those job interviews or interviews for, say, scholarships or something like that. So this will be a good experience for you. So, Emily, you're going to be graduating here in just a few weeks. How many days of school do seniors have left? I'll have a loan of not counting. Really? Okay, that's a surprise to me. Usually, the seniors have to count at about 180 at the beginning of the year. So why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself, how long you've been at AGS, and maybe your family or something like that? I've been at AGS for my whole career. I started at kindergarten and finishing in, you know, 12. My biggest thing here is I like to focus on sports the most. I mean, first, yeah, school comes first. But, like, even after school, I'll focus on just sports. And, like, after practice or whatever, I'll go home and put in, like, extra work towards it. My biggest thing is to strive to be better than what I am. Okay. So what sports have you played while you've been here? Softball, volleyball, and basketball. Is there a reason you put them in that order? Are those your favorites in that order? No, that's just the order I thought of them in. Okay. So we tend to do that subconsciously, but that's interesting. So what position do you play for softball? First base. First base, okay. And I know you had a very good basketball season. One of the best on record here, in recent memory, at least, for our girls' basketball program. You want to talk a little bit about that? Basketball this year, it was different because we just got a new coach a few years ago. And, like, a totally new set of girls, like, younger girls coming in. There's four seniors that have been playing for a long time together. And I think it was just a bittersweet moment because we all came together. And we've been on a losing streak for a long time with basketball. We haven't won very many games the past few years. But this year, we ended up being able to win a lot. And we ended up winning districts this year. Okay. So that must have been quite a feeling of accomplishment going from not winning a whole lot to going out on top like that, huh? So let me ask you this. If you haven't won in a while, why did you stay with it? I've always loved basketball more than anything. And my biggest thing is to get better at it. And I love, like, spending time with my teammates and seeing them improve as well. Not just me. But, I don't know. I just like it. I'm happy to hear that. Too often, what we see is people who, if they're not successful, they give up on things. Instead, you went in the opposite direction. You put in extra time. You put in the time in the gym, I'm assuming at home as well, and stayed with it. And then you're walking out of here a district champion. Yeah. First time in our school in, what, 10, 11 years, something like that. So that's a cool thing. And your name's on a trophy. And that trophy's in the showcase. So that's a cool thing. You'll be able to come back in years in the future and be able to see that. So let's transition to the other part of that answer that you provided. You said you've been here since kindergarten. So you've been in these halls for 13 years. So how does it feel to be closing that book in your life? It's weird. I've never really thought it would come this quick because it flew by. I still remember being in kindergarten and thinking the big kids were so tall and so much bigger than us. And it's weird to feel that we're graduating and we have people looking up to us now. And so you were actually spending time in the kindergarten classroom. I pulled you out of there today, actually. So you literally have gone full circle in your time here. Yeah. So what are you doing within the kindergarten classroom? Why have you been in there? In the kindergarten, I do peer-to-peer. And I just help the kindergartners out and just provide extra help for the teachers in there and stuff. I just like it in there, too, because they all look up to you and they all, they just love you. That's a big responsibility, isn't it? Yeah. So in a few short weeks, you're going to be walking across that stage and you'll be closing this chapter. What's next in the story of Emily Freeling? I'm going to pursue and go to Delta College. I'm not yet decided on what I want to do yet. I'm leaning more towards the medical field, though. I think I want to do something in there, but not 100% yet. Okay. So what within the medical field interests you? I don't know. I just like the fact that working, like, with people and trying to help them and provide the care they need. So you're thinking more care of the body or care of the mind? More, like, psychology, psychiatry? More, like, patient care? Probably patient care. I want to help, like, with the body and help them through stuff. Okay. Well, that's an admirable goal. Delta's a great place to get started on that and figure out all you want to do before you figure out the next step. So what do you think is going to be the biggest challenge as you move away from here and start working at Delta? Probably keeping myself on top of my work. I like to procrastinate a lot, and I don't know if I will if I don't have my parents there to help me. So are you going to be living down in the Delta area? At first, I'm going to take online classes at home until, like, I get stuff figured out and see if I want to move. Okay. Well, I hope you figure it out. I'll let you in on a little secret that adults don't want kids to know. No one actually ever completely figures things out. That's one of those closely held secrets that adults try to keep away from kids is you're always trying to seek out those answers and figure out new things. So don't wait too long, and don't be afraid to step out on that limb and try something a little bit outside of your comfort zone. That's one of the great things about going on to college is that you've got the opportunity and the responsibility now to take that step on your own. Your parents have led you this far. Your coaches have brought you here. Your teachers have brought you here, and you're ready. So don't be afraid to take that step. Okay. All right. So I'm going to throw the random question at you, and I'm going to give you one that is on the sheet. I want you to feel comfortable here. If you had one superpower, what would it be and why? Probably to be really, really good at sports. It's my one thing I want. It's not really a superpower, but to me it is. I wish I was so much better at sports than what I am, and I just wish it would come easy to me and it'd just be, I don't know. It's interesting. The concept of easy is an interesting one. Yeah. I just wish, you know, because you always have to work for what you're doing, and I just wish it was just all right there easy. Do you think you would value it as much for easy? No, but it'd be cool. I agree it would be cool. I was at the game. You won the district championship, and I got to say I was almost moved to tears by how excited everyone looked, especially the looks on the senior class who had gone through those trials and tribulations, those down years, and had experienced that success this year. Yeah. If it would have been easy, if you had won all four years, would you value that district championship as much? Probably not as much. I mean, yeah, it'd be cool to do it and be known to have that winning streak or whatever, but I think it's kind of cool to be the underdogs coming and finally just winning. Okay. Well, I agree. I think that the accomplishments you had this year and in your time as an athlete here were something to be very proud of. So you're in softball now. How's softball season going? It's going okay. Right now we're playing on the bigger school, and they're above us. So we're struggling a little right now, but I think we're just finally pulling it together and we're getting through it. At least you're playing. It's been a pretty rough spring for the weather, so at least you're playing now. And good gracious, today looks like it could be actually a nice day for a ball game. Yeah. Except we just had practice today. Well, of course. It's the way the spring has worked out. All right. So I'd like to give every senior I sit down with the opportunity to think about your time here and express some gratitude to maybe a couple of individuals. They could be parents, family members. They can be teachers. They can be peers. Is there anyone that comes to mind immediately as I give you this opportunity for gratitude that you want to thank for helping you to be who you are now? Probably my family and my coaches for always pushing me harder than what I believe I can do. They get on me about stuff, and yeah, it annoys me. But it's only because they know I can do so much better than what I'm doing. And I just feel like that's helped me a lot through all these years. You can tell that it has annoyed you at times. You and I have had conversations about that a little bit. But I think deep down, though, I think those messages resonated with you. Yeah. I understand why it's just... I don't know. It just gets on you sometimes. Yeah. It's hard to hear negative things about you. Yeah. But if you're able to accept those things, then you can grow, and you can get end results of that whole thing. All right. So the other thing that I tend to ask everyone... Now, you've been here for a long time, which about half of your senior class has been here since kindergarten, which is crazy to think about for me, because I was in a district that had multiple elementary schools and multiple middle schools. And so the concept of spending that much time with these people is kind of crazy. But looking back at your time here, there's a lot of younger students than you, everyone else except that senior class. What words of advice would you give to your younger peers, and even the ones all the way down to the elementary school, on how to be successful in your time here at Algary Sims? Always put in the extra work, even if you think you're really good at it. Never stop doing the most that you can. Once you think you have it down, go and do some more on it, and you will really see the results. All right. So does that apply to athletics and academics? Both. Okay. Well, that's good to hear. Any last parting thoughts that you'd like to express before we conclude this fantastic podcast? No. All right. Emily, I almost said M-Dawg, but I wasn't going to use your nickname here. You got to tell me, tell everyone here, because everyone does call you M-Dawg around here. Where did that come from? It started freshman year when during basketball, I ended up starting, and I don't even know where the nickname come from. People just, they gave me the nickname when I first started playing in freshman. And I started as a freshman on a senior team, or well, a varsity team, and it was weird. Okay. So I've always wondered that. I'm glad to hear it. So we don't even know the origin. It just started sometime four years ago, and it's stuck with you. Yeah. To the point where that's what the announcers say at games is M-Dawg Freeling. Okay. So, well, that mystery has now been solved, sort of. But I want to thank you for your time today. I know you need to get back to the kindergarten class. You've done a wonderful job. Congratulations on your graduation. Thank you. This has been a production of the All Great Sims School District. Thanks for tuning in, and we hope you join us again soon for another Senior School.