Humans of The Hive

HOTH: Sam Hunter ’29

By Alyssa Jones

February 2026

“It’s definitely a new environment coming into high school where you get to meet new people and teachers. My dad passed away when I was younger. Explaining it was really hard on me, because that’s always hard on somebody when you’re young and someone in your family passes. You just go through a lot of challenges when somebody dies in your life, everything changes to a certain extent. My mom is someone I really look up to, she just always inspires me, because she raised me and my brothers by herself when we were younger, she always inspires me to keep going.”

HOTH: Zamora Wright ’27

By Nathanel McElwain

February 2026

“I like to sing, so I’ve always been a very vocal person.I think that choir is just a great way to get your voice out there, especially if you have stage fright. You can get out there and sing, and then you won’t be really scared anymore. You’re going out there and doing something that you’ve always loved, but you never did because of your fear of the stage and singing in front of people. When I joined Choir, I got over the fear of singing in front of a crowd of people and practiced a lot after that. I ended up being ahead of people there.”

HOTH: Ian McElwain ’29

By Matilyn Neal

February 2026

“Getting closer to God and truly worshiping Him and going to church for Him.  I have to get closer to Him, actually, fix myself and all the problems that I’m experiencing and, it just makes me want to get closer to God. My friends, people at the church, and my family. Matilyn Neal, because she’s one of my friends at church, and she has been encouraging me to go and inviting me to a friend group, and they’ve just been so wonderful. You just have to put all your hopes in your friends and let them help you. It’s not like a journey you have to take along. Everybody needs help and if I feel, even if I don’t feel like someone around me needs it, I should still try and give them the help they need. Going to church every Wednesday and Sunday, reading my Bible, taking notes, and listening and talking to my small group at my church. My influence would mainly be my family, because my mom and dad, well, specifically my mom, have been pushing me together as well, because they started going more and they just want to help me get closer to Him.”

HOTH: Lyra Carter ’27

By Amber McAteer

February 2026

“Freshman year was definitely the worst year of my life. I loved the first semester. In my first semester, I met new people, I actually gained a boyfriend, and I got to just experience high school and learn about it. But the second semester came and I started to struggle. I really started to realize how high school is and how the people can be. And I had already had some high school experiences from first semester so the excited nerves wore off. But yes, second semester wasn’t that great. I would tell the current freshmen to stay on top of your work. I’d also say to keep your group small. Get your work done and keep your group small. That’s all you need. You don’t need everybody in the world to love you, and everybody in the world is not going to love you. So don’t worry about them. Just focus on yourself and your grades.”

HOTH: True Carnes ’27

By Alexandra Flores Ramirez

September 2025

“… scoring touchdowns for the football games. When we score, I get really excited about that, really happy. It’s definitely taught me a lot, especially as I’ve gotten to play for the school, it’s taught me a lot about leadership and working as a team, not just, a personal thing for me. So it’s stuff like that. It’s taught a lot, especially outside of football.


…I wouldn’t say it was very happy, but it definitely shaped me. I remember it was rec ball. We had one practice, and we had just finished doing something, but I was like, I really didn’t like it, and I was upset about it. 
I ran to my mom’s car-my dad’s car. And I was like, I just want to go home. I want to quit. 
I’m not kidding. But I was like, I really don’t like this. I got tears in my eyes and everything. 
I’m like, I really really want to quit and just go home. But they were like, just go to the back of the truck and get yourself together. They handed me a water. 
And so I went back there, maybe just by myself, for like two minutes. And I walked back, handed the water back and went right back to it. So I definitely think that shaped me and was like a moment in my life about, I just need to push through and just keep going. “

HOTH: Isabella Pritchard ’28

By Savannah Herndon

September 2025

“When I was little my parents took me to church, so now that I am older I continue my faith on my own. I don’t have my parents force me to go to church, I go on my own willingly. I have a really great youth pastor and pastors who help me and are very knowledgeable. If I have questions they can help. I have a good youth group who are very nice, I can always talk to and hang out with. I try to keep the same morals, like things I have learned in church on how to handle situations, and I try to use that knowledge and apply it to school situations.”

HOTH: Xander Holden ’29

By Zamora Wright

September 2025

“If I could truly give myself one thing to say to my younger self it would definitely be to be more confident. When I was in middle school I wasn’t very confident in myself. I would always wear hoodies, keep my head down in class and not speak to others much. But I did make some amazing friends in middle school like my best friends Ian and Mia. Now that I’m in high school I can really see how much more confident I have become in myself. I’m still shy most of the time but that’s just my personality. Since being in high school I have met people who have made me more confident than ever, the classes have made me learn and show my true self. I used to get bullied in middle school a lot and it did take a toll on me, I started caring about what others think of me 24/7. I wanted everyone to like me but honestly I just had to realize not everyone will like you in this life, my parents told me “who cares” so I guess you could say I took their advice.”

HOTH: Drew Dutton Staff

By Savannah Herndon

September 2025

“My education. I’m working in two jobs right now where I don’t lean heavily on my education from college and masters degree as I could be. But they are significant parts of my life. They have helped shape the way I think about the world that we live in. They have helped me see ways and be the person I need to be in given situations. I got my bachelor’s degree from Anderson in Christian Theology and Masters from Liberty in Christian Education. I work at a church. I worked with youth for ten years and now work with music. They don’t apply as much to the music field as they do in education. Even in that youth program it was more of an application based on how I can use what I have learned. I necessarily didn’t need the tools I got from the institutions but I still used them. I don’t know if that was something people saw in church. I know it is something that is not necessarily seen here. Like I said I don’t know if it is so much about the education as the experience I got from the education.”