HUMANS OF BELLAIRE – Eliza Beaver

“I think high school was overall really great. I changed schools my sophomore year, and it was difficult to meet new people. My junior year, I tried branching out, and I met so many new communities and it really helped me explore my own confidence and essentially become a new person. Senior year, I got to hang out with a lot more people, and I had a great time. I was able to keep up with not only my old relationships back in my old city but [also] the new relationships I made at Bellaire.

There are some stuff I didn’t do because I thought others may look at me differently. I would have tried to keep and make new friendships. Sometimes I felt like my sole focus was on school or ‘What’s the next project?’ or ‘What do I have to do next?’ rather than just living in the moment and really looking around. That’s what I would do differently: Live in the moment more.

[I enjoyed] staying at my grandparents farm in Kansas. I remember taking care of their animals. I would sit in the garden and read, eat the fruit from their garden, or play hide and seek with my siblings in the pasture. I would explore the woods and go anywhere [and] everywhere. I felt really free as a kid. I also really appreciate the time I got to spend with my neighbors in all my cul-de-sacs living at my dad’s and my mom’s. There were a lot of us at my dad’s and my dad would just give us 20 bucks and tell us to go have fun.

I had the ability to make so many decisions. Being given guidance but also being given freedom in my childhood helped me gain maturity, learn responsibility and learn how to explore while still being able to be a kid and have fun and be adventurous.

During COVID I took up letter writing. I began to appreciate physical letters. It helps me stay active with old friends and helps me meet new people. I still keep the letters my friends sent. A meaningful letter that is sweet and intimate is wonderful to have because no one really gets letters anymore.

I plan on attending Texas A&M College Station. I’ll be majoring in psychology to later earn my Bachelors of Science in nursing. I really want to specialize in pediatrics. I’ve always appreciated the medical field, so nursing or working in pediatrics has always been a dream of mine. My stepdad works in a hospital, so during the summers during COVID I would volunteer and shadow the nurses working there. 

[Wanting to] become a nurse really solidified when I was 14. I was driving with a friend of mine to go to the beach for her birthday, and a car T-boned us and we got into a pretty nasty car wreck. I got bad head trauma and I had some teeth fall out, and I had to be rushed to the ER for some emergency procedures and operations. The nurses who were helping me were so sweet and kind. I was panicking. I didn’t know what was happening and I was feeling really dazed but they were patient, calm, secure and confident. I felt safe with them, and it made my whole experience a lot better. After that I started really wanting to be a nurse because being a kid at the hospital is pretty scary, and I want to be that sense of security for them.

Don’t worry about what other people think. High school is so small, and you’re likely never going to see some of these people again, so just forget how people think of you and do your own thing. Be happy, feel confident, respect others, respect yourself, try new things and just have fun. It’s a great way to figure out who you are and who you want to be.”