Hi! I’m Sara Anderson and I’m excited about starting this column by, for and about teenagers. As implied in the title, this column will explore a variety of topics and be based on my and my friends experiences.

Currently, I am a junior at Inglemoor High School but I live here in Kirkland. Like many high school students, I have a busy schedule: I serve as a class officer, I play recreational soccer and I earn spending money by working at my church’s nursery. Traveling is also a passion of mine: I have been to 11 countries and counting. Another passion of mine is writing. I am honing my skills in IB History and English.

I enjoy listening to music, reading and dreaming on my roof.

As we begin this column, I encourage and invite your ideas and suggestions for “Whatever Comes to Mind.”

You may know one person you admire because she truly seems to have her act together. For me, that someone is Emily Eisenhart. She’s a senior IB diploma candidate at Inglemoor and is planning on attending the University of Puget Sound next fall. She is the founder of the extremely popular Relay for Life club at Inglemoor and is still growing in popularity. If you’re not familiar with Relay for Life, it’s an organization fighting to find a cure for cancer. She first heard about Relay for Life from a friend and decided to start her own team for our school’s community. I can also assure you that it was not to look good on her college resume, but because she truly wants to create a “great opportunity for students and teenagers to help participate in fighting back against a disease that affects thousands of families every year.”

What really sparked her passion for this cause was the “defeat of cancer within her own family.” She admits that it is rather challenging to run such a popular club on top of her heavy school work load but that it was all worth it at the UW Relay for Life event that was held May 22-23. The year she introduced the club there were around 17 members who together raised $3,000. Popularity of the club spread like wildfire around campus and this year there are now over 35 members whose achieved their goal and raised more than $5,000.

If readers would still like to donate to this noble cause, they can visit the team’s Web site at http://main.acsevents.org/goto/viks4fight or e-mail Emily at em_eisenhart@hotmail.com. Emily is just one example of a teen making a positive difference in our community. Too often people think of teenagers as rebellious, difficult or self-absorbed. I beg to differ. The vast majority of teens would love to make a difference in our community, the question looming before them, however, is how to do so.

Kirkland resident Sara Anderson is a junior at Inglemoor High School.