Sophomore Tenley Maple is one of the busiest people in her class. Between her abundance of clubs to her participation in band, there isn’t much time left for anything else. But she wouldn’t change any of it.

Since her freshman year, Maple has been dedicating all of her time to being involved in art council, Writer’s Cafe, Reading Buddies, Random Acts of Kindness, Spanish Club, Reading Team, The Future is Mine and mock trial.

“Sometimes it can be hard to go to everything, and a lot of the time there is overlapping,” said Maple. “But overall it’s nice to be in such a wide variety of activities.”

In addition to her other activities, she is also involved in band. It started in fifth grade when she joined concert band as an alto saxophone player. For the next three years, her love for the saxophone dwindled and by her eighth grade year, she quit saxophone and moved into the percussion section.

“I honestly just started to hate the saxophone,” she said, “and I wanted to learn something new and cool.”

After joining the percussion section, Maple started dedicating more of her time to band. Although trying learning a whole new section of instruments, she joined pep band and decided to learn trombone. The following year, she joined percussion ensemble and marching band. “Instruments make me have a deeper appreciation for music and helped me get through some rough times,”she said.

Along with her commitments in school, Maple has a part-time job at Dairy Queen in Mount Pleasant.

“Even though I’m extremely busy, I still need money to live,” she said matter-of-factly.

As a child, Maple did not have a steady life. When she was 5 years old, she no longer lived with her mother full-time. She started living with a relative in North Carolina at Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps Base during the week. She was only allowed to see her mother on weekends.

She then moved to Pennsylvania and her mother moved to Maryland.

“I moved a lot from house to house, and I always had something to do so it never got boring,” said Maple. “When everything finally settled down, I didn’t have a constant rush of things thrown at me, so I created a rush.”

“Even though it’s been a tough time and a really, really messed up few weeks,” said Maple,  “always think you will succeed indeed.  I definitely wouldn’t change anything because it all makes me who I am today.”