Laughing and making the people around her laugh, sophomore Sarah Hayes is surrounded by her friends. Looking at her, one may think that she is a social butterfly, the life of the party. However, Hayes with her very full life, usually can’t make the party.

Hayes is in Advance Theatre, all advanced classes and is very active with martial arts at Life Ki-do Martial Arts Academy. Right now, she is a sound technician in the school musical, with her hours there starting when 4th period ends till 10 p.m., while her martial arts hours take up her weekend. On Fridays, when she is not busy with theatre, she trains for two hours. Every Saturday though, she can be found there from 9 to 6. Some may wonder when does have time for her friends, but Hayes isn’t worried.

“My friends and my boyfriend are all in Theatre, so I get to hang out with them in theatre which is fun,” Hayes said. “They’re all very understanding of the fact that karate is a major passion in my life, and they understand when I don’t necessarily have as much time as maybe somebody else would. But when I do have free time, we find time and go hang out and do things.”

Hayes also finds a way to keep up with her advanced classes in the midst of her time-consuming activities. She works whenever she can find the time to get her homework done.

“Yesterday night in rehearsals, we had some free time at the end, or at least we did in the booth,” Hayes said. “I’ve been taking pictures of my math text book, so I don’t have to carry it around. Whenever I have time, I pull out my phone for my math homework and then I do my homework like that, pretty much in the spare time in between sound cues. When I get home,  I eat and shower. I work until I think sleep is necessary, so you know, like 1:30 in the morning.”

Hayes is glad that she has her parent’s support, as well as her five Senseis’ support, her karate instructors who act like five additional father figures.  Her mother encourages her to do what she needs to do to keep her grades where she wants them, and her ‘dads’ support her when she can’t come in to training. Hayes has prioritized her life with the help of this support system since freshman year, but sometimes that means turning down a friend’s party for a needed study session.

“I try really hard to be able to go, but sometimes I can’t and feel guilty, but depending on what it is, sometimes it’s just stuff that has to be missed,” Hayes said. “It’s organizing priorities. Would you rather go to a party?  Or do you make sure you’re not going to fail your algebra test on Monday? Probably the algebra test.”