Sometimes the hardest things to overcome are what make us the strongest.
Coram Deo senior Mia Dole, 18, said that she is in a very good place in her life now, but things were not always that way.
“My biggest challenge in life was most definitely growing up without many friends,” Dole said. “I have never been what is considered ‘popular.’ This definitely impacted my childhood. I went to a Montessori school as a kid, meaning there were only fifteen of us in a class, so we talked to each other all the time.
“This meant that they had to be friends with me. While they might have pretended to be my friends, that did not prevent them from constantly judging me, excluding me from events, or talking about me behind my back.”
Now a member of the varsity volleyball team and art enthusiast, Dole is a teacher’s assistant for a beginning art class at Coram Deo Academy and served as treasurer of the National Arts Honor Society her sophomore year.
She is also one of the top students in her graduating class.
Dole said she still occasionally struggles with feelings of sadness, because of what she called “toxic friendships,” in her early academic career. But, she added that the support of her parents and attending Coram Deo Academy has been a great elixir.
“I now have amazing friends who care about me and support me,” Dole said. “I’m no longer trying to prove myself to those girls. Instead, now I pressure myself to do well, because I was given the right opportunities and don’t want to waste them. My parents sent me to a private school, making sacrifices in their own lives to do so. I owe it to them to try my best.
The Flower Mound teen said she would like to attend Oklahoma State University and major in Occupational Science or Special Education.
She said the best part about being a young person today is the opportunities she has.
“If I had been born fifty years earlier, then I wouldn’t have had all the chances that I have today,” Dole said. “Simple things like vacations, going to a private school, having a job and interacting with technology to keep in touch with people were either uncommon or nonexistent 50 years ago for teenagers, especially young women like me.
“Because I’m a teenager today, I can go to college and travel to Europe with my AP Art History class.”
Dole carries a 4.0 grade point average at Coram Deo Academy.
Dole’s Favorites
Favorite Subject: English
Person that Most Inspires Me: My Grandfather
Favorite Food: Pasta
Favorite Movie: “Facing the Giants”
Favorite TV Show: “The Good Doctor”
Book: “To Kill a Mockingbird”
Favorite Music: The Script
Nominate your student for this monthly feature brought to you by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Flower Mound by emailing [email protected].
