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Two different colored shoes walked down the hallway. One red, one blue, both worn down, both belonging to the same person: Janey Mitchell. She didn’t care what anyone else thought, she knew that for her to be happy, she had to stop caring about what other people thought of her.
“What people perceive you [as], is who you are,” Mitchell said. “To stop caring about how people see you is to have a different identity. You see yourself differently than other people do.”
Mitchell’s decision to not focus on what other people think of her has not gone unnoticed by others around her.
“What I admire most about Janey is that she’s true to herself and that she doesn’t change for others,” sophomore Andrew Madsen said. “She’s been through a lot and yet she’s still herself.”
When Mitchell was in seventh grade, her stepfather, Shawn, passed away due to COVID and pneumonia while Mitchell watched.
“When Shawn passed away I was downstairs with my siblings,” Mitchell said. “I heard my mom scream so I ran upstairs and saw my stepfather lying on the ground. My mom told me to get my siblings out of the house so they wouldn’t have to watch; I didn’t make them go out but I told them to stay downstairs while I went upstairs and watched. I saw my mom performing CPR on him before we finally called 911 and they told us he had passed away.”
While most people would’ve had a negative outlook on that situation, Mitchell took it more as a learning opportunity.
“The thing that I always remember is that the only thing that is promised in life, is death,” Mitchell said. “Maybe that’s a bad thing, but it teaches me to be grateful for everyday life, and it helps me with people who die.”
While Mitchell has that view about death, her mom went through a long stage of mourning.
“A year passed and she was still mourning,” Mitchell said. “Then two years, and finally, as much as I loved my stepfather, he drove a wedge between my mom’s and my relationship. During the eighth grade’s valentine dance I needed her to give me a ride but she wouldn’t answer my phone calls because she was selling my stepfather’s teepee. I was so upset my mom couldn’t take one phone call. And it hurt that she didn’t care about me, at least that’s what it felt like. So I slept at my mom’s that night and then the next day I told her I was going to my dad’s.”
Mitchell’s father pushes her to give 110 percent. Always making sure she’s doing her best in classes and sports.
“My dad is one of my biggest role models in life,” Mitchell said. “Mostly because he has always been in my life. I take a lot of things away from my dad, he’s told me to always be a leader, so I try to. I try every single day to say hi to every person I see, even if I don’t know them that well. I like to see all sides of people, I don’t like hanging out with one group of people because I have interests with every subject. I’ve always felt attracted to other people, and I’ve had that since I was a little lad.”
Though Mitchell has dealt with adversity throughout her life, she tries her hardest to do well in high school, including doing different activities, clubs, leaderships and sports. Mitchell has done several sports throughout her life: basketball, track, and soccer.
“The thing I love most about soccer is the connection I have with others,” Mitchell said. “I could really open up to anyone about anything and we would talk about it. Soccer has made me a whole different person and playing the sport frees my head about anything.”
Mitchell had been playing basketball since second grade. She continued playing up until halfway through her Sophomore winter season and then quit the sport.
“I just wasn’t the same person on the court,” Mitchell said. “It didn’t break me as an athlete, but the sport broke me down. I didn’t want to do it mentally and it drained me down. I didn’t have the love or the passion for it. [The soccer team] may not have the talent to beat other teams. But we have the passion, which is why I love it so much.”
Mitchell has also been involved in journalism since her freshman year. She has worked as a staff reporter and a section editor. In the summer she will attend a PBS journalism conference in Washington DC.
“I’m really excited for this opportunity and the idea of meeting new people I probably would never have met on my own,” Mitchell said. “Hopefully this helps me explore new pathways I don’t even know about.”
