Megan Cardosi’s (12) presence at school is far from unnoticed. On the volleyball court, she anchors the team as an outside hitter. Behind those reflective journalism doors, Megan attends to three publications, coordinating and delegating sports and student life assignments for the staff in its entirety. Despite all this, at its core, Megan’s mantra is simple: think small.

“In general, I’m really bad at planning really far into the future, because I always think about how much could change and how much will change,” she said. “I can’t really picture where I’m going to be in the future, so I just focus on what I can control for the next small part of my life. If you keep doing that, eventually you’ll look back and realize how far you’ve come.”

With this perspective in mind, Megan tackles yearbook as just a series of miniature tasks, checking them off one by one until she’s completed her work diligently and effectively.

“It’s a great community and everything, and it’s taught me to get my life in check by keeping other things in perspective and keeping everything else organized,” she said. “When you’re working on a page, you basically start with just a blank template, and you’re like, ‘This is a lot.’ You start writing captions with the mindset that you have to write all these captions, but you just have to write one and then keep doing that. It made me reorganize my own life.”

As a member of TALON yearbook, Julia Amick (11) has witnessed Megan as an editor as well as friend. She values Megan as a comforting yet sensible presence in her life.

“I think she’s really mature,” Julia said. “Whenever I have a small issue with a friend or something or I feel like I’m not doing too well in a class, she’s always there for me and she talks me through it. She’s kind of like a mother figure… She helps me put things in perspective.”

Megan didn’t just stick to what she knew in high school. In the frenzy of junior year, Megan took economics for the first time and discovered a love for the subject.

“For the longest time I had no idea what I wanted to study, because everyone else seemed to really enjoy a class and I hadn’t found that yet,” Megan said. “There were classes where I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m okay with doing this,’ but there’s nothing I wanted to continue learning. I think AP Econ was the first time I actually enjoyed [a class] and I could see myself learning more about this in the future.”

As a whole, Megan values the details over the big picture.

“I think I’ve made a lot of important small decisions that I think I would be different if I hadn’t made them, choices like playing volleyball or joining yearbook or taking Econ or applying for an internship. I think those individual things together have put me down a certain path.”