Have you ever been to Skyline Boulevard? Drive through downtown Saratoga and up into the mountains, and you’ll find a scenic vista point. You might also find Christina Bettink (12), who loves visiting the spot because you “can see the entire bay.”

Ever since her junior year, when she got her driver’s license, Christina has developed her relationships with the people around her through spontaneous outings to various little-known spots, all with a viewpoint.

“Over the summer, my friends and I went up to Skyline, and we took a hike,” Christina recalled. “It was really memorable [for me] because of the view and the surroundings.”

Christina’s love for outings like these is known to most of her closest friends, like Riva Saksena (12), who often accompanies her.

“One thing that’s essential to Christina is her car. She just wants to have all these new experiences, [and] she wants us to be part of them,” Riva said. “We go on impromptu adventures all the time. It’s never a plan, [which makes it] really exciting.”

Christina’s effort to form memories with those around her spawns from the fact that her friends are some of the most significant people in her life, and she describes loyalty as one of the most important parts of these relationships. Piper White (12), another of her closest friends, observed that Christina usually shows this trait by being there for her.

“Christina’s a really supportive person,” Piper White (12), another of Christina’s friends, said. “No matter what’s going on in someone’s life, she’s always there for them, and she tries to understand what they’re going through and figure out the best way to help them through it.”

Another way that Christina shows support to her friends is by creating these last-minute plans to help cheer someone up.

“Christina’s always there for her friends,” Riva said. “She pulls through in the end, [and so] we go on impromptu adventures all the time. She’s always there to support [us].”

It’s this lack of planning that really cements the memory of the event for Christina: she feels that last-minute plans are more special than others simply because of their spontaneity, and she generally likes going to new places that she’s heard about from the people around her.

“Those memories and moments will stick with me longer, [maybe] for the rest of my life just because of the fact that they were so spontaneous,” she said. “Most of the time, I haven’t been to [where I’m going] before, but it’s cool to find new places. Most people don’t typically think about going to a lot of them, but they’re actually really nice.”

One of the reasons Christina cherishes her memories with her friends so much is that she wants to make the most of her time in high school.

“You only go through high school once. I want to experience it to the fullest [and] make the most memories with the people I’m surrounded by,” she said. “I want to spend as much time with these people now before everything changes.”