Throughout her time at Darlington, senior Gabby Jones has tried many different activities which has allowed her to find her passions in the classroom and in the theater.

At the beginning of her senior year, Jones transitioned from day student to dorm student, a change which she sees as positive.

“Benefits include getting to room with Pat [Chimtanoo], who is an angel. I love her. And there’s free food a lot of the time and I don’t drive an hour every day anymore, so that’s nice,” Jones said. “I think overall it’s been a good thing for me because I’m going to get to college and actually know how often I need to do the laundry.”

During her time at Darlington, Jones has tried many different activities, many of which were less than enjoyable to her.

“I regret making myself do activities I didn’t want to do. I wanted to look good on college applications, but I also sort of wanted to cry every time I went to the activities. I’ve luckily figured out how much I didn’t want to be doing those with my time and so now I just devote most of my time to things I actually enjoy.”

However, Jones found her niche in the theater department where she has been in many productions.

“My mom was a theater nerd when she was in high school, so my entire life we’ve been playing show tunes on Pandora when we’ve been cooking things or just in the car. I’ve always loved it, so once I had the opportunity to do the thing, I was like ‘yes, this seems like a great idea.’ It’s been really cool. You bond because you have to and the dressing room is sacred . What happens in the dressing room, stays in the dressing room.”

Besides her great memories in the theater department, Jones has enjoyed her time in the classroom too.

“I’ve also loved my AP English class my junior was the best thing. I started talking to people I didn’t talk to regularly and now I have new friends. I figured out how much of a philosophy nerd I am.”

She has enjoyed in class memories, one of her favorite memories is the annual physics boat race.

“Someone turned our boat around purposefully. They hit the boat and we were turning around and I was screaming at my partner, but our boat made it all the way across. I have never been prouder of myself because I did not get drenched with lake water.”

As Jones prepares to leave Darlington, she hopes that she has made an impact on her peers and on the Darlington community.

“When I’m gone, people will feel, I want to feel that Darlington will be a more inclusive place once I’ve left. That it’ll be, when I got here and I was terrified of being different and as we’ve gone on, it’s like everyone’s weird. We’re all strange. It’s fine. So I hope that the rest of the year it will only get better and that when I leave, it will still get better.”