Caitlin Payne sits in her first period block anxiously waiting for class to start. Its the first day of her junior year, so she’s used to these kinds of feelings by now. The bell rings and in come thirty of her new classmates. She scans the crowd trying to find her next culprit. “Who will it be this year” she wonders, “who will be my new friend?”

A junior at RHS, Caitlin was once the girl whose biggest fear was being alone. Motivated by her trepidations, she was determined never to put herself in a solitary situation. Ironically, her biggest fear led her to become a widely known leader on campus with a surplus of friends to surround herself with.

Ally Lent: What are you most afraid of?

Caitlin Payne: ”Being alone. . .  I don’t like lonesomeness, and sharks and snakes and that stuff.”

AL: Explain to me a time you’ve been alone in your life.

CP: “My first two years at Rocklin High, I felt like I didn’t belong in a lot of my classes. I struggled to make new friends.”

AL: How did you overcome this?

CP: “I kind of just pushed through it, and made awkward friendships.. I would just go up to people and say ‘HEY, let’s be friends.’”

AL: Have these friendships grown into something deeper than being just awkward friends inside the classroom?

CP: “Yes they definitely have! From what started as having a buddy in a couple of my classes, they have really grown into sustainable friendships. I have friends like Riley Hensley and Brittany Wagner whom I met as a Freshman and we’re still really great friends.”

AL: What would be your advice to someone who’s struggling to fit in in high school?

CP: “Always be yourself. Eventually you will find people who like you for who you are, and it will always work out in the end.”