So I’m sure all of you have seen me rollin around in my wheelchair. Literally. Or you’ve seen me hobbling from place to place on my crutches. You probably look at me and think I’m fine, that I’m just being lazy. You can call me that girl in the wheelchair, or cripple, but I am most commonly known as Brooke Thomas. So before one more person asks me what happened, I tore my ACL and MCL playing beach volleyball and basketball. Which brings me back to my hometown of Huntington Beach, California. With a population reaching near 200,000, there is always something to do or somewhere to be. Although it is only 30 miles from Los Angeles, the lifestyle and activities differ greatly. Huntington Beach is known as Surf City, U.S.A. for its massive waves and local surf shops. I am an incoming senior at Huntington Beach High School where we have held the National Surfing Championship for the past 25 years. The main hobbies I partake in are surfing, basketball, beach volley, golf, ice blocking, and just laying out at the beach. The weather never really goes over 80 degrees, but never really drops below 60, so every day is a good day to go outside and enjoy all sorts of activities. At my school I am on the Varsity Basketball, Volleyball, and Surf teams. Because sports are an everyday part of my life, I have never really had the time to evaluate politics like most of you do. Actually, news depresses me because everything on the television or radio is always something traumatic, sad, or hateful. Never are there stories about the peace and joy of the world. I enjoy the simple things in life and prefer not to turn on the tele just to watch some sad, depressing story of a local child molester. Which is why I have aspirations to be an ESPN correspondent and travel around interviewing the next Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods, or Tom Brady. But first, I am going to make the AVP tour and take 1st place in tournaments all around the world. And yes, that is a picture of the H.B. sunset I took with my phone.