Being spontaneous is not everyone’s strong suit. Being brave, open-minded to change, and flexible are the key elements possessed by spontaneous people. Katrina Jimenez emulates these qualities. Not only is she loud, extroverted, and a ball of energy, but she isn’t afraid to step outside of her comfort zone. At fourteen years old, she was sitting at the kitchen table in Colorado with her father for dinner. A normal night, but an innocent question posed by her dad would change her childhood forever. “If you could move to Indianapolis, would you?” she recalls her father asking.

“Yeah, why not?” she immediately answered.

Katrina Jimenez (right) works on her high school yearbook with her classmate Shelley (left). Jimenez is dedicated to her work on the staff and is working hard at the HSJI classes at Indiana University Bloomington.

“Why not?” is a phrase that Jimenez uses to push her along in life. She is an avid coffee enthusiast and wants to design for magazines in the future. If she enjoys an activity, why not pursue it with all of her energy? That’s not to say that she is always 100 percent confident in every situation though. “I was so excited [to move] at first,” she said, “but I was nervous to start school.” This fear was fortunately short-lived for Jimenez at her new high school. “Everyone is an outcast in their own quirky way,” she said. Her school is relatively new; the 2018 yearbook will only be their fifth edition. This may intimidate some, but Jimenez was ready to stand up to the challenge and meet it head on.

She’s a perfectionist–school is her top priority–but she also wants to make the upcoming yearbook her school’s best one yet. Although she is confident in her and her staff’s work, she finds that she needs to balance some of the stress in her everyday life. Jimenez likes to “treat herself” to her favorite ice cream or a hot cup of coffee when she has free time. She feels like this is a vital thing and helps her relax after a long day at school or her job at TGI Fridays. There she is a waitress–a job that comes with its own set of anxiety. But Jimenez finds a way to handle all those pressures at work, school, and home every single day. She always has a smile on her face and she is guaranteed to be the loudest in a room. She isn’t afraid to talk to new people or take herself out of her comfort zone. Whether she is moving across the country, leading a yearbook staff, or traveling to Bloomington for a week, Jimenez exudes this bravery and spontaneous energy in every aspect of her life.