Sarah's Self Government

By Carolyn Durand

On the sticky tile, warmed by the humidity, we sat on the floor and started our interview. What advice and knowledge could a 17 year old girl offer to the world? Independence… and how it’s affected her life. “It’s really cool being able to do things by yourself, not relying on someone else to do everything for you,” Sarah Cunningham said to kick off the interview. Cunningham lives in Canton, Massachusetts and attends Canton High School. She earns money from her job, at a bakery in Norwood, while many teenagers rely on their parent’s money to support them through highschool. Cunningham acknowledged that her parents taught her to be prepared to be an adult because, “Not everyones gonna be there for me all the time as I grow up.” As her highschool career comes down to the last year - she looks past the walls surrounding Canton, to see the colleges and opportunities in the horizon. “I think that it will be very good practice, for what it’s going to be like in college,” she says. “I’m not going to be living with my parents and a lot of kids rely on their parents for everything and they are thrown into the deep end, when they get to college.” Being the second child, Cunningham got to watch her brother go to college and see how different it was to live on your own. After her hunt for colleges, Cunningham plans on applying to the University of Rhode Island. On a good day the drive is an hour and eight minutes. (while it’s not across the world… it’s still a far drive). She wants to attend URI to major in marketing, to become an interior designer. Although interior designers work with others to create layouts for a building’s internal layout, the creation of the interior aesthetic lies directly in her lap.

Cunningham mentioned when talking about her future career, “You just have to have an act for interior designing and if I do, I want to start my own business. So I have to have my business degree.” Wanting to be her own boss, Cunningham’s independent upbringing will prepare her for dealing with these responsibilities on her own. Despite being the boss, she hopes to grow and learn how to delegate responsibilities amongst her co-workers. With big dreams for who she is supposed to become, Cunningham wished she knew when she was younger, “That you can do things on your own.”