PHOTO Courtesy: Emily Hayes

“My biggest passion is definitely music and singing. I love being on stage and performing; it’s definitely when I feel the most comfortable. My mom has been the band teacher at the middle school since I was born, so I grew up with music constantly around me. I was always going to band concerts and music was always playing at my house. I started out in band and I played oboe. I sing with the Ambassadors and it’s one of my favorite things to do in the whole world. Something I struggled with a lot when I first started performing was singing in front of other people. I was about eight or nine and my mom would play guitar for me and I would sing, but I was really self conscious and nervous to do it. I didn’t like singing in front of anyone, not even my family. But I knew that if I loved singing so much, I would have to eventually. So I kind of grew out of it over time.”