By: Nick Swafford

As the title says, I’m Nick Swafford, and I’m an eleventh grader at Heritage High School. I’m also a writer for the Heritage Herald, Heritage’s school newspaper (obviously, or you wouldn’t be reading this). If you know me, then great, but if not—well, that’s why I’m writing this. 

I’m somewhat of a “nerd” at heart, and I love to read about different sciency things and developments, especially those centered around space and astronomy. I also have interest in non-science things like English, music, and hanging out with friends. I currently play the guitar as a hobby in my free time, but I used to take lessons. Unfortunately, I quit my lessons at the start of my sophomore year to make room for the increased schoolwork and the fact that my old teacher moved away to South Korea for apparently no reason at all. Luckily, in today’s technological age, I can just look up the chords to whatever song I want to play and figure it out myself. Speaking of hobbies though, I love going out and doing new things. Maybe it is all of those 2000’s songs talking, but I’ve always valued the idea that life is short, so we should make the most of it while we still can. Because of this philosophy I have, I’ve developed the idea that doing new things and even just hanging out with friends takes my top priority. I very rarely say “no” to an offer to hang out or go somewhere because I just never know what experiences might come along with getting out of the house. Call it “FOMO” if you want, but it hasn’t led me astray quite yet. I love traveling because of this and I never miss an opportunity to take a photo of wherever I go so I can cement that experience in time, allowing me to revisit anytime I want. 

A little more in-depth into my background though, I was born in the golden state of California. I lived there until I was about 12 years old and I’ve been through thick and thin in the sunny town of San Diego. I moved to North Carolina at the start of 7th grade and I’ve been here ever since. I have a pretty big family with six sisters and two brothers so moving here was quite the wild ride, and it wasn’t until the last few weeks that I realized it was probably the right move. While North Carolina and especially Wake Forest aren’t the most entertaining places in the world, I’ve managed to get by with the help of some of my friends living down the street from me, but I do miss the mass amounts of things to do in California. Don’t get me wrong though, I love living here, but it is less about the place itself and more about the people that have come into my life ever since I moved here. I have great circles of friends here and I have great relationships with almost everyone that has waltzed into my life four years ago, which has really made this small town a large part of who I am. 

As far as pets go, I have a little Yorkshire Terrier that barks like crazy, but he’s super protective and follows us around all the time. I used to have another dog that was a corgi mix that we got from a shelter in San Diego, but he was put down last summer because of an increasingly bad disease that was taking away his mobility. About half a year ago though, my family got a new dog named Ryder. He is an adorable little pitbull, rat-terrier mix that is absolutely crazy, but even though he does some wild stuff, I still love him. All in all, each dog means a whole lot to my family and I’m not sure how we would be if we didn’t have the little furballs. 

Aside from my pets, I love to travel and experience new things, especially up north in the Michigan area because it is absolutely beautiful everywhere you go in those regions. In fact, last year I went to Michigan over the summer on a road trip that went through nine states and took about two weeks to accomplish. While I was there, I realized just how beautiful the land and lakes are (especially the Great Lakes I visited) and how different a lifestyle the people there have compared to what I’ve grown up within California and even North Carolina. On that trip, I also visited several large cities including Chicago. What I find funny is that if even one snowflake hits the floor here in Wake Forest, the entire community shuts down entirely. In Michigan and other northern states though, if it snows (even if it’s a lot of snow) life goes on as normal, which is such a testament to how different environments cause people to be. Human’s ability to adapt is truly unmatched. 

As far as people go, there’s probably a lot more to me than I can simply put on paper, so I’m probably leaving out countless things. If you really want to get to know me then maybe it’s better to meet me face to face.