{"id":12108,"date":"2019-09-13T17:09:22","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T17:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=12108"},"modified":"2019-09-13T17:09:22","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T17:09:22","slug":"grace-parke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/13\/grace-parke\/","title":{"rendered":"GRACE PARKE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Combining work and play, gracefully<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Jesse Cole<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
WRHS senior Grace Parke. Photo credit: Bella Parke<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As she brings her final year of high school to a close, Grace Parke\u2019s attitude toward the experience can be summarized in a few of her favorite words: \u201cWork hard, play hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

A senior at Wood River High School with a 3.85 GPA, Parke has certainly done her fair share of work, and she continues to take a variety of courses in Government, College English, A.P. Statistics, Sports Medicine and Video Productions.<\/p>\n

Work and play both culminate in Parke\u2019s extracurricular activities, as she participates in varsity soccer and basketball at the high school, playing center mid and point guard or shooting guard, respectively. In both sports, she emphasizes her team\u2019s mental capacity and willingness to push their boundaries until the last whistle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been working a lot harder, and we\u2019re stronger mentally this year,\u201d Parke said of her soccer team, who are currently in season. \u201cWe\u2019re more of a team unit this year. We don\u2019t favor grades or anything, so there\u2019s no seniority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, basketball may still be a season away, but Parke is similarly prepared to leave everything on the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we work really hard, we could do really well, especially if we keep our mental game strong,\u201d Parke said. \u201cBasketball is a really mental game.\u201d<\/p>\n

While this attitude has no doubt shaped the teams she has been a part of, Parke considers them to have simultaneously shaped her as a critical part of her upbringing, having played soccer since first grade and basketball since fifth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re really important to me, because they give me a team to be a part of and a unit, as well as friends through that and teaching me how to interact with people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Indeed, this love of athletics has also translated into an appreciation for human anatomy and medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve really been liking sports medicine,\u201d Parke said, \u201cjust finding out how the body works in different injuries. When people are, like, \u2018My foot hurts,\u2019 I\u2019m always, like, \u2018What part?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

After high school, she intends to take this interest into an even more specific direction with radiographic technology. Before this future comes, though, Parke is focusing on living in the present as she enjoys the fruits of her labor resulting from these last four years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just looking forward to being content where I am in the moment I\u2019m living it, and enjoying the last of everything,\u201d she said. \u201cAlso looking forward to what\u2019s coming on, but being happy with my past high school years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: Anyone who would like to recommend a Blaine County School District student for The Weekly Sun\u2019s \u201cStudent Spotlight\u201d feature should contact The Weekly Sun at
\nnews@theweeklysun.com.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Combining work and play, gracefully By Jesse Cole As she brings her final year of high school to a close, Grace Parke\u2019s attitude toward the experience can be summarized in a few of her favorite words: \u201cWork hard, play hard.\u201d A senior at Wood River High School with a 3.85 GPA, Parke has certainly done […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sponsored","7":"category-student-spotlight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12108\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}