Summer ‘gone in a flash’ for Carlin

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August 14, 2015 - 12:00 AM

Summer is never quite what you envision — even as a teenager.
Sleeping in till noon. Hardly.
Lounging by the pool. Rarely.
Watching movies late into the night. Occasionally.
“Frankly, I didn’t have a lot of time to relax,” said Haley Carlin, 13.
There was church camp, followed by two band camps, one at Washburn University in Topeka and the other at Oklahoma Christian University; then a trip to Warrensburg, Mo., to watch an international drum corps competition; then volleyball camp in the mornings followed by play practice in the afternoon for the Missoula Children’s Theatre production of “Aladdin.”
“Not that I’m complaining,” Haley said, with an effervescent smile that needs little prompting to switch on. “Basically, I like everything about school, especially volleyball and basketball. Volleyball practices start Monday. Her favorite subjects are math and English.
As an eighth-grader, the “senior” class of middle school, Haley said she and her friends plan to make this “a most awesome year.”
She said their goal is to “stay positive and drama-free,” no small feat for teenage girls.
In fact, seeing friends who haven’t been in her summer circle is one reason she’s eager for school to resume.
“It’s been a good summer in that I’ve made some new friends, people I saw at school but didn’t really know before.”
Haley’s musical interests helped keep her busy over the summer. She plays acoustic guitar, bass guitar and the ukulele as well as the piano.
For school this year she was admitted into both the upper level jazz and concert bands.
Shopping for school clothes was pretty much a no-brainer, she said.
“I prefer simple things, T-shirts and jeans. If I like a certain style of shirt, then it seems to make sense to by it in multiple colors. I love my Converse shoes, they are my life. My sister thinks I’m nuts,” Haley said.
That’s big sister, Madison, 15, who will be a sophomore at IHS.
The girls’ parents are Terri and Roger Carlin.
Madison, who was away at band camp at Greenbush at the time of the interview, “takes way too much time” getting ready for school, according to Haley.
“It’s the hair,” she said.
“I can wake up after she does and still be ready for school before she is. I just throw on a shirt and pants and hope my socks match.”
But their father, Roger, remembers only too well that Madison, too, once eschewed the trappings of womanhood.
“It was only yesterday,” he said with a heavy sigh, for which Haley has little patience.
“Let me show you the shelves I made,” she says, pulling dad from his reverie. Sure enough, Haley produces three small shelves covered with bright paper.
“They’re for my locker at school,” she said.
Roger produces a video of Haley using her first-ever power tool, an electric sander.
“They were too rough. The shelf paper wouldn’t stick, so I got to use a sander,” she said.

ONE CHALLENGE a new school year poses is figuring out where each class is and whether there’s enough time to between classes to retrieve textbooks in her locker.
“You have 3½ minutes between each class. Sometimes it makes more sense to carry books for multiple classes than to try to stop by my locker in between.”
Other than those logistics, Haley feels confident “this will be my best year ever.”

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