Senior Tauri Hagemann speaks with no hesitation when expressing what she would like to be remembered by: her writings.

Despite the amount of passion brewing in her today, Tauri only recently let writing become the focus of her free time. As a freshman, she’d just discovered how much of a drive she had for writing. The drive to write kicked into high gear, though, when she began her sophomore year.

“I took creative writing as a ‘filler’ really, and I actually enjoyed it a lot,” Tauri said.

Since, Tauri has allowed the creative flow to take her over, and she even plans on entering some of her pieces into the Scholastic Art and Writing competition, something she hadn’t done between freshman and junior years.

“I had a fear of failure. I was really afraid that my work wouldn’t be good compared to other people’s.”

However, the fear has left Tauri, and she’s taken on the ‘if I don’t try, I’ll never know’ mindset. Now she’s ready to make an impact with her writings.

“I try to make [my poems] deep and symbolic. I want people to be able to relate,” she said.

It hasn’t always been so easy for Tauri, though. She’s noticed writing is a process and contains a learning curve.

“I’m worried about writing into a cliche. I tried to write a ‘book’, but I had deleted five pages because I realized it was just like another book I had read.”

Writing isn't the only highlight of her life, though. Tauri has been to New York once. In a perfect world, she says she’d want to live in the Big Apple and write for the rest of her life.

Until then, Tauri remains at Carroll High School, turning her thoughts into works of art.

“I can make it into whatever I want it to be, and pretty much no one can tell me different.”