“A lot of things make me happy. It isn’t that difficult to make me happy, but it also isn’t that difficult to make me sad. Seeing life care for other life makes me happy.” That’s hard to see nowadays.

Appleton North senior Skye Isabella Rose Iwanski promises every step you take through her head will be a one-of-a-kind adventure or a story never before crafted to your imagination. She aims to be as unique and original as possible, digging up creativity in herself before turning to others for it.

When speaking of her family, however, Skye revealed her adoration for her older sister, Abri — her biggest inspiration.  Despite distance, busy schedules, and an eight year age gap, the two still maintain a close relationship that all parents openly wish their children would emulate. Her voice softens while reminiscing about a time where she was immensely proud of her sister.

“We were on a bike ride to Hoover Park. I remember that we were going to have Popsicles once we got there. After crossing, my bike slid into the road somehow, and I saw a grey car rushing towards me. I panicked and yanked my handlebars to the left, straight into the curb. I went flying momentarily off my bike, and scraped up most of my right leg which was, at that point, coated in bright red blood. I was wailing and crying because of the pain and all the blood and fear, and in this chaos, my sister managed to flag down a car with a woman and two kids in it who put both of our bikes in her trunk and drove us home. My sister patched me up and I remember hearing my dad say to her, in the hallway outside the bathroom as I sat trembling on the bathroom counter that he couldn’t have done it any better himself. She had handled that situation incredibly well. If I saw my sister get hurt like that, I can only imagine what it would feel like.”

Skye’s self confidence and love for herself are reflections of the positivity radiating from her sister. When posed the question of one thing she would never change about herself, Skye described her drive to succeed to be her most cherished quality. She wouldn’t change anything about herself, but this is especially dear to her. Her aura graces the presence of any person, stranger or friend, without a falter of her true self. She glows through any shadow that an obstacle might produce. The obstacles of a writer center around failure to capture an audience or attention of a publisher while remaining true to your work. She won’t settle for that failure. She won’t put only half of her heart into anything.

Skye recalls one instance where she looked through Abri’s old writing, all the poetry and essays that bared a part of her sister’s soul at the age Skye is now. People grow and they grow for the better. She wishes that she knew Abri at an age where they would have been friends instead of sisters. She wouldn’t trade her relationship dynamic with Abri for the world, but curiosity creeps through Skye in what strictly a friendship would be like with her sibling. Knowing both would show Skye an inside look of the person she’ll perhaps blossom into.

“Knowing people through different lenses is very hard.”

Writers push that barrier of limited perspectives aside until they reach the core of the story or the characters who bring it to life. No glimpse into the future is needed to know what kind of person Skye is destined to grow into, only amplified versions of her current traits — more loving, more passionate, and more creative. She poured these traits into a speech that she read to Abri at her wedding, teeming with anecdotes and genuine words, and received the exact reaction writers aim their entire life to accomplish.

“I made her cry and I’m glad I did. That sounds bad! That sounds really bad!” Skye beams below her hands. “I wanted to draw emotion because that’s what I set out to do as a writer… I like to tell stories, be that by painting, writing a TV show, designing a video game, playing the clarinet, any way that I can.”