“I kind of just pushed it away,” Green said. “So I came to school and just did everything like normal. And I would go home because I have a younger sister, and we also take care of my great grandmother, too.”
Before her mom’s death, Green was not just an athlete but a singer and in musical theater. She placed eighth in the state last year in shot put and has had lead roles in several school musicals. But after, she stopped.
“It got kind of rough for a while,” Green said.
Green said taking care of her nine-year-old sister, Ariana, was part of how she got back into the things she loved. She also knew her mom wouldn’t want her to just sit around. Her dad, Nate Green, works the third shift.
“I knew my mom wouldn’t want me to just sit here and mope around and not do anything, because she loved that I was so involved,” Green said.
Around March, she started getting more involved and ran for student body president. Then she won the Carson Award, given annually to Troy High School’s “outstanding female junior student.”
“That was my first feeling of things were coming together,” she said. “And then coming into senior year, I had all of these things lined up for me.”
Her throwing coach, Aaron Gibbons, says Green is talented in many areas and brings a friendly presence to everything she does. He was one of many in Troy who supported Green after her mother’s death.
“So she’s been the uplifting person for everybody else in every other avenue,” Gibbons said. “And it’s now you need her to be uplifted because of the circumstances and situations that she’s facing. And so it’s like I think that everybody tried to just be there to support her.”
Next year, Green plans to attend college to study interior design and business, another passion of hers. She plans to eventually open her own interior design business.
She’s still working on getting Ariana used to the idea of her leaving for college. And she said it’s been emotional, going through the end of high school without her mom.
“I’m having all these giant things happen to me in life, and my mom’s not there, so there’s that other punch in the gut,” she said.
But she added, “I’m just excited to be moving forward because I’ve always dreamt of this, just being able to move on to college and do these things. So it’s busy. It’s a mess, but it’s exciting.”
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
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