Payton Barabas is a motivational freshman that has big plans for her future. To begin with, Barabas is planning to be a neonatologist which is a doctor that works with premature babies. She hopes to achieve getting her doctorate in less than six to eight years. “I do want to go to college and I would like to have it done earlier because I think most neonatologists are there for eight to ten years.” Barabas is described as stubborn and believes that is a good quality in doctors: to never give up. Believing this, she is striving to be a good worker and get as many things as possible done at an early age so she can live her dream job as soon as possible. She is inspired to save lives of babies and bring joy to families in worries “I want to make a difference by hopefully becoming a neonatologist and saving lives of babies.” Hearing this made me inspired to do good things in life. She truly shows strong ambition and a good work ethic. Seeing how strongly she is working at such a young age is very inspiring for young people today.

On top of inspiring to be a doctor, Barabas is a very artistic and musically inclined person! When asked to describe herself in two words she said, “Artistic and musical.” Not only is she a hard working, inspiring doctor she is also very talented in musical activities. She is a member of  the McCracken County High School marching band and believes it deserves more credit than it is given. Being in the marching band requires a lot of her time and effort. She has to stay in shape to hold the instruments up and keep up with everyone. If she were to make one wrong move, it could throw everyone else off. In the marching band, she plays not one, but two instruments: alto saxophone and cello but she plays cello on her own time. Barabas has been playing the cello since her sixth grade year and the alto saxophone since her eighth grade year. She mainly plays cello due to having more experience with it. When asked her favorite instrument, she said cello because she has been playing it longer and can play more difficult music with it. Payton enjoys playing Bach. She likes the style and sounds his music has to it. Barabas loves to spend her free time listening to music or playing her own. While playing certain types of music on her instruments, she is not tied down to a certain type. She favors all types of music and is very open minded when it comes to anything musical. Nowadays, many people stick to one type of music. I find it to be very cool that she expresses how all music is interesting in its own way.

Payton is not like many when it comes to work or free time. She feels the thing that can always make her smile is books. “I love reading and I can’t stop smiling if there is a really good scene in the book.” Hearing this put a smile on my face because not many people can say they like reading. Barabas expresses that she likes historical fiction and learning facts about the past.

When it comes to work, Payton never turns in anything late. She feels it helps teachers and others with their workload. So, while most kids don’t care much for their work or teachers, Barabas thinks about her future and how it affects the teachers as well. If you ask me, that is a great and rare quality to have especially at such a young age. Barbas truly shows compassion and dedication in everything she does by working hard in the marching band and also in school to achieve her set goals and prove that she can and will accomplish great things.

Barabas plans to travel around the world and help others in need. She wants to go to places to volunteer and help people. “If I travel a lot, maybe I can help out and volunteer in the countries I go to to help make a small difference.” She wants to visit Greece and places not many people get to go. She is truly an adventurous, talented girl and is only going to grow more talented. She should be known for so many other reasons as well. She is a girl who knows what she wants to accomplish and is working hard to get it. Barabas shows many admirable and strong qualities but she also has small things about her that are just as important. 

Payton has a strong love for animals. She has two cats and two dogs that she likes to spend time with. When asked who she would most like to see in concert she said, “I would love to see One Direction back together. It would be amazing.” Her favorite color is light purple because she likes that the color was once the color of royalty. She likes what it symbolizes and just the color in general. While most people don’t like winter because of seasonal depression, Barabas loves it! She expresses a strong love for snow. She also loves Christmas time and the vibes it has. Her birthday also falls in winter. “I like winter because of the holidays that come with it and the snow and my birthday is in winter.” When I first met Barabas when sitting next to her in school, I thought she was just a quiet girl. Turns out, she is way more than that. She is a sister, an inspiring doctor with dreams to travel the world to help anyone she can. She wants to save the lives of babies and bring joy to families. Sitting next to her, I knew none of these things. Now that I have gotten to know her, I’m truly impressed by all the outstanding qualities she has as a person and the big plans she is going to accomplish. I’m truly in awe of the girl I thought was just shy sitting next to me in class. The world truly needs more people like Payton Barabas!