The student news site of Westford Academy

WA Ghostwriter

The student news site of Westford Academy

WA Ghostwriter

The student news site of Westford Academy

WA Ghostwriter

Stripes and Plaid: Remembering Katie Enos

by Renee Craig

Staff Writer

On April 5th we celebrated the birthday of Katie Enos. Many of her friends and classmates wore stripes and plaid on that day( a fashion choice of Enos’s that often inspired comments from her friends).She would have turned fifteen. Her bright star was stolen from the sky of Westford Academy on June 30th 2010 when she died in the hospital from injuries sustained after being hit by a car. Enos would have entered WA that September.

Enos’s interests were astonishing in their depth and difference. Her career at Blanchard Middle School was the stuff of legend. She wrote hundreds of songs, some which were sung by the West Street Serenaders and the Blanchard Middle School Girls’ Chorus. She excelled as a goalie for the Blanchard Girls’ Soccer team.

She had a strong personality and almost always spoke her mind. She loved the written word and read most of the classics including many Shakespeare plays on her own. Although she claimed not to believe in true love, one love story Katie liked was that of Katherine and Heathcliffe in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.

She wrote hundreds of songs and many many books and poems. Her head was always filled with ideas. She played the guitar and piano. She could sing but she wouldn’t admit it. She was saving up for a new guitar. She loved the TV show Angel and often watched it with her friends. She also enjoyed history and English. She liked country music and one of her favorite singers was Miranda Lambert. She loved hanging out with her friends. listening to music, and reading.

Enos participated in track and cross country. She was one of the only people willing to run the mile event in track, and in the summer she ran at least a mile almost every day. Enos also participated in National History Day winning first place at a District level for her work with a partner on a documentary about the Salk polio vaccine.

She was never afraid to argue with a teacher or a friend if she believed she was right about something. She enjoyed discussing politics and religion with anyone who would listen, although few were worthy opponents. It would not be unusual to walk up to Enos and find her in a conversation about Christianity, the First Amendment, or Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

She lived. She lived more in her fourteen years than most of us do in a lifetime.  She was always doing at least one sport, usually two.  She read books. Enos listened to, wrote, and played music. She wrote songs, novels, and poems. Oh and she also managed to get her homework done. Enos excelled at most of the things she did, but not because of natural talent. Enos had talent of course but she also worked a hundred times harder than most people.

She was a goalie in soccer and that was an unusual position for her body type as she was short for a goalie. But she didn’t let this stop her. She worked, and worked, and worked so that this wouldn’t hold her back. Enos was like this with almost anything that she truly loved.

She fell in love with Washington, D.C. She went there on a class trip in eight grade. And wherever she went, whether it was the Jefferson Memorial, the Smithsonian, or the National Cathedral she soaked up the information and history of that city. She almost started drooling when she found out that the pulpit she stood a foot away from in the National Cathedral was where Martin Luther King Jr. and the Dalai Lama had spoken.

If you wish to do more, you can buy a WWKTD bracelet ( What Would KaTie Do) for five dollars. The money from the purchase is donated to the Katie Enos Scholarship Fund.

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  • N

    Neil SharmaApr 8, 2011 at 9:33 pm

    I really like you article. I t makes me want to work harder and become a better person like Katie Enos. Keep up the good work.

    Reply
    • R

      Renee Anna CraigApr 9, 2011 at 10:06 am

      Thank you!

      Reply