Bryn Blanchett has participated in band, basketball and speech throughout high school. He wants to be remembered by being nice to most people, as he can usually be found holding the door open for people.

Blanchett has participated in band all four years of high school. He plays the clarinet, and was the section leader his senior year. He said, “People don’t know how much time we put into it.” In band, they do stretches and squats, which make it difficult to march.

In speech, Blanchett was vice president his senior year. He mainly focused on individual events such as original oratory and after dinner, as well as musical theatre and short film. His original oratory was titled “Childhood Games, Adulthood Wars.” The after dinner piece was called “Arachnophobes Anonymous.” This piece began as a group meeting where they all hate spiders and “it takes an interesting turn,” where Bryn reveals himself as a lizard person. The group performed this piece at the Rotary Lunch.

Former speech and debate coach, Matt Smith, showed Blanchett that “you can be accepting of any mental illness. You can live past it. It can’t control your everyday life.” Smith had ADHD. Current speech and debate coaches Alex Bales and Trisha Niceswanger have also been very helpful in Blanchett’s life. He said, “Both have been very accepting of my transition. They are more than happy to help and offer advice.” Bales has also been the most influential teach on Blanchett’s life. “His attitude toward everything is super positive. He teaches you to be ‘centered,’” Blanchett said.

One of Blanchett’s most memorable moments was performing at State Speech his senior year. One of the judges had judged his first year and “it was interesting to see how far I’d come from the first year.” Blanchett went from being shaky his first year to confident and “making the entire room laugh” his senior year.

Blanchett also participated in basketball his junior and senior years. He said, “You don’t have to be good at a sport to be on the team.” The sport left him with a lot of good memories and met many interesting people.

In the future, Blanchett would like to attend Simpson College and go into physical education and coaching. The person who makes him smile throughout the day is P.E. and health teacher Tucker Weber because “he’s an absolute goofball.”