Perry High School Student Feature

Meet Denise Rivera, a junior at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa, a varsity track and field runner; her best time being 13.93 for the 100-meter. 

Rivera is known for her nice and bubbly personality among her classmates and she loves her friends. “[I wake up every morning just to see] my friends at school and interacting with them. I love hanging out with them,” stated Rivera. 

She is also a competitive person when it comes to track and getting good grades. She mentioned, “I’m pretty competitive. I compare my grades to my friends’ grades and that pushes me to the exact same grades as them. It just pushes me to be better in school.” Denise is also a curious person. She loves learning new things, even if it is a challenge. “I love learning new things,” shared Rivera. 

Rivera also shared that she procrastinates a lot and that is her weakness. “I procrastinate a lot because I’m still young. I want to enjoy my high-school life and like. I hate it when I do that,” she said. Though she procrastinates, she still does her work on time and tries to accomplish as many of her goals. 

She is also big on mental health, including her own. “[Currently, I don’t feel like the best version of myself] because this feels like the hardest year of my life that I’ve gone through. I feel like, in the future, I’ll know when I’m the best version of myself,” she explained. From her own experience, she explained that she does not feel sure if she feels okay. Especially after she experienced a school shooting at her school, she did not feel safe anymore.

Even though she gets put down, she always gets back up and continues on her day. She has also inspired other people to be like her and she tries her hardest to be the better version of herself that she can be.

She would also gladly speak with her younger self just to give them tips on life. “I would tell [younger me] to only not care about others’ opinions, push yourself through the hard, and live life to the fullest,” exclaimed Rivera. She also mentioned that everyone should love themselves, no matter what.

Another thing about Denise Rivera that many do not know about her is that she loves to speak about her experiences. “[I love to speak about my own] experiences. Like traveling, just traveling in general. I can go on and on talking about traveling because I want to meet new people,” said Rivera. Denise Rivera just loves to meet new people and see what she can do.