Sarah-Anne's Life as a Babysitter, Traveler, and Camper

A few days ago, I sat down with Sarah-Anne Seligman to discuss her life. Sarah-Anne has been at Galloway since fifth grade, and she previously attended Heards Ferry Elementary School. When comparing Galloway to Heards Ferry, Sarah-Anne said that she had closer friends at Heards Ferry, but Galloway has better academics. From talking with Sarah-Anne, I realized that family and friends are the most important and prominent aspect of her life. When I asked what she values most in life, Sarah-Anne confidently answered, “My family and friends.” Sarah-Anne seems to be a people person and partakes in many activities involving other people such as babysitting, traveling, going to summer camp, and playing sports. I’m assuming she’s an extrovert.

When we began to discuss babysitting, Sarah-Anne’s face lit up with happiness. She passionately told me about how she began babysitting at a young age and how she has continued ever since. Young children, particularly those under the age of eleven, are Sarah-Anne’s favorite age to babysit because she believes they are the sweetest. Sarah-Anne has been babysitting her neighbor’s children for years, and has a great relationship with them. A typical day of Sarah-Anne babysitting usually involves playing with the kids, dinner, arts and crafts, and a bedtime story. If Sarah-Anne loves kids this much, she surely must want to be a mom. When I asked her if this was true, she responded, “Yeah, I do. I think kids are so cool.” This shows her love of family and that she would like her own one day.  

Another hobby of Sarah-Anne is traveling. She has been all over the world, specifically to France, Croatia, Spain, Israel, Netherlands, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and California. As she listed all of the places she had been, I sat there wondering about each place and the adventures she has embarked on there. Traveling allows Sarah-Anne to spend time with her family, which is very important to her. Sarah-Anne is obviously well-traveled, which made me curious about where she intends to live in the future. Sarah-Anne wants to move “someplace exotic, not like North Carolina.” I asked her where specifically, to which she responded, “I really liked Amsterdam. I went to California for a week and I really liked it there too.” She describes her trip to Amsterdam for her cousin’s bat mitzvah and recalls seeing the Anne Frank museum. Her interest in the museum was clear. She speaks about her experience at the museum, “Wow. It’s so interesting to see how she lived.” Sarah-Anne enjoyed this experience learning about Anne Frank’s family with her own family. Learning about an event like this really put into perspective how important family is to Sarah-Anne

Aside from her trip to Amsterdam, she has also had the opportunity of visiting Barcelona, where she went on tours to see the Jewish parts of Barcelona, visited the main attractions, and learned about the history of the city. She also enjoyed window shopping there at fancy, high-end stores such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton. If I were in Barcelona, I would be window-shopping too! A love of window shopping is not the only thing we had in common, though. Before interviewing Sarah-Anne, I looked through her Instagram for pictures that could spark interesting conversation. One of the pictures I found was taken in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, at the same place I go to ski. I asked her about this picture, to which she responded, “That photo was taken the same day you were there. I didn’t see you, but I saw on Snapchat.” What a coincidence that we happened to be there the same day!

Sarah-Anne attends Camp Seafarer, which is also in North Carolina. The YMCA, all-girls camp is focused on boating. She has been attending camp for eight years, which is ”longer than some of the campers have been alive, which is crazy to think of.” That is dedication. She began learning to boat on a sailboat at camp, which she did not enjoy. One traumatic experience of her sailboat capsizing, resulting in Sarah-Anne being forced to swim back to land while it rained, was enough for her to stop sailing for a while. She switched to land activities, which she instantly regretted due to the hotness on land. So she decided to give boating another try but decided to try powerboats instead of sailboats. Powerboating is more fun for Sarah-Anne, and she talked about the first time she tried it; she immediately thought “Wow, I’ve been missing out.” Boating at camp seems as if it’s Sarah-Anne’s happy place. She says, “You can go as fast as 250 horsepower, and feel the wind in your face, and you feel so alive.” Camp Seafarer also offers Sarah-Anne “a good detox.” She enjoys the isolation of camp and being disconnected from the wireless world. “We call camp a bubble,” she says “You’re at this place for 28 days, and you only see those people for 28 days.” Sarah-Anne enjoys spending time with her friends at camp, which she values greatly. Spending time with them boating and hanging out in the cabin is a big part of her summer. As of now, Sarah-Anne plans to return to Camp Seafarer for her last year as a camper next year, and then she will become a counselor in training,  counselor, and so on. Sarah-Anne’s passion of boating will hopefully be continued outside of camp.

Other than her exciting excursions to faraway countries and summer camp, Sarah-Anne also enjoys her alone time using her phone, specifically for social media. Sarah-Anne uses Instagram to connect with her friends and also to look at other people’s posts. Her opinion on social media is that it can be beneficial if used for the right amount of time and for the right reasons. Sarah-Anne uses social media in a healthy way, saying “ I go on Instagram to look at my explore page. Some people will go through other people’s Instagrams and compare themselves, but I’ve never really done that.” She seems to have a good grip around the aspects of social media. She confidently stated, “I put a filter on my photo because I think the filter looks cool, I’m not trying to impress anyone.” Her way of using Instagram for fun, and not to compare oneself to others is a way that everyone, myself included, should try to follow.

Sarah-Anne is a versatile person, who enjoys activities ranging from shopping to babysitting. The common theme I noticed throughout out interview was her love of family and friends, which she involves in most aspects of her life.

By McKenna Ching