Nerve-wracking thoughts, butterflies in your stomach, adrenaline rushing throughout your entire body making you more nervous than ever. And once you hit the race, everything goes away. This is the experience of Avah Savage, an 11th grader here at NAHS, who is not only a hard-working student but also a record-setting runner.  

“I would never think that I would be running track right now,” said Savage. 

Savage often runs the 800m and the 4×4 now, but Savage’s first sport was actually basketball. In middle school she started playing volleyball, which she enjoyed playing until she started to fall out of love with it. During her 9th grade year, her dad pushed her to try new things as well as a new sport which happened to be track. When she first started running track she felt as if it was a lot to handle.

“I put in all this work, and I’m going through all this for no change,” Savage said. “I let myself down.”  

But the more she practiced, raced, and pushed herself, the more she saw improvement and fell in love with it.  Savage realized that people put too much pressure on themselves when really “this whole thing is just to have fun.” At that point, she was able to embrace the challenges. 

Savage held a school record of 2.20 for the 800m indoors. She stayed at that time for a while now and she was determined to beat it. Eventually, Savage did break this record and got a time of 2.17.19 on Sunday, January 14th at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York City. 

“It felt great honestly. It took me so long to break 2.20 and I put so much work to finally to pr [achieve a personal record] and conquer a school record.” 

Savage is very proud of herself for beating one of her biggest challenges. This may have taken her a while to do, but she finally put her all into it and beat the record. 

As important as track is to Savage’s work ethic, she doesn’t want the sport to define her and take over her overall character. She’d prefer to be defined by her humility, her effort to help others, and her personality. 

“I’m the friend where everybody can come to me and talk to me about their problems and I want to treat them in a type of way,” she said.

Everybody wants a friend that they can count on, trust, talk to, and lean on when in need of help. Savage is very conscientious about caring for her friends. She isn’t one of those friends who say they are there for you and don’t hold their word; when she says it, she means it. She tries to uplift any and everyone around her. 

But she also has learned when it’s time to step back and let people figure things out for themselves. “I know sometimes that everybody don’t want the help,” said Savage. “I’m not always going to be the person that is going to help them or the person that’s just going to just be there all the time because I know how hard it can be. So I just try to stay in my position, in my place.”

Savage takes her academics and her future seriously. “I always have to put the student in student-athlete before I’m actually the athlete,” she said. “I don’t want to go to college just for my sport, but also for my academics, so I can reach my full potential.”

Savage always loved babies and being around them, so for her future occupation, she plans on being a labor and delivery nurse (LADN). She would like to go across the country to either attend Texas State University or Arkansas University. 

And throughout high school, Savage exudes confidence. She seems sure of who she is and what she wants to be, but really, she is just trying to stay true to herself.

“I don’t try to be like everybody else because everybody pins the image where they got to be like everybody else,” she said. “Then you got to fit in where for me, I want to be my own person.” 

And this attitude is what Savage expects will carry her to success, no matter what she does.

“People don’t indicate how my life goes. I’m the only person that can dictate that.”