RODRIGUEZ

Samantha Hines loves to paint and play soccer. ey aren’t just hobbies for her, they mean a lot more. Hines’s hobbies have even helped her through her brother’s death.

“Painting is special to me because it represents my brother and it’s just a way to represent what I love doing and even in paintings there’s always something that represents him,” she said. Hines paints pop art and even sells her paintings in restaurants.

“I taught myself from a younger age to paint and I did it to get my mind o stu , it was kind of like a stress reliever for me.” Not only did soccer really help her but also painting. Even though she sells her painting the money doesn’t mean much, what she really cares about is the painting itself. “My dad realized I could paint, and he bought me canvas and I started posting my artwork, I was drawing NFTS, and then I started selling my artwork”. Meaning Hines went from making artwork to posting it, then to selling it. Even though she hasn’t painted in months, the painting will still be her favorite Hobbie and she will never stop painting. For soccer, it was a second home. “It’s a lot of fun, it’s de nitely like a community, it’s not even just like playing a sport it’s like we’re all friends like a second family, we make TikToks, we take photos, we laugh together, team meals together before every game, we carpool and listen to music.”“As a 9th grader, it helped me a lot like blend into Hillsborough, so it means a lot to be able to go to those people and spend time with them,” Hines said. “For me, going to practice and going to the games takes my mind o a lot of stu , it’s a distraction for me,” she said.