A few weeks ago, while sitting in the Bothell High courtyard after school, senior Brianna Lacy burst out laughing while discussing holding on to her four-year, 4.0 grade-point average before graduation.
She was almost there, just a few more exams to nail it.
“You know you made it this far, it would be a bummer to miss it in the last semester,” she said, while twin sister, Katherine, added with a smile that if Brianna didn’t achieve that perfect GPA, “We’d kick you out of the family.”
As for Katherine, who was born 11 minutes before her sister 18 years ago, she’s sitting pretty with her 3.994 GPA. “I got an A-minus in ninth grade,” she said with a sigh, as Brianna interjected with a joke, “You can’t erase it, you can never recover.”
Both girls will be graduating June 9 at the University of Washington’s Bank of America Arena. In the fall, Brianna will attend UW while Katherine will travel to Oregon to study at Willamette University.
The Lacys have attended Westhill Elementary, Canyon Park Junior High and Bothell High together, so they’ll be apart for the first time.
However, the girls are looking at the new phase of their lives this way: “We’ve been joking that the hardest thing will be splitting up our shoe collection,” said Katherine, adding that they share about 50 pairs of flats, sandals, boots and more.
They’ll, of course, keep in touch via Facebook and Skype, sharing their new experiences regarding the social and classroom scene.
The twins — who, amazingly, were one set of 10 at the school — certainly kept busy at Bothell:
• Brianna played oboe in the wind ensemble and marching band, where she also served as drum major; ran cross country all three years; and participated on the Science Olympiad team. Her favorite classes were science and history.
• Katherine played viola in the chamber orchestra; earned second-team all-4A Kingco honors as a defender on the stellar soccer team last fall; and also went the Science Olympiad route.
Both girls used their “twin powers,” Brianna said, to finish second in state this year in the Science Word competition (a word-guessing game similar to Taboo) at the Science Olympiad. At the Science Olympiad, teams compete in 23 events, which include written tests on earth science, physics, astronomy, biology and chemistry and hands-on lab experiments.
Science Olympiad activities have rubbed off on the sisters in the classroom, as well, and they may major in physics (Brianna) and chemistry or biology (Katherine) in college.
“I enjoy that understanding and questioning the things around us,” Katherine said.
They’re both glad they’ve made the most of their time at Bothell High, and their plethora of activities will lend a hand at the next academic level.
“You get out of it what you put into it. It’s about making an effort to get involved,” Brianna said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a set of four Bothell-Kenmore Reporter high school graduate profiles. Check back every day this week as a new profile will be posted to our website. All four profiles will be featured in this Friday’s issue (June 3) of the Bothell and Kenmore Reporters.
