Amelia Meester: Driven by determination
From an early age, Amelia Meester has had a determination that nothing was going to get in her way to do things that she loved, or didn’t love.
The senior wrapped up her Hi-Liner Cross Country career this fall. Not an All-Stater, not an All-Conference but the fact that she was able to compete at all due to many surgeries on her legs makes her and All-Star in this reporters book.
When she is not running Cross Country, you can find Amelia competing in Student Congress, speech, or losing herself in a part of a play. Where did she get all this motivation from. “My dad was in Toastmasters for a very long time and so he was always a speaker,” Amelia said. “Mikey (her brother) was like maybe I’ll do that, so he did it. My sister (Katy) did it and so I was like, you know what, I’ll do it and I’m really happy that I did. Amelia shares that she competed in communication arts in 4-H for a long time and that was great practice for speech.
“I think Amelia’s natural ability to speak and act comes from her dad.,” Sarah Meester, Amelia mom said. “However, her grandma is the one who helped her become comfortable performing in front of others. From the time she was old enough to talk, Amelia sang with her grandparents, brother and sister at nursing homes, churches, and even sang at Music in the Park several times.”
For theatre, it was the same pathway, siblings did it so she did it. “I also think she was inspired by her brother and sister who were both good at speech and acting,” Tom Meester, Amelia’s dad said.
“I love theatre,” Amelia remembers. “That would probably be one of my favorite things I do in high school. It’s so much fun to go up there and, it’s different than speech, because when you are speaking (a line) or singing, you’re not yourself. You’ve transformed into another person. That makes it really fun because you can do whatever and you don’t feel embarrassed or feel awkward doing it because you are not you up there. Which is cool.”
As far as her Cross Country career, that nearly didn’t happen. While running hall laps during the tennis season as a seventh grader, Amelia fell to the floor because one of her knee caps slipped out of place. That’s when they figured out that something was wrong with her knees. “So I had surgery my freshman year, that was my first surgery,” Amelia remembers. “Then I had another surgery on the other knee to do the same thing because they both had the same issues.” All totaled, Meester has had three surgeries on her knees, two sur
geries on her ankles and three surgeries on her hands. So with all of the surgeries, and pain that was endured because of all that, why keep running? “I really don’t love running,” Meester said. “It was a challenge for me. I like getting over challenges, you know doing these challenges. I found life pretty boring if I don’t. So, I just kept going with it and I love the team and I loved the coaches.” So in other words DETERMINATION. “I think Amelia’s determination comes from her mom, who, when determined to do something, doesn’t stop until it’s done,” Tom said. “Amelia has always been competitive,” Sarah said. “I think she was driven by her older brother and sister and was determined to be as good as or better than they were at whatever activity she was in.”
Amelia said she got into cross country because of her mom. “I never loved running very much but at Washington (Elementary) we would run the mile and so I did that and I did pretty good,” Meester said. “So my mom said ‘you should really do cross country’. My brother did cross country in high school. My mom really enjoyed going to watch the meets, so I started because of them.”
Meester ran her last race at the State Cross Country Meet in Jamestown on October 22nd. She did not win a state title and she finished 8:52 behind the state champ from Watford City, but she finished, that’s the moral of this story. “I was so proud of her for not giving up,” Tom said. “I felt the joy she was feeling in her accomplishment and was so happy for her that she did it after all she had gone through.” “I was so happy and proud of her for her determination to keep running when there were so many reasons she could have stopped,” Sarah said. “I’ll never forget the look on her face, she smiled the entire race.” For Amelia, “when I finished my last race my senior year, it was sad because I don’t think I’ll do this again because it was really hard on my body to do it,” Amelia said. “I was proud that I never quit. Because there were many times I was like, ‘maybe I should just not do it’ but the feeling of making it through to the very end it’s like, I did it! I was proud of myself for everything I did.”