On a daily basis, FHHS students likely walk past the principal’s office without a second thought. But when taking a quick glance, Ms. Clinton, the principal’s secretary, may be the first face you see. Always preoccupied with work, yet radiating a very soft aura; she looks content.

When you first come to Forest Hills, you may feel like you’re starting from scratch. It takes a long time to adjust to such a large school, but many of the staff members here treat you like you’re more than just another shy student in a sea of new admits. However, out of the many adults in the building, Ms. Clinton stands out among the rest. She speaks to students and staff with a kind of warmth and wisdom that people immediately resonate with.

Who is she beyond the desk she sits in every day?

Turns out, the whole secretary thing wasn’t always her dream. She entered Hillcrest High School as a pre-med major, almost entirely committed to becoming a nurse. I’m sure many of you can relate to the transition from being raised in a small town to going to high school in a much bigger one. It’s a massive culture shock.

“…So now, I’m leaving this school where everybody knows you and everyone’s known you your whole life, to a new city and a big high school with all these people. It was like freedom.”

The feeling of euphoria from getting on a bus to head to a neighborhood you’ve never even conceptualized and the feeling of being on the bus for almost an hour when it was really 10 minutes. You start to realize how big the world is outside of your perception of it,.

But with the opportunities she had at Hillcrest, how’d she end up all the way over here on the other side of Queens? Well, she didn’t end up staying a nursing major for long. She graduated from Hillcrest as a business major and went to Baruch College as a business major. She got a job as a bank teller, put off school for a bit, traveled, enjoyed her own company and then did what most people from NYC do when they feel lost after a few years of adulting: She moved to New Jersey.

She spent 10 years living there, eventually moving back to Brooklyn and finishing her nursing degree, but after meeting her husband and having her daughter, things shifted. They say that having a child changes perspective and this is especially true for Ms. Clinton. She knew she wanted to have time to spend with her daughter. Life was no longer just about her, but about her and the family she was establishing.

“By the time she was old enough to go into daycare, I was no longer interested in doing those long hours and the uncertainty that comes with bringing home certain… pathogens. You don’t know what you might’ve picked up along the way…”

Lastly, I asked her a question, one many high school students have pondered for a long time on their own, but hadn’t had the opportunity to ask someone wiser than themself: How do you stay content? Okay with everything? How do you deal with it all when there’s so much to deal with?

First, she highlighted that she was older than the students that occupy the halls of Forest Hills. So those ‘many insecurities’ we all have running amok in our mind? She’s experienced it before.

“The ups and downs, the ebbs and flows…they’re gonna happen. That feeling of something being missing is always present because you’re still young and learning.”

Secondly, she added that everyone eventually gets there. Slowly but surely, you find those moments of solace where you can truly relax. The Beacon believes that sums up perfectly how it feels to have an adult like Ms. Clinton in the building. It’s uplifting and calming to know she’s there with a smile on her face even on the bad days.

There are many moving parts throughout a school day in Forest Hills, but she represents how even in the chaos of these 180 days, there’s a form of peace.