Lia Carter

SMILES

Senior Lia Carter plays the ukulele and sings in her home as her daily release and a continuation of her father’s love of music. (Photo by Ellie Schwartz)

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Transfer student senior Lia Carter carries on her father’s legacy through her optimism and passion for music. phone by overlapping her voice. She scrolls through her recordings expertly, stopping to play her favorite, a chord progression from “Twelve Years a Slave.” Her rendition is as BY ELLIE SCHWARTZ NEWS EDITOR startlingly bold and stunning as her smile, full of emotion and complexity. “I’ll listen to really sad music, and I feel like,

On a groggy, humid Friday morning, it’s ‘I feel better, let’s move on.’ Whatever I’m going blinding. Senior Lia Carter’s smile hits through, that works,” Carter said. you first. Combined with her bright blue These moments of release are Carter’s daily eyes and pale freckles, Carter emanates treasures and manifestations of her talent. positivity. No caffeine buzz or foundation can fake Carter also embraces the little treasures that this radiance. On the contrary, a transformative come with senior year and living in Kansas City. past, an appreciation for the little things and a After watching girls teeter through the halls in passion for music make Carter a glowing addition high heels at boarding school, St. Peter’s Episcopal to the Senior Class, both in outlook and talent. School in Austin, Texas, Sion’s relaxed atmosphere

Carter’s father “would do anything to be and approach to appearance feel calmer and “zenplaying, performing or listening to any type of ed out”, according to Carter. Kansas City feels more music, any time.” He played seven instruments and natural with a lot of variety and things to do. And made Carter’s house a “non-stop musical.” while leaving campus at boarding school was “six

Just days before he passed away nine years ago, pages of paperwork hard,” Carter’s new life is more he completed the last showing of his final musical, free socially. performing even when it was difficult for him to A large part of Carter’s senior year is dedicated stand due to a fatal case of pneumonia. to Grand Choeur, the most advanced choir. But Carter refuses to dwell in grief, instead “[Life] is kind of like “[The new group is] fun because I know some things they carrying on her don’t, and they know father’s legacy and love of music. musical notes. I can a lot of things I don’t. It’s interesting being “It sounds really morbid, but listen to the whole thrown into a different dynamic of choir with I’m okay that he different teaching died because it was eye-opening in the movie, and there’s this styles,” Carter said. Choir Director sense that I look at Elizabeth Mulkey things differently,” Carter said. one string of notes, describes Carter as, “already one of us,”

This new marking a successful perspective means appreciating the and it makes me love transition. Carter especially little things. “Life is a lot of the whole movie.” enjoys classical pieces for their simultaneous filler days with a few intricacies and unity milestones tossed in -Senior Lia Carter and has performed between, but there’s these pieces in London also those little with traditional choirs. treasures you find along the way, and I like to save Mulkey is impressed by Carter’s knowledge of them,” Carter said. “All of those filler days can have traditional choral music and willingness to lead. something special, it just takes some effort.” While Carter adores her new life and Kansas

Since moving from Salina, Kansas, Carter City, she looks forward to another transition in savors days spent lying on the Nelson-Atkins lawn, college and plans on leaving the Midwest. restaurants “classier” than the Olive Garden found “I like change. Small changes, dramatic in Salina and driving to school by herself everyday. changes, just keeping things interesting for myself, But when she is overwhelmed or upset, she turns to so I don’t want to repeat where I’ve been,” Carter the same release as her father: music. said.

“[Life] is kind of like musical notes. I can The origins of Lia Carter’s smile lie in this listen to the whole movie, and there’s this one string appreciation of change and its significance, and of notes, and it makes me love the whole movie,” her optimism spreads into her philosophy and Carter said. passions. With a memorable senior year ahead,

She collects these chords and musical phrases this smile is sure to strike a chord with the Sion from films and songs and records them on her community. LE JOURNAL ISSUE 121