If you lined up everyone who wore boot cut jeans and Ariats at WHS you’d find little variation between these “Suburban Cowboys” with their new jeans and boots, whose dirt and mud only comes from the parking lot, until you came across a girl with the lingering scent of horse, straw in her hair, and real mud on her boots. Camryn Pike is a real cowgirl and everyone knows it.

“I guess I’ve always been labeled horse girl or crazy horse lady,” said Pike. It’s no surprise why everyone comes to this conclusion considering that she’s the Vice President of the high school’s FFA chapter, has made varsity for WAHSET (Washington High School Equestrian Teams) for the past two years, is a member of the Appleatchee 4H Club, and raises sheep to sell at fair. In addition Pike plans on attending WSU and entering into their 7 year honors pre-veterinary program to become a large animal vet. Besides animals, the two other important things in this cowgirl’s life are family and faith.

”Family is important to me because really it’s all I ever had…I was home schooled most of the time, so I would go to school two days a week, then spend the rest of my time at home. I never really socialized with kids my age, so my interactions were limited to my family,” she admitted. Pike says that family is the constant factor in her life, the thing she can always depend on, but when life gets tough she can also turn to her faith. With such a busy life, making it to church every Sunday isn’t as easy as it sounds, but she always tries to find the time for it. On the other six days, Pike reads at least one chapter out of the Bible and prays as often as possible. While Pike acknowledges that faith plays a key role in a successful life she says it’s not the only thing,

“A quote that I live by, given to me by my closest friend and mentor, [is] ‘In order to get through anything, all you need is a little faith and a lot of heart’. For anyone struggling with anything, just reflect on this and put it to work. Faith can only get one so far, but anything without heart is futile.”