Purple polyester on purple polyester. An assortment of gawky rings. Hundreds of card designs to choose from. Standing in the new commons during Josten’s makeshift graduation store, senior Ravyn Frazier’s emotions are just as diverse. On one hand, the graduation caps symbolize her triumph of being the first in her family to graduate from high school. On the other, they break her heart, reminding her that her step-father will not see this moment.

Back in class, Frazier breaks down, starts crying, and sees Wenatchee High School counselor Will White. Yet, this one instance of vulnerability cannot shake her off track, and she is back to school and work with a smile the next day. Having thrived despite her step-father’s abrupt death and troubled childhood, Frazier has become avid in overcoming the odds.

“I’m most proud of how far I’ve come. I have thought about suicide so many times, and I completely preserved beyond anything I have ever imagined,” Frazier said. “Like Mr. White said, I have been through enough to derail anyone, but the fact is I’ve done it, I’m still here today.”

With a single mother, two younger siblings, and an in-and-out father figure, Frazier grew up with little money or security. But no obstacle could her prepare her for what would happen during the middle of freshman year at Eastmont.

“My mom hadn’t come back from work. She finally came inside and told me to get my sister. She hugged us in a death grip and said, ‘Aaron [my step-dad] is dead.’ My sister immediately started to scream; she was hysterical. I was more in a state of shock. I sat on the couch and stared off into space. Then it hit me, and I started crying and crying,” Frazier said. “Our mom held us, and she said he died of heroin overdose.”

Ten days before Christmas, the tragic event flooded Frazier not only with grief but also regret.

“I feel ashamed. Ashamed of the fact that he did drugs. But more ashamed of what I said to him. My last words to him were, ‘I hate you,’ ” Frazier said. “I would take back what I said in a heartbeat. To this day, I don’t tell people anything I could know to be my last words.”

Though Frazier tried to act strong and returned to school immediately after his death, she found herself lacking compassion in the hallways and seeing reminders of what happened everywhere. Her grades dropped to failing, and she was ready to transfer to WHS the following year.

“I came over here, and I was like, ‘I am going to prove I am stronger than they thought.’ And I decided I was going to work my hardest. I don’t have much of a social life but that’s OK because I am going to be the first one in my family to graduate,” Frazier said. “My mom made the mistake of becoming pregnant at 16… she had to drop out of high school. She had to get a GED. It’s been really hard, and I promised myself I would never put my kids through that. So I sat down, buckled down, and did what I had to do to get my A’s.”

Since sophomore year, Frazier has maintained straight A’s with AP classes, numerous clubs, National Honor Society, and part-time jobs in between. Recently, she became a member of the National Society of High School Scholars, and just this summer she discovered her career calling, an elementary school teacher.

“My mom has been a single mom for the longest time, so when my brother was born, we all kind of had to pitch in to help, and he just became my whole world,” Frazier said. “So this summer, I spent teaching his ABCs, his name, how to write his numbers, and I realized it was really fun and something I could see myself doing in the future.”

After graduation, Frazier plans to attend Wenatchee Valley College for two years and then transfer to a teaching program through Central Washington University but housed at the college.

As Frazier reaches these goals, she knows she has a group of people supporting her, mainly her mother and White. Having gotten to know Frazier over three years, White said her optimism, resilience, and grit has stood out to him most.

“One of the things I find myself saying to students a lot when going through challenging things is that whatever it is, it doesn’t have to define them,” White said. “I don’t know if I ever had to say that to Ravyn. I think she made a decision at some point to not allow the things that are going around her to define her.”

For the most part, Frazier said she doesn’t tell others about what is going in her life, believing her positive attitude and actions will speak on their own.

“[People] either like me or they don’t. I don’t need to have them feel sorry for me,” Frazier said. “I want them to hear my story after I graduated with all these grades and done something great. Then they can hear how bad my story was, and they can be like, ‘Wow, she bounced back.’”