Sophomore Sophia Plourde is a new student at Bowie, and couldn’t be happier. She moved to Austin over the summer from St. Croix, an American territory in the Virgin Islands. But neither of her parents were born there.

“My dad is from New England, and my mom and I were born in New Orleans. We hopped from place to place before moving to St. Croix.”

Although neither parent was born in St. Croix they met there, Plourde’s mother was doing a semester of college there to be a nurse, while her father was a tugboat captain. They were drawn in for new opportunities when Sophia was young.

“We moved back because my dad got a job opportunity at an oil refinery that would enable him to be home every day rather than commuting a month on month off for work as a tugboat captain. He used to have to work for a whole month away from us then he would spend a whole month with us but the day to day job ensured we would see each other constantly.”
Austin is jam-packed with people and has a lot of diversity, unfortunately, St. Croix wasn’t large enough to even have the privilege of being diverse. Plourde explained the social differences between St. Croix and Austin.
“The population in St. Croix is approximately 50,000 so there aren’t that many people, everyone kinda knows everyone so it gets really boring. The first school that I went to was a private school had about 150 people Pre-K through 12th. And the second one that I went to had approximately 60 kids. As you can imagine having only five to thirteen people in your grade, making friends was pretty difficult especially when no one had substance, and were all super basic.”

Plourde’s family started talking about leaving as she started freshman year, as they were all becoming unhappy with the dull society, corrupt government, and uncomfortable living situations. They debated multiple areas in the United States, but more advantages were in Austin.

Austin has better schools, it’s less costly to live here than in St. Croix, we actually have family in the same city as us for the first time in years. Also, there are more opportunities for me to become an actor because my old school didn’t even have a theatre program and Bowie has one of the best ones. And most importantly I finally found friends who I actually want to be around, and every day you get to meet so many new people because Bowie is just so big.

As pretty as St. Croix is it wasn’t a good fit for Sophia and her family, for many social reasons. But, there are also a lot of reasons other than making friends that Plourde enjoys.

“Austin is better because the economy is not going down in flames, there is cultural diversity, and just more diversity in general. There is a plethora of opportunities for pretty much anything that you enjoy or are passionate about, the roads are paved, and we have air conditioning in our house. And I really love going to the football games because we didn’t have football in St. Croix-.”

It is very common in the Bowie halls to hear complaints about the school being lame, stupid, or even pointless. Plourde shares her opinion on how she views the school in comparison to how others do. 

“Ever since I moved here and came to Bowie things have been significantly better and easier and I’ve been happier. I think it’s crazy when I hear students complain about Bowie, my schools were awful, no school is ideal but Bowie is so close. I can’t stress enough how grateful I am to be here, and I think all the students need to understand that.”