God’s Gift Of Grace (Bunting)

Positivity — for a high school student, it’s a pretty hard thing to come by when you’re constantly trying to ace all of your classes and do as many extracurricular activities as possible to get into a good college. Students are drowning in homework and stressing about finals, so being positive is not at the top of the list of things to worry about. Only a handful are truly happy and even fewer share their positive vibes with the rest of the world. Grace Bunting (’18) is among those very few.

Now who is Grace Margaret Bunting, you may ask? She is person of many talents, one of which is spreading joy to all who are near.

Since birth, Grace has always been a happy kid focusing on the bright side of life. This is one of the qualities that makes Grace so lovable. Unlike any average overworked teenager, she always tries to keep a smile on her face.

“She’s never negative, and she always encourages people to stay positive,” comments her close friend Cianna Hamilton (’18).

Aside from being cheerful, she’s also a very genuine human being, making her personality that much more incredible.

“Grace is herself. She is authentic,” reveals her mentor/friend/Spanish teacher Ms. Tracy Chadbourne.

One of her best friends, Jordan Young (’18), confirms Grace’s candid personality.

“She’s not afraid to say what her opinion is,” Jordan explains. “She is someone who doesn’t really care if she fits in. [Grace is] someone who is loud and really expressive when she’s excited about something, but she’ll get really inside herself when she’s going through a rough day.”

Part of her positive outlook on life is due to her faith. As a practicing Lutheran, Grace tries to live her life by her favorite bible verse, Matthew 5:14: “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.”

She interprets this scripture to mean “don’t hide yourself because you’re the light of the world.”

Although her dashing personality already makes Grace the complete package, she adds her outstanding musical talents to the deal.

Ranging from Vocal Jazz at CB to the adult choir at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church to theater at The Young Professionals Conservatory at the Sacramento Theater Company, Grace does it all. Even in her spare time, she loves to play piano, sing, and go to theater practice. Currently, she is starring as Fiona in Shrek the Musical at her theater company, but she remains modest and is always trying to improve her skills.

When asked if she could change anything about herself, she replied without hesitation.

“I’d make myself a really good dancer. And I’d be able to play all the instruments.”

Jordan explains that all the time they spend together in theater is one of the main reasons why her and Grace have become so close.

“We see each other so often. We don’t just see each other at school; we see each other on the weekends and at rehearsals all day long,” she tells the Talon.

The countless hours spent at theater practices have turned Grace and Jordan’s relationship from friendship into a sisterhood.

“We’re like sisters. When we first met [in the theater company], we were friends. Then we got closer to become best friends. Now it’s like we don’t have to have filters around each other. We just say whatever we feel and do whatever we want,” Jordan says.

Being the star of a play and balancing schoolwork is not an easy task. She is unable to do CB plays because of the stress brought by STC rehearsals and homework assignments. To deal with homework, Grace spends plenty of time during classes and rehearsals doing homework just so she’ll be able to get to bed at a reasonable time.

To make the process of doing homework less painful, she and Cianna FaceTime every night to do homework together.

“On FaceTime, we mostly talk while doing homework. We usually spend three or more hours talking to each other while trying to finish all our homework. And sometimes we go to Starbucks after school to do homework then we FaceTime at home for about three more hours,” Cianna reveals.

Even though they occasionally stay up until 3 a.m. doing last minute assignments, Grace always makes sure she tries her hardest on every assignment.

“I actually do the work because I know that’s going to help me learn it more. And when it gets time for a test, I’m not going to study as much because I already wrote down a detailed answer [for homework] or worked hard in the first place.”

Surprisingly, trying to balance theater and school isn’t the hardest thing to deal with in her life. Among many of the struggles that come with being Grace Bunting are her allergies.

“I have Celiac Disease. That means I’m allergic to all of the grains, especially wheat and gluten,” she revealed. “I’m allergic to California live oak trees, grass in Thailand, and artificial colors. And I’m also lactose-intolerant.”

Being allergic to basically everything is just something she’s used to dealing with. Avoiding lactose, grass from Thailand, and live oak trees is easy, but avoiding grains and artificial colors has proved to be more of a struggle for her. She’s constantly watching what she eats; however, she does fulfill her junk food cravings through one ideal snack.

“Chex!” She proudly exclaims, “Can’t forget the Chex. All the Chex. Vanilla Chex, Chocolate Chex, Honey Chex. All the gluten-free Chex. That’s like, my number one food.”

The vast variety of Chex adds flavor to her constricting diet. If she’s not carrying a gigantic bag of Chex, she’s probably eating protein bars or one of her countless bags of popcorn.

Her annoying allergies are among some of the things that makes Grace unique. She’s talented, hard-working, a loyal friend, and overall an out-of-the-box person. As a personal friend of Grace, I’ve gotten the pleasure of getting to know her, so trust me when I say that knowing Grace has made my life a whole lot brighter.