About Me

Hello again! Just to reintroduce myself, my name is Shuling Lin. I’m 17 years old, and I’ve lived in Shrewsbury my entire life. I live with my mom and dad, and I have an older brother who is in his second year at Northeastern. My family immigrated from China to the United States, where my dad worked at the University of Utah in material sciences and my mom went to school studying computer science. A little bit before I was born, my family moved to Massachusetts, and we’ve been here ever since. I spent my first two years of high school at Shrewsbury High School, and now I'm here at MAMS.

Photo of me when I was younger, I am wearing a pink dress

Hobbies:

Three of my biggest hobbies are baking, crocheting, and playing the piano. Aside from piano, there isn’t any consistency to my hobbies. With baking and crocheting, I don’t force myself to do it unless I want to do it. I wouldn’t consider myself advanced at baking or crocheting but I am pretty good at following recipes or YouTube tutorials. Whenever I see something online, or get a bout of inspiration, I find myself in the kitchen or in a comfy chair with a ball of yarn. To the left you'll find a photo of Gerald the crab, although he may not be made out of yarn or edible, he is an example of a craft I've made in the past.

A drawing of a crab where the claws are on hinges so they open and close

Baking

During quarantine, I found myself with a lot of free time. At first, I started baking banana bread, then I found Pinterest and Instagram and it escalated. I made a lot of food for my friends and breakfast stuff for my family. My dad really enjoyed the banana bread that I made, and I would not be surprised if I’ve made over 50 loaves of banana bread at this point. I normally make snacks and desserts to share with my friends and family.

If you want to try making banana bread, here’s the recipe I used: Banana Bread
If you want to try making something more difficult, here’s a recipe for Rousong Baos, or pork floss buns, that I’ve made Rousong Baos

Pork floss buns, they are kind of like a savory cinnamon roll

Crocheting

When people think about people who crochet, they think about grandmas. First of all, wrong; second, grandmas are cool. I originally started crocheting as a school project for English where we had to learn something new. A big inspiration of mine is my mom who crocheted a lot when I was younger. In fact, I even have a teddy bear that she crocheted. She gave me a lot of guidance when I was first learning the stitches. Nowadays I mostly make birthday gifts using tutorials from YouTube.

A crochet bucket hat that is white and has Appa's
arrow on it

A black crocheted bag or pouch that closes
with a drawstring

Piano

My brother has been playing piano for over 10 years at this point and he’s really enjoyed it. When I was younger, I wasn’t the best at practicing; in fact, I even quit for a few years in middle school. In seventh grade, I was inspired by my brother to restart piano and I’ve been playing ever since. I am not going to win any awards any time soon, but playing the piano has taught me that attempting a challenge is the best thing that you can do.

Speech and Debate:

The extracurricular that took up most of my time in high school so far is Speech and Debate. During my freshman and sophomore years, I competed in Public Forum Debate at my sending school. Public Forum is a debate category where you and a partner prepare arguments for or against a topic, or resolution as it's called. You then take those arguments and compete against other partnerships to prove why your side is correct. I’ve always found this extracurricular really fun, and it allows me to apply my research and communication skills in a competitive environment.

A photo of me and a few other Shrewsbury High School debaters. We are all
dressed up in our suits ready to win rounds

Community Service:

Throughout my junior year at MAMS, I have found multiple opportunities to give back to my community. Towards the end of junior year and into the summer, I began to volunteer with WalkFit. WalkFit is an organization that connects VIPs, a visually impaired person, with other VIPs and sighted individuals who want to learn more about what life is like for a VIP and how to assist a VIP. December of my junior year a Mass Academy alum returned and introduced us to Liz Myska who taught me and other Mass Academy students about what life is like for a blind or visually impaired individual. During that visit, I learned about WalkFit and I started attending the meetings when they started up again. At the very first session I attended, I was blindfolded, handed a cane, and was led around by a sighted guide. I found this activity to be very rewarding as broadened my perspective on how the world is not designed for people with disabilities. If you would like to participate in WalkFit, check their Facebook Page for updates or contact VIP Liz at lizmyska@gmail.com

A photo of me talking with both sighted guides and VIPs, visually impaired person