About Me

My name is Ellie Zak, and I am fifteen years old. I was born on June 10, 1996. My absolute favorite thing to do is to draw; I love drawing portraits of my friends and of my favorite television, movie, and book characters. For me, drawing is a really great way to express yourself, and there are almost no limitations to what a pencil and a plain white peace of paper can create. I wanted to take a drawing class at South this year, but I ended up taking Photography instead, which I have absolutely no experience with. However, I'm sure that, just like drawing, I'll enjoy the artistic experience.

Reading and writing are also two things I love to do. My favorite books are the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling; those books are really big throughout my family, as we have all read and greatly enjoyed them. I have, in addition to my parents, two younger sisters. Cameron is 11 years old and in 6th grade, and Jordan is 9 years old and in 4th grade, and I love them both very much. One of my favorite kinds of writing is actually journalism, which is very different from any other type of writing. I was on the newspaper staff in middle school, and I took Honors Journalism last year. Now, I am on the Tower staff, and I really hope that there is a chance that I can make it to some position on the editorial board by senior year. However, I know that will be difficult because it requires a lot of after-school time, and I play fall and spring sports.

I run Cross Country at the moment for South, and this is my first year. I think that Cross Country is a really good sport, because it's really mentally challenging to finish an entire 5K. The thing that is really great about this sport, and different than anything I've ever done before, is that it's very independent. The meets are all about beating your own best times, and setting the fastest personal record that you can for yourself. I also play soccer at South, and I played for JV last year. I'm really hoping to make it to Varsity this year, but if that doesn't work out, I'm happy to play on JV another year. I've been playing soccer since I was five years old, living in Rochester Hills, and can't imagine life without it. I play on the Michigan Gators '96 team, a club soccer team outside of school, with a group of other South girls.

Over the summer, I visited Italy for a week (Rome and then Venice), and then went to Germany for two weeks to watch three games of the Women's World Cup. Watching professional soccer is truly amazing, and to see it first-hand is something I've wanted to do ever since I started to play. My idol is Abby Wambach, one of the best players on the USA national team, but there are many players on the team that I admire. I even talked to Lauren Cheney and got her autograph outside of the ESPN truck in Dresden. I love to travel, and to be able to travel to Europe and see soccer was truly the experience of a lifetime.

Currently, I am working on a major writing project with one of my best friends, and we are writing a novel together. If everything goes well, we might even end up trying to find an agent and we may possibly even move toward publication, but for now, we just enjoy writing it. I also participate every year in National Novel Writing Month, which takes place each November. Basically, you are allowed from November 1st at midnight to November 30th at midnight to write a 50,000 word novel. Before that time, you are not allowed to write anything that will be contained in the final copy, but you are allowed to plan everything out. The reason I enjoy this and continue to do it every year, despite the stress, is that it's a really good writing technique. It just about forces you to ignore editing and revising for just one month and get something done. Without this, I probably would have trouble believing that it is actually possible for me to write an entire novel, but now, I know I can do it. So it's a real confidence booster; as long as you succeed, of course.