WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — For the eldest daughter, an amateur sushi chef and member of about a dozen extracurriculars, Amanda Pacheco sets a standard for success.
As a top 5 student in her 2024 senior class at Warner Robins High School, she's graduating with a 4.0 this week.
She describes herself as "a very curious person," which is why she took up theater, soccer, quiz bowl, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, beta club and book club.
She was also the senior class historian and took four AP classes.
Amanda's also the eldest of her siblings, including three sisters and one brother.
"I have enough siblings to keep me occupied for an evening, so it's pretty much chaotic and fun to be with them," she said.
For a few years, Amanda has been working as a server at a few restaurants in town, including Thai Pepper, where she's training as an amateur sushi chef.
With all the different extracurriculars, AP classes, and other life experiences she's had, Amanda said she wants to help guide her younger siblings through their journeys.
"Anything [they're] gonna do, I've already done and can help [them] through it," she said.
They'll have front-row seats to their big sister's success for at least a couple more seasons while Amanda attends Mercer in the fall.
She wants to major in biomedical sciences and minor in political science.
Though she grew up wanting to be a lawyer, Amanda said she changed her mind a few years ago after helping her mom raise her siblings.
When her newborn brother was born three years ago, Amanda said she remembers making many trips to the hospital with her mom, which inspired her to change her mind about what she wanted to study in college.
"I'm very scared of how different it's going to be, but I look forward to what it is," she said.
Looking back on her childhood in Warner Robins, the people have left the biggest mark on her.
"I'm gonna come back, but it's not gonna be the same because it's not my people," Amanda said. "It's not the friends I met; it's not the teachers I got to work with. Even now, I go to my middle and elementary schools, and the buildings are still the same, but the people aren't, and it makes it sadder."
Though life's coming fast, Amanda's got some advice for you.
"Learn to balance your time out, slow down, and enjoy it while we can because, at the end of the day, this is the last time you'll be kids. Enjoy it while you can, slow down, and take it all in because it'll be the last time you see it."