Silly, energetic, loving, youthful, and outgoing, Viewpoint editor, senior Sedona Brickley, takes the next step in her life to pursue civil law at Cal Poly Humboldt in the fall. Excited for a change, Brickley hopes to become a civil rights attorney or an arbitrator attorney.

“Any change at all, is scary, I think that it is also very important. So, even though I want to say that I am not ready to move, I think that is what is best for me,” Brickley said. “When you stay stagnant in a place for so long, there [are] only so many ways you are going to grow.”

With her family believing she would be a good lawyer because of her love of arguing, Brickley believed that she would be a criminal defense attorney. However, coming from Foothill Technology High School her sophomore year, she soon realized that she preferred civil law as she got into Mock Trial, and entered the legal studies pathway.

“I always thought it was cool to defend those who are less fortunate or those who do not feel like they can have a voice for themselves,” Brickley said. “I think that if I was a criminal defense attorney, I would go home every day feeling like I defended someone who did something wrong, that would be a violation of my moral compass.”

Senior Galilea Velasco met Brickley in honors English sophomore year and sees the correlation from being the Viewpoint editor and pursuing law. Velasco also explains that Brickley speaks up for what she believes in and encourages others to do that. However, Velasco also see’s a side to her “that a lot of people do not see”.

“[People] are distracted with her silliness and the goofiness that automatically radiates out of her, [they do not notice] that she loves so fully and so generously,” Velasco said. “She is such a giver. There is not a lot of times that I have come across someone that gives as much as she does, when she actually loves and cares about you.”

Along with Velasco, Junior Bella Lopez, who met Brickley this year in Journalism when Brickley sat right behind her, believes Brickley will be “100 percent” successful pursuing law.

“I feel like she always voiced her opinion on everything and I feel like she does persuade a lot of people.” Lopez said.

While being 100 percent sure that Brickley will succeed in law and being able to describe her as a “firecracker”, Lopez was at a loss of words when asked about describing Brickley and her favorite thing about her.

“She is always like, how do I describe it? There [are] so many words that I could use. But I do not know which one fits perfectly,” Lopez said. “She can be serious when she wants to, and I always know I could go to her to talk about anything, because I feel like she is not the type of person to judge. She is always just there for you.”

Brickley has a big support system from her friends, family and teacher, that give her the motivation to accomplish everything she wants in life. Brickley may be done expressing her words and making a difference in journalism, but she moves onto expressing herself to future lawyers and making a difference in people’s lives.

“Sedona has a lot of empathy, which is a skill that lawyers need, and people do not talk about that as much,” CTE Criminal and Civil law teacher Lauren Rad said. “People talk about how you need to be able to read and write, and you need to be able to do research, and you need to be able to argue. I think what will set her apart, is her ability to empathize with other people”