10 Questions With ... Danielle Upton

Danielle and her dog, Kimber. Image
courtesy of Danielle.

Working as an instructional assistant at Elmira Elementary and an assistant coach for Elmira High School’s varsity softball team, Danielle Upton finds her days to be busy and filled with helping others and teaching or coaching the youth of Fern Ridge School District. She is a softball enthusiast, playing two years of softball at the collegiate level for Chemeketa Community College before beginning her journey as a coach at 21. She has been coaching for five years and working at the elementary school for three years.

Danielle’s day includes working with elementary-age children who have developmental disabilities, as well as assisting teachers in their classrooms. Beginning sometimes as early as December, she can also be found working with players, conducting softball conditioning before transitioning to full-scale coaching in late February or early March when the season begins. During Elmira’s 2019-20 basketball season, Danielle stepped in as an assistant junior varsity coach for the girls team.

Danielle has become a prominent figure in the Fern Ridge School District over the years, touching the lives of many young individuals.

What sparked your interest in working with elementary-age children, and is this something you wanted to do career wise or did you change courses?
My mom has worked at the elementary school for 15 years. While I was between jobs and taking a break from school, I started subbing. I ended up really enjoying it and applied for a position the following year. I definitely changed courses. I originally wanted to do something medical (physical therapist, sports medicine, chiropractor).

You’re going to school currently. Are you planning on changing careers after you finish school, or do you want to continue working in a school setting?
I think I am going to continue working in the school setting. I really enjoy it. I think getting my bachelor’s in community health will leave doors open if I ever do decide to step away from the education field.

Have you faced any hardships, either with work or coaching, that made you question if you were in the right career?
I have; there was one particular incident a couple years ago with coaching. I felt like I wasn't cut out to be in the position I am because I am young and I felt people were trying to take advantage of me.

What does a typical day look like for you with work and coaching?
Very busy! I typically arrive to work by 7:30 a.m. If the day went well I would leave right around 3 p.m. Practice usually starts at 3:45, so I would run home to change and grab a snack before heading to practice, which gets over at 6 p.m. The team would leave but almost every night the other coaches and I would stay and talk for about a half an hour. I would get home and have dinner, take care of my animals, and typically just zone out for a couple hours before heading to bed.

How has softball impacted your life, especially at the collegiate level?
Softball has been a huge part of my life. It gave me the opportunity to attend my first two years of college practically free (aside from rent and living expenses). Softball has also given me lifelong friends that I might not have otherwise. I am constantly meeting new people and learning about the game. Softball really helped me on a personal level as well. When I struggled with things in life I always had softball to go to as a getaway. This was very evident in college. I had a rough couple years adjusting to college and living in a new city. One thing that was familiar was softball. I honestly don't know where I would be today without it.

Do you find it difficult to balance work and coaching?
Sometimes yes. About midway through the season I start feeling exhausted and wonder why I do this to myself. But in reality I wouldn't have it any other way. Some days I am so tired after a long, emotionally stressful day at work and I don't want to go coach. But once I get there I forget about my hard day and I am able to relax and do something else I love.

How do you transition from working with young children all day to coaching high schoolers during the softball season, and recently with basketball?
The transition was hard when I first started. It has since been much easier. I think it is just getting used to the different ages. Also being in a different setting makes it an easier transition. I have found that I like the spread of kids I work with. Teaching gives me a chance to really impact a young kid's life. Whereas coaching gives me a chance to really help shape a teen in their hard years where they aren't sure who they are or what they might want in life.

Being so young and coaching high school sports, do you face any dilemmas or struggles with players, or even parents?
My first year was really hard because I was only 21. Now that I am a little bit older, and the age difference a bit greater, I think it is easier. At first it was hard because I didn't feel the girls took me seriously or respected my authority. I didn't feel I could really be a disciplinary coach. That doesn't really fit my personality. When things were frustrating I didn't feel the girls could take what I had to say with as much of an impact as the head coach who was male and in his 50's. However, I think it has also been a good thing for some of the girls to have a younger female coach there for them if they needed anything outside of softball. I think I became more of an older sister to some of the girls, but they respect me and listen to what I ask them to do on the field.

Do you plan on transitioning to head coach if the opportunity arises, or do you have other plans with softball?
I have been thinking about this a lot lately and I still have not made up my mind. I think that opportunity is coming faster than I might be ready for it. I question whether I have the skills to be a head coach at the high school level even with my experience I already have. My plan is to either continue to coach now or take a break for a while but I am sure I will be back to it.

If you had to give one piece of advice for anyone wanting to work at an elementary school, what would that be?
Every day is a new day. Some days are very hard emotionally but you have to remember you are there for the kids and they look up to you no matter what. I would also say don't expect them to be perfect. We know kids will make mistakes and I think it is extremely important to teach kids from their mistakes rather than always disciplining or looking down on them.


At A Glance
Danielle Upton
Occupation: Instructional Assistant at Elmira Elementary and Varsity Softball Assistant Coach at Elmira High School
Education: Chemeketa Community College, BS in Community Health at Western Oregon University, currently completing BS in Community Health Promotion at Portland State University
Athletics: Played softball at Chemeketa Community College for two years
Pet: Kimber, her crazy and adorable dog
Years in Careers: Three years at Elmira Elementary, five years coaching varsity softball
Favorite Past Times: Playing or watching softball, spending time with her niece
Favorite Sports Teams: Oregon Ducks softball, football, and basketball
Hobby: Crafting personalized signs with vinyl stickers designed and made herself
What She’s Doing Now: Handing out meals for students in the community
Future Plans: Possibly obtaining a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education

Postcard from the Future: I dream of Maui’s Beautiful Beaches

View of the Pacific ft. dad

I vividly remember walking through the airport in Maui and looking out at the night sky while heading to the car rental building. The airport in Maui is open to the outside, which allows the warm and humid air to drift in and brush across your face as you wander to baggage claim and out into the parking area. 

Me, my sister, and dad at
the Maui Ocean Center

I was making my way along the sidewalk, battling my suitcase, trying to force it to roll on its two wheels without clipping my heels. My arm was being thrown around in odd positions. Instead of helping me out, my sister laughed at me while I made a fool of myself in front of strangers who were following us to the rental cars.

I knew our family trip would be filled with many embarrassingly funny moments and hysterical laughs, and it most definitely was.

If I had to describe Maui, it would be laid back. Sure, there are lots of things to do and not enough time to do it all in one vacation, but the atmosphere and vibe in Maui is, simply put, chill. There is something to do for any kind of person: adventurous people, those who love the outdoors, history lovers, and even those who just want to relax and enjoy their time in Maui. 

My hydro on a tree while snorkeling

My family and I did a large amount of snorkeling while in Maui. The water off the shores of Maui are extremely warm, welcoming, and teaming with life in every nook and cranny. I could not believe how many beautiful fish and brightly colored corals were scattered around the ocean floor. I should mention the water is very salty. My brother knows more than anyone. He swallowed a mouthful of sea water when wading back to shore, causing him to heave into the ocean on all fours.

My sister and I could not stop laughing, and my parents thought it was quite funny, too, after checking to make sure he was all right. My brother had a good laugh as well after gulping down a bottle of drinking water. 

Fish at the Maui Ocean Center

When we weren’t snorkeling, we found other things to fill our days while in Maui. We visited the Maui Ocean Center, which offers a large outside and partially indoor aquarium, history museum, and gift shop. We visited Whalers Village, a large shopping center with amazing restaurants and a to-die-for gelato shop. There are plenty of little downtown areas with unique shops in every town on the island of Maui, so Whalers Village isn’t the only option if you didn’t want to deal with as many tourists. 

We did quite a bit of outdoors activities as well. The Maui Dragon Fruit Farm offers tours and tastings of dragon fruits, plantains, and sugar cane, as well as the history of how the dragon fruit made its way to Maui. Located on the property is a ziplining course, although we didn’t partake in that. 

My sister and I ocean kayaking near Kihei

Ocean kayaking was one of my absolute favorite activities of the whole trip because you get to explore the open ocean, snorkel in one the most gorgeous areas of the island, and swim with turtles. My sister and I got paired together in a kayak and ended up fighting (not obvious in pictures) because we both thought we were the only ones trying and the other wasn’t “rowing hard enough.” We ended up making fun of ourselves by the end of it because of how ridiculous we were. 

I highly recommend anyone visiting Maui to travel the road to Hana. The road to Hana is roughly a two-day trip, including stops to sight see and visit shops or roadside markets. The whole road system takes you around the entire island, and is broken up into two halves: the large part of the island, and the smaller half. We drove the large half in about half a day, and part of the other half the day we flew home. 

My family at Nakalele Blowhole on the road to Hana

On the road to Hana are endless views of Maui’s rocky cliffs, sandy beaches, and cascading waterfalls. The road, however, is not for those who suffer car sickness or are scared of heights, and drivers should be aware that the road is often single-lane, extremely curvy, and occasionally covered in water. 

We never made it all the way to Hana, which is located on the small half of the island. We settled for a hidden black sand beach as our turn-around point. My goal is to make it to Hana the next time I visit Maui. 

Now, you can’t have a good vacation without good, or should I say, great food. Maui offers every type of food under the sun. Barbecue, burgers, pizza, Italian, Mexican, authentic Hawaiian, you name it, and there’s a restaurant that serves it. 

My family at Kimo's for lunch

Here are a few of my top picks for places to eat: Kimo's, which offers outside seating right on the water, located in Lahaina. Beach Bums BBQ & Grill has some delicious brisket or pulled pork sandwiches and is conveniently located right next to the Maui Ocean Center in Wailuku. The Cool Cat Cafe gives you a nostalgic feeling of being in an old diner, serving burgers and milkshakes, among other delicious food, and is located in Lahaina. My last pick is the Monkeypod Kitchen, located inside Whalers Village. This restaurant is on the fancier side, but still offers an array of food everyone will like. 

Family (minus dad) at the Maui Luau on
Kaanapali Beach

A trip to Maui would not be complete without a proper Maui Luau. The luau we attended was located on Kaanapali Beach and offered a gorgeous view of the sunset while we enjoyed an authentic Hawaiian feast with friends and family. The luau included a pig roast, with an almost ceremonial unearthing of the pig before food was served. After feasting, we were treated with a show on the history of Maui, which included fire breathing, dancing, singing, and appreciation for the wonderful culture.

Whether my next trip to Maui is next year or many years from now, I look forward to spending quality time with family, exploring the beautiful island, and eating more delicious food. 

I look forward to walking through Maui’s airport once again and feeling the warm, humid breeze brush across my face as I make my way to baggage claim. Maybe next time my suitcase will behave.

View of the Kihei beach after kayaking

At a Glance:
Maui, Hawaii
Informational website: www.gohawaii.com/islands/maui and www.hawaii.com/maui
Current restrictions: Mandatory 14-day quarantine for all incoming passengers
Best time to go: Spring or fall months for the best deals and least amount of tourists.
Weather: Temperatures don’t change much throughout the year. Winter months usually have the most rain.
How to get there: Fly out of any major airport along the west coast, such as Portland or San Francisco, directly into Maui via Kahului Airport, or fly into Oahu's Daniel K. Inouye International Airport and take a small propeller plane to Maui. Flights to any island take about five hours.
Where to stay: See www.hawaii.com/maui/accommodations

What to do: See www.hawaii.com/maui/things-to-do

Unorthodox Review

Image courtesy of Netflix

There are some shows or movies you binge watch because you’re bored and have nothing better to do, such as The Office. Then there are shows and movies you binge watch because you cannot stop watching them. Netflix’s Unorthodox falls into the latter category for many reasons. It is full of emotion, it is an inspiration to its viewers, and each character encompasses some struggle that we all face in our own lives.

Unorthodox was released to Netflix March 26, which was perfect timing considering everyone has been quarantined at home. Each episode runs under an hour, so binge-watching the whole miniseries in one night is not hard to do. Trust me, I would know. If you search “Unorthodox” on Google or Twitter, everyone has something great to say about it.

The miniseries is loosely based on the 2012 book “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots”, an autobiography by Deborah Feldman. Although some English is spoken throughout the series, the main language spoken by the characters is Yiddish. 

Unorthodox follows the life of Esther “Esty” Shapiro (Shira Haas) as she flees her tight-knit Hasidic community of Williamsburg in Brooklynn. She travels to Berlin where she meets new friends and pursues a dream she has always had: music. Esty leaves behind her life and husband, Yanky (Amit Rahav), who she was married off to at 18. When Yanky finds out Esty has run away and is hiding something from him, he and his cousin, Moishe (Jeff Wilbusch), travel to Berlin to find and bring her back. All three characters face trials and tribulations along their journey in Berlin. 

One of the most pivotal moments in the series, for me, comes in the first episode. We see Esty at Großer Wannsee lake with her new friends in Berlin. She is fully dressed in a mid-shin length skirt, long-sleeve turtleneck, and her black wig that all Satmar women must wear after marriage because they are forbidden to show their real hair. Esty slowly walks to the edge of the water before taking a step in. 

Image courtesy of Netflix

Once she is waist deep in the water, Esty reaches up and slowly takes off her wig, revealing her shaved head for the world to see. She tosses her wig into the water before submerging herself, as if she is being baptized by freedom and liberation. We see Esty float in the water as the camera pans away. 

“As Esty floats on her back in the Wannsee, you can feel what it’s like for her to be both fearful and free,” comments Rachel Syme in a review from The New Yorker.

This scene is so important because it is the moment Esty realizes she can become her own person, and is no longer bound to her community that she left behind. 

Unorthodox does a wonderful job at portraying not only Esty’s struggles in both her current and past life, but also showing the struggles of the other characters, particularly Yanky and Moishe. 

Shira Haas as Esty is amazing. Haas does a wonderful job conveying emotion and communicating to the viewer without even speaking a single word. She comes off as child-like and fragile when meeting Yanky for the first time, yet she seems fierce and strong-willed when she takes off her wig, allowing the world to see the real her.

My initial thought after finishing Unorthodox was, “How could they leave me on such a cliffhanger?” 

I was honestly mad at first, but then I began thinking about the ending. Although the series seems like it ends abruptly, I think that was the plan. All but one loose end was tied up, the conflicts were resolved. I imagine the series ended the way it did so the viewer can create their own ending for Esty. I’m not sure that Unorthodox will get a second season, and I wouldn’t be mad if the series ended how it did. The ending really makes you wonder if you are as happy as you think you are with the life you have. 

Deborah Feldman, who the series was loosely based around, was a big part of the production of Unorthodox, and wanted to make sure the Hasidic community of Williamsburg was portrayed with accuracy. Feldman explains in the short film following the series, “People like me never really had that opportunity. We never saw ourselves reflected back in the stories being told in popular culture, so we didn’t really know how to create our own stories.” 

From casting, to architecture, to costumes, great attention to detail was put into the making of this series. 

Image courtesy of Netflix

“It was very important to us to not just get the look and feel, and costumes and rituals and everything correct, but to inhabit the ideas of these character’s worlds in a way that felt authentic [yet] also heightened because it’s television,” Anna Winger, creator and executive producer, explained when talking about creating the series.

What I love most about Unorthodox is the women involved in the series. Anna Winger (creator and executive producer), Alexa Karolinski (creator and writer), Maria Schrader (director), and Feldman were all focused on the authenticity of the series, as well as getting details right and portraying this Satmar Hasidic Jewish community the way it truly is in society. 

Satmar Jews were originally from Hungary before fleeing to New York after World War II. They are some of the only people who speak Yiddish, meaning they are the ones keeping the language alive. Women and men each have specific roles within marriages. Weddings are extravagant and families are tight-knit.

Following the miniseries is a short film about the making of Unorthodox. The film shows interviews with the cast, creators, set designers, costume makers, and anyone else who had a part in the series. It gives great insight into how the series was made, and how excited everyone was to be a part of something. A lot of people involved in the series felt that it was portraying something about themselves or something that they felt passionate about. You can watch the full film here. 

Unorthodox is a wonderful portrayal of the Hasidic Jewish community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The series is bound to make you laugh, cry, and ponder your own life and happiness.

At a Glance:

Unorthodox

Starring: Shira Haas, Amit Rahav, Jeff Wilbusch

Summary: A Hasidic Jewish woman in Brooklyn flees to Berlin from an arranged marriage and is taken in by a group of musicians — until her past comes calling.

Extras: The Making Of Unorthodox | Netflix; A behind the scenes look at how the series was filmed and what went into production.

Rated: TV-MA; Smoking, Nudity, Adult Content

Streaming on: Netflix

Creators: Anna Winger, Alexa Karolinski

Rating: 9.5/10

What I've Learned From Stephen King

Coming into Feature Writing, I had minimal experience and knowledge about what it takes to be a decent writer. With that being said, I think reading "On Writing" has given me the knowledge and advise needed to better my writing skills and be successful in journalism. I think that it is important to know that writing is not easy, and even the professionals, like King, struggle from time to time.

When reading King's "toolbox" section, the two tools that stand out the most to me are:
(1) Active versus passive verbs. I have a terrible habit of using passive verbs, and doing so has cost me many points on essay and writing assignment scores.
(2) Paragraph and sentence length. These two go hand in hand because you need variation in length to make a piece of writing flow nicely. This advise is especially important to me because I would write long, blocky paragraphs that were all the same length. I would do the same with my sentences as well, making my writing very boring and mundane.
Keeping both of these pieces of advise in my mind when writing for this class should help me be successful and write like I belong in a journalism class.

My favorite line from "On Writing" has to be: "Life isn't a support-system for art. It's the other way around." I think this is important to remember when pursuing anything in life, writing included, it can become extremely time- and life-consuming. It can be easy to get lost in the pursuit of happiness and lose out on life's important treasures.