Taejah Cross is busy right now, but then again, the Wyoming High School senior has been busy for the last four years.
"I have very little free time," Cross said. "It'll hit you if you decide that you want to procrastinate."
Taejah is a four-sport athlete: Volleyball in the fall, basketball in the winter, and right now she is balancing track and soccer at the same time.
She has been on varsity for four years in each sport, she will graduate with 16 varsity letters.
"I played four varsity sports my freshman year," Cross said. "I was talking to my parents and I was like. 'Wait, I can get 16 varsity letters if I do this all four years?' I didn't know if anybody had done it before, but it was like a goal of mine."
The crazy thing is, Taejah only played one sport before seventh grade.
"That was the time when I was like 'Okay, now I am going to participate in every sport I can.' I picked three sports, one every season," Cross recalled. "I just did one sport each season, and that is when I learned sports are my thing that is what I want to do."
She didn't add soccer until she got to high school.
Taejah was recruited to join the team after the soccer coach saw her on the basketball court.
"I had never played soccer in my life," Cross said. "Gym class was the furthest I'd ever been, and he recruited me to play and that is a sport I absolutely loved after I went the first couple practices."
In fact, she was an all-conference soccer player her sophomore year.
She has also been all-conference in volleyball and basketball and is hopeful that will happen this spring in track & field.
On top of all that, she has a grade point average over 4.0.
She credits her success to he her parents and how she and her three siblings have been raised.
"My parents are big on whatever you do you are going to do it with the best of your effort," Cross said. "Not all of us are at the same level academically but we all put in the same effort. So we all put our best effort in and I just happen to, academically, things come really easy to me."
While Taejah hasn't had much time outside of school and sports the last four years, she is very happy with her high school experience.
"I don't regret it a bit," Cross said. "The girls I played will all through four years, those were the people that I got to hang out with in school. I am going to be so sad when I don't get to play with them anymore because for four years I have just built bonds with people that you just can't break."
Taejah knows she has a lot more relationships to create in her next step, playing basketball at Grace Christian University in Grand Rapids.
