What Does Laura Mean

Portage Central soccer star Paige Wester does things 'her own way'

PORTAGE — For four years, Paige Wester mastered the art of toggling between goof ball and gamer.

“Soccer at Portage Central has always been very serious,” Wester said, “but we just focused on taking it day-by-day and not taking it too seriously.”

Wester made it a point to keep the mood light before and after games, while adopting an all-business mentality at the opening whistle.

Wester said she considers herself somewhat of an unconventional player because of her light-hearted approach, but it never held her back. She was named Michigan’s Miss Soccer in 2009, finished runner-up for the award as a junior and this season was named to third straight All-State Dream Team.

The senior also has been named the Gazette’s girls soccer player of the year for a third straight season.

“I think she has her own way of doing things,” said Andy Fuehr, coach of rival Portage Northern. “I think it’s important that a player knows what they need to do to get ready. By no means is she the most serious, but when the game starts, she’s ready to play. You can’t question a player’s pregame mentality when they come out and kick your butt every time.”

Masked as good-natured goofing around, Wester admitted that part of those laughter-filled pregame warmups were a coping mechanism to deal with the pressure that mounted after a young Mustangs squad won the 2009 Division 1 state championship.

Portage Central entered to 2011 season ranked No. 1 in the country by ESPN Rise. After some early struggles, the Mustangs finished 19-3-2, losing in the Division 1 regional championship game.

“As a team, it’s hard when you’re ranked No. 1 in the nation,” Wester said, who finished with 12 goals and 16 assists. “As much as we didn’t act like it, it was a lot of pressure. I mean, we’re 15- to 18-year-olds and you don’t imagine getting that. We just tried to go in to each game not freaking out.”

Traces of anxiety have replaced that pressure as Wester heads to Michigan State University, the same destination as fellow Miss Soccer winners Laura Heyboer (2008, Hudsonville Unity Christian) and Annie Steinlage (2010, Spring Lake).

“I think I’m more anxious than scared,” Wester said. “I just want to get there. With high school, I knew what I was coming into. I knew the coaches well and I knew I would have a spot. In college, I have no idea what will happen. That’s kind of what I like. I’m going in there and competing for everything I get.

What Does It Mean To Be Frugal? | 168 Hours

Over at DailyWorth, Marilyn Zelinsky-Syarto is blogging about her “ Unnecessary Spending Guilt. ” For her 50th birthday, she decided to get her kitchen remodeled. Which is great, except that as a regular blogger on frugal issues , she feels like a fraud for spending money on something that does not technically have to happen. Her kitchen still works. She asks “does being careful with cash mean that I can’t spend it from time to time?”

As I’ve been finishing up the manuscript of All The Money In The World, I’ve been struggling with this issue myself. There are many things I have an incredibly hard time spending money on. I walk my 4-year-old to preschool most mornings, and every morning, I pass a corner deli which sells bunches of flowers from its stoop line (a wonderful phrase I now know means the shelves outside on the sidewalk that many New York stores sport). Every morning I think “oh, those are pretty, I’d love to have a bunch on my desk.” Do I buy them? Never. Why not? I suppose it’s because spending money on flowers seems wasteful.

So here’s the twist on all this. I’m about to move to a house that turns out to have a gorgeously landscaped yard. I don’t know who designed it, but this landscaper had a great sense of the eastern Pennsylvania rainfall and seasons, because with no upkeep whatsoever, a series of flowers has bloomed in that yard from March until June. One sequence of flowers comes up, then when it dies, another takes its place. We made our offer on the house the first week of March, before anything was sprouting. We had no idea that this all came as a package deal. Sitting in that yard the few times we have been there this spring has made me quite happy, seeing all those flowers that I know I will see sprouting again and again over the next few years.

This I know: my frugal self would never have paid for a landscape architect to design such a yard. Again, that little voice that tells me spending money on flowers is wasteful would have turned into a roar. Of course, I bought the house. So I did pay for it. A house has utility. Flowers do not. But why do I feel that way, that spending on something that is purely for pleasure is a problem?

I’ve been reading Your Money Or Your Life , given that it touches on similar issues to All The Money In The World. It’s not really my kind of book, but I do like that the authors try to reclaim the word “frugal.

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