For family

For+a+high+school+freshman%2C+Daisy+has+a+mature+appreciation+for+family.

Harper Heaps

For a high school freshman, Daisy has a mature appreciation for family.

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, the saying goes.

For Daisy Buckley, that would be Mom, Dad, Grace, Finny and Beckett. While the “average” part may not exactly fit, for a high school freshman, Daisy has a mature appreciation for family.

“They’re just always there for me,” she said.

Her sister Grace is her best friend, Daisy says. But as of this fall, Daisy’s best friend attends the University of East London across the Atlantic Ocean. 

After dropping off her college-bound sister, the car ride home from the airport was miserable. Daisy says she usually tries to hold back sadness, but she couldn’t help it, so she cried. She didn’t sleep at all that night, overwhelmed by the thought of not being able to see her sister until next summer at the earliest. 

Until then, Daisy will try to remember good times, like the annual summer trips to the Montana lake house that has stayed in their family since Daisy’s great-grandparents owned it, or when Daisy and Grace worked together last year to find Leo, a golden doodle from Kentucky who would become the family’s second dog.

And of course, Daisy still has her parents, her twin brother Finny and younger brother Beckett. She has gotten closer with Finny recently, probably as a result of Grace being away, she thinks. Regardless, she says it’s good to have him to rely on. 

In fact, the first thing Daisy says when people ask for an interesting fact about her is that she’s a twin. More than that, she and Finny have different birthdays — Daisy was born at 11:59 p.m., Finny at 12:06 a.m. the next day. And more than that — only Daisy’s mom likes to add this part — she and Finny have different zodiac signs, Daisy born a Leo on Aug. 22 and Finny a Virgo on Aug. 23. 

So, even when Daisy is asked to share an interesting fact about herself, anything she would think someone might like to know, it involves her family, too.