On a Friday afternoon, senior McKayla Bobitski had some time in between school and her job at Argia’s to sit with me for an interview. She’s been working as a hostess there since she was able to get her worker’s permit at 15, and has somehow stayed even though all of the people she enjoys working with have either quit or are on on their way out.
“I always tell myself I’m going to quit, but then I never do,” Bobitski said. “I guess it’s because I’ve been there for so long and now it’s a commitment.”
Obviously Bobitski’s life is more than a job that takes up her Friday nights, but what she says in this last statement is important to note. She’s committed. And frankly, it doesn’t matter what the task is, Bobitski is probably going to see it through. Take running for instance.
“So I’m on the cross country team, but you know… running sucks. Every time I have to go out to run, I’m mad about it, and I hate it. I hate the feeling that you get right before a run and you’re like ‘Oh my god, I’m going to be running, I’m going to be tired, I’m going to be thirsty.’ It’s horrible. And then, once you actually start running, it’s even worse because you’re actually feeling all of that. It’s awful. But I really like how I feel afterwards. It feels really good to be able to say, ‘I ran.’”
To elaborate on my point, I asked Bobitski’s longtime friend senior Lindsey Stegenga to describe her for me.
“She’s a hard worker and always gets stuff done,” Stegenga said.
Commitment drives Bobitski to do many things she dreads doing, but there are aspects of her life that she loves being committed to. One of these aspects is family. Bobitski has a giant extended family, filled with great aunts and uncles, and cousins of all varieties. Personally, I could relate to the big family part, however, what I couldn’t wrap my head around was just how much she saw all of these people.
“So I’m possibly abnormally close with my extended family,” said Bobitski.
Bobitski originally hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She’s lived in Falls Church since kindergarten, but she travels often to see her family back home.
“I see [my extended family] much more often than most people do. Family has always been really important in my life. When I’m in Pittsburgh, we have my mom’s whole extended family. My aunts my uncles, my great aunts my great uncles, my second cousins my first cousins we’re all together all the time. Whenever there’s a graduation party, there’s easily like 200 people there. Just from part of the family.”
Reminder that this is only a portion of the family. Through both of her step-parents, Bobitski’s family extends not only in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but in Ohio, Florida, Kentucky, and West Virginia. And yes, she sees them all on a yearly basis.
“And then my stepdad’s side of the family, they’re pretty crazy too. A lot of them live in Florida or Kentucky or West Virginia. Every summer, we have a family reunion with them,” said Bobitski.
Reunions are a key part of Bobitski’s family life. If she’s going out of town, it’s an easy bet that she’s off meeting her family members in large quantities. I asked her to take me through a typical clan gathering.
“It’s a weekend long sort of thing. Usually, a long weekend, at least 3-4 days,” said Bobitski. “So people start coming coming in on about Wednesday or Thursday of the week that we’re having it. They stay normally in one of the houses that we have. The next day is spent with more people coming, and we all just hang out for the first few days while everyone’s getting in. Then Saturday is when everyone is there. It’s usually spent swimming, just hanging around talking. And then at night, we usually have a big fire. A lot of crazy things happen.”
To elaborate on “crazy things” Bobitski proceeded to tell me a story about how she and a bunch of her relatives drove up a mountain called Box Rock and went mudding in the middle of the night at a family reunion in Kentucky. This was perpetuated by one of her favorite relatives-that-is-not-really-related-to-her, Uncle Kevin.
“It was probably midnight or one o’clock in the morning and we all got on the four wheelers, and we got halfway up the mountain, but then we went a different way than we normally did, and we went mudding. And we we’re out for about two or three hours. We we’re all covered in mud.”
Bobitski’s family is her life, basically. No matter whether it’s extended or immediate. In her Falls Church home, she lives with her mother, stepfather and her two younger sisters, eight year old Addison and one year old Rylan. Being the oldest by far, Bobitski is responsible for helping take care of both her sisters, especially Rylan who has to be watched constantly.
“Whenever I’m watching them, Addison kind of does her own thing and I just have to be there to make sure she doesn’t die. With Rylan, it’s a constant vigilance,” said Bobitski.
“She likes to get into everything right now. She’s at that age where she will stick anything and everything in her mouth. And she will run around the house tearing things apart if you don’t pay constant attention. That’s a lot of responsibility when I’m with her, especially when I have schoolwork, or if I just want to sit and chill. I have to sacrifice some of that to make sure that I’m paying constant attention to her.”
Although it’s a lot of work, this is a commitment that Bobitski takes pleasure in. She loves being with her sisters.
“Me and Addison will play basketball or play soccer. She loves soccer, so I have to go out there with her sometimes. With Rylan, she’ll pretty much do anything. We play a lot of peek-a-boo,” said Bobitski.
If you know Bobitski, you may have already known about her sisters here in Falls Church. But She actually has two more sisters that live in Pittsburgh with her father and stepmother.
“I’ll visit my dad probably five to six times a year. More so in the summer than in the school year. I always go up for at least two weeks in the summer. My dad lives with my stepmom and my sisters Paige and Meadow. Paige is older, she’s 21. And Meadow’s 12,” said Bobitski.
Next year when she’s off at college, Bobitski obviously won’t be able to see her family nearly as much as she does now. So who will she miss the most?
“I always say that I’m going to miss Rylan so much. Of course I’ll miss all of my sisters and my parents, of course, but Rylan’s just at that age where every day she changes and every day something new happens,” Bobitski said.
“You know she’s talking now, she’s saying a few words. But I’m just afraid that I’ll go off to college and come back and she’ll be grown.”
Although her family and work life may seem too busy for a social life (and sometimes it is), Bobitski stays committed to her friendships too. Just ask Stegenga.
“I have a lot of great memories with her, and I still have a list of all the inside jokes we made in seventh grade saved onto my phone. Some of my favorite memories are playing with her on rec basketball over the years, and all the times we went to her river house and her camp ground. I’m really glad we met on the first day at Mt. Daniel and that we’ve been best friends ever since.”
If one thing is certain, no matter what Bobitski encounters in her life, she’s not giving up on it. She understands that staying committed is important whether it’s for something she loves, or something she can’t really stand (see: running, or Argias). And if she ever does feel like her obligations are too much? Well, she’s got about a million family members and friends to turn to for help.
