Broussard positive about life, humble about being named Abbeville homecoming queen

Trinity Broussard turned 17 years old on Wednesday.
The Abbeville High senior received an early birthday present Tuesday when the school announced her as its 2014 Homecoming Queen during halftime of the Powder Puff game.
“I am excited,” Broussard said Thursday afternoon. “I am still humble about it.”
Those feelings came after Broussard got over the initial surprise of winning the honor.
“I was shocked at first,” Broussard said of hearing her name called. “I was honored to be on the court. That was my goal. I was watching Haley (Bourque). Then I hear them say, Trinity. I was like, what? I was expecting someone else and I had already told her congratulations.
“Then they said my name and it was kind of weird.”
Over the last few days, Broussard and her court took part in homecoming activities. She attended the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Abbeville Country Club and was introduced as the queen. Friday afternoon, she road in the Abbeville Homecoming Parade and was also recognized during the Abbeville football game later that evening.
Not everyone is surprised that Broussard was front and center for all of the homecoming festivities.
Abbeville High Principal Ivy Landry is certainly not taken aback that the student body elected Broussard as this year’s homecoming queen.
“She is a good student,” Landry said. “She works hard on the speech team and dance team. She always has a positive attitude. She wants to see Abbeville High be great and I think that is why she became homecoming queen.
“Everybody sees what she does.”
If Abbeville High students don’t see her every day, they certainly hear her. Broussard does the school’s morning announcements. She has been the “Voice the Wildcats” for the last two years. She said her hope for the job is to set a positive tone for the rest of the school.
“I am extremely pumped about every morning,” Broussard said. “I try to never make it seem like I am down. Smiling at a person can make their day. When they hear my voice, I want students to hear someone who is happy.”
It is rare, if ever, that someone will see Broussard displaying a negative attitude.
“I don’t think being pessimistic is a cute quality on anybody,” Broussard said. “I always try to remain optimistic. You can’t always be happy, but I try.
“I don’t like people seeing me down.”
Broussard’s positive attitude is heavily influenced by her grandmother, Christine Broussard, with whom she has lived most of her life.
“My grandmother is most definitely the biggest influence in my life,” Broussard said with a smile. “She is awesome.”
The two have a connection that is closer than the ages of soon-to-be 60 and just-turned 17 may indicate.
“There is a big generational gap,” Trinity Broussard said. “My grandmother told me I have an old soul, so that has made us closer.
“Some times we don’t see eye to eye at all.”
Her grandmother remains at the heart of everything Broussard does.
“I want to make her proud,” Broussard said. “She has always been there for me and she still is. There are so many good things that she has taught me.
“My goal in life is to make her proud.”
Broussard will continue that even after she leaves Abbeville High, a place she has been so successful. She said her options included joining the Navy and eventually going to college after serving. She said she may also enroll at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette this fall.
“Right now I am on a roller coaster that is only going up,” Broussard said.
As for the Navy, the choice stems from her military family having no one to represent the branch.
“We have family in the Army, Marines, Air Force and National Guard,” Broussard said. “We don’t have anybody in the Navy. I think that it would be good for me and be a good life experience.”
She is experiencing plenty of what high school life has to offer, even if it is bringing more attention than Broussard may be used to, attention that will not come close to changing who she is.
“I am just trying to take it all in, but I am not going to get a big head about it,” Broussard said. “I am the same person I was before they announced me as queen.”