OXFORD – Want to feel better?

Well, then fix yourself up!

That’s the advice of 17-year-old Sarah Morrison – the student body president and most recent recipient of the Principal’s Award.

It’s the same advice her late grandfather, William Hanley, gave her.

Morrison has been accepted at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and plans to go into the field of fashion.

She got hooked on fashion when she started playing with dolls and when she first started to notice that she was dressed up for Easter.

“I don’t need an excuse to dress up. It’s fun. I enjoy it,” Morrison said. “It doesn’t need to be a formal event. You dress up if you feel good and want to look nice, or you don’t feel good and want to look nice.

“Mom was a big inspiration. I enjoyed the fact that she could always make clothes for Easter,” she said.

She said it would be hard to label her exact style, but she says she is generally conservative and prefers bright colors.

She had played sports – basketball and field hockey in her freshman and sophomore years, and participated on the track team by throwing the javelin and discus.

But Morrison had to quit sports because of a knee problem. She said she was going to try golf, but got into dance instead.

Morrison also enjoys dancing and has taken classes at Art Moves, a local dance studio.

“I’ve always been able to roll with the punches,” Morrison said. “When I couldn’t play sports, I went on to something else. I didn’t feel cheated.

“Sports was what I did. It was not who I was,” she said.

Morrison keeps plenty busy in school.

She is mostly an A student, but admittedly gets a couple of deserved Bs. She said her favorite subject is history.

“I enjoy studying the different cultures, the way people interact with each other, the evolution of society and the development of communities,” she said.

Morrison is currently part of a class, which is studying community development in the Oxford Hills area. She said this was an extension of a class that began in her sophomore year called the human experience.

“Our challenge then was to create an Utopian society,” she said. “We began by studying the ancient civilizations of Greece, Rome and China.”

But, while history is a favorite, it’s fashion she finds fascinating.

She said she is already looking forward to getting dressed up for the prom.

“I actually shopped for the fabric and am making my own dress,” Morrison said.

She wouldn’t say what it will look like.

“It’s a secret,” she said.

jsmedley@sunjournal.com