Jenna Balabuch’s motto was “read, ride and write,” and she filled her days with books of all genres, horseback riding and writing essays which she hoped to one day publish.

The sophomore majoring in English at Oakland University died as a result from injuries sustained in a four-car accident on southbound I-75 this weekend when traveling to a bookstore in Detroit.

The 19-year-old was described by her family as constantly happy, always bubbly and a big talker.

“She’s the type of person you could write a book about,” said Andy Balabuch, one of her four brothers.

The only girl in a family of five males, Jenna’s family considered her “happy go lucky from day one.”

“She was as good of a sister and daughter you could ask for,” said Andy.

An avid English fanatic, Jenna was always interested in working towards getting one of her works published.

Originally aspiring to become an equine veterinarian, she decided to change her major to English after taking a class with Linda McCloskey, a special instructor of English at OU.

Jenna joined Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honors Society during her time at OU.

She recently began collecting used books from local libraries for a book drive with the group.

“She was so excited,” said Susan Balabuch, her mother. “She went to a local library on Friday for books and they told her she could have all of them. She came home and was excited about boxes and boxes of books … she was proactive in getting that done.”

Outside of her studies, her strongest passion was arguably equestrianism and caring for her Tennessee walking horse named Bo Jangles.

“All her life she loved horses and wanted to be a vet,” Susan said. “We finally got her one four years ago and my sister just gave us a horse trailer. She was obsessed with horses.”

Jenna was part of Romeo High School’s class of 2010, where she was a member of the National Honors Society and participated in 4-H and the Equestrian Team.

Jenna’s family commented that she rarely walked away from a show without an award.

“Her goal was to make it to the state horse show,” Susan said. “She placed in every class there and submitted an essay about 4-H that won second place.”

The Romeo Equestrian Team finished as Reserved Champion with 412 points in the “A” Circuit Division while she was one of two captains her senior year.

“She was always smiling and happy; I don’t think I ever saw her without a smile,” said Shannon Reid, Jenna’s high school friend and co-captain of the Equestrian team. “We loved big Ford trucks and would send pictures to each other. When we were together we would take pictures with a nice one in the parking lot.”

Jenna worked as a babysitter, a barn manager and also at the boarding kennel at Goodison Veterinary.

She enjoyed reading novels, country music and watching movies and television shows.

Her most recent favorite television show was “How I Met Your Mother.”

Jenna is survived by her parents, Susan and Mark Balabuch, and brothers, Brandon, Eric, Andy and Josh.

“She would want to be remembered as brilliant,” Josh said, noting a paper she received from McCloskey with the word written on it. “Ever since then, that’s what we always called her.”

Visitation for Jenna will be from 2 until 9 p.m. on Wednesday at Roth-Muir funeral home in Romeo.

The funeral will be held Thursday, Oct. 27 at 11 a.m. at the Romeo United Methodist Church.

Her horse, Bo Jangles, will be present at her funeral in her memory, courtesy of Jenna’s 4-H family.