Missing English Class Already

The end of the school year is approaching rapidly. In another week I will no longer be able to call myself a junior. Overall, junior year was great. It has been more productive than any other year in school so far. In the beginning of the year we have to take tests to see how much we know already in a certain subject. I looked at those tests like they were foreign texts from outer space. Now I understand it all. My comprehension level in all my classes improved greatly. I even understand some things now that others don’t in math (probably my weakest subject).

Junior year has also been more fun than any other year. Becoming a junior felt very freeing to me. It is very uncomfortable to not exactly know who you are while being around people who are being completely influenced by society. But by junior year most of that stereotypical mentality is gone and people start appreciating others for their differences. I feel like this year solidified my friendships. I finally feel like I am apart of a great group of friends without feeling like I’m obligated to have the same personality as them (somewhere along the way this was a big intellectual leap for me). Also my parents realized that I’m an intelligent person that can make my own decisions. Junior year has exceeded my expectations in many ways.

This blog was apart of a project for my fabulous English class. It really made me think deeper than I would have into different topics. I especially liked the weeks where we could pick our own topic. I hope our teacher next year decides to implement the blogs into our class because it is such a fun learning tool. This summer I will probably blog occasionally for fun twice a month or so. From here on out the subject matters will include cooking, stories about how I’m so board, and band camp.

English was especially interesting in multiple ways. Hybrid Arts Academy English 11 is the official name of the class. One of my friends who doesn’t go to my school said that it sounded very “new age”. It is in some ways. The class is specially tailored to fit the needs of artistic people in 11th grade. The literature caught my interest more than in other English classes. I read great books that I would have never considered reading before, like Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys. Everyone in that class had a different personality that would shine right through on a daily basis. But somehow they seem to complement one another to make for a very entertaining class. Most of the same people will come together once again in Hybrid Arts Academy English 12 next year. I will miss my English teacher Mrs. Woods more than anything because she won’t be teaching us when we come back as seniors. There will no longer be her witty personality in the front of the classroom talking about in-text citations and her adorable little kids. Without her I wouldn’t have gotten as good of an ACT score. I will not miss ACT Mondays; however they taught me things I had never known before about writing. I woke up every morning happy to go to school because of English class. I will remember stories from that class years down the road.

Life, Frittered Away By Details

Mistaken Identity by Ken Wong

When I first saw this picture it immediately caught my attention. I was using Youtube to provide background music to my life when all of a sudden this image popped up in a video. For some unknown reason the picture is heavily associated with the song “Take Me Somewhere Nice” by Mogwai. It took lots of research to find out that it is a painting by Ken Wong named Mistaken Identity.

This picture is one of my favorite pieces of art because it makes me think about life. Originally I only thought about its meaning in “Take Me Somewhere Nice”. In the song, the singer sings about the UFO sightings in Glasgow, Scotland and how it would be nice if the UFOs would take him away. The picture represents the same amount of confusion that goes along with knowing you’ve seen something and everybody thinks you’re crazy. But to me the picture has a different meaning. Personally, it reminds me about the confusion of life. Everyone has a million little tasks they know they have to get around to floating around in their head. Sometimes people will have so much to do they forget to look at the bigger picture. Happiness is what really matters in the long run. But with so many things that people think they “have to get done,” it’s hard to be happy. Clearly the girl in the picture needs a life adjustment to turn her frown upside down.

My interpretation is that the girl in the picture has so much going on in her life that she is unhappy. She, like many others, is drowning in the trivial details of her life. She is stuck in her situation, represented by the fish bowl over her head. The picture reminds me that I can’t and shouldn’t focus too hard on things that will be meaningless in the long run. It is more possible to succeed when you let go of insignificant activities. Perfection is unachievable and happiness is more important.

See Mistaken Identity and other art by Ken Wong here.

It's Almost Senior Year

On Friday, the current seniors left the building for good. They took their final step on the 13 step stairs (counting kindergarten) into adulthood. This means the class of 2014, which I am apart of, are almost seniors.

In the past, I have been excited to move on in my high school career. All it meant was that I got a little more freedom. But with senior year approaching I have realized I will be getting more than just permission to stay out later. I will gain responsibilities that I’ve never had before, such as leading my section in marching band. If I was unsure how to lead in the past I could always ask for help from the seniors. There will be no one to run to now. I will have to look for the answer inside myself and trust that they are right. I've prepared for years and now I'll have enough knowledge to prepare others. I will become the reliable source underclassmen will ask questions to. Becoming a senior means I will have to step up and lead without hesitation.

Senior year has a funny way of making the world seem community filled and lonely at the same time. To elaborate, being a senior means you are apart of a tight community of other seniors who are all reminiscing in their time left at high school. However, senior year also means looking into colleges and spending lots of time trying to figure out how you’re going to live after high school. Senior year approaching makes me feel like I am surrounded by a loving class that will disperse into the cold world in a short period of time. In the other years of high school there have been some community aspects but not as strong. Being apart of the junior class right now doesn’t mean much to me because there isn’t anything really special to do with it. Senior year has many activities to lean on in which the community grows stronger, such as prom. The realization that they will probably never see one another after a year makes them a stronger community too. We don’t know what we’ve got until it’s gone. Being so close to becoming a senior, I am starting to understand that mentality.

Even with the daunting responsibility I am about to acquire, I’m still excited about senior year. There is no time to waste anymore. Anything I’ve wanted to do in my entire high school career has to be done next year. Senior year has been said to be the most fun and memorable year of high school. The rest of my high school career has seemingly flown by. So next year the class of 2014 should take all the time in the world to stop and smell the roses.

"Whenever we leave, let's not forget.

All the memories we've shared, all the people we've met."

Eric Whitacre's Fourth Virtual Choir

The beginning of Eric Whitacre's third virtual choir, ‘Water Night’, opens with a raindrop. It proceeds to fall into the ocean and from that spot Eric Whitacre rises up, conducting his work of art. The virtual choir, 3746 people strong, ascends from the water and the song begins. He plays with the metaphoric idea that every person is just a raindrop in the ocean. But when every drop comes together a massive, powerful ocean emerges.

That song premiered in 2012. Fast forward to current day and he has decided to make his fourth virtual choir. This time ‘Bliss’ will be the song the choir will perform. ‘Bliss’ is a great choice because it doesn’t have very many words in it. Pronunciation was one of the problems with the last three videos. This will be less of a problem now because of the open vowel sounds that are a permeating theme in the piece, with words like “fly” and “paradise”. Also the voice ranges aren’t too challenging for any of the voice parts. For example, the alto part only goes from an Ab3 to a Db4. With these advantages even the most untrained voices can soar like beautiful birds in the sky.

Joining the virtual choir is a great experience to have. It is easy to sign up and is educational for beginners who want to learn more about music. To start the experience sign up on the virtual music part of his website. After that there will be a video of Eric Whitacre explaining how to pronounce the lyrics correctly and how to follow his conducting pattern. The camera silently sings while he moves his arms in a conducting pattern all his own. The next step is downloading the music and listening to different parts together and separately. This educates the people on how to read music and gives them an idea on how music comes together to form a huge collage. There are more options on how to upload the video this year. Up to eight videos are allowed from one person. The final due date for videos is June 10^th. Sometime in July the masterpiece will be revealed in the gardens of Buckingham Palace.

The experience of joining the virtual choir is only positive. Learning comes from taking a leap of faith into something new, such as this. Hearing the choir and seeing all the future participants can make us take a step back to reflect on the bigger picture. From the possibility of making new friends from all over the world to learning how to read music for personal enjoyment, becoming apart of Eric Whitacre’s fourth virtual choir is full of opportunities. If nothing else, it shows people that they are apart of a big beautiful world. Every person has something positive to offer the world just like every singer is important to making the virtual choir happen. We are all raindrops in a magnificent ocean.

Taking Opportunities

Many unexpected twists happen on the roller coaster of life. A great majority of high school students will change their mind about what degree to peruse and what college to go to. The task of officially deciding is a challenging one. Surprisingly, ever since I can remember I've only had one college choice in mind. Never in my life have I considered going anywhere but that one college; that is until yesterday.

Yesterday I went to Trish, a voice coach, for the first time. I had been wanting to start voice lessons for a long time now. However I couldn't for months because of money problems (which are actually worse now but my family decided this is important). Anyways, I went and she told me I should go to Indiana University or Western University doing something with my voice. I secretly have considered going down that path but never thought I could. But if a professional is saying I could without me even asking first, maybe she is right and I should look into the different colleges. On the other hand, I haven't done everything I should over the past years of high school to pursue that option. Going to vocal Solo and Ensemble is important for doing anything with voice in college. Those scores show how talented and committed a person is about their voice. At least I have next year to prepare and finalize what career I want and what college I want attend.

Just when I think I have it all planned out I have nothing set. It is a smart choice for everyone to look into multiple colleges. I didn't sooner because I felt comfortable with the choice I had made. The environment is familiar, the people would probably be from around the area, and it is close to home. Maybe that is just the problem. Maybe Trish telling me to look into other colleges is a sign to get out of my comfort zone. I'm not afraid to dive into life, I just had never considered taking the jump before. Whether I go into a music field or not I will definitely look into more colleges. I also learned that music is a realistic option for me, therefore I will cultivate that talent because it is something that I love.

So the life lesson of the week is to take all the opportunities life hands us. I will continue voice lessons because it is not only something I love, but something that could help me with college auditions. I will practice sight singing more frequently and go to Solo and Ensemble next year for that same reason. Being where I am in high school I need to expand my dreams and step up to the plate to achieve them. As for everybody else, take a look at more than one college out of hundreds. Consider majors that seem hard to reach, and have the discipline to spend hours achieving that goal.

Whatever the personal goal is, investigate and take up opportunities to reach it. People can only go as far as they dream. So start dreaming, taking opportunities to further that dream, and eventually start living the dream.

Body Image Psychology

Personal opinions are supposed to be the only opinions that matter. However the media, comments from friends, and everyday conversations can warp a persons security of self. The constant focus on how we look as humans can effect personal body image. For some this means doing something as unnoticeable as fixing their appearance more often. Other people will go to extreme lengths to become satisfied once again. An article from hugobruggeman.com, Body Image Psychology Study, goes into detail about this very subject.

In the article Admin discusses different studies done about body image. In one study overweight individuals were more likely to have low self esteem while anorexic patients had a hard time with expressing emotion (Admin). Both focused on their weight and were unhappy. Another study shows that teenagers start getting upset about their body when their appearance is compared with peers (Admin). He also talks about how just because some body issues don't end up fueling a disorder doesn't mean they aren't worth trying to change.

Admin finishes his article by making a statement: "Psychology studies regarding body image identifies why and how people react but don't necessarily devise ways to improve circumstances." More research has to be done on the topic of body image issues in order to move forward and help individuals with these problems. Only then can psychologists make effective treatment plans.

An important message of this article is that society is sick in imagery. Almost all pictures in the media to promote anything and everything have pictures of size two models. Then they are modified to correct body "flaws". The distortion shown to us in forms of pictures changes the common ideas of what body image is beautiful. Lately, "beautiful" means being stick skinny with perfect or no curves (for girls) and being above average height and muscular (for guys). Everyday our psyche gets subconsciously disturbed until one day we wake up to find we hate the person staring at us through the mirror. This unhealthy distortion can be lessened, though. If we make a conscious effort to remember that the media doesn't always depict health, we can curve some of the self hate that comes with thinking the opposite is true. When we put aside the media and self hatred, we put our personal opinions first again which also helps with not having so many body image issues.

Also, our own brain can trick us. When we look in the mirror we may see exactly what is there. Or we may focus on the media-made flaws. Or we may actually see things that aren't there. The brain isn't a perfectly crafted instrument, so sometimes it can make us perceive things that aren't reality. Body dysmorphic disorder could be the cause in more serious situations. When this happens it may be a good idea to get professional help to retrain your brain.

Furthermore, a greater number of different treatment plans should be made. There are a great number of resources to find out the negative effects of a psyche when life hits a bump in the road. All that information can be taken into account when finding new ways to solve body image issues. However, that initiative isn't readily being taken. Everyone thinks differently therefore there should be many different options when trying to change any psychological abnormality.

What we see is not always reality. We don't have to pay attention to everything thing we think. Ignore the media, others opinions, and learn to love oneself to help disregard body image problems. Everyone is beautiful in some way. We as humans have to have the strength to let go of negativity towards our outwards appearance and have the will to discover the beauty inside.

The World I Want to Live In...

It is easy to view the world as a horrible place when horrible events happen. With the Boston bombing that happened recently, many question why humanity makes the world such an undesirable place. The real question at hand should be how can humanity help the world become a better place to live. Every individual has the ability to offer something positive to the next generation.

The world I want to live in is a world that is less violent, discriminates less, and volunteers more. The phrase "violence never solves anything" has been said way more times than it has ever been practiced. When situations arise like the Boston bombing nothing positive came out of it. Only negative things came, such as people losing their lives and limbs. Too many innocent people have lost their lives in wars that weren't necessary. If there is ever an issue that I feel passionate about I will participate in peaceful protests instead of hurting somebody for no good reason.

In America, there aren't as many discrimination problems as in other parts of the world. However discrimination has a long way to go from being solved. Instead of being part of the problem, I will take steps to be part of the solution. If I hear something discriminatory I don't let it go and walk away, I try and calmly explain why it is discriminating and unfair. In the future I will be active in more political ways. I'll do what I can as an average citizen to help make this world less judgmental. Voting will be a big part of this.

Volunteering can help so many people all over the world. Donations can bring food to families in less fortunate countries. Volunteering time can help build structures for a community. If everyone volunteered for just one day, imagine how much better the world world be. I have done some community service, but I will do more in the future to help make this world a better place.