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.