Looking Back on High School

Looking back on high school, I think I had a pretty good experience at St. Mark’s. I think I’ve changed a lot since I was a freshman, hopefully for the better, but I’m not really sure about if it is for the better or worse, I guess time will tell. I really did have a good time and learned a bunch in high school, but now I just want to move on. I really don’t have any regrets either, except that I wished I was more open and a bit more talkative, but besides that, I’m fine with what I did, didn’t do, and accomplished. I’m pretty fortunate I guess, I’ve gotten to travel around the United States to sing in really prestigious choirs, visit colleges and do other really cool stuff. And I got to meet a lot of good people and good friends in high school, so I’m thankful for that. But overall, I just want to get out of Delaware for a little while, it’s just too small I guess, I don’t know. I’m also lucky I’ve been involved with a lot of stuff at school, the chorus, concert choir, and sports. It’s all been really fun and great, and I’ll miss it a lot.

Time for College

I’m so happy to finally go to college! I’m going to Saint Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. I’m going to major in Music Education and I might minor in Music Composition down the road. I loved the college when I went to visit twice, and even though it was 1 degree the second time I visited, I still liked it a ton. It’s in a really small town, but almost all of the students there live on campus, and it has some of the best food in the nation! I don’t think I’ll get bored of the area though, it’s only about 40 minutes away from Minneapolis and St. Paul. I’m also super excited to sing in the choirs there. My first year, I’ll sing in the Viking Choir, which is an all freshman male group, but after my freshman year, I’ll get to audition for any other choir there. Hopefully, I’ll make the St. Olaf Choir, their best choir. It’s really, really good, probably one of the best college choirs in the country. Another bonus to that is if I make it they’ll have a tour on the East Coast my sophomore year so all my family and relatives can come see me. I’m also really excited to sing in the Christmas Festival they have there with all of their choirs, orchestras, and bands. It usually gets aired on PBS around Christmas time, so that should be really cool for my family to see me on TV. Overall, I’m elated to go there, and I don’t think there is a better match for me out there!

Senior Recital

Finally school is winding down and AP exams and finals are beginning. I’m not done with everything though. I still have my Senior Recital left. It’s not until May 31^st, but a lot of work still has to go into it. I have to memorize 9 songs for the program, and most of them are over 4 minutes long. Three of them are brand new songs and arias I have to learn and memorize for the recital. I’m already stressing about it because I’m not sure that I’ll be able to do it all. I mean, 9 songs is really a lot to memorize and perform all the way through without resting my voice between the sets of three songs. I’m always super nervous about performing too, but hopefully I’ll be done with that since I’ve been performing on a lot of recitals lately. The one thing I like about it though is that it’ll be done before graduation. So after graduation, I’ll have nothing but free time, which is going to be awesome. I’ll probably end up golfing a lot this summer, since it’ll be my last chance to golf on the courses around here for the next four years, I might even try out for the golf team in college, it all depends on how I do this summer though.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

The purpose of the fight scenes in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is not only to make the movie be really awesome and cool, but to show how disciplined and well trained the Wudan are at their art. It is really important for one to be disciplined at the things that they like to do, because if one is not disciplined enough, they will never become a master at what they want to do well. Being well trained is another important thing in life. If it was not important, we wouldn’t have schools and colleges, and the ones with the most training, such as doctors and lawyers, get paid much more money and have more prestige than someone working an entry level job. The same can be said for the movie. The fighters with the most training and discipline almost always come out on top. Another possible purpose of the fight scenes is that the directors wanted to show how emotional and intense the fighters were about their cause. They wanted to show that they would use their discipline and training to fight for what they believed in the most. But, the obvious reason why the fight scenes are in the movie is because they are super cool.

College Stuff

Today I was supposed to hear from the college that is my first choice about their admission decision. But oddly enough, nothing came. I don’t think I forgot to include anything in my file, I am actually really sure I submitted everything I needed in my file. I have checked my e-mail several times, but I still haven’t gotten anything from the school. Nothing came in the mail and no one called my house, so I don’t know what’s happening. Maybe the post office didn’t receive the letter in time or something. The school is in Minnesota, so this is a possibility. I’m not really upset about it, it’s just weird. Hopefully, it got to the post office today but they couldn’t put it in the mail, so they’ll put it in tomorrow’s mail. Maybe it might even come on Monday or Tuesday. I was looking forward to getting the letter today, but I was sort of shocked when I got home and nothing was in the mail for me. I even checked the portal a couple of times and nothing was on it. A couple of times, they’ve sent me things but the postmark date was four or five days before I received it. So hopefully, there is just a delay between when they send it and when I receive it. I’m just surprised that I didn’t get it today, but hopefully it’ll be in my mailbox tomorrow.

Golf Season

Golf season started on Wednesday, we had our first tryout for the golf team. It was a terrible day to play golf, it was cold, windy, and wet, but I was still super excited to play. By the time I got to the first tee, I could barely feel my hands because of the wind and cold, and it was hard for me to feel the club when I swung it. I hate playing golf in conditions like this because it makes a difficult game way more difficult. I like to play the most when it’s about seventy degrees and not windy. Days like that won’t come until May or June though. I still enjoy playing golf for school though, it’s pretty cool how golf can be both a team sport and an individual sport, and I think that’s why I like it so much. It looks like our schedule this year is more difficult than it was the past couple years, but I think we’ll be good enough to have a pretty good record and get in the state tournament. Hopefully next week the weather is really nice so none of the other practices are cancelled, and I hope there’s a good day in March when it’s sixty degrees, that would be awesome.

My Trip to Minnesota

In the first week of March, I went out to Minnesota for a college scholarship audition. It's like it's a different country there. Whenever I would hear someone talk, I could barely understand them because their accents were so thick. It was super cold there too.The morning of my audition it was one degree outside, but for some reason, it didn't feel that cold. Another weird thing about it was that I only saw one other redhead when I was there. People were literally staring at my hair when I was walking around the Mall of America, it sort of creeped me out. Anyways, the Mall of America was about two minutes away from my hotel, so my Dad and I decided to go there right after we got to our hotel. It was the biggest place I have ever seen. There were four levels to it and each level was about a mile around. There was also a gigantic amusement park for kids in the middle of the mall. It had about three roller coasters in it too, it was almost too big. It also had an aquarium in the basement. To me, it seemed really stupid that someone would ever build a mall that big, it was almost overwhelming. That being said, the people there were way different from the East Coast, they were all super nice. I liked the college I auditioned at also. I actually really liked it a lot, so hopefully I’ll be in Minnesota for college.