Spending the last four years of my life in such a school that housed over five thousand kids who believe in different customs, who hold different beliefs, and who support each other, I've learned how to grow in an environment where knowledge is always bursting at its seams. Hearing about different foods being cooked at home or interesting traditions makes me a more openminded individual. With over five thousand individuals in one place, each and everyday has been a learning experience in and outside of the classroom...
Walking down the hallway painted with a soft yellow hue, I see a row of men, staring through a window. Their eyes are glued to the screen, watching intently at the precious newborns. The love for their new flesh cannot be contained -- it transcends the glass, wrapping the babies in emotional warmth. It could not have been more than an hour before I helped the babies into this world and their fathers are already keeping post, watching over...
I am a twelve-year-old in dire need of a new hobby. My fingers bleed from practicing guitar, my voice rasps from singing every melody known to man, my eyes are tired from having read and re-read every book within reach, and it feels as though I have written the story of every character my imagination can produce. My passions are not waning; I simply can’t resist my impulse to create, to stretch the boundaries of my creativity. My mind is aching for something new and beautiful...
The Diagnosis“CRACK.” To any string musician, hearing a bow snap is equivalent to a mother hearing her child scream. My stomach dropped to the floor, my heart started racing, a million horrible thoughts crossed my mind. Not only did my brand-new, $5,000 bow break minutes before an audition, but I was 500 miles away from home at the Nevada All-State Orchestra Festival in Reno. However, the worst part of the situation wasn’t the broken bow- it was how it broke. In the middle of the first viola sectional of the day, I had collapsed...
Sir Ken Robinson, an educational reformer and renowned spokesperson for creative thinking, has written about an abstract concept that he calls “The Element”. “The Element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion”, he describes. “When people arrive at the element, they feel most themselves and most inspired, and achieve at their highest levels.” For most of my life, I wasn’t sure what my Element was. As a violist, I was conditioned to believe that it should be performing. However, although I enjoyed playing in orchestra and chamber ensembles, I 'd never experienced the magical rush of emotion that so many musicians experience when soloing. This dismayed me, and I felt as though I had failed to be a true artist...
Like any other individual, I am content among my peers. However, “peers” does not simply refer to those in my grade or of my age; instead, they are the people who “never yawn or say a commonplace thing but burn, burn, burn” with an insatiable desire for passion, compassion, and… (Kerouac)
I used to believe peers were merely those who shared my thirst for understanding. Academic Competition, a class devoted to learning for the sake of knowledge, seemed nothing short of paradise. Receiving hundreds of pages of condensed information to absorb every few weeks, I began to appreciate the astounding amount of things I had yet to learn...
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