It's the Memories That Matter

It's hard to believe that it has been over a year since my last post. It's also hard to believe how much I have changed over the year.

I have just completed what has been said to be the most difficult, stressful and important year of high school, yet I enjoyed every minute of it. I have made some incredible friends over the past year and had the opportunity to experience some amazing things as well. I am proud to say that I am just as gregarious as ever and I couldn't have asked for anything more!

That being said, I move into my next year of schooling with slight apprehension. Senior year. The year every high schooler looks forward to. While I have never been more excited about being a senior than I am now, I am also growing slightly melancholy about it. It will be a year of "lasts" for me. My last year at band camp, marching at JMU, at Governor's School, and being around some of my favorite people in the world. Even though I am extremely excited about being out on my own, making decisions, and living life to the fullest, something inside me wishes that I had stayed a child forever.

My parents are my biggest heroes and the most incredible people in the world to me. It scares me to know that after this year I won't get to see them every night, travel with the family, or talk to them as much as I used to. On the other hand, it's nice to know that I won't constantly have someone breathing down my neck, telling me to clean my room or wash the dishes.

I guess I really have no choice. Even though I may not want to move forward, life gives me no choice. I have to step confidently into the world and embrace this next year as it molds me and shapes me into the person that I will continue on into the world as. Instead of  focusing on the list of "lasts", I have decided to focus on the memories that will be made. I want to carry the good times with me and leave the sadness behind, in the past, right were it needs to stay.

As I continue in life, nothing can stop me. I am as confident and happy as ever and I will continue to embrace that as I move forward into the next phase of my life. While this blog may seem like a rather sad blog to enter back into the world of blogging with, I believe it is a necessary step in helping me to move forward and embrace all of the changes in my life. I promise I will return again with a more upbeat post, but for now this is what I have. Thanks for putting up with my antics.

"...in the end, all that really matters isn't the things you did, but what its effects are today; not the knowledge you have learned, but how you applied it; not the words that were said, but how they made you feel; and most of all, not the moment of occurrence, but how it's now just a part of our memory... Every day we make memories... Let's paint lives with happy ones..."   - Author Unknown 

We Need to Save This World From "People Who Don't Know the Difference Between a Tony Award and Tony Hawk. "

The Tony Awards.

What more can I say? Perfection. Madness. Genius. All words that describe those presenting and receiving awards. It is the most magical night one can witness. To be there, sitting in the audience, must be a pure adrenaline rush. It would take all I have to remain in my seat and not sprint down the aisle at Andrew Rannells. 

If you didn't already know, I am a huge musical theatre fanatic. If I'm not on Facebook, reading, or out with my friends, you can find me researching the latest and greatest musical. 

What better a way to show my excitement for the theatre than to blog about the Tony's. 

If you don't know what they are, the Tony Awards are pretty much just like the Emmy's, the Grammy's, the Golden Globe's, or any other major awards ceremony out there. The difference is, these celebrities aren't usually found on posters or being played over the radio. In fact, some would say they are hardly even celebrities, they are just on broadway. If you still are unaware of what the Tony Awards are, check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Award

Neil Patrick Harris is perfection. And, if you don't feel like reading my entire blog, watch this video of Neil Patrick Harris giving a rundown on what happened that night:

Other than that, here is a brief summary of the night's events:

“The Book of Mormon” - 9 including Best Musical

“War Horse” - 5 including Best Play

“Anything Goes” - 3 including Best Revival of a Musical

“The Normal Heart” - 3 including Best Revival of a Play

One each for “Catch Me If You Can,” “Good People,” “How to Succeed…,” “The Importance of Being Earnest,” “Jerusalem,” and “Priscilla Queen of the Desert”


The numbers, of course, are referring to the amount of Tony's each show  received.

I am a huge advocate of the newest broadway show The Book of Mormon. I am also a huge fan of the actor who plays the main character in the show. I'll take two helpings of Andrew Rannells to go, please!

Rannells performed "I Believe", a song from the show, that night as well. My heart melted.

It was a night of spectacular performances and broadway celebrities. If you have time to watch, go on Hulu, I'm sure it's on there. If you don't have the time then try and watch next year. After you watch the Tony's for the first time, Tony Awards night will be your favorite holiday too! 




"When I come into the theatre I get a sense of security. I love an audience. I love people, and I act because I like trying to give pleasure to people."

Vivien Leigh 

Heart's Desire

A few minutes ago I found a poem that I wrote in english during my freshman year of high school. We each got to pick from a huge tub of paint sample colors and had to incorporate the names of the colors into our poems. The underlined words are the colors of my paint samples.

Heart's Desire
By: Erica Snook

The feeling you get as you view the Magical Moonlight;
Feelings of peace and serenity welling up inside you.
The chorus of Crashing Waves.
It is music to the ears.
The soft spray of mist feels like drops of Crocodile Tears,
salty and moist on your naked fingers.
The way the ocean breeze tastes Before The Storm,
as if every wave in the ocean is begging for more water to quench its thirst.
The coarse Oyster Shell in the palm of your hand sparks a yearning;
one to go play in the waves.
The smell of Buttermilk Biscuits fresh from the oven,
it brings you back to reality.
As you run up the stairs on the porch of your quaint little farmhouse,
miles from the ocean, into your mother's arms.

An Epiphany of the Heart

Today I had some time to think about my life. As I sat and pondered I realized how quickly the days were turning into weeks, the weeks into months, and months into years. That's when it hit me. I'm going to be leaving for college in a little over two years. I know two years doesn't sound like much, but it has been two years since I started high school, and even that seems like it just happened yesterday.

Thus, I began thinking about where I wanted to take my life.

Does anyone remember the game of "Mash" we used to play as kids? Long story short, you would pick your spouse, car, house, job, number of children, etc.. It occurred to me that our lives are just a big game of "Mash" and as you travel down the path of life you begin to fill in the spaces and figure those things out as you go.

Most of my friends know where they want to go to school, their intended major, if they want kids, where they are going to live, and so on. However, I haven't even really even begun to give any thought to those things. Sure, I tell people that I want to go to NYU and major in Musical Theatre, but who am I fooling, I have no idea what I want. Granted, I still have some time to think about these things but just as the end of my sophomore year of high school has snuck up on me, I'm sure the time will come when these decisions will sneak up on me too.

About halfway through the first semester of my sophomore year our school's career counselor put together a little event where someone ( with a career related to that of your first block subject ) would come in and tell you about what they did for a living. I had world history with Mr. Hopkins for my first block, and somehow we  managed to have the man who runs the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library come in and talk to us.  At first I thought it was going to be incredibly boring and stupid ( which, for the most part, it was ) but then he started telling us a little bit about his life's story. This man was from Honolulu, Hawaii, and when he graduated high school he didn't really have many options as to college, due to money restrictions. He told us that one day when he was walking down the street he passed the office for the Peace Corps and, having nothing better to do, walked in. Long story short, he wound up leaving there with his name on the volunteer list and was shortly shipped off to Africa to teach children English.

That story didn't really matter to me until today.

I have now decided that I will, before I pursue a career, enlist as a volunteer in the Peace Corps. Hopefully I will be able to travel to Africa and help spread awareness of HIV/AIDS, or have the opportunity to teach children English. Whatever it may be I am hoping to leave my mark.

Until then I will still tell people that I am planning on going to NYU and majoring in Musical Theatre. Along with that I will continue on, day by day, filling in spaces in my life's game of "Mash" until eventually I finish and have my life planned out ahead of me. Until that day, though, I will remain as free as a bird and I will go to wherever life takes me.

 

 If you want to be happy, be.  ~Leo Tolstoy

Six Minute Blog

Life has really caught up to me in the past few weeks. School is winding down and between finishing the tennis season and studying for exams I have been absolutely pinned against a wall with things to do. 

That being said, I also haven't been able to find much time for me. My freshman year in high school was a very hard year for me and ever since then I have sort of lost who I am as a person. I had to rebuild myself from the ground up and, let me tell you, that was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. This year I have really focused on becoming myself again. I have come so far in this short amount of time, but then ( as I have said before ) life caught up to me. Instead of being able to take five minutes a day just to focus on myself as a human being I was forced to use that time little by little until, eventually, I had no time at all in the day to even think properly. 

So, this week I am going to start making more time for myself, and I challenge you to do the same. 

For at least five minutes a day take the time to do something you want to do. For me it will be playing tennis, reading countless monologues, and laying in the grass in my backyard staring at the clouds. 

Every morning when you wake up, sit up in bed and [while smiling] think nothing but good thoughts about yourself for at least five minutes. It doesn't seem like much, but it will help start your day off right.

"The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them." 

- Albert Einstein 

Trying new things.

     Some people are completely opposed to the idea of trying new things. Personally I like to try something new at least once a week. What is life without a little risk, anyway? People are so eager to get themselves out there, put their face on the big screen and see their name blown up in lights, but if it involves trying something new to get to that goal then 9 times out of 10 people will back down. 

  "It's not worth the risk/stress/trouble/etc."  Chances are that everyone has heard excuses like these a hundred times over, and you know, that statement is probably right. But where would we be if we didn't have those people in the world that are willing to risk it all? If there weren't people out there who are so determined to get what they want and achieve their goals that they would be willing to lay their lives on the line to get it? The world would be very placid and docile. 

     So often we hear our peers say things like, "Shoot for the moon!" Or, "You can do anything you set your mind to!" Have you ever noticed that it is much easier to encourage someone else to do these things than it is to actually do them yourself? We are so afraid of being in the public eye and being judged that we would rather sit in a dark corner than put on a bright pink tutu and dance around times square.

     So today I leave you with this. Are you going to be the person sitting in the corner embracing your fear, or are you going to be the limitless person that you were made to be? Throughout this week, take time to act like a child, dance like a fool, laugh like a hyena, and above all try something new. 

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau






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