Written on Saturday, 5/13/2017 Link to folder with the older entries (and this one too I suppose): https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_aWWN0KnEOoU1pjN0lmcDd2STA I have 4 days of actual high school left, 1 field trip day, 2 days of finals, and 3 days prepping for graduation. Then I graduate. The future I discussed in the previous blogs is almost upon me. I have my college picked out. I am going to Friends University in Wichita, Kansas. I misheard my dad about the price. It was approximately 9,000 after the scholarships and his 10,000 a year. I am still only getting $8,500 in student loans a year. I am scheduling my classes this next Thursday. That’s enough talk about the college and after that part of this blog. For this part, I need to go into the present and a good bit into the past year. If you have been keeping an eye on my status updates and such, you may remember that I was in a cabaret earlier this year. I only joined it because a girl (who is an amazing singer, which I was impressed by even in 8th grade before hormones hit, so don’t worry, those weren’t what was talking), asked me if I’d join. It was her senior project, and she said that I had a great voice. She made a few similar comments (like saying how much of a mess most of the basses were in choir on the one day I missed, because I’m the leader of them). After the cabaret, she handed out notes to everyone that participated, and mine was about how she was glad that she got to know me better, and see me come out of my shell. Those things set the whole ball rolling. (I guess I am not *quite* done with college stuff). For Friends University there was a choir audition. If I made it, I’d get a $2,000 yearly scholarship. I memorized a song that I enjoyed listening to (Unaligned by NWT. I got there for the audition, not nervous at all. I figured, that if I could do the pelvic thrust as part of the Time Warp in front of 100+ people while being recorded, I could sing back notes and a song that I was confidant in to a single person. I only showed my range and vocal quality before being told I was in. That helped me quite a bit mentally. I was still fairly reserved after that, but I was coming out of my shell. I felt more confidant. Then in choir, we were singing the songs for show choir. In the middle of the one song (which was a solo part, but we hadn’t auditioned for it yet, so everyone was singing it), the choir teacher randomly paused it, walked up to the front of the class, and then pointed at me. He said, “You’re singing this solo. You have a great voice for it.” Once again, I had that pressure to go out of my comfort zone for the sake of others, and so I did. I learned to do that solo confidently. The day after that show choir performance, I had my Senior Speech. I was actually somewhat excited for it, because I was getting one last chance to geek out for a grade. My senior speech was about my project and term paper, both dealing with role-playing games. It was so much fun to do! That night may have been the highlight of my senior year. Everyone else in my room had really interesting speeches. The judges told me how much they enjoyed listening to my speech (especially the part where I broke into my orc voice). The two that knew me (from subbing and teaching) commented on how far I’d come (one about from freshman to senior, the other specifically just about senior year). After all the speeches were done, I got to hang out and talk with the people in my room for about 10-15 minutes. I thanked the girl who had started the ball rolling (she was in the same speech room) with the cabaret for what’d she done, because it had helped me so much. I was smiling for the whole 20 minute ride home from how great the night had been. I stopped after getting home, only because I had big project due for the next day that I’d barely started. Over senior year, I have come to embrace who I am. I am finally comfortable in my own skin. I am really happy with where I am now. Even so, I am actually excited for what comes next. I have a week in Germany and 3 days in Italy to look forward to. Then I have college, and the rest of my life after that. And I am finally comfortable enough in my own skin to go off without all the extra help. I’d say this is the final part into this entry title, but I never intended to do more than one. That’s all I have for now.
