With Quiet Courage, We Shall Lift Lamps of Courage to guide us through these Shadows of Eternity and Into the Light.

Those are just a few songs that I think can accurately depict the mental image I have of this past school year. Though, I think the one most pertinent to the events that have happened over the course of these ten months is, oddly enough, Shadows of Eternity. As I've described before, that song is all about how life and history repeats itself, and how your world can turn upside down, just when you least expect it. An important lesson that I learned from the song is that where there is light, there will always be shadows cast, but so long as you always travel with a light, you will never get lost in the darkness.


Even though my memory has developed the habit of blocking out the events of the past, I'll try my best to recount what has happened without stating what is not the truth. I think a good place to begin would be marching band camp (Coincidentally, it's also the best place to begin high school). Now that I was a junior, my responsibility in the band had increased and I had to make sure that I set a good example for everyone else. I got to lead the lines in the saxophone section and everything! I even went on to win (tie Robert for first) in the drill down competition. I feel kind of greedy and I'm hoping to win another plaque next year.


I can't say that I was huge fan of the songs that we played this year in marching band. But, I'll go as far as to say that I hated playing China Grove and Oye Como Va. Smooth Criminal was almost just as repetitive as those two. I think the only songs that I really enjoyed were Crosstown Traffic and Conga. I really hope the saxophones get better parts in the songs for next year. If we don't, then I really don't have anyone to blame except for myself, since I'm a section leader now.

Once school started, life really began to go down the toilet. All of my classes looked innocent enough, but little did I know, I would be trapped in their suffocating grasp for nine months. Let's take a look at some interesting points from each period:

A period - Jazz Ensemble: What a way to start the morning. Blues scales that I didn't even know, and I still don't know. Solos that I was terrible at doing and is the main reason I switched to bari sax. Music that didn't make sense to me half of the time. It was an entirely different band. Jazz is a form of music in which the player has to read in between the lines. If you're like me, then you'll simply play what's written; no more, no less. That, however, is completely wrong. There's a style to jazz that I still need to figure out for myself. I'm a senior next year, and there's still so much to learn. When I think of the beginning of the year, I think of the song Take the "A" Train. It just embodies the feeling of starting new in Jazz Band for me. When I think of the song, I still get filled with that same feeling of cluelessness that I had in the beginning of the year. However, I'm glad that I was finally able to play my solo in Dance to the Music correctly by the end of the year, even if it wasn't in front of an audience.

1st period - English 3, Honors: Ahh...I remember doing the entire summer assignment the day before school started. I think that may have been the start of our study groups (and I use the term loosely). Despite having a lot of work, I still liked the class because Ms. McGrady made all of the books we read interesting. My favorite book from the class was probably The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Night by Elie Wiesel. Also, please ignore the fact that those were the two shortest books that we read. We also watched several movies that I thought were really good like The Pianist and Life Is Beautiful. Sigh, it's such a shame that we couldn't finish Life Is Beautiful, but I think I can say that The Pianist is one of my favorite movies. I'm not sure why exactly, but there's something about it that I really like. It's just different from every single movie that I've seen before.


2nd period - Pre-Calculus, Honors: Oh my goodness, here's where the day starts to get a little depressing. I like Mr. Sanders as a person; I mean, we have the same taste in music, but it's almost safe to say that I didn't learn anything math related from him all year. Well, that's probably not all entirely true, but it's pretty darn close. He does have some cool pieces of technology in his class though, like his school bus yellow calculators and his projector along with his Mac. I still want to ask him for his library of music...

3rd period - U.S. History, AP: I loved this class because Mr. Wilson never made it boring. I just feel really guilty because I feel like I could have done so much better if I wasn't so lazy. If I had read the book or done the study guides by myself, maybe I could've gotten a grade better than the A- I maintained all year. In this class especially, I felt the year speed by quickly. One moment, we were fighting for representation in Parliament, the next we're protecting the world from Nazi Germany. Before I knew it, John F. Kennedy had been assassinated and Bill Clinton had created NAFTA. Mr. Wilson is such a great teacher; I feel really sorry for anyone who doesn't ever get the privilege of being taught by him.

4th period - Symphonic Band: Ah, my favorite class of the day. I know it's my favorite because I am never unhappy to go to it. We played a lot of good songs this year: upbeat ones like Percussion Espagnole and more serious ones like Jupiter. However, the one that everyone loved was Into the Light. It's one of the most beautiful and memorable songs that I've ever played in my life (With Quiet Courage being one of the others). I think I've mentioned before how the oboe solo in Into the Light is like the bridge between the slow beginning of the song and the rush to the end. To me, that represents the bridge between junior year and senior year in high school. I'm at that bridge now, and just like when I'm playing the song, I have to make sure that I take a deep breath before I cross.

5th period - Biology, AP: This class would have been really depressing if I was awake for more than 50% of it. I tried my best in the beginning of the year. No, honestly, I did. But, once we changed seats and annoying Jeannie was no longer an option, things got really boring, really fast. Since I was sleeping for most of the year, I don't have much to write about this class. I did pull off an A for the 2nd semester, so I guess you could say that I can get A's in my sleep.


6th period - Spanish 3: This class was such a big joke, I don't even feel like talking about it. Though, I really liked this period because of our little band corner. We used our combined strength to cheat on tests and projects, skip class, and do pretty much whatever we wanted! Also, let it be known that I forgot more Spanish than I actually learned this year.

Now that classes are done, how about some of the extracurricular activities that I did this year? I joined a lot of new ones this year, and continued the old ones. Badminton was more or less the same. Being my third year on the team, I got used to losing...a lot. I should really find some time to practice over the summer. At least I had a lot more friends in badminton this year! I remember I only really talked to two people on the team when I was a freshman.

A club that I joined recently this year was WE, but I feel bad for not being a more active member. Hopefully next year I can do something worthwhile for the club. I like the T-shirt though!

JSA...what is there to say about it? I went to all of the conventions this year, so I guess that makes me an active member. The conventions are fun, as long as I can stay awake...without the assistance of coffee and coffee flavored energy drinks. Sigh, I still don't think that caffeine is out of my system yet.

I guess that would bring us to Film Club. For some odd reason, I became the Secretary of the club. Though, I guess that fits my personality the most since I'm more of a behind-the-scenes guy. I've also found my niche as an editor and I've "successfully" edited two whole videos for Film Club this year! Yayyy. I hope I'll do more next year, especially with the new software I got today (assuming it'll actually work). I also hope that I haven't single-handedly jeopardized my entire summer project...

Of course, one of the biggest highlights of the year was going to Disneyland. It was so much fun hanging out with [almost] all of my best friends at the happiest place on Earth. Performing with Jazz Band was such a blast and recording with Symphonic Band was so cool. It would be fun to do that for a living. However, I think the funnest thing I did was ride with Nez and other band kids on Tower of Terror, California Screamin', and Space Mountain


This year, I started blogging and taking pictures. They serve as outlets for my, er, "creativity." I blog because it's more worthwhile than simply talking to myself all of the time. Before I blogged, I found myself having conversations in my head at the end of the day about random things. I take pictures so I can look at things in ways that I normally can't see them. Hopefully, I can expand my picture repertoire to things outside of, well, random stacks of stuff.


This year, for me, has truly been the paragon of opposites and cycles. While I've made a lot of new friends, I've slowly stopped talking to a lot of my old friends (especially the ones that wear black all of the time). The year ended almost the same as how it began: I found myself at Red Onion with the guys, gathered there for almost the same reason both times. The bond between us guys has certainly grown very strong this year. Every single one of us had/has our own different problem, and we all do what we can to help each other out (whether we like it or not). Our study groups are a time to talk about things that are on our minds and play video games. It's like therapy and a bunch of teenage boys are the psychiatrists. The Magnificent Seven; each individual is a symbol of either Courage, Friendship, Love, Sincerity, Knowledge, Reliability, and Hope.

For this past year, "Change" seems to have been the theme for the rest of the world, too. In a lot of ways, I know I've changed a lot from the beginning of the year. I've become much more mature, but at times, I feel like I act the same as I did when I was a sophomore. I try to act more responsible, but I sometimes end up screwing everything up in the end. I want to become more social, but my self-consciousness gets the better of me.

Cycles, up and down, like and love, black and white, open and closed. How can things be so different, yet so similar? Why does history repeat itself? Why do things fall apart just as they reach their highest point? Though I've traveled a thousand miles, why have I not moved an inch? These are questions that have popped up this year, and though I don't have any answers, perhaps things will become clearer during senior year.