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TYS Auditions

So, eerily, I wasn’t nervous until 2 minutes before arriving at the audition place. The audition place was this big Presbytarian Church was my daycare for 2 years? I don’t even remember this place. Anyways, they had aparently screwed up the schedule and so I was supposed to be their on FRIDAY at 2:40 and not SATURDAY at 2:40. Thus, instead of having judges, I had to make a recording, which made things somewhat scuffed because recording<<<real audition. I met serenaz26, who was warming up for her audition. The audition room was actually so nice. It was literally like an office without the desk and had really fancy furniture and whatever(I’ll take more about the furniture later )Once I started warming up, the other person in the room, whose name was Hiya, went to have her TYS audition. Her mom was there which I felt was pretty cool because that means Hiya’s parents are actually supportive(imagine). Anyways, Serena had her audition 5 minutes before mine meaning that right before her audition I went full-on panic mode. I just sat down, laughed and freaked out for a couple minutes, then continued warming up. Once I got in there, I realized that it wasn’t a massive room or anything. It was literally like the size of a cubicle lol. I played my excerpts perfectly and then the sightreading came. I like completely forgot to check the key signature and stuff so that was fun. I also psyched myself out by telling myself it was only one line soooo yeah… I realized that the key signature existed like 10 seconds before playing so I died a little during the playing part. I would definitely say I failed less than last year but that’s a pretty low bar so idk… Afterwards, Hiya had her TYP audition, which made me realize: “OH GOD I HAVE A TYP AUDITION WHAT AM I DOING” so I went full-on sweat mode until both Hiya and her mom left. That meant that it was just serenaz26 and I… We had a couple coping therapy videos that serenaz26 recorded(which I will not share because you’re not getting a face reveal from me on this blog just yet). I won’t go into detail about THAT because it was kinda funny and weird so yeah… We also started stacking pillows from the furniture onto this center table that was in the middle of the audition room… We were coping don’t judge. serenaz26 also perfectly threw a pillow from one side of a room to the other and the pillow landed just perfectly onto a chair. I was about to throw one but then a person came walking past our audition room so that put my attempt to an end. The TYP audition was very mid in every aspect. I messed up one some partials with some pieces and the sightreading went okay, but nothing much to be honest. Afterwards, I talked to serenaz26 about the auditions and how we both failed sightreading yayyyy.

Fastforward a week or two later, and results are out! serenaz26 made it into TYS(she made it last year so this was quite obvious) and so did AllenLi(ok i’m salty because of the 5 stages of grief and because he actually got to play in front of judges and not record), which also makes me really sad because he started a year after I did so yeah I’m coping extra hard… CabbageCat also made it in, which makes me cry because that’s like all of my friends. Jerry Xue made it and he’s a pretty good friend of mine. THATS LITERALLY ALL BUT ONE OF THE ENLOE PEOPLE THAT I KNOW WELL!!! Yea I feel super left out and yesterday I was like half crying and half laughing so I just played Clash Royale(grinded to Frozen Peak using LOGBAIT) and did a mock AMC10 test(I got a 94.5). I really hate myself for not practicing enough during summer vacation but yeah there goes my summer. My parents aren’t really helping too because all they’re saying is “see this is why you should practice more” and “look you would be so much better if you actually practiced” and “see look serenaz26 made it in by practicing 1+ hours a day. If you want to make it in, you need to as well you idiot” and so yeah. I get that it’s how typical asian parents are but like it’s annoying and whatever > .


First Day of School

My courses on the first day of school:
1A: Civics and Cultures(it’s like ELA and History combined)
2A: Intro to Comp Sci
3A: AP Chinese
4A: AP Calc AB/BC

1B: Civics and Cultures
2B: Band
3B: Biology
4B: AP Calc AB/BC

My parents had told me to change my AP Chinese to Pre-AP Chinese because they didn’t like the fact that I would be taking AP Chinese(I suck at Chinese so I’d probably get a 2 on the AP Chinese) and I was a little scared about taking AP Chinese, but I just didn’t on the first day of school because my Chinese teacher was like “you’re fine. Your Chinese level is perfectly capable of AP Chinese” so I was like ok whatever I won’t change it. I was also really happy with my schedule because a lot of my friends were in the classes that I had so it was really fun. The second I got home and told my parents, I got my a$$ berated by my mom because she wanted me to change my Chinese really badly. Come the second day of school, I’m literally forced to change it or else I won’t be alive for the third day of school(exaggeration no my parents were not going to literally kill me) so I go to my counselor during band class(we weren’t allowed to change it during homeroom for some reason) and I fix everything. My new schedule now looks like this.

1A: Biology
2A: Pre-AP Chinese
3A: Civics and Cultures
4A: AP Calc AB/BC

1B: Intro to Comp Sci
2B: Band
3B: Civics and Cultures
4B: AP Calc AB/BC

Upon arriving to band like 15 minutes late(make that 30 because I got lost 3 times), I realized that I COULDN’T OPEN THE GODDANG DOOR. I was pulling on the door hard(but not hard enough that it broke) and pushing on the other door. The conductor told me to push using hand gestures and so my stupid brain decided to PUSH ON THE OTHER DOOR. Eventually, the conductor opened it for me and taught me how to open it, which was super embarrassing. The second I walked into the door, everyone started clapping(note that these are all the older high school students because there are only 4 freshmen in the Wind Ensemble) which was kind of embarrassing. The band conductor was then like “ah yes. Attention, just what a freshman wants.” I talked to CabbageCat about the situation later, and we laughed at myself and talked about what in the world was going on in my head then(I was with CabbageCat because she was also heading to AP Calc and I had no idea how to get there). Also, literally none of my friends are in most of my classes so I’m currently relying on my school chromebook for entertainment. Other than that, nothing much changed even though Pre-AP Chinese is literally so free. I haven’t actually learned anything in the past week we’ve been at school. I mean sure it’s like a free A but it’s kind of suboptimal because of how boring the class is. I use my computer for the majority of the class…

I haven’t had any major homework(with the exception of AP Calc) yet, but that’s obviously going to change very, very soon.

Class Reviews

Yayyy everyone’s favorite!!!

Comp Sci: One of the most fun classes. It’s pretty free and the teacher is super duper chill so I really enjoy it.

Band: We did walking into a theme song on Thursday, and the band director walked into The Hellion which I found very interesting because I was the one who had to push the play button when he entered. The thing was, I was stealing serenaz26’s seat, and thus she stole Jeffrey Wang’s seat(who is the leader of the wind section for marching band). Jeffrey was jokingly mad at serenaz26 because she was showing “disrespect to a senior,” which I found hilarious. Soo serenaz26 was the one who was actually supposed to push the play button then practically jump out of surprise because it was like heavy metal rock and it was quite loud. Our group(those with July Birthdays) walked into Single Ladies by Beyonce and did some really weird dance moves. THE THING WAS MY GROUP WAS ENTIRELY SENIORS WHO ALL KNEW EACH OTHER AND I WAS LIKE JUST A FRESHIE JUST THERE LIKE WHAT THE HECK. I just copied the other seniors(which was a horrible idea) and I ended up looking like really confused and dying at the same time. One of the groups(April I think? It included Jeffrey.) ended up walking into the band room with the Home Depot Theme Song. However, there was one kid who is really popular among the seniors and older people who just stood there with his arms crossed like he was a big champ and whatever. After the song ended, everyone started yelling “Sign my forehead Grady” and “We Love You Grady” and “Will You Marry Me Grady?” I found that absolutely hilarious. Definitely the most fun classes that I have.
C&C: This class is pretty mid. The teachers roast some of the kids, which is really funny. I think that the class is super duper mid though because the content is kind of boring.

AP Calc AB/BC: The teacher is actually so funny. In the past days, we have learned about the Matrix of Stupid(I am not allowed to explain, as the teacher has explicitly not let us explain it to anyone else), we drew a menorah(without the candles) by drawing parabolas of different width, then asked the jewish kid to explain what it was. He first responded with “an upside-down umbrella” which made everything super funny. After we drew the candles, the jewish kid finally understood. Definitely a great class.

Pre-AP Chinese: The most boring class. I only enjoy because of free A. It’s like a 4/10…

Biology: The teacher seems pretty strict with classroom rules, which scares me a bit. The content itself is pretty much like most middle school science classes.

Overall, I’m pretty excited for this school year, though albeit nervous. Time to see how I do on Scioly and Scibowl tryouts !!!

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