I haven't made many journal entries about myself lately, so I might as well give you an idea of what's going on in my life currently!

A week or so ago I auditioned for my school's performance of With Their Eyes,  a drama about students, workers, and people in the surrounding neighborhood of TriBeCa after 9/11. It's a series of monologues compiled by Stuyvesant High School students, so it's really special that it's being performed by Stuyvesant students 10 years later (and for the second time!). So I made it in! I'm so so so excited, this play has such a powerful story, and so unique, and at times incredibly sad. Next Thursday some of the original actors of With Their Eyes will meet up with our cast and go visit the 9/11 memorial. This will be such a unique experience, and I haven't been there yet so I can't wait to go and remember those who died at the memorial. On a different note, I have until Monday to memorize my 6 page monologue. I've never had to memorize a monologue before--out of all the plays/musicals/shows I have been in, I've never had a monologue! This should be interesting. And in terms of the T-shirt design, I'm thinking of submitting one, hopefully I have a good idea and it beats the competition!

I signed up at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater for the Junior School Saturday classes. I love acting, so I was looking forward to this opportunity to train with the best! There are three classes: dance, acting, and voice. I've never taken a dancing class before, so I didn't know it was so rigorous! No wonder dancers are so strong (and sometimes super buff)! I was so sore a few days after that, but now after two classes I no longer get sore, and I really enjoy it. I love exercising! The acting class is really fun and helpful too, I can really work on improving cold reads and scenes, which I needed. The voice class is fun too, but we haven't really done much training. I guess I'll update on this later--it seems that so far we're only learning a few simple songs. But all in all, this class is amazing! The downside is that it takes up every Saturday, so I pretty much only have one day for homework now, haha.

In terms of academic things, I love sophomore year! It's so much better than freshman year, it's almost insane. I'm taking AP European History, European Literature, Chemistry, Algebra II/Trigonometry, Computer Science (learning Scheme/Racket and Netlogo), Chorus, P.E., Spanish 3, and Chinese 1. I have an incredible amount of homework each day, and a ton on the weekends and holidays! This is why I haven't been making much art lately, I have no time! On the other hand, I'm brimming with ideas, so at least I'm thinking about being artistically productive! I'm also thinking of joining the Gymnastics team, but I have no experience at all, and I'm not sure if I have the time, especially if I'm doing theater. We'll see! I looked into Photography Club as well, but (no offense to anyone!) a lot of people at the "interest meeting" were a bit snobby and not really my crowd. That was a disappointment...

So, that's my little update for y'all! Hope you enjoyed reading this "essay", haha~