It’s kind of funny how the greats back then. Issac Newton developed Calculus during the Black Plague. I can’t really think of any composers who lived through a pandemic. I do know that Tchaikovsky died from Cholera since it was a epidemic in Russia at the time but that doesn’t count. I jumped on the wagon with Issac Newton, I decided to make use of my time in quarantine.

Every morning I would wake up around ten. I do stay up late but who cares. I pretty much wake up, shower, brush my teeth and maybe eat breakfast. I look to see if I have any meetings but at this point it doesn’t matter. I just write or practice.

My synesthesia is hitting me harder than usual since I’m not doing as much, so I decided to listen to it and start writing everything. I just finished 2 symphonic overtures which is pretty cool. I’m working on a impressionistic string orchestra piece at the moment and I’m starting to write a broadway show.

Wow that’s crazy! An eighteen year old writing a broadway show!? I don’t want to discuss my plans because its mine and I don’t want anyone to take my idea. I do noticed that I am more possessive with my works. People have stolen my ideas so I try not to show people until its published or copyrighted.

I copyrighted 5 pieces during quarantine, and I’m planning on copyrighting the ones I finish next.

I believed quarantine would be a time for me to relax and take a breather with all the stress of School, College acceptances, Silver Knights, and Music. Everyday I would wake up at a later time than usual and it would be great. I could pace myself to do my work.

Whats even better I was able to write 3 massive works. I noticed every time I would write in these works it just seems to get darker and darker. I write music not just from my synesthesia but from my emotions. The darkening of the tone of my music meant something within myself. I began to think about why I was writing such dark and passionate works until I realized how my life unfolded.

People see me as a funny, nice, talented, and dirty mouthed person, but on the inside I’m not the happiest. I am noticing my emotional struggles in quarantine.

This quarantine is just a painful reminder of my life. But what’s so bad about your life? Well my mom’s side of the family is great they help me and protect me, but my dad side doesn’t care about me and I was emotionally, physically, and verbally abused by my dad. To add on father figures, my step dad is great and all, until he pulls out the bottle and gets angry at my mother for no reason.

Everyday is a struggle in quarantine since I don’t have my other family members to talk to. I am overstressed with school and university choices and to add to that my family issues. I am a Senior as well, which means every single senior event is cancelled. All this doesn’t feel great but I have to pull through.

Even with the “pulling through” I am emotionally strained in quarantine, I wish I could have someone to talk to about my struggles but I feel like I am all alone. I am continue to write music to keep me happy since that’s all I have right now.

TT took my seat in orchestra. Of course I didn’t feel that great. I practiced everyday for 3-5 hours and I get thrown back. TT was a good player but I knew I could be better than him. I needed to be better than him.

I would still practice everyday but I fell into a small “depression”. I started practicing less and less because I just felt like I was a terrible player. I’ve been coming more anxious when I play since my mindset was: If I mess up people will think I suck. Everyday I would lay in bed staring at the ceiling wondering why I’m such a bad player, but what was I doing wrong? TT was getting better everyday but I was laying in my bed regretting playing my instrument.

I’ve been in this state for almost a month and a half until one day my orchestra teacher gave me an audition offer for an event called Superintendent’s Honors Orchestra as well as a composition competition. I was given the music for the event and the rules for the composition competition the same day I found out. TT over heard that I wanted to go to these events so he asked the orchestra teacher as well.

I immediately got really nervous when he decided to do the audition for the orchestra but the composition competition nobody can beat me. I have been studying music theory since I was 4 years old, I have synesthesia (associate color to music), and I’ve been writing music since I was 7. TT does not have a chance to go against me in composition.

However, TT was writing orchestral pieces though they were good they were not playable for a musician or consistent when listening. He follows rules, makes the music sound good but this is an art. But who cares I just started to write the day I was given the instructions.

I got a piece of paper and wrote. But unfortunately, I had to go to my dads side for the weekend. My dad has been in issue in my life since the beginning of freshmen year. My father didn’t want me to do music since its not a money maker and he says I wasn’t talented enough. But it doesn’t matter I wanted to follow my passion so I continued to do music. I also had “step sisters and a step mom” who were okay but the sisters are not. I have two “step sisters” ones is 3 years older than me and the other was 5 years younger ( I was 15 at the time). I don’t like kids and I don’t like people who are completely ignorant and stupid so I don’t really talk to them. The older “sister” likes musical theater but is terrible at singing since she knows nothing about music, but here’s the stupid part I’ve tried to help her and she doesn’t take my advice. Makes sense why she’s always working back stage.

Once I step foot in the house, I began to write. By the end of the night I wrote 26 pages of music for a string orchestra. I went to sleep, woke up and wrote again. My “step mom” knocked on the door but I didn’t respond hoping she wouldn’t open. I didn’t want to be distracted from my art but they still opened the door. “Good morning, Breakfast is ready”, she said nicely. I responded nicely as well “Okay I will be down soon”, but the older step sister didn’t seem to like my response so she told my dad that I was writing music and didn’t want to come down bc music was more important than family. My dad believed her and he ran upstairs.

My dad began arguing with me saying that music is not important. I will never gain any recognition or be successful in music. But I responded “well you’ve never been a successful father so I guess we have something in common”, this was a big mistake in my part. My dad turned red and he grabbed my papers filled with finished music and took it to his room. I chased after him but he pushed me hard enough to make me fall and enough for him to turn on the shredder and shred all my hard work. “Try being successful now”, was the ending of our argument.

All 30 of my pages of music was destroyed. My dad has lost his son that day. I’ve never looked at my dad with so much hatred and anger. He’s destroyed the most important thing to me. My piece was gone and so was my love for my dad.

Being a musician is fun especially in high school. Playing meme music or concertos to make fun of other students who were playing that concerto. Sometimes we play those concertos in memory of the senior who graduated high school to go music school. One of my friends, played the Cello Concerto no.1 in C major by Franz Joseph Haydn. This piece is overplayed in college auditions because it has many techniques a cellists should be learning in high school. But if you could play that piece it means you were really interested in music performance and want to compete against other cellists.

But let’s talk about my friend who played the Haydn cello concerto. I’m not going to say his name but I will call him TT. But we are both composers. We are both cellists. We are both high ranked players. We are both very competitive. In my freshman year, he was a Junior. We had auditions the first week of school for seating and I was a good cellist at the time but not the best. TT was a good cellist as well but not great at the same time. TT focused more on music composition until we did our auditions and I was seated first chair in the cello section. TT was visibly angered that a freshmen took a juniors seat.

Our orchestra teacher had this thing called a “challenge” which is like a second audition but this time the class has to vote. TT for sure took advantage of that the first day we were seated. TT challenged me on a Monday and the ‘audition’ would start on Friday. As soon as I got home, I practiced for hours and so was TT. I wanted to keep my seat just to assert dominance in my section and show that I am a good player. In my mind, I believed I was the best cellist at that school and no one could beat me. I practiced every single note on the page. I focused on my tone, technique, phrasing, intonation, and rhythm. I worked on every scale with arpeggios and keep in mind there are at least forty eight scales in western music. I practiced for four to five hours a day. TT I’m sure was doing the same thing as well.

The next day in orchestra, I found out the challenge was not in front of class but in a room where you could hear the player nicely. But this is a good and bad thing. Good because they won’t know who I am until after we perform; however it was bad because TT didn’t have the best technique like my technique. I had a better bow hold and finger placement. I also play with passion so people see that I move around but they won’t be able to see me if i’m locked up in room with my competitor.

I continued to practice when I got home. I wouldn’t eat, I would get less sleep since I really wanted to stay high in chair. I really wanted this I really wanted to stay high in chair. I wanted to be the best. I was so dedicated to staying in my chair I practiced more and more hours. I got cuts, blisters, and cracked calluses every time I practiced. I did not stop because I knew TT has something in him that could really prove to the whole class and the teacher that he is an amazing musician.

It was finally challenge day. I walked into orchestra and it was like everyone was preparing to watch the Super Bowl. Everyone was on the edge of their seats to hear TT and I perform head to head. Why was everyone so excited for this?

Well my orchestra teacher started the day with announcements and we went straight for the audition. We were put in the room and given labels. I was cello A and TT was cello B. “Cello A play your A major scale 3 octaves with arpeggios,” I was really confident to play my scale. Then something just popped up…nervousness. I became really nervous and shaky. I placed my shaky bow on the string and played my scale. Everything was good until the high G# and I my E when I was playing the arpeggio. “Cello B play your A major scale 3 octaves with arpeggios,” TT didn’t seem to be too nervous but he was shaking, too. He played his scale and arpeggio perfectly.

I’m in a very bad position right now. But I could redeem myself but playing the excerpt from Bach cello suite Minuet. “Cello A play your Cello suite excerpt,” I was still shaking since I was worried that I would mess up. With my nervousness, I was amazed that I didn’t completely butcher Bach. It sounded good because it was in tune but here’s the problem when you’re nervous: you lose track of dynamics (how loud or soft), tone, rhythm, and phrasing. That might hurt me later. “Cello B play your Cello suite excerpt,” TT played his suite beautifully but he was nervous as well. But one thing that might have saved me… He missed two notes!

The audition was over. We looked at each other and told each other how good we were. While we were talking the class was voting. The teacher calls us out. We were given the news. Cello B is now first chair. TT celebrated and I congratulated him. Losing always hurts a bit. But losing something you really wanted is pathetic. I was upset for a month but I continued to practice. I just want to beat TT one day.

How difficult is it for immigrants to adapt to a new culture? My family is from Cuba and I asked my grandparents how it was to change from Cuban culture to American culture. They said it was difficult because people would discriminate on their language and how immigrants are destroying the country. They also had to struggle changing from slow and relaxed society to a fast and stressful society. The only way to survive in America was to work. But they managed to evolve but immigrants keep their culture no matter what.

Recently I’ve come across an author named Jhumpa Lahiri a English-Indian immigrant who came to America. Her parents were very deep into their Indian culture and drilled the culture into Lahiri. She had to jumble both Indian culture and American culture at the same time. Throughout her life she wrote a collection of short stories called Interpreter of Maladies which has themes related to marriage, culture, and immigration.

One story called yet again The Interpreter of Maladies talks about Mr. Kapasi a tour guide leading the Das family. The Das family are Indian-Americans who came to India to visit. In the beginning of the story, Mr. Kapasi notices how the Das family has interesting and expensive like clothing. Mr. Kapasi highlights all this to show how American clothing is more colorful and “expensive” like to Indian people. “The family looked Indian but dressed as foreigners did, the children in stiff, brightly colored clothing and caps with translucent visors,” shows how American clothing and Indian clothing are very different but it also shows India’s economic status and how Americans are viewed more as people of wealth.

A kid named Elián González was found by a Key West fisherman in 1999. Elián and his mother left Cuba because of Castro’s regime, not only that but Elián’s father and mother were divorced. González’s mother passed away with some others during the trip but Elian was the only one who survived the trip. Some say he was saved my a pack of dolphins so they named him “The Boy Saved By Fish.” When he was found the Cuban community believed this kid was a miracle and he should stay in the United States. However, the Florida and United States Government pretty much said Elián could not stay because his father wanted him to come home and live with him.

The Cuban community was outraged which led them to start petitions, protests, and prayer sessions. This did not work because by law if the parent wants the child back the government has to take the child back to the parent. Of course the Cuban community was upset which led them to disconnect from society mostly government affiliations.

Recently, I read a Short story by Ana Menedez called ‘The Boy Who was Rescued By Fish‘. It began with a group of people and the main narrator Zenia giving her friends a Book recommendation as well as some advice about the book. The advice she gave was to stay positive and her friends Beatrice who was her boss took her advice and completely changed throughout the story. Over time they found out about a boy who was saved by dolphins and found by a fisherman. Soon the women found out about it and Beatrice began trying to help the boy stay in the US by praying in front of the boy’s families house. Zenia was stressed because she wanted to be positive but she has so much to do for work and she wants to please her boss. Until the day the boy had to go back to Cuba Zenia felt relief.

In the end of the story, Zenia says this quote “I have seen tiny spiders crawl to the edge of a twig, spin out their delicate silk threads, and launch themselves into the wind. That’s how I felt.” Meaning she felt relieved after when the boy was sent back Cuba. She was relieved from acting positive in front of her boss all then time. Zenia was stressed with work and pleasing her boss so when she found the news she could finally jump back into freedom.

If you’d like to learn more about Elián González’s life visit https://www.biography.com/political-figure/elián-gonzález

I am a High school Senior and a musician taking a Duel Enrollment Literature course. Our teacher was able to get us an opportunity to see Hamilton the musical but we have to do a project in order to see it. The project allowed us to get in the mind of Lin-Manuel Miranda when he was writing the music and lyrics for the show. I researched Alexander Hamilton and several other founding fathers to find out what was going on with the constitution and the formation of our government and economy. We also had to make a performance piece like a play, rap, or song to make sense of the historical event through the performing arts.

As a Composer, of course I picked to write a song. When writing the lyrics I found out a bunch of information on Hamilton. Hamilton had a hard life considering his father abandoned the family and the mother died 2 years later. Hamilton rose up throughout all this, he went to Kings College, George Washington made Hamilton his right-hand man in military and for the secretary of treasury. But Hamilton had many conflicts with several people like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the biggest conflict was with Aaron Burr. Burr and Hamilton always had an issue with each other ever since they’ve met. At some point Burr and Hamilton would write true or false statements about each other to influence their political pursuits. Burr got upset and challenged Hamilton to a duel and Burr kills him.

I think Students should be taught more about the founding era because it will show students the foundation of the constitution. Reading the Federalist papers really shows how the constitution was created with ideas from all the essays. But also Brutus was another essay that helped lay the constitution. Talking about Madison and Hamilton will give students a better understanding of American history.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

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