2015-16 school year in review

Treasure Mountain Junior High, Park City Utah

This blog started as an Honors English assignment.  I go to Treasure Mountain Junior High in Park City.  I would say that at the beginning of the year, blogging was the hardest thing for me, because I had no experience with this type of writing.  I never would have started a blog if it hadn't been part of an assignment.  I didn’t even really know what a blog was.  

I found an article on the importance of blogging.      

After we started to talk about the blog, I struggled to come up with a title and a topic.  I have no life outside of school and music, as you probably have read, and I didn’t think people want to read about all of the music things I did.  In the end, I did decide to write about music, but also add other fun things that I do.  I did however really like the title I came up with for a music blog.  “Persisting Perseverance with a Passion”  sounds very intense, but really, I am not practicing 8 hours a day.  If I was going into music, I would have to practice that much, but since I am not, 4-5 hours a day is plenty for me.  

The next thought I had was who the heck would actually read my blog.  I knew my english teacher would because he had to grade the blog.  Maybe some of my friends would read it, but I wasn’t even sure of that.     

I actually think that if I didn't have to turn in 3 blog posts a quarter, that I wouldn't post as much.  There are so many cool things that I do, but it does take time to write about them.  Sometimes, I don’t have the time to write about some things, so I don’t write about them until later.  That is not always good because sometimes I forget some important details.  After a couple months though, I learned that it is better to post constantly instead of waiting right until the due date.     

With this blog, I have tried to keep my posts entertaining, and fun.  I sometimes struggle with what to write, but I eventually figure it out.  Sometimes I start writing, and then I realize my post has way too many words.  There is just so much that I could say about a certain topic that I just get carried away.  Other times, I am struggling to make the minimal word count.       

Because I had to write this blog, I feel that I have improved my writing and story telling skills.  Writing has never been my strong point in English.  I am better at reading and comprehension, but this year, I feel that my writing skills have improved quite a lot.  I definitely enjoy it more than I used to.

While I still find blogging a little bit difficult sometimes, I have come to enjoy writing posts to add to my blog.  It is a great way to share my thoughts and passions.  I hope to continue to blog, even after 9th grade is over.     

Cowgirls

I went to an off-broadway musical called Cowgirls.  My grandparents had extra tickets, so they gave them to us.  The production was put on at the Pioneer Theater.  I went with my dad to watch it.

I had never heard of a musical called Cowgirls before, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I will admit that I wasn't super excited because I am not into anything country.  My dad really wanted to go with me though, so I decided I would give it a try.

We got to the Pioneer Theater, and we were on the second floor balcony area and the third row back.  It was a very good seat and I could see everything.  The theater was pretty crowded, but there were a few empty seats.




The storyline of the play was actually very interesting.  A girl named Jo is trying to save Hiram Hall, her father's saloon.  She decides she wants cowgirls to perform.  She makes a few calls, and a trio of musicians shows up.  The only problem is that they are the Coghill Trio, instead of the Cowgirl trio Jo thought she was getting.  A little miscommunication on the phone really messed things up.  The Coghill Trio is actually a classical music trio and know nothing of country.   Jo tries to kick them out, but two of them want to help.  The third, named Mary Lou, is strictly a classical musician, and refuses to attempt country.

Jo owns Hiram Hall, but she also works with Mickey and Mo.  Mickey wants to become a singer and she thinks that singing at Hiram Hall is her only chance to become famous.  Mo is a quirky, friendly girl who wants to do everything she can to help Jo save the saloon.

One of my favorite songs was Chopin to Country.  It incorporated parts of classical pieces, with some country mixed in.  I was able to identify most of the classical pieces that they played, and I knew exactly what musical competition references they were using.  My dad was laughing at me for knowing all of that, but my mom says that he later said he was proud that I could identify those things.  All of my classical music training is apparently paying off.

My favorite character was Mary Lou.  She was the character who was reluctant to change her style.  I think I like her because she actually a lot like me.  I am sometimes not really into changing things, but once I do, I actually can.  While Mary Lou didn't want to change at first, she let herself try country, and she turns out to be really good.  

What I really liked about this musical was that there was no orchestra for the music.  The actors were also very talented musicians.  They played all of their instruments right on stage.  There was violin, cello, piano, guitar, mandolin, and some percussion.  It was truly amazing.  There were only 6 people onstage, all girls, and they were so much fun to watch.

I was so glad I went to the musical.  It was such an amazing experience, and I would totally love to go see something like that again.  

State Math Contest

I went to the State Math Contest at BYU.  I knew there would be a lot of really smart people there, but I just wanted to go for the experience.  My parents wanted me to go too, and you can't really argue with your parents.  Also my math teacher thought I should and didn't really give me much of a choice.  There were more kids than I thought would go to this.  I think some of the kids didn't have much of a choice either,


I will say that it was the most stressful test I have ever taken.  If there were seventh graders that could answer all of those questions, then I should just give up.  So much for being good at math.  If that is what people good at math can do, then I am no longer good at math.  They put is in a room and went over the rules.  We had 2 and a half hours to answer what we could.  The test had 40 questions, but it felt like a million when I was taking the test.

There were so many kids from different schools there.  I think the most intimidating ones were the ones wearing a school uniform.  Most of the kids in a uniform were from a private school, and I know that many private schools push kids harder so they probably know more math than I do.

In my math class, there are 5 ninth graders, with me included.  We are in math a year ahead of our grade, so we are in 10th grade math.  The 5 of us went to the state math contest, and we all agreed that it was a crazy hard test.  This was the junior test for seventh, eighth and ninth graders.  Even though we were in tenth grade math,

We also got to get lunch at BYU.  Free food is a good reason to do anything, right?  Being BYU, they didn't have any caffeinated drinks, and a lot of people were complaining.  There were so many kids there to take the test, so the lunch lines were really long and the lunch room was really crowded.

The next math class we had, we tried to go over some of the questions.  A couple of them were a little easier to figure out.  Others, we really couldn't figure out what the answer was.  Even my math teacher had trouble with some of the problems.    

After they posted the answers and I looked at them, I know I got a few correct, but I also know I got a lot of them incorrect.  If you answer a question correctly, you get 6 points.  An incorrect answer gets 0 points, and an unanswered question gets 1.5 points.  They try to discourage guessing on the questions.  The ones I know for sure I missed, I didn't even think to solve the problem the way they did.

I am pretty sure I didn't get a high enough score to win anything, but it was a pretty fun day.  I got to skip normal school for it, and I got to see what the BYU campus looked like.  (It was quite nice.)  Overall, I think it was a great experience, and I might do it again, even though it was very stressful.