Do you have someone with whom you can be absolutely honest?  Someone whom you can show your true self?  A family member, a lover, a friend… or even something inanimate, like an instrument?  Many people have this advantage and blessing, but there are people out there that lack all this fortune. I’m lucky to have both family and friends.  But I also have the piano, and I’ve got to admit, the piano helps me the most out of everything.  It wasn’t always easy with the piano, as with everything else, but I managed to overcome one of the highest turning points, which obviously changed my life since then.

When I was younger, perhaps around the ages six to eleven, piano was the one thing I despised, along with swimming.  I mean, I still despise swimming, but that’s different because I’ll never learn how to love swimming.  I dreaded the suspension that lead up to the moment where I had to play the piano.  It was probably the one time during the day that just destroyed it.  Piano destroyed my Saturdays, in particular.  I have piano lessons once a week on Saturdays.  Now I have a 50 minute lesson,  but when I was younger, I only had 30 minutes.  My sisters and I would play at Mrs. Jennifer's house, our teacher, and she would give us pointers and what we can do to improve one thing and keep doing something else.  She’d also assign us new music we’d have to practice in a week’s time. 

Thanks to her, I learned that I hate the slow, complicated, hand-tangling songs, such as Debussy and Bach.  I also learned that I love the fast, emotional ones, such as Mendelssohn.  Mozart, along with Beethoven, are the kind of guys who are really strict with their notes and beats.  They’re not very carefree like a ballerina, but more like a marching band.  I’m not saying that a ballerina can’t dance to their music.  Actually, I don’t believe I ever even saw anyone dance to a classical; that’s probably just because I’m not interested in dancing.  Anyways, Mozart is softer than Beethoven, so Mozart is closer to my liking than Beethoven.  Mendelssohn is faster and has a lot of sixteenth notes in the music, but you can slow down and speed up whenever you want.  You can also pound the keyboards, making it sound like an elephant was walking on the piano and five seconds later be as quiet as a mouse.  But he’s not as free as Chopin.  He is known as the “Poet of the piano.”  After all, when you hear someone play him, it sounds like a poem.  All tangled up with notes and rhythms you don’t understand, but once you untangle the ropes, you slowly understand the meaning behind his music.  His music is really powerful and passionate.  All you have to do is grab a bowl of ice cream, sit down on your couch, turn on your TV and put the volume low, put on a drama, grab your speaker, and play some Chopin.  I don’t know about you, but secretly, I’m an oversize baby that cries when watching both dramatic movies and other people crying… I swear, crying is just as contagious as yawning.

 Mrs. Jennifer announced one day that we had a concert coming up.  I was currently playing two jazz pieces, so my new assignment was to memorize them.  I’ve got to say, out of every step you have to take to learn a piece, memorizing is the worst out of all.  There are sections that I know really well, so there’s no problem in memorizing those.  But, there are places that I don’t know quite that well, causing me to sit at the piano, playing the same section over and over and over until I feel like my fingers will just break off.  The concert was about to come up, and I still didn’t have my pieces fully memorized.  However, as everyone knows, time doesn’t wait for you, so if you’re behind, you’ve got to pick it up.  That’s exactly what I did, and it really paid off in the end.  The concert finally came up, I had my pieces memorized, yet I still did not feel ready.  I did have my pieces memorized and such, but I believe that no one is ever ready.  They may have the confidence to do something well, but to be ready is imaginary, in my opinion.  I was placed to play second to last.  My oldest sister, Irene, was going to play after me, putting her last.  To be 100% honest, I was sweating like a pig, which isn’t that pleasant to imagine.  Everyone else was playing so beautifully, so it obviously intimidated me.  I was going to look like a five-year-old’s drawing next to “The Kiss” by Picasso.  But, alas, it was my turn to play. 

You know that feeling you get when you are taking a Biology test that you absolutely forgot to study for and you get to a question where you don’t even understand half of the words mentioned?  I feel like everyone has experienced this at some point, and it’s a really unpleasant feeling.  That was me at the concert.  My brain felt like it was going to tear apart, but at the same time, it felt like it was shrinking to the point that it would disappear.  That’s bad, because either way, with a brain split in two or no brain at all, you can’t play your piece, let alone live.  I don’t know how I survived, or how I even got to the piano without falling on my face, but the next thing I knew, I was sitting on the stool, my fingers ready in pace.  At that point, I completely blacked out.  This always happens to me when I’m put under the spotlight.  I can’t really explain how I felt in that moment, because to be honest, I didn’t feel anything at all.  I did take a deep breath, which helped a ton!  I could just feel all the stress being released along with the CO₂.  That’s when my hands started playing instantly, before I even got comfortable.  It was like an imaginary puppeteer was pulling on my strings, and I had no control of my hands.  I did make a few mistakes, but technically, I had no control over myself, so the fault lies on the invisible source controlling me, as bizarre as that sounds.  Most people in this part would be describing their feelings and how they poured their whole heart into the piece, but that wasn’t me.  I did add dynamics to the pieces, but I didn’t feel that liberty of manipulating and changing the song to my own satisfaction.  That’s why it felt like I wasn’t playing the piano, because in that moment, it didn’t sound like me.  I guess you could say that I was disappointed in myself for not achieving my highest potential.  But it was all over just like that, and I remember this wave of relief just hitting me.  I quickly did a small bow and then scurried to my seat, ending my performance for sure.

Piano is a something that I am so lucky and fortunate to have and to be able to use.  Piano doesn’t just benefit you academically, but also mentally.  I read in a few articles on the web that people who play an instrument actually have it easier in math, memorizing and finding any patterns.  I never feel ready for anything, and when put under the spotlight, it makes it all worse.  There are two types of people who are put under pressure, the type who does well and brushes it off as if it’s nothing and me, the type who procrastinates over it and just wants to bail out of everything.  Most of the time, you’d see me completely just trip over myself as I try to perform my best, but this incident was different.  It wasn’t me that was playing.  I don’t know how to explain it, but the feeling, if there was any, and the manner I played,  was similar to something else.  I was the sweating pig, and the demolished brain.  What I wasn’t were the hands and the rush of feelings.  
           I guess I learned a lot from this invisible source.  I learned that the piano isn’t something I should take for granted.  Yes, there’ll be times I’ll mess up and get frustrated and just become a boiling pot of water, but as long as I get over it and achieve my goals, it’ll all be worth it.

-Agata Montanini

Why do people create art? Many do it for various reasons. For example, some people do it to earn money, and others do it for fun or as a hobby. I personally do it as a hobby. Sometimes I draw because I’m bored; other times I may be drawing because I’m upset. I draw when I’m bored simply because it’s fun. I draw when I’m upset because I found it easier to show than tell. I started drawing when I was in second grade. I typically drew animals and nature. I liked to draw flowers, cats, dogs and more. As I got older I focused more on my drawing, like making improvements, focusing on details, and making longer projects. In my art class, we did different art projects using oil pastels, watercolors, and acrylic paint.

We walked down the hall, our footsteps echoing against the walls. The teacher was leading us to the art room, and when we were there my classmates and I shuffled in, the teacher heading back to her class. We walked to our seats and sat down. After we sat in our seats our art teacher announced we were going to draw a close up of a lily. She called out each table to get a piece of white construction paper that was 16’’ by 12’’ and then go back to their seats.

After everyone was done, she told us to gather around the table she was sitting at. She was demonstrating how to draw the outline of the petals and the middle part of the flower with crayons, and when she was done, we went back to our seats to try it on our own. We could also choose any color we liked; I chose pink. After everyone was done, the teacher told us to color the background, and the color had to be a little darker than the petals. Before we knew it, class ended, and my classmates and I had to head to our next one.

We had art again two days later. As we got to class, I noticed cups of paint and water cans on the tables. She told us to gather around the table she was sitting at. She had a plastic film and her finished drawing of a lily. She told us to put the film on top of the drawing and paint on the film with the colors we chose. She was also demonstrating to us how to blend the paint to create darker or lighter shades of that color. After we were done, she said to paint the background, and when we finished, she put the wet painting on a drying rack. After we got to have free time and color whatever we liked.

A few weeks later my family and I received a letter that my project got second place in an art contest at a museum for young artists in the district. We went to the museum to see my art piece and the others. When we got to the section with my piece, I saw that the plastic film was stapled on the construction paper with the painted side down. I also saw that my friend got first place. Later at school I congratulated my friend on getting first place.

The reason I create art is because it’s fun, and I do it as a hobby, though others may do it for other reasons. When I get older I wish to improve on my skills and draw with a wider variation. I wish to improve not only my talent but also my creativity.

-Emily Zhong

Have you even been so nervous that you were shaking? I was, when I did NYSSMA on my violin for the first time. I had been playing violin for nearly three years, and even though I had been stressing and preparing for this for several months, and I knew it didn’t really matter, I just couldn’t shake my nerves as I got out of the car.

I shivered as a chilly breeze raised goosebumps on my arms, my dress not offering much warmth. Clutching my violin close to my chest,  I kept my eyes on the doors in front of me, and my heart started to race as they grew closer. I hesitated as my mother opened the doors to the school, taking a moment before I stepped in. As soon as we entered, a woman sitting behind a table greeted us. She was younger, and I figured that she was a highschool student, based on the way the shirt with “VOLUNTEER” written in block letters across it was hanging loose on her shoulders. She quickly explained that I first needed to go to the gym to warm up, and how to get there. Arriving in the stuffy gym did little to ease my apprehension. It was crowded and loud, tons of people all practicing their songs. I could almost feel the nervous energy hanging in the air. I pulled my violin out of its case before tuning the strings and putting rosin on my bow. My mother hovered nearby as I put my violin on my shoulder and drew the bow across the strings before going through my scales and song a couple of times. I didn’t feel ready yet, but I diminished my worry as I packed away my instrument and vacated the gym.

A few minutes later, I sat in front of the woman who was about to listen to me. She composed herself with an intimidating posture, and if she meant to or not, I was unsure. She towered above me, her jewelry dangling from her wrists and neck. And I could see her short, brown hair beginning to gray. Although she did seem okay and had tried to make jokes upon seeing how tense I was. I was feeling a bit better by the time she asked for me to start playing. I drew in a breath, my heart pounding as I raised my violin. Gingerly, I drew the first notes over the strings while trying to control my shaking hands. It seemed to last forever as the bow danced over the strings, even though it couldn’t have been more than a minute. Finally, I dropped my arm, and still clutching the bow, I let out the breath I realized I had been holding. I had been subconsciously watching the woman as she had vigorously scribbled down notes on my performance, and now she looked down at me over her glasses. My insides churned, unsure if I should be relieved or terrified. Glancing at her notes once more, she stood up.

¨Thank you,¨ she said, putting her notes on the desk. Nodding, she opened the door for me, both of us stepping out. I let my eyes wander as the woman and my mom conferred, watching the others walking into rooms or waiting anxiously in the hallway. I wondered if they were as nervous as me, although most of them seemed relaxed. They held themselves with a confident posture; chins jutted out while they leaned against the wall, idly scanning the crowd. They looked older, though, and I assumed they had been here before. I did notice others, too, that weren’t as composed. One young girl had her viola tucked under her arm, and she cowered near her father.  At last, my mother finished talking with the judge, and we said goodbye, starting off to find our way out of the school.

¨How was it?¨ My mom asked as we walked through the parking lot.  Shrugging my shoulders, I simply muttered that it was fine. After my heart rate returned to normal, I realized I was glad I did it. I think that challenging yourself is necessary, and it’s the only way you can learn things and grow as a person.

-Ava Vitali

Have you ever played an instrument? Do you want to learn, but you don't  know where to start? Here are some things you can do to start out learning the flute. Knowing tips and tricks can be handy when you are an aspiring flutist.

The first thing to start out with is assembling your instrument. Putting together an instrument when you don't know how can be hard. Here's how you do it.  Start by holding the medium length piece; this piece is called the head joint. Then take the longest piece; this piece is called the body. Attach the head joint to the top of the body. Twist it so that the hole in the head joint is aligned with the middle of the keys. Make sure it´s aligned with the side with more keys, not the side with a scarce amount. Next, take the shortest piece, called the foot, and connect it to the already assembled head joint and body. Make sure the rod holding all the keys on the foot is lined up with the middle of the keys on the body. If you´ve done all the steps correctly so far, you should have a constructed flute!

The next step is to learn how to flawlessly hold the flute. First, place your left hand. Starting from the top, skip the first key, putting your index finger on the second key. Then skip another key and put your middle finger on the fourth key. Place the rest of your fingers on the following keys: ring finger on the fifth key, pinky on the sixth key; the sixth key is the key that is jutting out a little. Put your thumb on the back of the flute with it on the fourth key from the top.  You will notice that when you press it, the key underneath it will also go down. Now you've placed your left hand. Next you have to position your right hand. Skip two keys after your left hand, and place your index finger on the third key. This key is also the ninth key from the top. Position the remaining fingers on the following keys: middle finger on tenth key from the top, ring finger on the eleventh key and pinky on the twelfth. The pinky key looks a little different from the other keys. It also is on the foot instead of the body.  Your thumb will go on the backside of the flute, where there are no keys. Now you´ve planted your right hand and are successfully holding the flute. Almost all fingerings are combinations of the keys that you are pressing right now. This is also how you should hold your flute in rest position, or when you are not playing.

The third step is to learn how to blow air into your flute.  Rest the middle of your mouth on the middle of the hole. Then roll the flute back away from yourself, so the hole is parallel to your mouth, and blow. For low notes, blow softly. For high notes, blow hard. Practice making sounds that are loud, soft, high, and low.

The fourth step is to learn about a staff. The staff has four spaces and five lines, where notes go. Notes can also go off the staff. There are a few different parts of a staff you should know about. First is the key signature. The key signature is the part of the staff that tells you what notes should be flat, sharp and natural. It is located to the left area of the staff. To the key signature’s right is the time signature. This tells you how many beats are there per measure. The time signature is a fraction. The final part of the staff is the clef. It is located to the left of the key signature. There are two clefs, the bass clef and treble clef. The flute plays on the treble clef.

The final thing to learn is notes. Notes are put on the staff, on either a space or on a line. Each note has a letter name from A to G, then it starts at A again. Notes also have what are called chromatics. There are three different chromatics: sharps, naturals, and flats. Each one has a little symbol that is written in front of the note. These are the most important things to know while starting.

Knowing the basics is very important when playing the flute,  so keep practicing until you get the hang of the basics. Understanding what to do and where to start is essential. Definitely give playing the flute a shot, and most importantly, enjoy it. Have fun!

-Trivika Komatireddy

There was cardboard, tape, wood dowels, and a hot glue gun. Drawing on the cardboard, cutting shapes, glueing dowels to cardboard, then taping all around it, I made my first cardboard sword.

I’ve made a couple of swords since then, but my favorite is still my first one. The first sword I made was based off of the video game The Legend Of Zelda. In that game there is a sword called the Master Sword. I really love The Legend Of Zelda, and I wanted to make the Master Sword. The sword has taken some battle damages from playing with it. One thing was the handguards; the handguards started to fall of because  they weren't built well. I just ripped them off, replacing them with a different type of handguard. Now the sword is not the Master Sword, so I renamed it the Time Sword.

All the swords I’ve made have names; I wanted them to have names of elemental factors like a video game. I’ve made seven swords/daggers. I’ve named all the swords/daggers so far as The Fire Cleaver, The Water Katana, The Earth Longsword, The Time Sword, The Light Short Sword, The Dark Dagger, and The Poison Knife.

I think I will do things to make these swords look better, and they’re pretty cool ideas. The only thing is I don't know when I should do them. With The Time Sword I want to build it out of wood and paint over it. With the other swords I think I will do the same things. But I think with The Water Sword I’ll make the blade out of something clear. With the Light Sword, something with lights. So many things I can do to make them look fantastic; I just have to think about how to do them.

Building these swords is so amazing.  When I finish I’m always proud of myself. But they don’t always end up like I wanted them to be. It's always a surprise of what they’re going to look like at the end. I think you should try to make cardboard swords too; they’re so cool to have.

-Phillip Ramos

Have you ever wanted to flip and twist upside down ten feet in the air? If so, tumbling is the thing for you. Tumbling is unusual because when you were born, you didn’t come into the world to tumble; it is weird for your body to be flipping upside down while constantly punching your feet into the floor.

Tumbling is acrobatics, flipping and twisting your body over and over again. While your tumbling you have to punch your feet into the ground. You have to do this to get off the ground. To be good at tumbling you have to have a lot of strength and flexibility. You need to be strong to hold yourself up when you're upside on your hands. You have to be flexible so the tumbling looks good. The strength and flexibility come as you tumble more and more.

The levels of tumbling vary from different sports. In cheerleading, there are seven levels. In gymnastics, there are ten levels. Same skills, just sectioned differently. In cheerleading, there are seven levels. The lowest level is level one. It has back walkovers, front walkovers, handstands, forward rolls, backward rolls, and cartwheels. The highest level is level seven. There are double fulls, flips in stunts, and a lot of other crazy things as well. In gymnastics, there are ten levels. The lowest level being level one and the highest being level ten. In level one, the skills are 3/4 handstand, cartwheel, backward roll, forward roll, and split jump with 30-degree leg separation. Some of the hardest skills on level ten are Arabian double fronts, double layouts, and more.

Tumbling is scored differently for different sports. For cheerleading, if you don’t land your tumbling at a competition, it is .25 off your score for the whole team. For gymnasts, if they don’t land their tumbling pass the deductions are worth .5 points. At a cheerleading competition the tumbling is also based off of how good it looks. The tumbling technique score is out of five. Gymnastics is also like it too, but it is out of ten. For gymnasts, if they don’t stick their skill, they get up to .3 off of their score. Gymnastics tumbling scoring is much harsher than cheerleading scoring. If gymnasts have their arms bent, it’s a deduction. If their legs are a little bit apart, they get a deduction.

All in all, tumbling is unusual because of all the crazy things tumblers do. Tumbling has many different levels and different ways of scoring it. It is never too late to start tumbling.

-Riley Messier

Speedrunning is a mess. It's the dirty work for someone who looks up “Super Mario Odyssey All Moons% World Record Speedrun” (a ten hour long marathon of playing Mario). Speedrunning is where you try to beat a game as fast as you possibly can from start to finish. Your one goal is to beat your own best time. It's a precise and unforgiving hobby. Sure, it's exhausting, but it really pays off. It feels so good when you finally beat your fastest personal time. This is Speedrunning.

“So. What games do you speedrun?” you ask. Well, I do a lot of games, but the game I always go back and run through is Super Mario 64 (I shorten the name to SM64). It is often considered one of the greatest games of all time, and it really shows. Fantastic visuals for the time, memorable stages, and a soundtrack that to this day is still legendary. It's possible you have even played this game before, as it came out in 1996.

There are categories for games in speedrunning; different ways to beat it. You have five standard categories: zero stars, one star, 16 stars, 70 stars, and 120 stars. The one category I do in SM64 is 16 stars. It’s quick at a maximum time of 30 minutes, the perfect length. 16 stars means you have to beat the game with 16 stars. So I'll sit down, do a run, and when I obtain a personal best, meaning I got a faster run than the fastest run I had done previous to that, I post it on Youtube for the populace to see. Then I post the video to a website called SPEEDRUN.COM (I capitalize SPEEDRUN.COM because that's how everyone refers to it). On that website, it categorizes runs into a leaderboard where you can see who has the world record. Over 500 different people have submitted runs to the SM64 16 star category. I place somewhere around 390 to 410th place (I haven’t checked the leaderboards in a while, so I don't know my exact place). My fastest time is 25:05; impressive considering I only started in December of last year (2017).

 If there’s one thing I’ve learned from speedrunning, it’s that speedrunning is a real process. You get tired, angry, but you feel the need to do better. You get angry after you have done the same level 300 times in a row and have not gotten better at it. But once you get better and faster at it after all of those attempts, you feel like the world is at peace. You feel you are at peace with yourself. It gives a pretty long lasting amount of dopamine. Of course though, there are the less relaxing moments of speedrunning.

Most people say that air traffic control is the hardest, most stressful job ever. But in reality, it's the second most intense job, with the first being speedrunning. After a while of speedrunning, you don’t need to beat the game, you need to PERFECT the game. One missed jump in a normal gaming session (where you’re not speedrunning) would be no problem. But in speedrunning it’s catastrophic. The world record holder for 16 star in SM64 is Weegee14 (that's his username; no one knows what his real name is). HE made a living off of playing that one game really well. He got his name out there all for the low low price of free. He once said that every second counts in a run, and he is so right. One missed jump could mean the loss of several seconds, which is awful. Anymore than that would mean a reset (where you restart the game completely) for me. Of course though, the more intense parts are toward the end.

Picture this. You just got to the end of a 30 minute marathon of SM64. You are on personal best pace. You haven't had a run like this in months. You pop out of the pipe, emerging from the ground (as Mario) on an epic battlefield hundreds of miles in the sky. The sky is dark. Slowly from the shadows, Bowser emerges, anger in his face, from the shadows of the dark stormy clouds behind you, laughing menacingly. It’s raining hard. This is the final fight. You can't mess up. Everything needs to be perfect. You run and dash and dive over and seize Bowser by the tail and swing him into one of the bombs on the battlefield. It makes a menacing explosion as Bowser growls in agonizing pain from being thrown into a bomb. You rinse and repeat again. One more throw to go. Then, even just for a second, everything is silent as Bowser lifts himself off the ground. But that moment is suddenly crushed as you feel a slow rumble beneath your feet. The stage slowly crumples away into a star pattern. You are so close. You’re over 30 seconds ahead of your personal best.

Now obviously, none of what I described is real. You're not really in Super Mario 64. You're sitting in a room with a very sweaty game controller in your hands. You feel this though. This kind of immersion you wouldn’t feel in a normal casual playthrough of a game. In a casual playthrough of the game, if you die you can just retry until you get it right. But that doesn’t exist in speedrunning. You mess up once, you restart all the way back at the beginning. Your run is on the line. “You can't mess up. You won't mess up,” you tell yourself. Two different things could happen. In one case, you throw Bowser straight into the bomb. He flies back onto the playing field due to the explosion. Kaboom! You've done it. You beat the game. You grab the final star and end the game. You press the timer button you had next to you to time the run. 32 seconds ahead of your PB. You jump up and down as if people were throwing you into the air in excitement as Mario flies off the stage (using a wing cap) and the credits roll. But then there's the other case. You throw Bowser- and you miss. Bowser gets back up. You just lost the chance to beat your personal best. You are angry. You walk away, curse, or maybe even throw the controller at the wall.

          I don't throw controllers at the wall anymore for two reasons. One was once I was watching someone play a game online, and they lost and got real angry. They threw their controller at the wall and the controller just SHATTERED into pieces, and that made him even angrier. The other time I was playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe online. I was in first place. So close to the finish line, and then I got hit by a blue shell. I came in sixth. I threw that controller at the wall, and by that I mean I THREW that thing with some real force. Unfortunately, this one was one of those controllers. Built like a tank. Needless to say, it dented the wall. Anyway, that's the kind of intensity a run puts you through. It’s an edge-of-seat-experience. Losing a run makes you feel awful. It’s the game kicking you in the back. You get angry. But then, when you finally complete a run that beats your personal best, it makes you feel like you’re on top of the world.

And that's my experience with speedrunning, and why speedrunning is important to me. I love to speedrun so much because, like I said earlier, speedrunning gets you invested and excited. It is really competitive, and it makes me happy. That burst of dopamine from completing a run is exciting, and that feeling doesn't go away fast. It gives you energy to keep going because you know you will eventually beat your record. But most of all, I feel Speedrunning is important because anyone can do it for free, and if they practice enough, they can break records, make a name for themselves, and even get paid a little, all for free, like Weegee14 did. In tennis or football, it’s so unlikely you will ever make it to the big leagues. And in order to get into some matches, you have to pay. But that is non-existent with speedrunning. That is why speedrunning is so important, and therefore my special and unusual hobby. I still think that speedrunning is a mess, but so what? It’s fun!

-Enzo McLauchlin