A List of Good Childhood Experiences
My Theatrical Pursuits
In my first play Tom Sawyer at the Lakewood Playhouse in Washington, I received the lead role of Tom when I was twelve. I was actually relatively nervous about auditioning for Community Theater initially, and I wanted more of a minor role. I even specified that I would not be interested in the role of Tom Sawyer due to the part’s line load and romantic interactions. Despite this distinction, however, I was still called by the play’s director and asked to play the part anyway. I accepted, and did not regret the choice. Although it took a lot of time and work to memorize the lines I had and the blocking onstage also took a while to remember, the result was rewarding. It was incredible to get to know the other actors and actresses I was blessed to work with, and even made some lasting friends from the group.
A few months later, my family assisted two other families in coordinating a homeschool drama group. I was Robin Hood in Robin Hood. This was my third play, and I had begun to understand developing a character beyond the script. Our director had us create backstories for our characters, and soon my Robin Hood had various quirks, likes and dislikes, and multi-dimensional temperaments. Understanding who my character was allowed me to act more naturally in my role.
I continued to play as lead roles in community theater performances, including Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Peter in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Benedick in my high school’s performance of Much Ado About Nothing. My role as Benedick was by far my most difficult part, with the longest script and most amount of lines I’ve ever had (not to mention attempting to understand Shakespeare’s lines of iambic pentameter), but it was also my most successful and favorite performance to date.
Setting aside time in my day for studying my lines and blocking was not easy, in fact there were many days when I wanted nothing to do with it. But despite the business of my senior year of high school, persistence and patience allowed me to memorize the needed lines. In addition to knowing the lines and blocking, I had to focus on understanding the correct pronunciations of unfamiliar Shakespearian words and work on perfecting my vocal variance to maximize comprehension by the audience. The English language has changed quite a lot in four hundred years: it’s my job to deliver my lines clearly.
Not only have my theatrical pursuits taught me dedication and patience, but they have improved my communication significantly. I’ve come to realize that non-verbal communication is just as important as spoken words. Poise, disposition, and using your hands expressively play a major role in sending a message to the receiver. I have managed to achieve jobs because of successful interviews, been suggested to become Community Builder for NU, and been offered a scholarship-paid orientation leader summer position at NU. In addition, I was able to use my drama skills in an audition and am now receiving a drama talent scholarship at Northwest University also. I have good connections with the professors here, and feel at liberty to speak with them whenever I please due to my comfort with speaking to authoritative figures.
As an orientation leader at Northwest I was able to greet new students and coordinate games and activities with groups. I was able to use my personality and my new communications skills to orient students to life at NU and become familiar with classes. I worked with a team of CBs and OLs and we worked with the CB coordinator to organize the entire event. My communications skills were exercised in this way as well.
Since I was young, my drama experience has helped me in many ways. I have improved my communication skills, I can express myself more clearly, I have developed skills for memorizing information, I’ve learned to get along in a group, I’ve learned to work under pressure and even make up for others when they fall short, and it’s enhanced my time-binding abilities by transcending my current experience to that of my role’s/character’s. This has allowed me to adopt another’s point of view, which tends to make me more empathetic in discussions. If I can further adopt these traits into my future career, I can be more successful and glorify God with my work. For it is Him who I must thank for these experiences.
Created Modern-UI Styled Websites for SELA Software
This story goes back to 2008 when I began to look for a new mp3 music player. At the time, I had a fairly basic Samsung mp3 player, and was ready for an upgrade. So I saved my money and purchased a Microsoft Zune 8GB player. I loved the device. It was, in my opinion, the competing iPod’s superior in many ways: namely its sound quality, hardware specs, radio capabilities, wi-fi, and most noticeably in software user interface. The use of typography and motion were fascinating to me, and they drew me to one of the first devices to use Microsoft’s new interface, “Modern UI,” formerly known as Metro UI.
As I grew accustomed to the music player, the Zune’s software intrigued me further. Using the four-way-touch directional pad to navigate the clean looking menus to access content was fun and interesting. The Zune software application on my Windows computer was also a joy to use. I found it to be less clunky and less of a ghastly spreadsheet layout that iTunes had. Zune’s software focused on motion, typography, icons and images, and brought the content to the user first.
When I learned a new touch screen Zune was coming out in 2009 in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB capacity, my excitement grew. Not only did it have features like HD radio, HD video-out, internet browsing and unlimited music streaming, but it also bolstered an enriched Zune user interface built for touch-screen capabilities. Again, I saved my money and during November, purchased a 16GB Zune HD, my favorite MP3 player to date.
While I enjoyed using the Zune’s interface to browse my media collection, including music, videos, pictures, radio and games, I saw it as something that could do even more. The Zune’s interface that would become Microsoft’s Modern UI had an incredible amount of potential. That’s why when I heard rumors of an upcoming Zune Phone, I got very excited. Finally, my favorite software combined with something I’d use every day? The very thought of it was enticing. Microsoft had my money at that very moment.
It turned out, however, that the rumor was only partially true. The “Zune Phone” later became revealed as a completely overhauled version of Windows Mobile 6.5, which was the current phone software Microsoft sold at the time. Not much was revealed about it in early 2010, except it would release later that year, and it was called Windows Phone 7 Series. This was the first product to officially make use of the Modern User Interface.
When it was finally released as Windows Phone, Microsoft’s new mobile platform was relatively well-received as a new alternative to iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. Even in its early stages of development, the Windows Phone UI featured typography, motion, and an emphasis on content that the Zune interface had initially inspired. As soon as my birthday came along, I purchased an LG Quantum Windows Phone for the Black Friday sale’s price of $0.99.
The result? I became an early-adopting fan of the Modern UI interface. I love how it looked, how it worked, and what it produced. I began to look into the interface and attempting to find Microsoft’s inspiration for the design elements of Modern UI, and the principles of that design. Why colorful tiles? What about the motion of the transitions between backing out of an app and opening an app was so appealing? Why was simple typography used? How was content such a primary ingredient in the design? And lastly, how did the combination of all of these elements create such an enticing, beautiful interface?
I began to add people on social networks that shared my passion for Microsoft products and their new software. Once I learned that Microsoft’s next laptop/desktop operating system, Windows 8, would be sporting the same interface I had learned to love, I grew even more excited. I began to create themes and background wallpapers that were my own interpretations of Modern UI, including creating a custom Twitter background. I even revamped my resume to adopt principles of Modern UI such as cleanness, simplicity, and the use of icons and typography.
When an event in Seattle promoting an update for Windows Phone was announced, I was eager to go. Little did I know that my Twitter and Foursquare activity would get me noticed. While I attended the event, I uploaded pictures, posted tweets, and engaged in more social-networking activities. I was simply sharing my excitement with my online community.
About three weeks later, I got an email from someone who worked at Sela Software, asking me if I could give him a call and if I was interested in Microsoft’s design language. When I did get around to calling him, I asked him how he found me. He said that a Microsoft employee saw one of my many tweets, and he noticed I had a passion for Modern UI and saw my Modern UI-themed Twitter background.
The call was unexpected, but pretty exciting. After a while, he asked me if I wanted to design some websites for him, and I would get paid to create some Modern-style UI sites. I said I had some experience in web design, and that I would gladly do the job. So after a few Skype calls with him and a member of Sela’s marketing team, I began to design this website. A bit later, as I was perfecting my own website, he noticed and asked me to make another website for him.
All in all, it has made me happy to pursue something I’m passionate about and even to be sought after for it. I don’t know for sure what the future holds for me, but I hope it’s with technology, and design and user interface are certainly skills I’d love to master.
The Crow
Since early grade school, I’ve been exposed to a wide variety of poetry. First through ninth grade I was homeschooled and taught through the Sunlight Curriculum, a literature-based curriculum. We read different sorts of poems daily, such as works by Robert Frost, Oliver Wendell Holms, Rudyard Kipling, and many others. As I transitioned into 10th grade, I began to write poetry, including hymns and sonnets. I grew to appreciate iambic pentameter and how naturally the sound ebbed and flowed when read aloud.
In the beginning, I sought help from my high school English teacher, because I wasn’t sure about my abilities. When he reviewed it, however, he said that I had a gift for writing poetry, and I was able to convey the many experiences I had had reading and listening to poems in my previous years of learning.
One work of poetry that particularly stood out to me was Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven. It was written in a unique rhyme scheme, and included an ending line in each stanza that rhymed with all of the other ending lines. Poe was considered a writer of more darker themes in his poetry, and this aspect of his work intrigued me. When I read The Raven, I felt compelled to somehow emulate the classic. I had to think of what to write about, however. That was next.
As we studied the poem in English, I looked into ravens and my source said they were beautiful, majestic black birds that had a singing voice. I decided just then that, rather to find a similar topic, I would use the antithesis of such a creature, a crow, as the main element in the story. My poem would be a humorous rendition, a sort of parody, of Poe’s classic work.
I began by making the poem sound eerily similar to *Raven *with the exception that the man was reading a piece of sheet music instead of a novel. When he heard a sound from the “impending door,” he gets startled (similarly to how he gets startled in Poe’s poem) and heads for the door. I built up a similar tension and a familiar, brief reminiscence of a long lost woman he had previously loved. Once he arrives, however, he finds that it is an awkward, “dim-witted bird, and nothing more.”
When the bird charges in and lands inside, he sits and waits for it to respond. I hinted that he himself may have read Poe’s poem, and thus was inspired to hear an eerie sound emit from the bird. But rather than saying something like “Nevermore…”, it remained silent until it lead out an awkward squawk. The anti-climactic nature at this point should be sharply contrasted with the original work’s mysterious and uneasy nature (verging on terror). Then, instead of fleeing out of fright, he begins to swing at it with a baseball bat and try to kill it. When he finally hits it, it flies out of the window, and that is the end of the poem.
While it wouldn’t make much sense to the everyday reader, educated individuals that are familiar with Poe’s work may come to enjoy The Crow and find the humor in it. If you’re curious about reading it, you can find it here: The Crow
Won the NU Embargo Super Smash Bros Brawl Tournament
Ever since it released in 1999, Super Smash Brothers on the Nintendo 64 has always been a favorite game of mine. Around that time, every Sunday, my brother and I would have our two friends over and play that game after church. Not only was it a time to play one of our favorite games, but we grew closer as well. My brother and I, particularly, developed skills in teamwork. Although I would win most of the matches, my brother and I preferred fighting alongside each other. Mario and Kirby were my top characters in the original.
When we purchased a Nintendo GameCube, the first game we bought was the games sequel, Super Smash Bros Melee. This is the game that my brother and I probably invested in the most heavily, since we were around the more competitive age. We’d play with friends, but also we would practice fighting on a team and fighting the highest level CPU characters. My favorite characters to use in Super Smash Bros Melee are Marth and Sheik, but I tried to be somewhat decent with every character. I even took the time to memorize all the character’s movesets.
When rumors about a new Super Smash Bros game began culminating, my brother and I got very excited. It had been more than five years since Melee, and we were ready for an upgrade. Around the same time as the rumor, an official Nintendo Website called Smash Bros DOJO!! was launched, and the title was revealed as Super Smash Bros Brawl. My brother and I checked the website daily for posts and updates regarding new characters, items, stages, trailers, music, and more. We were both happy to see returning characters that we loved, as well as new characters. They only removed 4 characters from Melee, and modified the character of one, adding more than a dozen new characters.
On the midnight release, my brother and I stood in line to purchase Super Smash Bros Brawl. We were very excited to try it the next day. When we played it, we beat the game in just a few days and unlocked all of the characters. Unlocking the remaining stages and other items took longer, but eventually we had unlocked everything, trying each character out, developing new tactics, and playing with friends. We had many Smash Bros fans eager to try the newest installment of the series. My best characters were Zero Suit Samus and Ike, but I made it a point to try every character and develop a tactic to use for each one.
Then my brother and I began to play with other gamers at our local library. Every Monday and Wednesday we would meet after school to play. There were two people that out-performed my brother and I skill-wise, but aside from them, we were in the top percentage of players. When we fought on a team, however, no one could beat us, not even the two best people combined. Although I was away for the event, my brother ended up achieving second place in a Brawl tournament and won a gift card as second place prize.
Later in high school, many of my friends had played Melee when they were growing up like I did, but some had not even tried Brawl. So when I got together with some of them and began to play, we all ended up enjoying it a lot. Not only did it bring back nostalgia for some, but it was a great past time that engaged us and brought us closer. I held a tournament at my house and we played casually in other settings. I had successfully made Super Smash Bros Brawl our class’ game.
In my first year of college, I also began playing against others in Super Smash Bros Brawl. There were many fans like me who enjoyed playing, and it was fun to get to know them. I also learned that, while I wasn’t the most talented player of them all, I was certainly in the top 5 or so. But when Embargo hosted an event for a Super Smash Bros Brawl tournament to raise money to help stop human trafficking, I gladly joined. Since I was new, many of the other participants did not know me, but surely, one by one, I defeated them and won the tournament. As the prize, I received a basket of mountain dew, a t shirt, chips, and other things. Although it wasn’t the largest tournament I had been a part of, it was fun to win one.
Since then, I’ve won a handful more tournaments, and continue to enjoy playing competitively. I hope we can try a team tournament so I can play with my brother and see if we go undefeated just like we did before.