Week 7 (Model UN)

 Hey guys, this is week 7. I can't say that a lot happened this week quantitatively, but I definitely have some news! Starting off, I have news regarding the prism concert for Waubonsie, and I also competed in my first Model UN competition! It's really exciting to do these things since we couldn't do them last year. I always remember the upperclassmen creating prism groups and I used to think that was so cool, and I remember not doing Model UN freshman or sophomore year because I didn't know how well it was going to go and I thought I was going to be too busy. 

This year for Prism, the full orchestra pieces are not decided yet, but prism small groups are coming together right now. So far, I'm in two different groups, we're auditioning to play the piece Salut d'amour by Elgar with my chamber group. The other piece is Howl's Moving Castle by Jo Hisaishi. I'm really excited to play this piece because I'm doing it with a bunch of friends and we have a bunch of cool parts we can use. Speaking of Howl's Moving Castle, I'll be switching to playing viola for the prism concert pieces. Our orchestra is switching the violins into violas for one concert cycle, and since we may need another viola player in our chamber group, I decided I might as well learn it this concert cycle. There were also a couple other factors like the fact that it's the least stressful period to play since there won't be any finals and I don't need to play violin for EYSO, so I can mostly fully concentrate on it. I'm thinking of trying to design the prism logo for this year since I don't really like the submissions turned in so far, I don't know what to use so far though, but I'm sure I'll think of something. 

Next, I had my first Model UN competition today. I represented the delegation of Australia in SPECPOL with another club member and we debated the topic regarding indigenous people. I feel like I did pretty well considering this was my first competition I ever went to despite this being my Junior Year. I went up and talked a good couple of times. I joined the block (group/alliance) with the United States and a couple of other countries. It was really fun drafting out a resolution paper to present because it shared the ideas of a lot of different countries. It was really hard because there were some very obvious options to take, but you had to respect the fact that you were representing a country, and you had to base it off of what they would do. It was really fun to actually experience one though, but I'm going to be too busy to continue it for the rest of this semester I think, so I'll probably continue it when I get the chance in January next semester. 

Well, that's pretty much it. There's not much to do while I'm waiting for the next thing to happen. Whether it's waiting on your teacher to grade tests or essays, preparing for the next competition, or waiting for ILMEA results (not directed at anything...), there's still always something to do. It may be tiring but I know that if I don't do everything that I think I can do in high school, I'll eventually regret it later on. I don't want this to happen so I'll have to put in all the effort I can into working on school activities, even if it means I have to sacrifice things like sleep, well-being and other commitments that may not be as important. Even if something isn't happening, doesn't mean that I'm not preparing myself for it in some way. Even though it may sound bad, I don't want to live the rest of my life regretting not doing something, it would be hard to regret not sleeping as much in high school to me. Well, that's it for this week, I'm just really excited for ILMEA results to come out, I think I got into district at least, but I have to pray I got into state this year!

Thanks for reading!

-Charlie