Extracurriculars

Every year I try to take a class that's not specifically in my major. You know, something you've always wanted to try, but never had the time to do. In the past I've taken jazz dance, modern dance, drawing, and sewing (that one was really hard for me!).This semester I took contemporary dance, oil painting, flexibility, and piano. This is way more than I usually do, but I figured this would probably be my last chance to take some of these classes. I only have two semesters left, and they will be crammed full of classes I need for graduation. And all of these little "extras": ended up being a great experience.

My flexibility class was AMAZING. It was so relaxing. We would stretch for about 35 min. and then end the class with a power nap. Plus, we compared beginning of class measurements with end of class measurements, and I improved! This is saying a lot since I am probably the most inflexible person on the planet!

My oil class was a little bit of challenge. I love art and have been doing it for some time, but I have never done oil paint before (usually my medium of choice is pencil or soft pastels). Now some of them did not come out so good, but I feel like overall I improved so much. Plus now I have a better idea of what I would want to paint.

Here are my paintings! Note that I showed you the whole painting experience, not just the successful parts, lol. The top two paintings were both in class still lifes. The one on the left was a giant cube structure made out of scrap wood (we were supposed to match the colors). The bottom two I did outside of class. The one on the left was a picture of La Defense. It was a really good picture, a really good sketch, and a really bad color choice (oh well I know better now). The one on the right was inspired by Steve Roden. He does abstract pieces based on musical scores, amongst other things. My work looks nothing like his, but I did base it on a musical score.

I also really enjoyed my piano class. I used to play when I was younger, but I didn't keep up with it once I went to college. Then one day I was sitting in my house and I got the urge to try and play a few songs. That's when I realized that I missed it! So this semester I enrolled in private lessons and started practicing again. I even participated in a little recital with other Piano 160R students (The picture on the right is of me and my teacher, Nicole, at my recital). I'm so glad I stuck with the piano for as long as I did and that I have the chance to keep working on it.

My family lives in Texas, none of them could make it out to my recital so I thought it would be fun to record the songs I worked on this semester for them. Chaconne was my official recital piece that I memorized. Keep in mind that I'm not super advanced, and you will hear a mistake or two.

All right, the point of this is not to make you look at my oil painting attempts or to convince you to take up the piano. It's just that when I started doing all of these things, and was having so much fun I asked myself, Why didn't I do this sooner?! I mean I definitely wasn't amazing at everything I tried, and some of it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. But I'm still glad that I did it. So, if you are lacking motivation here it is: If there's something out there you've always wanted to try, just do it!! If you're lucky like me, you'll have a really great time in the process.

P.S. Dear Younger Generation, You will hate practicing your piano/cello/flute/french horn/ musical whatever at some point at your life, but just keep practicing anyway. One day in the future (it may be a far and distant future) you'll be sad that you quit. If that's not a good enough reason, do it for your Mama. She's not keeping you in lessons so that she can hear your stumble through practice every day. There is a larger plan at work. I promise.

Currently: Amazed by a girl who played Fireworks by Debussy at my piano recital. It is the craziest piano piece I've ever heard.