Artifact #1: Orchestra and my Violin
In elementary school, my parents signed me up for violin lessons and I hated it. Nonetheless, I stuck with it and braved through the practice sessions of sounding screechy and horrible. Once the fundamentals were over, I began to look forward to holding the instrument on my shoulder and felt exhilarated when I placed the bow on my strings to start a tune.
Once high school began, orchestra became a significant part of my day; I made amazing friends who also sought out the thrill of music. With my friends, I conquered the dreaded playing tests and long practices. In my junior and senior years, the hard work paid off and our chamber orchestra scored a 1 during the adjudicated state event. Although orchestra taught me ways to improve myself individually, it also taught me how to work on a team. The skills I learned in orchestra shaped me to who I am today: a music enthusiast and team player.
Artifact #2: Yoga
As a first-year full-time college student, I am still trying to figure out how to manage my classes and my time so that I don’t get too overwhelmed. Luckily, I found a release through yoga. On Monday mornings, I go to yoga with my friends at the RPAC to start out the week feeling rejuvenated. Although I currently devote an hour a week to yoga, I am hoping to attend more classes throughout the week. It allows me to take a step away from my life as a student and focus on healing and re-energizing myself.
This aspect is important to me because I have an outlet to keep myself well. It is so easy to get sucked into the amount of work that college requires of us. To be able to keep up with the demands of learning, one must be able to take care of themselves too. Hopefully, yoga will continue to be my outlet for stress throughout my years in college and further beyond.