My High School Career in a Snapshot

My Top 10 "20" Films

My Top 20 Films

Going through my facebook likes for movies, I capture on twenty movie (self-created) genres that I can create into a top 20.

Honorable Mention: Room (Probably Favorite Movie of 2015)-I mean, if my mom is engaged...

Best Superhero Movie: The Dark Knight

Best Sports-Themed Movie: Moneyball

Best Animated Film: The Lego Movie

Best Biopic: All the President’s Men

Best Foreign Film: The Lives of Others

Best Short Film: Paperman

Best Inspirational Film: Good Will Hunting

Best Futuristic Film: Her

Best Silent Film: The Artist

Best High School Film: Me and Earl and Dying Girl

Best Film That Works At Every Party: Rush Hour

Best Movie That Made Me Go “Wow at every scene! This is gorgeous!”: Life of Pi

Best Film That Gave Me the Feelies "Brave New World Reference" ;): Not Cloudy and a chance of meatballs, But The Green Mile

Best Scariest movie that made me crap my pants: Wait Until Dark

Best Experimental Movie That Speaks Volume About Growing Up and Childhood: Boyhood

Funniest Movie That My Sister Encouraged Me To Watch With Her But We Have Watched Five Times Now Together And Laughed Our Butts Off: Parental Guidance

Best Movie That Seems to Go Nowhere But Actually Has A Plot: Forrest Gump

Best IMDB Ranked Movie And One That I Happen To Agree With: Shawshank Redemption

Best Love Story That Went Unnoticed: Enough Said

My favorite movie and The Movie That I Discovered Bradley Cooper And Jennifer Lawrence ;): Silver Linings Playbook

My Favorite Novel

My favorite book is Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

Sure, it is a depressing book, but it opened my eyes to the realities of the world. The singular quote that I learned from class, “When you take man out of civilization, you take civilization out of man,” has stuck with me all of my high school career. In fact, just recently, I created a video about Lord of the Flies, and in the video, I showed how the book begs the questions “Are we all just civilized people until problems and conflict arise?” and “Are we just criminals of society ourselves?”

This book debates the power of an individual vs. the power of a group, power and control in general, how society functions as a whole, how people react in different situations, and how people need to belong in groups.This book becomes more than just a deep understanding of human nature, but it becomes a novel that seeks to raise awareness and criticize what we must live with to function as a successful society.

There are so many powerful novels that I read throughout high school such as To Kill A Mockingbird, The Stranger, Hamlet, Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, and The Things They Carried, but nothing struck me on an emotional level as Lord of the Flies did. I do not know why I connected so well to it, as I have never been in a totally dire situation of life or death, but I just know that I needed the book more than it needed me. I needed to learn that the entire world is not made up of butterflies and rainbows, and there are serious issues that can happen at any second. I needed to prepare myself for the realities of the world.

It is a book so raw and so real to the potentials of a failing civilization. It is a book that seems to be a sharp contrast to a futuristic society book such as the Hunger Game series, and brings a potential situation into a realistic view. It is a book that delves deep into the human mindset, and how, maybe everyone is just a flaw of society itself.

My Favorite Poem

I decided to choose the words out of the poem “A Dialogue of Self and Soul” by William Yeats. The poem starts out with soul contemplating eternity, and all that has happen to its life. But, the poem then takes a darker turn, with the Self contemplating suicide but also self-discovery from the idea of “a looking glass” from a sword. Then, the poem uses both self and soul to talk about life itself, and stuff anyone can relate to like “the ignominy of boyhood” from enduring “the toil of growing up.” At last, the poem ends on a very positive note, suggesting that through all of life’s ups and downs, he is “content to live it all again.” He will follow “every event in action or in thought; measure the lot to forgive myself the lot!” He suggests from these lines that he will live life with no regrets, and even if he fails or makes mistakes, he will forgive himself for it and move on to better moments. And the best part of the poem are the last three lines, which really need no explanation: “We must laugh and we must sing, We are blest by everything, everything we look upon is blest.”

My Soul. I summon to the winding ancient stair;

  Set all your mind upon the steep ascent,

  Upon the broken, crumbling battlement,

  Upon the breathless starlit air,

  Upon the star that marks the hidden pole;

  Fix every wandering thought upon

  That quarter where all thought is done:

  Who can distinguish darkness from the soul?

My Self. The consecrated blade upon my knees

  Is Sato's ancient blade, still as it was,

  Still razor-keen, still like a looking-glass

  Unspotted by the centuries;

  That flowering, silken, old embroidery, torn

  From some court-lady's dress and round

  The wooden scabbard bound and wound,

  Can, tattered, still protect, faded adorn.

My Soul. Why should the imagination of a man

  Long past his prime remember things that are

  Emblematical of love and war?

  Think of ancestral night that can,

  If but imagination scorn the earth

  And intellect its wandering

  To this and that and t'other thing,

  Deliver from the crime of death and birth.

My Self. Montashigi, third of his family, fashioned it

  Five hundred years ago, about it lie

  Flowers from I know not what embroidery—

  Heart's purple—and all these I set

  For emblems of the day against the tower

  Emblematical of the night,

  And claim as by a soldier's right

  A charter to commit the crime once more.

My Soul. Such fullness in that quarter overflows

  And falls into the basin of the mind

  That man is stricken deaf and dumb and blind,

  For intellect no longer knows

  Is from the Ought, or Knower from the Known—

  That is to say, ascends to Heaven;

  Only the dead can be forgiven;

  But when I think of that my tongue's a stone.

II

My Self. A living man is blind and drinks his drop.

What matter if the ditches are impure?

What matter if I live it all once more?

Endure that toil of growing up;

The ignominy of boyhood; the distress

Of boyhood changing into man;

The unfinished man and his pain

Brought face to face with his own clumsiness;

The finished man among his enemies?—

How in the name of Heaven can he escape

That defiling and disfigured shape

The mirror of malicious eyes

Casts upon his eyes until at last

He thinks that shape must be his shape?

And what's the good of an escape

If honour find him in the wintry blast?

I am content to live it all again

And yet again, if it be life to pitch

Into the frog-spawn of a blind man's ditch,

A blind man battering blind men;

Or into that most fecund ditch of all,

The folly that man does

Or must suffer, if he woos

A proud woman not kindred of his soul.

I am content to follow to its source

Every event in action or in thought;

Measure the lot; forgive myself the lot!

When such as I cast out remorse

So great a sweetness flows into the breast

We must laugh and we must sing,

We are blest by everything,

Everything we look upon is blest.

High School Timeline

August 2012: Link Crew Orientation To Introduce Me To Lynbrook

August 20 2012: Started High School + Struggled to find where my classes were

December 2012-February 2013: Playing Basketball for the school team

April 2013: Joined High School Improv Team

June 2013: School ends; Ms. Ene donates a book to me “To Kill A Mockingbird”

August 2013: 10th grade begins

September 2013: I audition for my first play; I get in

October 2013: I join the club Viking Buddies-continuing it till it ended officially forever (for my year!) May 18 2016

November 2013: My First Play is concluded; Basketball starts again

February 2014: I collect my first awards of high school from basketball

April 2014: Joined Improv Team for the second time

June 2014: Sophomore Years Ends On A Bang!, Spurs 2014 Champions!!!

July 2014: Took Principles of Microeconomics at De Anza College

August 2014: Junior Year Starts; The Dread of SAT/SAT 2/Aps, Link Crew Orientation (this time I’m the leader!)

October 2014: Start my first tutoring lesson STARR tutor, AOST club starts too

November 2014: I finish my second play in high school, Basketball begins

March 2015: Basketball ends (CCS), Discovered Sleeping At Last

April 2015: Junior Prom

May 2015: The Dreaded APs

June 2015: Junior year ends, I finish writing my film screenplay

July 2015: Taiwan STEM internship

August 2015: Senior Year Begins, Link Crew Part 2

September 2015: List of Colleges Solidified, Get a Phone for the first time!

October 2015-January 2016: Writing College Essays

November 2015: Basketball begins

February 2016: Won First Place As A Duo Scene Actor at a Drama Competition, College Decisions start coming out

March 2016: College Decisions Solidified, Basketball ends

April 2016: Joined Improv Team for the 3rd time in 4 years

May 2016: Senior Prom, Senior APs (done with Collegeboard forever!)

June 3 2016: High School Career will officially come to a close; what memories! Everything ends, Everything new begins! Time to leave everything comfortable behind and start anew on my new journey to college!

Senior Reflections #3

Prompt #8:

When you consider your four years of high school, what is your fondest memory? Reflect on a particular memory you found especially powerful.

The lights dimmed on me. Walking onto the brightly-lit stage for the first time, I stare out into the immense darkness at a sea of faces which look back at me with anticipation. I stare at my scene partner, who is readying herself and is shallowing in self-confidence. Once I hear the magic words, “Start when you’re ready,” I feel the butterflies disappearing from my stomach. I feel my nerves disappearing, and replacing the nerves, are an artist’s interpretation of words. I feel the power of giving the words meaning. I feel the power of being a relatable character. I feel the power of giving those audience members power to understand the words that I were saying. I FEEL. That might be enough. For my innate performance just now, it feels as if the world has froze and ceased to exist. It feels as if time stopped.

I had no idea why I decided to audition. But, I do not regret that I did. My fondest memory in high school was doing my first drama play.

I remember being scared to death when I auditioned. I walked into Studio 74, with my head down low, not wanting to attract any attention. When Mrs. C called my name to read a couple of lines, my body quivered in fear and my body shook uncontrollably. My forearms and spine were filled with cold tingling emotions. My head was saying, “Why are you doing this to yourself?” But, once I stepped on the stage, I felt a strong sense of peace, and I was at ease. I performed the lines to the best of my ability. I hoped for the best, but expected the worst. As soon as I found my way home, I received a call from Kelly Masterson, the assistant director at the time. I received the role! That role took a lot of toughness, and there were times that I wanted to quit. I was dealing with people who were veterans of the theater, and it was so intimidating to be up there with them. I did not want to fail in front of them, and I did not want to let them down. Mrs. C had to help me personally with parts of my acting, most notably, my diction. But once I handled my fear and slowly increased my self-confidence, theater turned into a passion! I still remember the first night I performed, and I still remember hearing the applause. In basketball, the applause never meant anything to me because I had to continue playing for the next possession. But, in this case, I felt liberated. There was no feelings to describe the moment. There was only a feeling of satisfaction and bliss. There was something so special about seeing the audience go through a gauntlet of emotions, and then applauding strong efforts from a well-done show.

What transpired was a four-year commitment to drama, to telling stories, to portraying characters, to creating art, and to facilitate awareness to issues and certain moments. Whether acting or stage managing, I have spent hours in the theater, working to challenge social norms and re-shaping the world we live in. 
I act in drama because I love it. I act in drama because some stories just need telling while other stories just need repeating. I act in drama because there is a sense of relatability. I act in drama because it feels different than the norm in Asian culture. I act in drama because it makes me proud of who I am. I act in drama because that’s me. So, I act, I facilitate, I help, and then I perform.

Theater will be a part of me forever. Theater is not just a stage idea, it is an in-person interaction, something that seems to lack in this new era of technology. It is having that difficult conversation. It is reaching new level of heights. It is having an identity. 

Theater helped me discover film, and I appreciate it on a higher level. Because film is more accessible and convenient than theater, I have delved into film on a much deeper scale. So, thank you theater, and maybe you and I will meet again on Broadway someday!

Why do I perform or contribute to drama performances? Maybe it is the rush, the thrill, the adrenaline. Maybe it is the chance to embrace my full self. Maybe it is the power to tell stories. Maybe it is the power of knowing the full meaning while the audience is trying to interpret it.

Wherever I am standing can be my stage; any light can be my spotlight.

“We’re on the edge of our seats-until the end”

“Be Bold or Italic. Never Regular.”

“Like a final puzzle piece, it all makes perfect sense to me...The heaviness that I hold in my heart belongs to gravity”

Senior Reflections #2

Prompt #2:

What, would you say, is your most valuable possession? How did you acquire this possession? Why is it so meaningful?

In college interviews, interviewers often asked, “What is your most valuable possession?” Interested in the responses, once, I asked, “What do most people say?”   To my surprise, the phone came up a lot. But, if you ask me, a genuine letter beats out anything that technology could provide. A genuine letter is like an open confession created by strong emotion. A genuine letter is like a point of view essay from the author. A genuine letter is like a bird-eye view into realities of situations. A genuine letter feels like a deep personal statement from the author’s soul. A genuine letter feels like a heartthrob connection between two people. A genuine letter feels like a blessed heart that can never be broken.

My most valuable possession is my sister’s letter that she left for me before she left for college. I remember that day pretty clearly. It was September 17, 2012. I had a history test the next day, but I knew I could not study. I went to bed knowing that my sister would come in my room soon.

Eventually, she came. When she did, I knew that I never wanted her to leave. We stayed up until 3 a.m. until I was on the verge of falling asleep (I was a young dude!). Then, I just remember feeling alone, vulnerable, and empty, crying and crying, and then eventually falling asleep.

When I woke up, I saw a letter that my sister left for me. When I came home for school, I opened the letter, and I cried some more when I read over the words.

She told me to be happy, and she told me that I was her best friend. She told me everything that she loved about me, and how much she was going to miss me. She told me to explore high school more, and find what I loved to do. She told me to not worry about failure because they come in often, but to learn and embrace it when it does eventually arrive. She told me to make her proud. Last of all, she proceeded to tell me that she loved me, even if she may not have been the perfect sister. To me, she always will be.

To this day, I doubt she would want that letter ever seen in public. I do not think I want it out in public either. But it makes it for my most valuable possession.

The last time that I tried reading it, I teared up again, so I do not read the letter much anymore. The letter has just become a part of my room, and her words have become a part of the identity. I try to make myself and others happy, and she is my best friend. I fail a lot, but I try to use it as a learning curve and motivation for future success. The letter has become buried in a pile of other letters that I keep as sentimental value. But, it is not just another letter. It is an important message from a very important person. For that, the letter becomes priceless, and something I hope that I will keep for the rest of my life.

The letter is also a metaphorical reminder that all good things must come to an end. My sister must pursue higher education, while I needed to explore around high school for another three years. She had to leave, even if she did not want to. I had to embrace, but learn to let go. What a trying experience to wake up and know that for the first time in my life, my sister was not somewhere in her room, buried by her pillows, stuffed animals, and blankets.

Perhaps, most importantly, the letter is a reminder of who I am. The letter is a reminder of my childhood. The letter is a part of my story, a part of my hidden realities, a part of growing up, and a part of my life. The letter is part of my distant past, but a reminder of what lies ahead.

Thanks Cheryl for being the best sister possible, and thanks for the letter.

“You’re welcome, almond.”

“So, let’s cut down the red tape, and gather up the pieces of our youth because there’s nothing in this world we can’t fix with some scissors and glue.”

“Dear true love, I’m a writer without words, I’m a story that nobody heard when I’m without you.”