Personal Narrative: Befor Before High School

As a kid, I had sung in a small student choir in my elementary school. I had not received a great deal of exposure to instrumental playing by this time, the more disciplined instrumental instruction began in junior high. However, one day while shopping around in Walmart of all places, I convince my parents to purchase a CD of classical music recordings, after which I absolutely fell in love with classical music. This began my determination for playing an instrument. In my junior high school years, I enjoyed playing with the Carver Cougar Band at school events and outside in the community, while taking on the role of being one of its principal band leaders, which allowed me to explore my creativity and leadership simultaneously. I really did not begin to comprehend the world I had descended into until I transitioned to high school.
The summer of my freshman year in high school, I received the opportunity to go to a flute camp at Cal. State Long Beach, where I attended a weeklong session of classes and practices. I met other students doing the exact same thing as me, and from that point on life took on a very different perspective. I gained consciousness about the bigger world that existed beyond what was in front of me, not just the simple things in the textbook or what the teacher taught in class, but concepts yet undiscovered and many more collaborative efforts to experience. I dedicated myself to hard work and began to perform with a range of groups equally diverse in styles, and experiment with music of a wide spectrum, while the world of academia became a playground of knowledge. I am now heading into my senior year of undergraduate studies, looking forward to pursuing further music studies at the graduate level, and I am happy to say I do not regret nagging my parents for that CD, and I can confidently say, neither do