Creative Writing

My story with creative writing starts from a very young age, while my memory of the exact event is foggy, I remember I was in early elementary school and we were doing a writing project, but instead of just writing I chose to create this story about a tournament and drew a bracket system, even though I was quite happy with this, my teacher wasn't exactly as pleased. This event pushed me away from the writing space for quite a while until in 9th grade I was recommended for Advanced English which I did in 10th grade and subsequently recommend for AP English Lang which I took in 11th grade. Even so it was only really in my Senior year when I took a Creative Writing Class that I really got into the creative / fictional aspect of writing and started to truly enjoy the process.

This love grew as I entered into IYA and USC, and developed because of a specific club I joined and am still in today, that being OK (Also known as Oozma Kappa). I was apart of a team working on our own version of tarot cards, set within a darl medeival world, and I was one of two people who did the creative writing and worldbuilding for the project. It was through this, getting to work with artists on a project and really allowing my ideas to come to life that I found a love for creative writing. Now in 2nd semester I am working on personal creative writing projects, applying it to the clubs I'm in and just enjoying the freedom that can come from building worlds and writing. I can't wait to see what I come up with by the end of my time at USC.

Choral Singing

I've been into music for as long as I can remember, but when it was time for me to choose either take choir or band when I entered middle school it quite literally came down to a coin flip. Heads for Choir, Tails for Band, by chance it landed on heads, and for the last 8 years I've been an active choir singer because of that one moment. Choir and singing to me was a space where I could open up and just have fun, though it was still academically rigorous especially when we would have theory tests. Being in choir for 7 years has massively improved my ability to sing, and just made singing for enjoyable for me as I can now belt out my favortie songs in a way I never previously could of. I truly love choir!

Looking at the image below, I chose this to represent my time in choir because it shows me in my last choral concert in High School, I believe my 11th or 12th choir concert ever, and acted as a send off for all of us seniors at the American School of Dubai. You may notice the red headbands which I will say was quite the unique choice but wasn't used for the entire concert, instead it was specifically for one song that was sang only by the Men in the different HS choirs. This song being I'll Make a Man Out of You from Mulan, a truly magnificent piece and one that was incredibly enjoyable to sing in choir. We did choreography, learned to get into the song, and it was a really nice way to end my time in choir, while not the last song of my final concert, it was definently the one that got the most applause and one I'll remember for a long long time.

Gaming

I like to say a hobby of mine is 'gaming' not specifically video games or table top roleplaying games, because I enjoy all forms of 'gaming' for various different reasons. I played my first game when I was 3, specifically Mario Kart Wii, unsuprisingly I lost my first game to my Dad, who I was playing with. But as my Dad recounts the story, I apparently beat him in every game following that, though I'm unsure how skillful, 3 year old me really was. Ever since I've enjoyed games of all sorts, though I will say video games were my primary means of 'gaming' during Middle and High School as that is what my group of friends would often play, plus we could play at our own homes or together which is harder with ttrpg's or Board Games. Overall games have just been a large portion of my younger years and they still matter a lot to me know that I'm at USC.

Going into University I wasn't really certain how I'd apply 'gaming' into my daily life. While I did end up joining both a video game based club and ttrpg club here at USC, I ended up putting way more time in the ttrpg club called Dungeons & Trojans, especially with this second semester. While I enjoy video games I just don't have the time and really dislike being cooped up in my room when I could instead go out and play d&d or another ttrpg in-person with a group of fun people. Getting into ttrpg's has really expanded my ability to be creative and was part of the reason I ended up declaring for a Narrative Structure Minor. I can't wait to see where games take me in the future!