How To Deal When Your Friends Start Dating

In most everyone's life, there is or will be a time when your friend(s) is/are dating someone, and you're still single. 
It isn't fun. It won't feel good. You will be the third wheel. Which isn't cool.
I experienced this for the first time recently. It also, unfortunately, happened to complete a not-so-great day, so I went home and ranted to my parents about having friends dating when I'm single. Once I was done ranting, though, it came to me that by no means am I the only person going through this at the moment. So this is for all of you in the same situation as moi right now. Je ne suis pas contente. 

Me after the assembly today. My art.

So! You know your friend's dating someone, and it's been bothering you. Something has just happened that makes you madder than ever. It will probably reach a point where you just want to scream and yell at the sky, then fall to your knees and break down into sobs. This was how I felt this afternoon as I walked from the high school back to the junior high after an assembly. I was by myself. Maybe I should explain the rest of the day first...
So I wake up late (first irritating thing) and there's SNOW on the ground. It's nearly May, it most certainly shouldn't be snowing (second irritating thing). Then I have to go to French first period, which is the most disorganized, boring, and face-desk worthy class I've taken (third irritating thing). Then I have to sit next to the loudest, most obnoxious group of popular kids in Ceramics (fourth irritating thing), while I try to glaze the miniature milk jug I made on the potter's wheel last week. Somewhere in there I figure out that we're on an assembly schedule, and that we have to listen to a bunch of campaign speeches by people running for student council (fifth irritating thing). After lunch, we get to band and there's a substitute. Of course, then we have sectional time and get nothing done. We started the class with 10 trumpets and by the end there are only 4 of us still practicing (sixth irritating thing). Then, after the last class of the day, we head over to the high school again for the student council assembly. It turns out to be an hour and 15 minutes long, and all the information we freshmen needed was in the last 15 minutes (seventh irritating thing). By this time, as you may have guessed, I was pretty pissed off with how the day had been overall. Well, I reach the boiling point when my friend Ceci and her boyfriend and I get to the auditorium lobby (we all sat together at the assembly). I wanted to walk back to the junior high with Ceci, but she and Boyfriend were taking forever to say goodbye, and weren't planning on walking back to the junior high in the first place. 
That was the last straw. I said goodbye and just left by myself. 
The fact that they were dating had been bothering me for a while, but I hadn't realized how angry I was getting at it until now. So here's where my advice comes in, starting at the point equivalent to when I said goodbye and just left.
What you might be feeling:

• Angry. You might feel frustrated, irritated, or plain-out angry at your friend or the boy for spending all their time together, being general lovebirds, or talking to/about each other all the time. 
• Jealous. It's likely you'll have been jealous of your friend from the start of the relationship, especially if you've got a crush who won't look at you or that you've had for a long time. 
• Let down. If you would never have guessed your friend would date in high school, it can be quite a blow to your friendship. You probably thought your friend was better than that.
• Sad. This is another one that's likely if you aren't dating; you'll feel like your life is hopeless or like you'll never be loved at all/as much as your friend.
• Mutinous. This comes after you've felt angry, jealous, sad, and let down. You'll start scheming about ways to break up your friend and their S.O. Or you'll consider ending the friendship. 

What you want to do about all those feels:

• Sort them out. Be honest with yourself about how you feel, and try to identify why you feel that way. Why is the relationship bothering you? 
• Sort out your options. What can you do to keep the relationship from bothering you? Try not to go with the options that include things like breaking the couple up or hurting the relationship between you and your friend. Preserve the friendship if you can.
• Decide on an option. If you have to, talk with your friend about how you're feeling. If they're any kind of good friend, they'll understand how you feel. But it's your responsibility to be kind and respectful. Don't bombard your friend with reasons they should break up. Also don't villainize the boyfriend. Chances are, he's a perfectly nice guy, but you just don't really know/like him that much. 
• Take a break. Do something that makes you happy. Get your mind off of the love lives of both yourself and your friend. Then come back to the problem when you're not really angry or emotional. Chilling out for a while and then looking at things realistically will help solve the problem.
• Talk with some of your other friends. They'll listen, and hopefully don't have the same problems as the friend you're not too happy with.

What you DON'T want to do:

• Ghost your friend. She'll wonder what she did wrong, which is nothing. Keep in contact, but explain the problem. Be nice.
• Get super angry at the boyfriend. You can't get angry at him for liking your friend. Keep those feelings to yourself. 
• Spread the problem around. Don't gossip about what's happening between you and the friend. It's not nice to do that.
• Dwell on the problem for too long. It'll need fixing if you want things to go back to how they were before this whole problem came up.

So once you've sorted out your feelings, maybe taken a break for a while, and worked out the problem, things will either return to how they were before, or they'll change. Hopefully you'll have worked out a compromise with your friend so that you can both coexist with the little nuances of each other's lives. Good luck to you, and I'll give more advice as it comes!

On Music, and Being a Musician

Being a musician can mean many things. It can take on a lot of forms. But the biggest part of being a musician that everyone who has ever tried playing instrument can relate to is the fact that it is hard.
It is just plain-out hard to be a musician.
This means that if you want to be good, you'll have to work hard- and consistently. If you want to surpass your peers you'll have to work even harder. There's a reason they say being a musician isn't easy: if you had a poster with the title, "Shortcuts to Becoming a Musician", it would be blank. There are no shortcuts. You have to work for it.
At our school, we know this. Mr. Taylor is an excellent director that knows how to work a band into shape. Our band room walls are decorated with state concert band plaques and jazz awards. Since we know we can be good, we have been good over the years. But there's always room to improve. This is an important part of being a musician: believing in yourself. If you have no self-confidence, you won't get very far. However, if you believe that you can go as far as you want with your music, you CAN. You'll get to wherever you want to be, guaranteed. You can even surpass people with natural talent. 
Second important point right there: consistent practice will always surpass talent that refuses to practice. Mr. Taylor has told band parents this many times, so you can be sure it's true. The Wind Ensemble and Varsity Jazz bands are excellent examples of kids who practiced and became really good musicians, who are sure to go on to greatness. Since they're so good, they make great peers for us in the lower bands; we take inspiration from them. We live and learn. I learned a lot from the Wind Ensemble trumpets last summer in marching band, seeing as I was a little fish in a big pond and hardly knew anything about anything concerned with band. See, you can learn from your peers that are more advanced than you, since they were in your place once. This helps you become a better musician, of course, and it shows that practice does indeed make you better.

The amazing Varsity trumpet line in February
From here

I didn't talk much about the Gala where that photo was taken in February, but there are more pics here. Now back to music.
Once you've decided, like me, that you want to get real good at what you play, then you will know that you'll have to work real hard the rest of your career. I practice every day that I can. Since I'm determined to get into Wind Ensemble and one of the jazz bands at least, I work to achieve. And this is the secret. YOU. HAVE. TO. WORK. And so I do work, every night for around half an hour, even on the days I have band at school. It's worked quite well over the past nearly-a-year; I've improved from being someone who doesn't hardly know any fingerings to a person who's pretty good when I practice the music enough. It's been proven. Now get to work.
Another hard part of being a musician is that once you get good enough to be the soloist, you have to maintain your balance. That is to say, you have to balance your style as a soloist and you still have to fit in with the rest of the band. You cannot be full of yourself or pretend to be of a higher rank than the rest of the band. When you're the soloist, you are not an entity in and of yourself. You're still a member of the band. That's the first hard part of being the soloist. Then you have to be confident. It takes a great amount of willpower to play confidently when there's no one else to cover up what you're playing. It takes more than you could really imagine until you do it, and then you're officially a soloist. Good for you. Now take a deep breath, practice that solo, and don't get nervous. Relax. If you manage to relax and play a solo, you'll be respected even more. More work, but it'll pay off and you can then be a good teacher for your peers. 
Now. Take a deep breath. Get your instrument. Focus, and go practice that music.
Good luck to you.
-- Emma, the well-practiced, tried-and-true band geek. 8)

The World Has Problems

But really, what's new. We all know the world has problems. Or, we certainly all SHOULD. For example, you know the world has problems when:

• People like Trump start running for President. What has our country come to?! RUBBISH, that's what! We've gotta save it, guys. Really.

I literally cannot believe this guy. Get real, Trump.
presidential-candidates.insidegov.com

• You have a ski season that lasts from late November to late February. Global warming is evil, and for more reasons than this. Plus people don't notice and/or care, so it keeps getting worse.

Ski runs in a warm April.
sputnik.by

• Your biggest problem right now is figuring out how to get that one special guy to like you, and meanwhile in Africa people can hardly get enough food. Or they're fighting civil wars. 

Consider your global community.
e-sushi.fr

• You start seeing an enormous Costco warehouse-store every 4 streets in cities.

EW. And that's all I gotta say 'bout that.
www.bizjournals.com

• People have the nerve to save Twinkies from disappearing.

What are you saying?! NOT a sweet comeback in the least! They're gross!
abcnews.go.com

• Once the Twinkies are saved, people also have the nerve to make them with edible Minion stickers for you to stick on the Twinkie and transform it into a Minion. WHAT AN ATROCITY.

Are you serious? What. Is. This.
www.businesswire.com

• Someone decides to make a motion picture version of Romeo and Juliet that's set in modern-day Las Vegas, but still uses Elizabethan language. What's happening to the world? How on Earth did they come up with that pairing- obnoxious Las Vegas and 'civilized' Old English? WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING. It really deserves the 3/10 it got in this review... maybe lower...

No. Just NO. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE. This play didn't have much to lose in the first place, but STILL.
http://community.sparknotes.com/2016/03/31/quiz-how-would-you-die-in-a-shakespeare-play

All in all, these and many other reasons will eventually bring about the apocalypse, but my friends and I will survive because we can play music. Or at least, I hope we do. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, I suppose.
I suppose I should give you an explanation for all of these things, since this is my opinion we're talking about. 
For that first one, about Trump, we all know he's an idiot. The problem is that he's winning the uneducated people's vote, and we can't have the uneducated population representing our entire country. Also Trump is racist, rude, too rich for his own good, etc etc. If I really tried I could come up with another billion reasons he shouldn't be president. For now those three will do.
On to the second one: global warming is not only destroying the length of our ski seasons, it's ruining the environment. Everything from precipitation levels to ocean current patterns gets disturbed. It also disrupts nature and the environments that animals have depended on for millennia. This is actually very likely to cause the apocalypse; humans run out of water, raw materials, kill off all the world's animals, that sort of thing. That's why we've got to stop being wasteful NOW. This is important.
As far as the global community goes, we all know it's important to donate to charities and such (well, maybe Trump doesn't), so stop focusing so much on your own life and get out there to help. It'll make you a better person in the end, and it'll take your mind off of whatever's going on in your own life.
To many of you, I'm sure Costco is a beloved repository full of nearly anything and everything you could ever need. That's all very well- but the problem comes in when big companies like Costco start trying to take over the entire market and don't let people have a choice of where they shop. This is a hard concept to understand, but it's linked to consumerism and corruption of government. Sometime in my blogging career, I'll talk about this. 
Twinkies are gross by nature. I have a feeling they got their roots in sponge cake, but I have a recipe for that and it's nothing like what's in Twinkies. Honestly, regular sponge cake- minus the nasty white "cream" that they fill those with- is fine. Why do you have to make it all artificial and disgusting?
Minions are stupid. Twinkies are gross. Need I say more?
And as for that 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet, do you really need more of an explanation? I certainly don't, I just want to throw the DVD out the window already.
So those are some things that I rant seriously about. They're all problematic and make me lose faith in humanity. I might continue this post in the future, so watch for another edition coming soon!
Thanks, by the way, for listening to my opinions without too many interruptions. Leave those in the comments. ;)

What's Up With Society?! (1st Edition)

Like it or not, there are LOTS of things wrong with our American society. Someone- likely my generation- is going to have to deal with the whole mess sooner or later. Over the rest of the year I'll blog about the big problems. But at the moment I feel like talking about a milder problem: guys. 
No, boys themselves are not society's problem, despite their occasional stupid actions. The problem is that the general dating age creeps closer and closer to the younger end of the teenage years. It causes problems. 
One: it takes you away from schoolwork. For example, I could be out on a date right now if I was going out with a boy, but I'm not, and therefore I can write this and study for my math quiz and go to bed on time. This is why I have a 4.0 GPA. You can handle both dating and school at once, but it's not easy and furthermore not recommended by me.
Two: we don't really need to be dating at our age (14 and 15). At this point we hardly understand love yet. You have your whole life in front of you. There isn't a rush. The one reason I could find to break this is if you sort of start dating a good friend and end up in a nice, relaxed relationship that's fairly genuine and lasts more than 3 weeks. That's fine. But since I am not blessed with such a good friend, I'm content with not dating for the moment.

By me.
Note: Don't take these examples seriously, they're just examples. (Meaning, they're not from my real life.)

I'm unsure of why girls my age get to be so obsessed with guys. What's the big deal? To be completely honest, guys get to be completely obnoxious at this age (with only a tiny few exceptions). I wouldn't ever date most of them. And yet the popular girls worry about how they look and everything ALL THE TIME, so everyone around them gets dragged into it. I have to listen to it and be annoyed. That's not cool, and that brings about the whole popularity topic. That problem with dating at this young age is that a lot of the popular guys that the popular girls go after are not cool. They say stupid things or try to impress everyone and end up looking unbelievably stupid or are just all-around nasty. I find that when 2 of these popular people "pair off" it lasts about 3 weeks- that's being generous- and it's only done to impress. Always to impress. It's an enormous popularity contest. Yeah, they may like each other slightly, but the relationship just dissolves. Sometimes it's off looks. The "handsomest" popular guy dates the most "beautiful" popular girl. Yeah, right. I hate makeup and I don't care about reaping the benefits of it. I look fine as I am. This is a life lesson I learned from Romeo and Juliet: do not date someone solely off their looks. Also, people make a big deal out of things like homecoming and prom. Although there are benefits to going and not going: why? It's just a dance. 
Find someone whose personality compliments yours. If you're lucky, though, sometimes that comes with good looks, which is nice. Thank you kindly for that. But back to the point at hand.
WHAT is so wrong with dating someone you actually enjoy being around that maybe isn't as popular as you?! WHAT is so wrong with being single?! WHAT is up with society? WHEN did someone decide it would be a good idea to start dating for popularity?! WHY did someone ever say, "I'm dating this guy and I'm only 14!" 
WHY. I DON'T UNDERSTAND.
Nice guys are nice guys. They don't have to be popular. They like you and your personality. Everything about you. You like everything about them. YOU LIKE BEING AROUND EACH OTHER. YOUR FRIENDS DIDN'T TELL YOU TO DO IT. IT WAS YOUR CHOICE, AS IT SHOULD BE. YOU DIDN'T RUSH INTO IT. (ALL THESE REASONS ARE WHY ROMEO AND JULIET IS SOOO INFURIATING!!!!! IT MAKES ME ANGRY!!!)

Also by me. Also not an example from my life.

I'm not saying I don't have crushes. I've crushed on a lot of guys since I turned about 11- all types from actors in my old high school's musicals to major motion picture actors (not Leo DiCaprio! What was the big deal with him?!?) to loud guys with electric guitars to other guys in the marching band trumpet line (NO, of course I won't tell you who they are- eh, were!!). Crushes are fine. I have good reason to crush on the guys I do, although I hardly ever get to know them. Maybe that'll change. Maybe. Likely not.
Next complaint: there are lots of male-dominated things! Sports, music, businesses, LOTS of things. One of these is trumpet. In marching band, the only girls in the trumpets were me and my friend Elaine. All the other trumpets were guys. It REALLY bothers me that there aren't more girls in the brass section! We trumpets sit in the back row of the band, and the vast majority of the girls in band are up in the front in the clarinets and flutes. Girls, what's wrong with brass? Too intense?! Nah. It's nice and loud. :) It's okay that there aren't more girls that play brass instruments if they really don't like the sound, but traditionally it seems that the girls were in the high woodwinds and guys played everything else. Actually, even more girls played violin traditionally. I don't like that. Whatever. It just bothers me.

Again by me. But this one's a good example of lots of lives, including mine.

What? You want an explanation for all of this? ... Do you really need one? ...Yeah. I thought so.

Reasons Why Shakespeare Isn't Worth Your Time

Every 9th grader in the U.S. of A. reads Shakespeare. Most commonly Romeo and Juliet, the stupidest love story in the known universe. My parents read it. My grandparents read it. 
And now it's my turn.
I...highly dislike it. Why would anyone like to read Shakespeare, who manages to create the worst tragedies out of otherwise fine things? I have other reasons why Shakespeare isn't worth reading, too:
1. Over-dramatization. Apparently, hidden deep within the Old English, there's humor, but Shakespeare also over-dramatized. Mostly, he killed off characters mercilessly. On the wall of our English room there's a Shakespeare's death count poster. I think the worst is King Lear or Hamlet, with around 14 dead people by the end. In good stories, people (or other organisms) don't die.
2. Old English. Like, gross. You can't even tell what they mean unless you take the effort to go read on No Fear Shakespeare; and sometimes that's forbidden when we read as a class. Even then it's not an easy read. Well, how are we supposed to write an analytical compare-contrast essay if we can't discuss the meaning and comprehend the story in class?
3. Why on EARTH do connoisseurs of fine English call Shakespeare the 'Noble Bard'? Shakespeare is in NO WAY noble! One is not noble if you make people listen to lute music instead of actual, good music like U2. Also, the plots of his plays certainly aren't noble, they're sad or stupid or just plain out, "Why would anyone want to write or read this junk?!?"

TRUTH, drawn by me.

4. People always quote Shakespeare! There's a whole arsenal of other really great quotes out there that were NOT said by Shakespeare, get some out of there instead of reverting to Old [VERY OUTDATED] English. STOP SAYING THINGS SHAKESPEARE SAID BECAUSE HE WAS NOT COOL.
5. Shakespeare made up a way to TERRIBLY insult people with his Old English. Now, we are forced to insult each other in this way at the start of every English class while we read Romeo and Juliet. It's not fun and I think we shouldn't do it because the world could do to just chill out for a while. Even though our insults aren't meaningful, it's stressful. I always think, "Why are we faking insulting each other? Why even do that?" It's not funny. It's not cool. That part of class should seriously be discontinued, because it's just pointless and it's a waste of time.
That kind of turned into a rant, but Shakespeare is literally and truly stupid! Why even bother! If I'm ever an English teacher (which is highly unlikely), I WILL NOT force my students to read Shakespeare. I don't believe he has anything worthwhile to say to us. 
Now, on to the rant on Romeo and Juliet. This is literally the worst love story I know about. First, I get that in those times, girls were... married off... to rich guys when they were even younger than me (14). Still, that's rude and weird and not cool. Then, Romeo seems to be this really emotional, depressed guy who's really lovesick and just rushes between one intense crush and another. NOT GOOD. Chill, Romeo. Chill. You don't always have to be in love with someone (although maybe that's easy for me to say? I've been single my whole teenage life...I don't know). I don't like how quickly Romeo and Juliet fall for each other. And they get married just about the next day after they meet each other. What's with that?!? Weird, that's what, and a large reason Shakespeare isn't a good thing. It's also just not really possible. Yeah, there's love at first sight but even then... get to know someone before you marry them... I think they should have slowed down and done some compatibility checks with their personalities first. Because right after they get married Romeo gets in a fight and is exiled and then Juliet gets sad and drinks the potion-thingy and then Romeo comes back and thinks she's dead and then he kills himself and then Juliet wakes up and Romeo's dead and then she stabs herself and it ends in a big, sad, stupid, why-did-I-waste-my-time-with-that MESS. That's not how the vast majority of love stories end. It's certainly not how they SHOULD or are SUPPOSED to end. 
If I'm wrong, correct me. But still. Even someone like me, who would find things like pep band romantic, wouldn't want a relationship to end like that. 
So basically, Shakespeare is just like, NOPE. I've given you ample reason.
(THIS IS TO YOU TOO, MR. PARKER. SORRY. SHAKESPEARE IS JUST NOT COOL.)

The Thing with Trumpets

swivelstone.deviantart.com

The thing that some people and not others (shame on them) do in school called 'band' can be taken in through many different points of view. To some it's an easy A on your report card. To others of us, it's a serious lifestyle. I fall into the category where it's a lifestyle.
This may sound odd, but if you think about it, there are always people who really love band. We practice more than most, attend nearly every band function there is, and listen every minute of band. And spend the summer doing marching band. Good stuff.
Over time, a lot of people have amassed hordes of band personality tests, memes, and that sort of stuff. It amuses me to read these. They can be horribly inaccurate or else disturbingly correct (for some individuals). My friends complain that trumpets are loud and obnoxious and never stop talking (very true of one certain guy who literally WILL NOT be quiet when we're not marching), and cause a loss of water breaks during field show practice.
Goodness. If I ever did any of that, do excuse me, friends.
The other thing that bothers my non-brass friends is spit valves. When I go to talk to them before band class, I'm careful not to empty those in the front of the room, where the woodwinds sit.
I think that all this loudness and such is indeed one iteration of a trumpet's personality, but also, trumpets nearly always play a key part of every piece in concert bands. Currently, in Esprit de Corps, we play a loud fanfare kind of thing at the start, which must stay on tempo and, of course, is what everyone hears. Listen for yourself:

It's excellent music, yes, for concert band. This particular video is from this channel and was actually conducted by the original conductor of the piece.
UPDATE: I HAVE A LIVE AUDITION FOR WIND ENSEMBLE IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS AND I HAVE TO PLAY PART OF ESPRIT DE CORPS AND BAND-A-PALOOZA IS TONIGHT. SOMEONE HELP ME. I NEED TO EXTEND THE NUMBER OF HOURS IN A DAY BY ABOUT A BILLION AND A HALF. THANK YOU. :) I'll be fine.
What was I saying? Oh yes, about trumpets. Although we can be loud and do a lot of showing off, we play the fanfares and melody, too. Yep.

bvso.org

I really have no idea was this post was for, but anyway. It's here now so... yea.