2015-2016
PERSONAL NARRATIVE In my childhood I’ve had plenty of “best friends.” In a way, you could call me the serial best friend. Now I don’t murder my friends, trust me, but throughout my childhood I have had a lot of friends over the years who I could consider to be my best friend at some point or another. The l names are filled with Brookes, Lucy’s, Kaitlin’s, Brianna’s, Nina’s, Bella’s, Katelynn’s, and the list goes on; the thing is, I don’t know why it was so hard to keep a best friend. These friendships never end in a fight or anything in that manner, so I think it is safe to assume that I’m not that bad of a person (I hope?). What had always ended up happening is that we just tended to grow apart from one other, these reasons could range from how often we see each other, to us just maturing differently and finding other friends. I’d also like to make the claim that all of my previous best friends are very nice and that they are definitely great people, even despite the worst I’ve seen in some of them. Many of them I still have contact with, but not as closely, though some just exchange awkward glances in the hallway like they don’t know if they should say hi or just act like our friendship never existed. I started to think maybe I was just picking the wrong friends(no I don’t mean sketchy friends); by this I mean that they just weren’t the right match for me. I thought I did a good job of picking friends. I typically picked people I had something in common with and were funny enough to keep up with my constant sarcastic humor. They were all generally smart people with a good home life and no real big flaws. So the excuse “it’s you not me” could not work from either side in this case. I see friends that post throwback Thursday pictures all the time of them as toddlers and I can’t help but wonder how they managed to stay together this whole time. I started to question myself for a while; I had started to think it was my fault, that I was the bad friend. I was sure it was something that I was doing; I was the friend who no one wanted to be around. Maybe I was too bossy, rude, annoying or something to those effects. I had thrown myself into this constant swirl of anger because I was blaming myself for not being able to have a lifelong best friend like everyone else around me. I was convinced I wasn’t worthy of having a best friend because I wasn’t good enough to have one. I was completely sure I was going to die a loner. I started to be friends with people who I didn’t really like, I was just hoping that someone would like me and just decide to keep me around. I was actually a little depressed in this time and I started to lose interest in things I used to love doing like dancing, reading, and socializing in general. I would avoid doing everything and just sit in my room all day, I would sometimes do things with my best friend at the time, but that was about it. Even then I still didn’t want to go out, I wanted to stay inside and watch
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Netflix because it at least made me feel some emotions even though they weren’t necessarily mine. Then the inevitable came, my best friend and I grew apart, and this time we actually had an argument. This for me should have been the sign that it really was me, I was the bad friend. Yet this event made me realize that I wasn’t. I had known my best friend all along I just never acknowledged her for being that. I had never paid mind to how close we were and all the things we did together. I had known her for so long, since the 5th grade actually. I was so blind to the fact that we were best friends because it was so easy to be with her. I felt so dumb to never realize that she was right in front of me this whole time. I felt bad at first for never calling her my best friend, for always putting other people before her because I was calling other people my best friend. This woke me up to the fact that friendship shouldn’t be hard; it shouldn’t be a constant question of if you’re doing it right, like I had felt every time before. Friendship, while not perfect all the time, should be easy. For me learning this lesson took 15 long torturous years of my life, and it was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever learned even despite how simple friendship can come to people. This all happened around 2 years ago and wave stayed together this whole time, never even stopping for an argument in all 6 years we’ve known each other. We have plans to marry the world’s hottest twins and if that doesn’t work out by the time were 40, then we’ll just get married ourselves so we can still have a wedding while were moderately young and attractive. I was infinitely thankful to have realized what I did about my best friend before it was too late, before she might have moved on to someone else. We have become so well acquainted with one another’s families they even refer to us as sisters (even though we are really distant cousins and we look nothing alike.) It seems kind of odd to find such a meaning in something but since them my life has gotten so much better, I’ve been more motivated and I look forward to social gatherings. I can’t really explain why things turned out the way it did but I can say I am happy things worked out like they did. I’m just glad I learned what I did when I did because I have met some of the best people with this newfound knowledge.
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Review #1
Volusia County Dances dazzles Audiences
Volusia County Dances was held on Nov. 12 at Mainland High School broadcasting local dance teams and studios. VCD is an annual event to showcase local dance programs in Volusia County. Ran by Shelly Mahaffey, the event kicked off at 6:00 p.m. in Mainland High School’s Performing Arts Center. The cost of tickets were $10 for entry of all ages. This year’s Annual showcase will feature our very own University High School, as well as Atlantic High School, Spruce Creek High School, Pine Ridge High School, Mainland High School, New Smyrna High School, Creekside Middle School, Deland Middle School, and Ivy Hawn Charter School of the Arts. Studios and other dance facilities such as Center Stage Dance & Performing Arts, Amanda’s Dance Center, South Beach Dance, Royal Pointe Dance Academy, Legacy Dance Studio Stars, Preps Dance Company, Kristi’s Rhythm & Dance, The European School of Performing Arts, Children’s Musical Theater Workshop, Inc., and Dance Divine Ministries were also featured. The show features a large variety of dancing styles from traditional Kick, Ballet, Jazz, Hip-Hop and everything in between. The show was packed full of friends, family and locals who came to see just what Volusia could offer. “The show was amazing and there was so much talent, I’m so glad I got the chance to perform and meet other people in the district.” UHS junior Dana Nin stated. University brought a contemporary piece called “Uncertain Tomorrow” choreographed by new dance teacher Mrs. Despard. The Pine Ridge Pantherettes brought a jazz routine called “Goodnight Moon”. Amanda’s Dance Center Brought the classic song “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”. A classical Ballet variation to “Paquita” by the European School of Performing Arts was performed. The proceeds that were made in the show were donated to the Florida Diabetes Camp who have been long time partners with Volusia County. For the first time ever, Florida Diabetes Camp has a Dance representative. Student Emilia Tillis, age 10, is a dancer who suffers from type 1 diabetes. She performed a solo called “A Little Bit Longer” which was written by Nick Jonas and his brothers, Kevin and Joe. The song was written about N. Jonas’s diagnosis with type 1 diabetes. Emilia’s mother, Adrienne Tillis stated “Volusia County Dances is a wonderful program that donates to Florida Diabetes Camp. The camp has been a wonderful experience for my daughter in the previous years. The camp is a great opportunity for type 1 diabetics who may have an extremely hard time going to traditional camp; it give the kids a chance to go to camp to meet and learn about kids with diabetes.”
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Volusia County Dances is a great chance for all the schools and studios to come together to broadcast our lovely performing arts programs. Volusia has many highly respectable and award winning dance teams and it is heartwarming to see them all come together to help raise awareness for dance programs around Volusia County.
Reflection One thing I am really proud of about my Volusia county dance article is the amount of photography I got to take. I didn’t know how to add images into Digital Bell that well so I didn’t get to showcase all of my pictures. I think for not being a hard news writer, I reported this to the best if my abilities. Of course there is always little mistakes that I’ve missed (now that I’m looking back on it.) if could change this article now I would definitely add 2 or 3 more pictures, there was so many good ones that it took but I couldn’t figure out how to use them in Digital Bell. I would also find a way to list all the schools and studios that went to the event in a different way (perhaps in an image), it is very clustered and not appealing to they eye. It takes up a lot of word count in my article that I could have used to talk about the event more.
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Review #2 15th annual dancing for diabetes
The 15th annual Dancing for Diabetes took place on Nov. 14 at Seminole High School. Creator and director Elizabeth Stein is a type 1 diabetic, she was diagnosed at age 10. When she was in middle school at Millennia Middle she went to her principal and dance teacher, Walt Griffin and Holly Ricker, and asked to host her very own dancing for diabetes event. She wanted to help raise money to increase awareness about diabetes and to help find a cure. 15 years has made a dramatic difference; the first show took place in 2000 in her driveway with friends and her family spectating. Soon after she grew the attention of the public and her school, and she held the event in her middle school auditorium. In 2013, her show had grown so much in the central Florida area she sold out completely and from there on the event had to be moved to Seminole High School. “Over the past 15 years, Dancing for Diabetes has quickly transformed from a small neighborhood event to a large scale production full of passion and talent,” stated Stein. Every year Stein and choreographer/dance teacher Kelly Simbolick gather a group of kids who are all diabetic and they form a dance routine. On top of that group, they ask schools and studios from around the area to come and bring their routines. They include schools such as Millennia’s dance and chorus routines as well as Seminole High School’s dazzlers. They also invite studios such as Focus Performing Arts, Edge Dance Studio, Miriam and Valerie’s, Xtreme Dance Studio, Extreme All Stars, The FunkyWunks, and Elevate Pro. “… 350+ children and young adult dancers put all their heart, energy and talents on the stage for a greater cause.” Stein added. The performance kicked off at 7 p.m. last Saturday night. The auditorium was packed full pf residents and sponsors. Between tickets, sponsorships, concessions, merchandise the nonprofit organization raised the most money they have ever made in a single event. The talent was as amazing as it’s ever been, every routine was followed with a loud and enthusiastic round of applause. The biggest message that Stein wants to share is that although it is not yet curable, diabetes is not something that one can cause. Type 1 diabetes is something that you are born with in your DNA, not caused by poor diet and exercise as some may believe.
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Stein and Simbolick hope to and are in the process of expanding their organization to locations other than Central Florida. With such success in this location Stein wants to spread to other areas to involve those schools and studios to help raise awareness. Steins final goal is to make the organization known all over the world. In the last few years she has expanded vastly and she can expect to continue to do so in the following years.
Reflection Mother of all commas; I cannot believe the amount of commas I missed. That was such a dumb thing to not have, but now looking back on it, it’s making my skin crawl. I do however really like the way I talked about the origins on dancing for diabetes; being that the 15th year was a huge step forward for their program in so many ways it really helps the event part of the article seem like a big deal when compared to the first year. I cannot begin to explain how much I love all of this photography; I will never shut up about how much I love taking action shots of dance performance. I know I super biased, but these pictures make this article so much better. I also really appreciate the way I listed the studios and schools that participated, it doesn’t feel as overwhelming as one of my other articles. If I could change this article now there would be about 30 more commas and I could have swapped the order in which I talked about the origins and the event itself; I feel like I took to long to actually talk about the event so I would have ended with the origins to make it more heartfelt and leave the reader feeling happy for D4D.
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Review #3 5 Seconds of Summer take on Tampa
5 Seconds of Summer kicked off their 69th show on the Rock Out with Your Socks Out Tour this last Saturday in The MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheater. 5 Seconds of Summer has been touring for the last six months. The Rock Out with Your Socks Out Tour has been quite the success, with nearly all the shows selling out or close to being over crowded. Previously, the band was the opening act for the famous boy band, One Direction, on their world tour, Where We Are. This was the band’s first tour since then and they have proved to be a hit with their audience, dropping multiple singles, and reaching number one on iTunes and Spotify less than 24 hours after their release dates. Fans gathered in almost a mile long line hours before the concert actually started, doors would have been opened sooner, but they released a statement that due to weather warnings entry would be delayed. The doors finally opened at six o’clock and fans were cheering and screaming as they ran to go purchase band merchandise such as tour shirts, bandanas and even a stuffed replica of the bands dog mascot, ketchup. Sophomore fan Andrea Febres commented on the Tampa concert poster,” I think our city poster is very ugly, sorry but let’s be honest I’d probably still buy it.” Fans went all out with signs and outfits. Everything from jerseys that read “Mrs. Hood”, “Idiot” flannels, to a sign that referenced one of their newest songs, “Jet Black Heart”, that stated, “I’ve got a Jack Black heart” with actor Jack Black pictured on the sign, which one of the band members pointed out later in the show. Sophomore fan Haylei Reidel stated, “Luke Hemming’s voice sounds like an angel, he is very attractive” Opening act Hey Violet the band took stage at 7:30 p.m. singing a few of their song such as “Sparks Fly” and “I Can Feel It”. They even sang a cover of “Blank Space” by Taylor Swift. After this, the main act, 5 Seconds Of Summer, entered the stage shocking many fans due to the lead drummer’s new hair. Drummer, Ashton Irwin, who in the last year or so has been growing his hair out to about his shoulders, appeared on stage with a much shorter hair cut causing many reactions from fans. Those reactions seemed to be primarily positive. “He looks like a goober” Fan, Christina Velez said after the show. The band opened with the song “End Up Here”. The crowd went nuts, some fans were even seen crying in their seats. Fans held up phone flash lights and glow sticks for “Long Way Home”, “Amnesia” and “Beside You”, which lit up the entire stadium even causing Hemmings to get teary eyed after. Band members Michael Clifford and Calum Hood made sure to thank the fans for everything they have done to help them and overcome life’s struggles and mentioned how this has been one of the best years of their life.
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Fans snuck in beach balls and balloons to be brought out during the song “Permanent Vacation”. There was about 20 or so beach balls bouncing around the stadium.
Close to half were confiscated during this song but the other half bounced around off people’s heads in every section for the remainder of the song. The band then continued to sing a fan favorite cover of “American Idiot”, which is originally sung by similar pop-rock band Green Day. During the performance, even parents were singing along. One of the final songs played before the encore was “Wrapped Around Your Finger”, which was written primarily by Clifford and producer John Feldy who fans call “The Rock Father”. During the song, Clifford decided to change some of the lyrics in the heat of the moment and ended up screaming a few derogatory terms into the song lyrics. The band came back on stage for an encore and performed the final song “Good Girls” which was the second single the band released earlier in the course of the last two years. This left fans riled up and loud as the band walked to the end of the catwalk to do their final bow. Irwin even jumped off stage to go touch some of the fans again before he ran off after the other band members. Post-concert shock then set in as most fans realized that it was time for them to pack up and make their way out of the venue. Sophomore Abigail Kellie was lost for words, when asked about the concert she responded, “Oh my god!” 5 Seconds of Summer has assured fans that they will have another tour, they claim that the next tour will be even better. Fans are already excited about the next album, Sounds Good Feel Good. The band has already released some new songs from the album such as “Fly Away”, “She’s Kinda Hot” and “Jet Black Heart”. The band intends to drop the new album on the Oct. 23; they have stated that the new album involves a theme of being a social reject among society “Absolutely! The next time they come I want nothing other than front row tickets so I can bask in their beauty.” Stated Febres when asked if she would attend a 5 Seconds of Summer concert again. Fans like Reidel, Febres, Velez and Kellie promise they will be back for the next our. When asked, fans agree that their socks were most definitely knocked off by the concert!
Reflection
This concert was a blast so I got so much happiness out of writing this article. I remember pulling so many interviews for this and that’s probably one of my favorite parts of this article., I had managed to get 5 or 6 quotes and I felt I had used them well so it didn’t seem like it was quote after quote. The quotes from UHS alumni and even from both upper classmen and lower classmen so it didn’t seem biased to one class, which is usually how it ends up being. Looking back it is really long but I was suffering from PCD so every detail of the concert was important in my mind so I felt I had to use all of them. I don’t like how I did a play by play of what songs they did it’s a little weird but I did do a really good job of describing all the important things like Ashton’s hair, the beach ball crowd, and singer Michael Clifford’s F-bomb.
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Photography
I love everything about this picture, I still brag about it to this day. I’ve seen people take pictures of people doing this and I always thought it was so cool how people can get a picture of someone moving so fast. I took this for dancing for diabetes during one of their hip-hop numbers and they had head spinners everywhere and I was so lucky to catch this one, most came out super blurry but this one is near perfect aside from his left foot being a little blurry. I also love how event though like 90% of the picture is black the lighting was perfect so it didn’t look too dark. I wish the floor wasn’t so faded because it feel like the picture could look way cleaner if the floor was a solid black.
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I took this picture during my walk around Gemini springs before we started the fashion shoot for the spring magazine. I just wanted to get an idea of what areas I was working with and doing this I brought me to one of the best pictures (in my opinion) I’ve ever taken. I hate taking pictures of nature, I don’t like not being able to move things and adjust things like you can with people. Nor do I fine lens flares attractive, I find them very cliché in modern photography. I will say I literally love everything about this picture. From the perfectly cloudy sky to the bright red flowers the colors work so well together and the sun hit the camera perfectly giving it a cool filter to make it look super sunny out. The image came out so sharp and clear you can literally count the leaves. One thing that soothes my OCD is how well placed the flowers are, usually its disproportionate and not so nicely scattered amongst the tree but this picture doesn’t feel overwhelmed in any place by too much red and it just over all very relaxing to look at.
This picture was one of my more recent favorites. This dance is really heart wrenching and I feel like this image really captures the emotions perfectly. I can really feel the pain they both were trying to portray; Sydney (blonde) was always supporting others despite her own struggles and Meagan (brunette) was always one to trust others too much. I was really surprised I actually caught this because it was a very quick movement but I remember this always being one of my favorite parts of the routine. I think the lighting was really good too the bright orange and pink really showed off the darker parts of this image however, I wish the floor was a lighter color so the costumes would stand out more.
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