This piece is the first orchestral piece I have composed. I intend to include it as one of the movements in my first symphony. I first began this piece as an exercise to explore the orchestra setting. I wanted to expand my skill set to include more than just solo piano or small ensembles, so I began a symphony. I researched a lot of orchestration techniques and listened to several symphonies to prepare for this piece, and I tried to emulate the things I liked from that research. My symphony was especially influenced by Shostakovich's and Mahler's symphonies, Holst's The Planets Suite, and Gershwin's Piano Rolls. This past year, I used music composition as a diary of sorts. This year has been stressful, as I have spent it deciding what I want to do with my life. There has been illness and hardship in my family, my brother moved away, and I have been preparing for college; it all left me drained. I wanted to have a long-term project which I could turn to when I felt overwhelmed, and so I began this first orchestral piece. This piece was derived from my excitement and apprehension for the future, from my desire to explore a tougher but richer medium of music, and written to vent my troubles into. Although individual sections could be interpreted as specific experiences, it is the piece as a whole, as a single statement, which describes this period of my life. I am spending all of my free time preparing for a degree in Music Composition. I take several hours a day working on aural training, composition, and piano playing. I want to score films and work with Music in World Cultures, to use my music to reach out and help others.

Every day, I take time to play the piano. When I sit down and open the piano, I prepare to focus only on my music and playing. I can stop worrying about grades, paying for college, and scholarship deadlines, and simply focus on creating a performance. Listening to and playing the music relaxes me, and allows me to feel something besides stress and anxiety for a few hours. When I finally finish, my hands warm and my arms a little fatigued, I have brushed away the cloud of anxiousness that builds up over a long day. It leaves me in a better mood, rejuvenated and ready to continue my work with excitement instead of dread. I make my piano playing a priority each day. When I miss a day of practice, it leaves me unrested from the day's troubles and worried that my skills will deteriorate. Playing the piano is as essential as eating for me. If I neglect the piano, I feel hungry for it and weary from my lack of escape. The music centers me, cathartically expunging negative feelings so that I can finish my work without distraction. Practicing the piano also gives me a tangible reward for my hard work. This year, everything I do on a day-to-day basis is an investment in the future, and it provides no present reward. When I finish memorizing a piece or successfully play a difficult passage, it gives me a sign of my success and satisfaction in my work. This gives me the forward momentum I need to continue each day without becoming overwhelmed. Playing the piano is how I care for my mental well-being, and how I ensure that I am not only working but enjoying myself as well.

This year has been the most hectic and stressful year of my life. I have overloaded my schedule with too many activities: two theater productions in which I have lead roles, a fundraiser for one of those productions, two hours of piano practice and composing a day, several hours of scholarship searching a day, and all of this on top of my everyday schoolwork! Every day seems long and arduous, and the year is creeping along at the slowest pace imaginable, while at the same time deadlines close in on me at the speed of light. I have not been the same person under all this pressure. It has worn me down and brought out qualities I do not like in myself. Realizing this, I have committed to focusing on patience. I want to be patient with my parents, who want to help me but still need my help around the house. I want to be patient with my siblings, who do not understand how hard I am working, and expect things to be as they have always been. I want to be patient with my year, focus on my goals, and remember that I will accomplish them soon. I want to be patient about paying for college, and be at peace while waiting for financial aid and scholarship results. And I want to be patient with myself, because I know I am under pressure, and I can use this experience to build character and resolve. These commitments are important because they keep me from hurting my loved ones and hurting myself. I do not want to push people away during difficult times, and I do not want frustration to cloud my reasoning or make me act irrationally. I want to be always empathetic, and that starts with patience.

This year has been the most hectic and stressful year of my life. I have overloaded my schedule with too many activities: two theater productions in which I have lead roles, a fundraiser for one of those productions, two hours of piano practice and composing a day, several hours of scholarship searching a day, and all of this on top of my everyday schoolwork! I have never had so many responsibilities that I had to manage myself, and I felt tempted to back out of some of them, especially the never-ending scholarship search. I was constantly anxious and exhausted, and I did not want to go on with this lifestyle. As I endured these anxieties, I realized that they began to lighten. I realized I was learning to bear responsibilities and to keep myself accountable. I was working more efficiently and maturely, and was seeking out opportunities to learn, especially in my scholarship search. I took time to watch the GE Reagan livestreams, which talked about Reagan Scholars' scholarship searches, and used that to optimize my search process. I went from dreading applying for scholarships, wondering whether it was a waste of my valuable time, to being excited about pursuing my dream of graduating debt-free. I want to keep this growth mindset with me into my adult life. I wish to make a career out of film scoring, which will take a lot of hard work and motivation. If I can learn from my experiences now, then I can learn while working in the tough industry of film scoring. This gives me the courage I need to focus on maintaining a growth mindset, so that I can do anything I set my mind to if I am determined to learn.

About two years ago, my dad lost his job when the company he worked at was sold. My family was fortunate enough to have savings to live off of for several months, but even as we reached the end of them, my dad had still not found a job. When the final dollar had nearly been spent, my dad managed to get a temporary contract, and when that expired, he was officially hired at UPMC. My father has told me that throughout that period, he would come across the perfect job and would pray about it. He would say, "God, please give me this job, it is the perfect one." But each time, he would be rejected. When our savings were nearly depleted, he changed his prayer to, "God, I'm leaving this in your hands. You know what is best, and I will trust you." During his next interview, he got the job. I feel like this was a message from God, preparing me and my family for a day when we will need to trust him even more than we did then. This was not about my dad's job, it was about teaching us to trust God. As I am preparing for the next stage of my life, I also have a serious financial worry: I am worried that I will not be able to pay for college. I constantly need to remind myself that God has a plan for me, as He says in Jeremiah 29:11. Even if I received zero financial aid, won no scholarships, and was not eligible for a student loan, I would still have a hope and a future. Perhaps God wants those scholarships to go to someone else. I want to put my trust in God, not a college education. Recently, I have been hearing the Sermon on the Mount wherever I go. My pastor just finished giving a sermon series on it, I heard it while going to another church, and my youth group pastor gave a sermon on it. All of them have been talking about the same verse, Matthew 6:26, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?" This verse soothes my fear that I will not succeed financially. I plan to go into film scoring, which is a very cutthroat business. I need to remind myself not to worry about money, and that God will provide for my needs. I have been a Christian my entire life. These trials have been opportunities for me to display my trust and faith in God so that I can be a light to those who are lost in despair and worry about money. I think the best way to help someone is to reflect the light of Jesus onto their face, so that they can see for themselves the effect that a relationship with Him can have. I hope I can share that light with everyone I meet. This mission is important to me because of what Jesus did for me on the cross. Even though I cannot remember a time when I was not a Christian, I have felt the difference between who I am now and who I would be without Christ. The difference is that I am filled with Christ's love, and I want to share and experience the joy of that love with everyone.

My favorite artist is George Gershwin, an American composer and musician who had a unique style that blended Classical form with Jazz melodies and harmonies. I was introduced to his music about two years ago, and since then his Piano Rolls have inspired me to listen to types of music like Classical, Ragtime, and Jazz, which I had not been interested in before. My favorite piece from his repertoire is Rhapsody in Blue, which best demonstrates his unique style by using Jazz-inspired subjects in an early-Romantic form. I love Gershwin's experimentation in tonality, and it is his music that made me want to become a professional composer and provided me with the style and form that informs my creative choices even today.

My great-uncle Curt recently died of cancer only four days ago after a two-year battle. I had not gotten to know him very well, but while I listened to people talk about him at the funeral that happened just yesterday as of writing this, I realized I wanted to be like him. People talked about how Godly he was, how kind and generous. So many people felt this loss, and he had touched the lives of so many people. I was moved not by all he accomplished, but by what he accomplished. He didn't have to lead a group or invent something to radically change these people's lives, he had only to be kind at all times, and to share his wisdom with everyone around him. Even while he was only weeks from dying, Curt still found joy in life and happiness out of his relationships. It amazes me that someone so sick and who knew of his imminent departure could still be a blessing to everyone around him. He was smiling and chatting with his grandkids, nieces, and nephews at our last family reunion, and reconnected with an old friend of his during the year leading up to his passing. This man has made me reconsider what I want out of my life. As a high school student I am constantly bombarded with messages that I should focus on getting a high-paying job and be a leader who moves mountains, and for a long time I thought this was right, but after hearing about Curt's life from the mouths of his loved ones, I have changed my mind. I think that if I could be a man like Curt, I would be doing something much more meaningful for my community, my friends and family, and the world. The goals I want to fight to achieve are being there for my family, being a source of wisdom, being patient and kind, boldly searching out for those who need help, not backing down when people berate me, never giving in to my own doubt and despair, but most of all, loving everyone I meet. I also hope that by living such a life, I can inspire others to live similar lives; that is the difference I want to achieve, so that one day at my funeral, many people will tell of the Godly, kind, and loving man that I was, and those who hear will look into themselves and find that they want to live like that.

My favorite piece of art is Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin. The way Gershwin uses the rhapsody form to develop his themes is sublime. It is like a continuous train of musical thought, and each incarnation of the main theme develops upon the last. It feels like a story is being told musically, and the lack of repeating sections creates a sense of an unprogrammed experience. This combines beautifully with jazz melodies, which also have a stream-of-consciousness quality. The piece was written to personify New York City, and it achieves this effect perfectly. While listening to this piece you can picture a newcomer stepping out into the streets of New York and walking through bustling squares, taking in the sights of the cultural hub of the world. The Rhapsody in Blue has a vibrant tonal pallette of Jazz melodies and harmonies, but set to orchestra and fit into a classical conventions of form; the rhapsody form itself a very romantic-period form that is used to build an epic, wide-spanning work. This form, combined with the unconventional use of Jazz and Ragtime inspired melodies, makes this piece a unique experience and is what brought it to global levels of fame. I love this piece for its boundary-pushing attitude, its beautiful themes, and its use of form which colors my own composing; this piece has become important to me because it has influenced my understanding of music.

I would love to see an increased public interest in the arts. Art of all kinds has been forgotten, and it is insufficiently taught in schools. Society has forgotten how to enjoy it, and it is missed. Humans experience emotion partially through art, and without it, we cannot fully feel. Currently, I am part of a theater production that my local homeschool co-op is holding. This is the first year the co-op is holding a theater production, and they plan to do this annually. The directors and producers are scrambling to organize the production, as they have never done this before. To help them with this process, I have taken responsibility for a fundraiser being held this semester. I am organizing a bake sale project, where all the students who are participating in the production will volunteer a baked good that they will make and bring to our co-op gathering to be sold. There will be five students volunteering each week for four weeks, and all the proceeds will be put towards production costs like venue rental and costuming. I am also passionate about is missions trips with the church. Specifically, I loved a mission trip where I provided daycare assistance for impoverished families who had to work all day. I supervised games and activities for the children, who were about ages 4-12, and we fed them lunch, which was a huge blessing to the parents as it relieved that cost from them. This was a life-changing experience for me, as I had never seen poverty on this level. Another trip that I went on that changed my life was a trip to Long Island, New York, which had been devastated by Hurricane Sandy. Even after five years, there was still damage that needed to be repaired. I was part of a team of about twelve other students and student leaders. My team and I helped with the latter end of repairs on a couple's home, doing things like sanding down walls and painting, pocking baseboards, laying out flooring, and clearing garbage and leftovers from the house. We left the house almost completely repaired and finished, and the couple was extremely grateful. I have also taken every opportunity I could to help around my church and community. I have been on several Go! Weekends, which is an event hosted by my church, The Bible Chapel, where students serve the community for a day. During these I have helped sort clothing at a charity thrift store, done gardening work for an elderly couple who were sick, helped out at a non-profit horse farm, and many other jobs. I have also volunteered for the worship team to be leader there who organizes worship each week. I try to help out at my church all I can and to stay involved with the youth group. I intend to continue serving the community at every opportunity. When I graduate, and in between my years of college, I plan to go on a mission trip with a missions organization that my piano teacher is affiliated with. She goes to places in Eastern Europe where people have a limited access to education and provides music education to children there. I want to help brighten these people's lives by helping them discover the gift of music and spending my time helping others to improve lives here, there, and everywhere.