Yifeng+T

High school. More than a quarter of my life, spent here, at Green Hope. And what an appropriate time it is to look back… Underclassman-hood. What was I like as an underclassman? School was easy, and life was good. I had joined the legendary Green Hope Marching Band, then, 150-members strong, the biggest extracurricular organization in school. I played flute, and became the first male flute player in Green Hope band’s history… I joined a section of 17 girls…. And one boy. Me. Ohhhh, how I remember those practices, during which cute boys, shopping, feminine products, and what color sports bras to bring to band camp were discussed… But it was all good. Who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by 17 girls for at least nine hours a week? Junior year was crazy. As a drum major, my responsibilities were overwhelming on top of the six AP classes I was taking. But I got used to the rhythm of this stressful life and ended up really enjoying it. In the process, I fell in love with AP Biology. Reading more than a hundred pages out of the textbook overnight for tests… writing 26 page lab reports overnight… poking around in smelly corpses of minks and sharks…. Yet still, in the end, I loved it. Our end of year project was a fiasco, but I enjoyed it all. Hands down my favorite class during my high school career. Then, Governor’s School. Six weeks I spent at Meredith College, where everything changed… the way I think, the way I interact with others, and my whole world-view. And of course, I got to play great music with an astounding group of students, under a staff of instructors I adored. A lot of things went down in my hallway over the six weeks, some I’ll remember forever, others I’d choose to just forget. My only regret? I didn’t take enough pictures! Senior year... Being drum major in senior year was spectacular – one, because I had some experience, so I could really step back and enjoy it, and two, more importantly, I got to share the experience with a great, great friend. My courseload was much lighter this year, which gave me time to hang out with my weird friends a bit more… and to explore new interests. Like bottle flipping and drawing creepy clowns. It also gave me time to put my heart and soul into the most important document of my life… My application to Duke University. Thankfully, luckily, I was relieved to discover in December that it was decided I could join the Duke community. In April, when I visited, I found myself cheering for a team I’d despised for over 8 years… I had been a Carolina fan, and a passionate one, too. I cried after a loss to George Mason in 2006, and became depressed for a week after that embarrassing final four loss to Kansas that I prefer to just forget. But now, here I was cheering for DUKE basketball… Second semester…. Has anyone ever noticed that the words “second semester senior” all share the same starting letter as the word “slack”? Coincidence? I think not. I learned a lot senior year, one of the things being how to get by with A’s while doing the least work possible. I’m a firm believer that senioritis has no cure. The more you try to cure it, the worse it gets. And the only way to break the curse? June 10th, my friends. June 10th.

http://animoto.com/play/IU4DTHKLjNF6xzyFkl1kLw?autostart=true