Day 5-Winter Learning Journey

Day #5: One Step at a Time…

After a long day at the beach, it is now time to move away from the water and drive inland, through the middle of the south island. You are going to start in Nelson and drive south before crossing a huge mountain range called the ‘Southern Alps.’ The scenery is going to be amazing!

Activity 1: After a few hours in the car, you, your group and Curious Kiwi arrive at your first stop – The Lewis Pass Scenic Reserve. It is a beautiful, regional park located at the base of the Southern Alps. You and your group get out of the van and follow Curious Kiwi. He is going to lead you on a short walk through the park. As you start walking, you notice a really cool looking tree on the side of the trail and you stop to take a closer look. When you turn back, the group (and Curious Kiwi) is nowhere to be found. Eek! You are all alone in the middle of a strange forest.

For this activity write a short story (8-10 sentences) about what might happen next. Please be sure to include lots of details about what you might be feeling, seeing and doing after you realise that you are all alone in the forest…

http://www.kiwidaydreaming.com/p/new-zealand-maps.html

I  turned around to see that C.K(Curious kiwi) and the gang had stranded me. In a matter of seconds, loud and sinister noises echoed through the forest, this left me looking around, wide eyed like a owl. I began strutting through the bushes, looking for the gang, that is when I relieved myself of every horrific thought that flew in my mind until I felt a pair of eyes lie upon me. All the horrific thoughts came flying back, I was as paranoid as ever. I slowly breathed in the cold air, counting to 3, “1…...2…..3”. I ran as fast as I could, continuously looking back and every time I did, a black figure appeared getting closer every metre I moved. Scared out of my wits, I glanced back and the figure disappeared. I looked back to the front, and came face to face with the dark figure. I gasped in fear, gradually fading away, hitting the dirty ground, head first. I woke up to the sight of six familiar faces, “What happened?,” I asked. “Well you ate a berry that made you hallucinate, you ran every where thinking that you were being followed. Then you passed out after you touched a Wet,” C.K replied. We laughed hysterically at this and finished our tour.

Activity 2: After the adventure at The Lewis Pass Scenic Reserve, you are pretty happy to get back into the shuttle van and continue with your road trip. Over the next few hours you travel up and over the Southern Alps, arriving in the city of Christchurch to eat lunch. You have a delicious meal at a café downtown and then hop back into the van to travel to Twizel, a small town at the base of Aoraki-Mt Cook. Mt Cook is the largest mountain in New Zealand. It is also the mountain where Sir Edmund Hillary trained for his climb up Mt Everest – the tallest mountain in the world. Sir Edmund Hillary is very famous because he was the first person to ever reach the top of Mt Everest!

http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1702543,00.html

Now it is your turn to learn about a famous New Zealander. Use Google to research one famous person from New Zealand and then create a DLO and post it on your blog. Be sure to include: 1. The name of the famous person, 2. Where they were born, 3. Why they are famous, and 4. Two other interesting facts about them.

Lorde

Lorde is one of my many New Zealand inspirations. She started off in a small country, New Zealand, and grew up to be one of the most beloved pop musicians in the world. She is like most girls in our country, with high ambitions and courageous. I created a small biography of the singer using google drawing. I forgot to mention her Hit songs which are Royals, Tennis Court, Green light, Yellow Flicker Beat and Team, which are all my favourite songs of Lorde also!.

Bonus Activity: You and your tour group have enjoyed your day in the mountains but you’re ready for a change of scenery. You ask Curious Kiwi to take you to Central Otago, a region of the south island with lots of rolling hills and flat, brown grasslands. While in Central Otago, you decide to join the Otago Central Rail Trail – a 150 km long cycle trail. Curious Kiwi and I (Rachel) cycled the Rail Trail in April and we loved it!

On your blog, tell us whether you would like to cycle the Otago Rail Trail one day. Does it sound like fun? Why or why not?

Rachel on the Otago Rail Trail, April 2017

I would absolutely love to cycle the Otago Rail Trail!. I would love to explore the amazing sceneries as I cycle past them. This will challenge my biking skills as I would probably be biking on sturdy, bumpy, narrow trails which will for sure raise the bars for me. It sure sounds like a fun and amazing experience. I hope one day I will get the opportunity to visit!.

Bonus Activity: 10 points

Whew! It has been quite the day of sightseeing. You reach your hotel in Dunedin tired but excited. Tomorrow you are going to visit a very special and important place in the south island before you drive back to Auckland…

Being lost in a book!

Out of all the books in the library, this one peculiar shaped book, gold tipped pages, sturdy snake patterned spine, caught my eyes. The book lured me in, hooking me in like a fish on a line. It was casually waiting for me on the dusty bookshelf. Almost as if a magnet was pulling me in, but little did I know what the book had in store for me, what trouble it was going to behold upon me. I just couldn’t resist the alluring sight.

Atlas, the book was in my grasp. Running my fingers down the rugged cover, I examined the neat ink, black but distinct handwriting. After my fingers lifted off the cover, the writing vanished in a flash. Staring in awe, I noticed a glimpse of the title appear, shining brightly and then fading into nothing.  At that very moment, I relieved myself of that thought and gradually began to open the book. When the cover hit the wooden table, brisk wind rushed heavily towards my face enthralling me even more. Turning the page over, I braced myself for the next wind blast, instead I was greeted with words. The words wore the same writing form as the cover title had, but slimmer and this time golden. I skimmed through the entire book, going on a short but informative adventure. I then stopped on a tale that I had known very well. A story of adventure and mischief. The tale of Little Red Riding hood.

I read aloud the tale to myself. “Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a village near the forest.  Whenever she went out, the little girl wore a red riding cloak, so everyone in the village called her Little Red Riding Hood”. As I continued to read, the book began to glow. Being the curious girl I am, I read more of the tale to see the output. “One morning, Little Red Riding Hood asked her mother if…..”. Before I could finish the sentence, the pages began to flip violently, I stood shaking, confused about the situation. The book then shook intensively, creating a small whirlpool which then grew larger and larger. I turned to run, when what felt like a hook, clutched onto my collar, pulling me unwillingly to the whirl pool. SWOOSH!. I found myself spiraling like a human tornado, stopping unexpectedly in mid air. Moments later, I sunk rapidly downwards, unable to catch my breath. It felt  like one of those dreams where you fall off a cliff, but you never meet the ground. I spoke too soon, I shot down to the earth like a bullet, crashing into rose bushes. I thought that I would have been pricked all over my body, but I thought wrong. I stood in the bush perfectly unharmed, that was when I had realised, I was stuck in a fairy tale, not an ordinary fairy tale, but the tale of Little Red Riding hood. Right now, I was the one in the red cloak.

Looking at the red silky riding cloak, I thought of the times I wanted to wear it and to think I was, at this very moment. I also thought of the wolf, of how big his ears were, it’s triangular shaped ears. Of how big his eyes were, bulging almond eyes, that stalks it’s prey all day long. Of how big his teeth were, razor sharp with a hint of blood in between. My thoughts were interrupted by a female voice, a voice almost robot like, which left me cringing with confusion. “Attention. You know the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Play the part, later on regaining yours back. Good luck!”.

“Play the part….. and later regain mine back. Ohhhh play Little Red Riding hood, finishing the story and I get to be myself again, and go back to the real world. I got all of that out of a sentence with eight words,” I proposed aloud. I began my quest to fulfill the story, but with my own twist.

After walking a long distance without knowing where to actually go, I finally admitted that I was lost. From the distance, I saw a large crowd of trees. I remembered in the story that Grandma’s house was in the woods so I made my way there. As I stood in front of the woods, the tree branches waved at me. All of a sudden, a basket of goods appeared, I instantly knew the purpose of it. My red riding hood instincts kicked in, though I knew they were for Grandma, I couldn’t resist the delicious aroma, “One couldn’t hurt”. So I took a sweet and carried on with the journey. I eventually knew, that I would come nose to snout with the big bad wolf. In a matter of seconds, after entering the woods, a fury presence arrived.

“Oh how could I accompany you, madam,” Mr Wolf belowed.

“Not necessary, Mr.Wolf, for I know your sinister plan of……..actually, would you sincerely make a stop at grandma’s house. She lives at the edge of the woods, quite dangerous, but she’s there all alone,” I say this with a disturbed face, then taking a peek at the wolf who was caught up in my words, licking his lips. I then smirked quickly, going back to my sad phase. “I must meet up with you there, and thank you for the unexpected visit. Oh Mr. Wolf, please go instantly!,” I cry.

“Certainly, little red. I will take care of poor, poor grandma,” Mr.Wolf said.  As the wolf disappeared into the west area of the forest, I went east, where grandma actually lived.

On the way I sang one of the folk songs, “I knew the path clearly, the light mostly good. The woods being trees and the trees being wood,  I have no fear nor no one should”.  Once again, my thoughts failed me, I had indeed every right to be frightened. The trees were dancing horrendously, the wind teasing me, pushing me back and forward. As I regain my balance, I felt eyes shoot at me, turning around I see Mr. Wolf on his two hind legs stalking me. I make a run for it not knowing that the wolf had already made his way to grandma’s. Unaware of the wolf’s where abouts, I rushed down the path to Grandma’s house passing alarming creatures but none were intimidating so I shrugged my shoulder, not caring at all. As I came closer to  grandma's, the wooden door was wide open and I knew what that meant. I mean, who wouldn’t?.

I was getting tired of the tale, so I decided to play along. The wolf’s plan was quite obvious, but I acted as if it weren’t. Rolling my eyes, I entered Grandma’s house, “Oh, grandma!,” I called out, “Are you there?”.  The wolf replied instead, giving a utterly horrible impression of Grandma, “In..the bed darling”.  I entered her bedroom, where the foolish wolf lay in bed, with Grandma’s pink spotted bonnet and white night gown. For all I knew, Grandma worked the outfit better. Looking at Mr. Wolf, I snickered and coughed, trying to remember the words that Little Red riding hood had once spoken at this moment.

“Ohh…..oh grandma. What big ears you have,” I said as I edged closer to the bed.

“The better to hear you with, my dear,” replied the wolf.

“But grandma, what big eyes you have,” I said.

“The better to see you with, my dear,” replied the wolf.

“But grandma, what big teeth you have,” I said pretending to quiver.  

“The better to eat you with, my dear," roared the wolf and he leapt out of the bed and began to chase me. I ran outside to where I knew the woodsman would spot me.

“Help!, Help!,” I cried. The woodsman spotted me and charged at the wolf, grabbing him with one hand. The wolf then spat out poor grandma, who was frazzled by the whole experience but was still in one piece. I ran over to grandma, comforting her and said “I’m sorry grandma, I’ll never speak to strangers or linger in the forest ever again. Here, I brought some treats for you!”. As I handed the basket to grandma, everything stood still. Grandma suddenly glowed horrifically, the woodsman glowing too!. Soon I was glowing aswell and I began to levitate. I then shot up into the sky like a rocket, floating in mid air. After a long period of time, I started spiralling swiftly, shot upwards once again and stumbled out of the book. I was out.

Without any hesitation, I slammed the book shut. Something brushed on my hand as I did this, it was red and silky. I ran to the nearest computer, admiring the person in the mirror. Lying on my back was Red Riding Hood’s cloak, I was astonished!. I finally figured out how the book worked. “When you read a tale you get transported into the fairy tale, to get out you need to play the role of one of the characters and as a token for completing the story, you receive a souvenir from the character you play,” I whispered to myself. This book was very special and I knew it from the start. As I continued to admire the cloak, from the peek of my eye, I could see the book suddenly glowing. I ran quickly to see what it was, a story in the book was glowing. I opened the book, once again greeted with heavy wind. The title of the story glowed, The Three Little Pigs. I looked around the library to see if anyone was here and I started to read the first sentence of the book before saying. “Time for another adventure”.

 

Narrative planning template

Title: Needs to grab readers attention and give an idea of what the story is about.	Imagination is everything The story is about a little boy, who doesn’t imagine but is just plain, and dull. He isn’t like all children, who have imaginary friends, knows how to describe things clearly with creativity. His friends plan to take him to a wonderful, creative and crazy place!. This place is at Ambury farm. The little boy(Riley), thinks that it is just an ordinary farm with cows, goats, chickens, roosters,etc. But no, the farm is abnormal, with talking animals, leprechauns. You can even stand on the water, and the electric fences create popcorn, anything the boys imagine, everything comes true.
Orientation: How will your story start? Where? When? Who?	Riley is at home being is boring self, as his friends are in the backyard playing games and being giddy. They see that Riley is no fun and dull, so they seek an interesting plan to change his emotions, from dull to euphoric. They want Riley to be more imaginative and creative.
Beginning Event: What events are going to take place? What problem are your characters going to face?	His friends take him to Ambury farm, where they stand in front of the farm sign. Written in big handwriting, a quote stood still, “Imagination is everything”. They roam around the farm, yet everything seems still ordinary. Until they reach the meadow part of the farm, where the sheep, bulls, cows and sheep lived. They journeyed through the meadow admiring the view, when they spotted an area on the field which was a different grass colour from the rest of the grass. They all stepped on the odd grass, and a powerful wind washed over the whole farm. This leads to the animals talking, leprechauns, having the ability to walk on the water, practically anything you can imagine. But Riley’s thoughts, were all dark, turning the white fluffy sheep into a black sheep, the friendly leprechauns into feisty ones, and the great summer weather into a rainy, gloomy atmosphere.   The problem is, when the boys give up trying to help Riley, Riley couldn’t exit with them. A force field kept him in. The boy’s start to wonder why he couldn’t leave, for they had done it before. Riley's thoughts, dark and gloomy, spread throughout the farm, making matters for him worse. Riley just couldn’t escape!!.
Resolution: How will your characters solve the problem?	The boys come to realise that the problem is Riley. He wasn’t imaginative enough, that he wasn’t able to leave. They looked at the Ambury farm sign, at the very bottom in miniature handwriting, there was a little note, “ Come in with gloominess leave with joy”. That’s when it clicked. They did some imagining exercises with Riley. Step by step, Riley started to brighten up. The atmosphere of the farm, enlivened. Everything turned back to it’s abnormal peculiar self. They then learn that it’s better to have a balance of emotions, even if dullness is one of them.
Ending: How will the story finish? Where will the characters end up?	Billy and his friends enjoyed their happy and bemused days together. Everything was bright, heavenly and joyous. That was till they met a boy, as dim as Riley had been. They look at each other sighing, it was up to them to  boost his imagination to a whole new level. The end sentence might go like this, “Oh no…..here we go again”.  BAM! finished!.

The Phone call☎️

                              WALT:To use correct grammar and tense

Write a story based around a phone call.

“It can’t be?,” she cried “It just can’t!”.

“I’m sorry mam, he was spotted in a military base in area 429. Turns out….”,  the strange man’s voice silenced as he announced the truth of the situation. There was a muffled response and Paris straightened in her seat. In anger and grief, she slammed the phone onto the receiver, BANG!. Paris started laughing hysterically and insanely, then all of a sudden she bursted into tears of joy. “He’s alive. All these years I have been mourning over his “death”. All these years I did feel like he was still with me, watching over my broken soul,” she whispered sinisterly. In sudden shock, the phone once again rang, Paris had no intention to pick up the phone. The phone rang continuously, over and over and over again, yet Paris just sat there as blank as a paper, no sign of humanity.

The phone once again rang, but this time a familiar voice echoed through the apartment from the answering machine. “Beep, beep, beep. Hello, Hello, Paris”. Paris jumped out of her seat, wiped her teary eyes and ran freakishly/ anxiously to the phone. She took several deep breathes and picked the phone up, “Uhhh… Hello, who is th-is”. All Paris could hear was what sounded like a man heavily breathing and little mutters from the person. Her voice then rose louder and more confident, “Hello. Who is this?. I would very much appreciate it if you answer me?!.”

“I’m sorry honey. I’m sorry,” the man responded quickly. Paris recognized the trembling voice, she started clenching her fists, speechless, fueled with anger and was about to blow. Just as Paris opened her mouth, the man ended the call, leaving Paris in tears on her knees, sulking her eyes out. “I just don’t understand….Why?”. That moment Paris lay flat on her back on her red velvet carpet. Arms spread wide, with tear puddles forming on both sides of her head, flowing from her sky blue sky eyes.

Out of nowhere, a thunder like knock eased Paris’s crying. She stumbled onto her feet, but by the time she reached the door, no one was there but the sound sound of silence. Paris closed the door, leaning on it afterwards. A few moments later, footsteps were heard in her apartment corridor. The footsteps grew louder, and louder, finally stopping at Paris’s apartment door. She could feel the weight of the person on the other side. A envelope was slit underneath her door, decorated beautifully with rose patterns. Paris picked up the envelope and for a second she refused to open it because she was unsure of what kind of information was awaiting her in the letter. As she built up the courage to open the envelope, she was heart broken at what she read in the letter. All the questions Paris had in mind about her husband’s disappearance were answered, all stated in the letter. Right at the bottom of the letter, in a well formed handwriting that read, Sincerely yours, Alex.

Still surprised at what she had read, Paris roamed around her apartment anxiously, from one room to the other. As she walked from the living room to the kitchen, she saw a shadow moving around in her bedroom. The same mutters she heard while she was on the phone, was once heard again coming from her bedroom. As she entered the room, she was hit by an electrifying pulse throughout her body. Awaiting Paris, was a tall man dressed in an American khaki military outfit. His blonde streaked hair covered up by a camouflage army patrol hat. Paris ran over to give him a hug, but as soon as they touched, lightning bolts ran through Paris’s bones. Everyone was gone.

“CLEAR!!. BZZTT!!. CLEAR!. BZZT!!”. Paris woke up to the sight of doctors hovering over her pale face. A bright light shone above her, she became nauseous and in a blink of an eye, collapsed unexpectedly. The next day, Paris woke up appalled at what had happened. As soon as the doctors entered the room, Paris questioned them about what she had experienced. “Well mam, Peter brought you in from your apartment. He said that you were manic and said something about your husband. Peter also said that he couldn’t get you to calm down, so he decided to take a break in your room. You walked into the room running towards him and just as you touched Peter, you collapsed.” Paris tried to remember what she saw, but as she continued thinking about it, there seemed to be two sides to her memory. Reality and her delusions.

“Mam, it says here on your medical forms that you are delusional which is caused by depression. Have you been taking your meds?,” the doctors asked her.

“My meds? Well not since my husband died, you see I haven't coped well with his death and well I’m just torn. But that night I had seen my husband in my room, he even called me.” All the doctors glared at each other, eyes widened. “Paris, because you haven’t taken your medication, we believe you have been hallucinating and seeing the impossible” one doctor stated.

“You don’t know this. My husband is alive, i’m not hallucinating” cried Paris.

Another doctor jumped into the conversation, “According to your hospital information, you never had a spouse. You’re just a normal hospital patient not taking your medication. So really because you didn’t take your pills, your mind created another world where you were a once married”. The words that came out of their mouths echoed in her mind, bouncing off her brain causing a horrific ache in her head.

Paris lay in her hospital bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her medicine lay on her lap, the bottle was merely empty, not because she took them. The only sound in the room was of the clock ticking away, moving simultaneously with the ticking in her head. Just as Paris closed her rashed eyelids, a sudden chill washed over the room. The ticking of the clock grew louder, rain started pouring heavily and a phone rang nearby out of sight. Paris’s eyes flew open, she sat upright on her bed, shaking madly from head to toe. The call was put on speaker, a man with a steady voice shouted “Paariiss!”.

-In my story i’m writing about a girl who has delusions, who enters a world where she is brought to her knees.

Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.”

― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft



Survival story

   Shark Attack

We are learning to to write for a specific audience and to edit our work so that it makes sense for our readers.

The waves washed ashore bringing a bunch of sea ornaments on the coast. Humongous waves were formed, heading my direction and I knew it was time to depart. As I sunk deeper into the sea bed, I decided to start to paddle towards the waves, avoiding any ripples. Sirens went off warning those in sea of a creature approaching the beach. I swam back leaving my board behind but as I turned back to get my surfboard, the view of the flaring sun blinded my sight, and large waves hit me like  liquid boulders. It felt like several gunshots were fired at my entire body, unable to fight back, unable to breathe. I flowed elegantly, not able to move one inch of my body, as a consequence of not moving at all, a chilling presence arrived.  

Bethany, fought for her life, struggling to get free from the monstrous sea creature. A destructive pain urged through Bethany’s body, red velvet liquid flowed through the seawater, disintegrating very quickly. She kicked violently and was set free, she was able to reach the surface of the sea, struggling to swim. There was no sight of the cold-blooded creature, but in that case there was also no feeling of her right arm. Bethany blared horrendously in pain and in disturbance attracting the creature towards her. She glared back as kilometres between the creature and her became metres. Kicking her pale feet urgently made her more visible to the creature, besides the amount of blood that was flowing continuously much like a mini waterfall.

Bethany didn’t have much time to swim back to shore nor did she have time to swim to a nearby rock island. Her only chance of surviving was a buoy which was just 9 yards away but Bethany doubted her strength and ability to swim. Every stroke, every kick was a death defying move, no matter what, she couldn’t look back. Bethany reached the buoy, panting madly, trying to catch her breath. It appeared to her, that the creature that bit her fragile wing was non other then a barbarous shark. She took her necklace and earrings off which were both horned shape. She pressed on her wound and started stitching it with her necklace, using her earrings to secure the pieces of skin together.  Every stitch caused her distress which she couldn’t hold in, so she took her rash top off and ripped one sleeve off with her bare teeth. She used the sleeve to wrap around her upper arm to keep the blood from flowing.

As everyone on the coast evacuated from the shallow parts of the sea, they spotted Bethany yelling from a distance.“Pleeaase!!Heeellpp!! Shaarrkk!!”.  She was waving madly, hoping they could hear her or at least see her. All eyes were on her, the life guards made a plan to receive Bethany without anyone getting hurt. Four lifeguards hopped on a rescue boat and set off towards the floating buoy. The shark circled around the Buoy as the rescue boat came closer, the shark swam away which relieved everyone. Then a few moments later the shark turned around and charged forward towards the boat, knocking a life guard out of the boat, plummeting into the sea. Bethany had realised that the Shark was swimming towards the life guard, so she jumped into the water, using all the strength she had left in her to save the poor man. She could feel herself weaken every time she moved her right arm, slowly losing connection, feeling numb and cold. She reached the lifeguard just as the shark appeared, pushing him out of the way gesturing him to flee so she can face the shark herself.

Her worst enemy was shooting towards her like a giant bullet. While Bethany panicked  and searched for a weapon really quickly. When all hope was lost, she swam back to the buoy with the shark on her tail. She rocked the buoy loosening the chains attached to the sea bed. One chain broke off causing the buoy to tip over, then back up, the second chain broke off and the whole buoy toppled over. The shark was ruthless, it bit the top part of the buoy, getting its teeth stuck on a metallic hook. Bethany escaped and returned to try to break the remaining chain off, she pulled and tried forcing the chain out. The shark managed to get free but before he could prance on Bethany she had already broken the remaining chain. She was pulled downwards towards the spikes that held the chains and as she planned the shark followed. She glared behind catching the shark’s beady eyes, let go of the chain and moved out of the way before she hit the spikes. Because the shark swam so fast, it couldn’t brake in time so the shark ended up being skewered.

After that, she fell unconscious and drifted towards shore, still bleeding out. A little boy tugged his mum’s dress and pointed to Bethany who washed up on shore. Everyone surrounded her, calling for help, performing CPR. As she coughed up water her vision cleared and she knew she was safe.

A year later, Bethany continued surfing and worked as a medical student. She learnt so much from that terrifying experience and knew she would be scarred for life. An unforgettable day, that impacted her life so much. Though she hadn’t really regretted it because it made her more brave.

Based on true events-Shallows

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Drama

Holiday Writing

As I was standing back stage waiting for my cue, the amusement of the crowd through the stage screen eased my nerves, and cooled me down. Moments later my temperature rose up, I felt like a hot kettle. The nerves kicked in as my spotlight moment, came near. All I could do was wait anxiously, hoping I don’t ‘mess the play up.

My name is Ally ferguson, top of the class, straight A student. But there's only one subject I have to ace to graduate from high school. This horrible subject is obviously Drama. Like who needs acting when you can be normal, am I right?. Except for the fact they use acting for movies, programs, plays but really? Drama in high school, I already have enough drama at home.  I’m not just saying that because I can’t act, but coming from the daughter of a famous actor the pressure is much harder on me. Everyone expects me to be like my father, “enthusiastic”. To ace my drama class I needed to audition for the lead role of Romeo and Juliet.

First day of production auditions was a horror. I had to audition for Juliet, which was very hard for me for I have a different personality. I’m computer involved, lover of japanese animation, karate films, in other words nerdy. And Juliet, she’s sweet, gentle and naive. Even though my audition was horrible, my dad payed a lot of money to get me the role of Juliet. Which also mean a whole lot of acting lessons.

I practised a whole line before moving to the other lines in the script. I just couldn’t get over the fact that I was actually going to be in a play, in front of several people. But worse, my drama teacher is grading my performance on how I perform on the day. Though I couldn’t seem to get this one line quite right. 'll look to like, if looking liking move. But no more deep will I endart mine eye. Than your consent gives strength to make it fly’.  As soon as I knew it, I was practising the same line till the day of the production. Even at the rehearsals, I was guaranteed to let everyone down.

As I was standing back stage waiting for my cue, the amusement of the crowd through the stage screen eased my nerves, and cooled me down. I flashbacked to the time where I had let my science team down due to nerves also, but this time I knew I was going to make a change. As Lady Capulet spoke her line before mine I attended the stage calmly with ease. I stepped onto the enormous stage as Lady Capulet finished her sentence off, ‘It is an honour that I dream not of’, and so on I continued acting astonishingly until I forgot the line I had practised continuously. ‘I'll look to like, if looking liking move. Uhh----But no more deep will I endart mine eye. Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.’ I stammered at first but remembered the rest of the line as I looked at the audience, as they watched my every movement  as well as every word that I had spoken.

Indeed I had succeed in conquering a skill which I had  not favoured at first. But from the experience of actually acting I had taught myself to try harder at what I can’t seem to achieve. Also better that, I had received an A+ and along with that marvelous grade, came a Yale scholarship for acting and my academic smarts. Of course I was thrilled with the outcome but relieved that I am proudly following the footsteps of my Dad. As Mandy Hale once said “So you’re a little weird? Work it! A little different? Own it! Better to be a nerd than one of the herd”.  Spoken like a champ.