Student Blog: Back To School

It’s back-to-school season, and high school seniors everywhere are clamoring to complete college essays and applications while fighting off severe cases of “senior-itis.” However, there’s a certain group of students that have a whole other admissions process to go through: Auditions.

As a high school senior currently in the process of pre-screens, wild-cards, and all the other craziness that comes with pursuing a BFA in musical theatre, I made it a point to select courses based on my known time constraints. I have friends taking 5 AP classes this year. Not me. I knocked out the majority of my required credits last year, so this year I don’t even need to take a science course (which is good, given that science is definitely not my strong suit!). My classes this semester are as follows: 

Intro to Film Theory and History H

Television Production

Civics H

American Sign Language III H

Camerata Singers H (Choir)

ECE Satire and Writing Through Humor

Statistics

I am so thankful to Junior year Brie for not overextending herself (as I tend to do, but that’s a topic for another time…), and recognizing her limits. Even with a lighter in-school workload this semester, my school year has been pretty hectic so far with college applications, theatrical productions, extracurriculars, and internships. I can not even fathom what my life would look like if I had elected to take the classes many of my friends are taking… I suppose I just wouldn’t sleep. 

This, of course, is not to discourage anyone from taking higher level courses; I myself am still in college level and honors classes this year. The important thing to remember is that I enjoy these classes. I love English class, so taking it at a high level doesn’t add too much stress to my plate, despite the somewhat increased workload. But I am not a STEM person… so my Statistics class is CP, and although I know I could handle an honors math class (as I have in previous years), I don’t want to have to worry about my GPA as I’m also worrying about whether I’ll be one of the 1%-5% of students accepted into a BFA program. 

Obviously, course selection is up to personal choice, and I am sure there are some people with the ability to balance AP classes with the insanity of senior year (and if you are one of those people, I’m jealous!). However, musical theatre is a whole lifestyle, and I choose to devote myself to that for now — not necessarily putting high school on the back burner, but allowing myself to enjoy the last moments of my high school career by putting myself first.