Day 181: The End

I finished. I am done. There a nothing left here besides graduation. I have no forced connection here. My end here is almost done. I only await for graduation. I have ran my course. I have done as much as I can, and all that I have done is much more than most others here at this school will ever do, or dream to do. I am privileged to have gone to this school, to meet the people that I have met, to make the friends that I have now, and live the life that I have lived in my four years here. To those reading this, I thank you, thank you for allowing me to share this year with you, thank you for listening to me complain day in and day out. Thank you for being the one that knew everything and that I trusted in. You were there for me always. Thank you stranger. Thank you.

I promise to post two more times after this. An epilogue, one this Saturday and one right before I leave for college.

And with this, I say "Goodbye", and "Good luck".

Godspeed, my friends.

Day 180: Chance Music

This is how they do it in Russia. Throwing up the horns. So metal.

When we listen to music, we listen selectively. Everything goes in and for the most part we select the parts that we listen in our heads. There are certain types of music in which the point is that you listen and key on into a part the music that you only hear and that cannot be played the same way. This is called Chance Music. It is quite akin to a raga. In my theory class we all wrote a measure and then we all combined our measures together into a piece. You take the piece one measure at a time. You are given a tempo and you take you can repeat a measure as many times as you want and then when you feel like it is time to move to the next you do, but you cannot go back to the previous measure. This way no one is on the same measure at the same time and you have people going in between different keyboard instruments and this piece that cannot be played the same way again is born.

I see this piece as a way of moving on. You take each measure one a time and you repeat them again and again until you move on. To me, this is how I am able to move on. When I feel it is time to move on and I come to terms with myself, or the measure, then I move on. The psychological aspect is beyond me.

I am ready for my last day tomorrow, but I must steel myself, for tomorrow will be a long day.

179: Pins

Left to Right: Chris, Jose, Kevin(me), Simon, Isela, Ben, and Ian.

I have many things that I can show for my years in Music: Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, NorCal Honor Choir Medal, etc. For all of my efforts, I have been awarded, for each of the groups I have been in, I have received a pin: Band, Jazz Band, Pit Orchestra, and Choir. Like a soldier who wears his or her medals in honor, on graduation I get to proudly wear mine to show for my dedication to Music.

Day 178: The Letter A

Ash Jong-il

Let me tell you about the United States Government. Article One of the United States Constitution tells us the powers of Congress. Now take that fact, and tell it to yourself three times, or more if you wish. Make a test about the United States Government and make as many questions about that one statement. Then make the rest of the questions have the answers all be "A". That was my Government final.

Easiest. Test. Ever.

Another word that starts with the letter A is asthma. I was diagnosed with asthma today. I have to have two inhalers. The first a steroid that I must take every morning and night and my other is my rescue inhaler. This is part of my life now.

Day 177: I Wish To Take It All Back

I want to take it back. A lot of things back. I am not saying I have regrets, but a redo would be nice right now.

Today was the Poetry Slam, more specifically, the "Senior Slam". That is where are all of the senior poets come in and say some kind of deep poem. I finished mine 15 minutes before the poetry slam. It was 12 lines long and it was stupid. I feel so bad about it.

This is a goodbye
I was hoping to make it cliche
I have a massive headache
Mr. VanEyken, is my rhyming OK?

I wanted to say I love you
And all of those cutsie things
My brain still hurts
We are all word smithing kings

So basically I love you all
I am cutting you all down with my poetic scythe
Je suis mal a la tete
Have a wonderful life.

Please invent a time machine so that I correct this mistake. Someone after the Poetry Slam in my French class told me that of all of the poems, mine was the most unmoving. I feel so bad about this. I really had a headache and I made myself look like a fool, as I usually do.

I feel horrible remembering it. Good job, me.

Day 176: Drum Circles and Conducting

My hands hurt. I think I legitimately bruised my hand. We have been having drum circles all day. I have been leading them on Djimbe. We tried to go through different styles of drum circling and in the end we ended up going African to Latin and then we settled on Native American. We did Native American chant and it was so cool to be able to lead that. I want more, but I should let my hands recover.

I conducted in Wind today. I am slowly growing to dislike conducting that group. They are so unruly and judgmental. They hardly ever listen to a word I say so in the end I look like an *insert curse word here* to them. The only sections that listen to me all the way are the Percussionist. They are the good children, maybe the flutes, but they gossip and hardly listen. They follow me well, but meh. The group almost refused to play unless we played these two songs that they requested. I hate how they never listen to me. It irritates me so. I understand Mr.A and his frustrations so much. They always say how stressed he is and how he is so mean, it is not his fault, it is our fault.

I have to conduct again tomorrow. Great.

Day 175: Make Our Garden Grow

Think of a plant. Most plants have roots, a trunk, and leaves and flowers. If you cut the leaves and the flowers, most of the time they grow back. If you cut the trunk, the plant will be stuck there and no flowers and leaves will ever grow. Not imagine if you ripped out the roots, then the plants die. Apply this to Music programs across California, where Music programs are cut. Some High Schools(Leaves and Flowers) lack a program. Some Junior Highs(The Stem) lack a program. Some Elementary Schools(roots) lack a program. Think of everything as a garden. We are the garden and slowly but surely the garden is dying. If something is not done about saving the garden, then our garden will die. There will be no more Music.

I will get off my high horse now.

Also, today was my last concert as a high school Senior.

Day 174:Senior Night

Tonight was Senior Night at my school. Not exactly sure as to what it meant at the beginning, and am not sure as to what is means now, but needless to say, it was fun.

I received a yearbook tonight, which is funny because I just decided to buy it then and there. I almost did not, but Carlos bought one his Senior Year and I have not bought one in all of my years in school. I was in a few pictures, which is much of a surprise because besides the Wind Ensemble, Choir, and my Senior Photo, I should not have appeared anywhere, which is always a pleasant surprise.

Simon, Seth, Jose, Ben, Ian and some other people decided to go play a game of Ultimate Frisbee. It was shirts vs. skins, I was on skins so yes, I ran around a soccer field with my shoes off and my shirt. Seth and I were on a team of four while Simon's team had five. We dominated Simon 's team 10-4. I expected to lose and stand there like a shirtless loser, but I stood there like a shirtless winner!

So there was a place where people could get snow cones and an orthodontist threw a snowball at my kidneys, which only mildly hurt, still bugged me. Then I sat down to take a phone call and the whole time he kept on throwing snowballs at me. He was missing on purpose, but he threw a lot and it was very bothersome. In the end, I had snow in my hair and my shirt. It was not fun.

Then there was this lame band that played. They were lame. They sounded like a lame reggae, jazz nonsense band that had a guy screaming. You would think that that would sound cool, but no. 

Just, no.

Days 169-170: Russia FTW

Day 169

I think I look good. There are some days that I think I look halfway decent.

Day 170

So Eurovision started today and I hope Russia wins because a group of old Russian ladies singing a song called "Party For Everybody". They won the semifinals so they should win this year. So I am representing Russia.

Viva la Russia.

Days 164-168: RAD

Day 164

Kevin Enriquez: The Raddest Person in the World.

Day 165

Still pretty rad.

Day 166

Now I am chilling, but still pretty rad.

Day 167

A little bit of a cloudy day, but still rad.

Day 168

In deep thought, and also rad.

Day 157-162: Seniorisit

Day 157:

"YO"

Day 160

Day 162

This gigantic whole in my memory exists here. I became to lazy to take my pictures because I have come down with Senioritis. A completely fictional disease in where seniors in high school become lazy and give up on high school. I am Kevin Enriquez, and I have it.

Days 152-154+The Weekend: DC

Day 152:

That right there my friends, is Abraham Lincoln. you should thank him, and feel intimated. This was my first day in DC. I had a massive headache and then food made it better. I wish I could just upload my mental pictures of the place, of DC. I went to Arlington Cemetery. I saw where the Kennedys are buried. I saw a lot of headstones. A lot of funerals, 3 to be exact. It turns out that there are 21 funerals a day.

Saturday:

Today I had a concert at the WWII memorial. The beauty of the memorial, of every memorial really. There are two arches one engraved with the word PACIFIC and the other ATLANTIC. There is a wall between the arches that have stars and each star represents every 1000 deaths. Needless to say, there are a lot of stars. Connecting each arch are pillars that say each state and nations in out protectorate. Then I went to the American History Museum. I saw guns and artifacts of our nations war history.

Sunday:

That is the wall, yes, part of the Berlin Wall.

Day 153:

The Korean War Memorial. I visited all of the wars memorials. Then I went to the Air & Space Museum. I rode in a flight simulator. I was the gunner and my friend Ean was the pilot.

Day 154:

I PLAYED THE KENNEDY CENTER. LIFE IS WONDERFUL
Also that, my dear friends, is the man who made it all possible: John C. Abigana, my band teacher.

Days 146-151: The Longest Week

Day 146: Thursday

The Smiths

Day 147: Friday

Simon and I.

Day 148: Monday

Day 150: Wednesday

Wonderful pictures depicting the weather. Drawing done by Madalyn

Day 151: Thursday

Steve and I

This literally was the longest week of my life, well not Thursday and Friday of the week before, but Monady through Thursday took a long to pass. I have having to wait for day. Time is annoying, so incredibly annoying.

I made it though. I completed the week. Now for DC.

Day 145: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I will be blunt with you today. I slept in all of my classes and by all of them, I mean all of them. I really do. I was able to fall asleep in Weight Training. I do believe I deserve a medal for being able to fall asleep in a P.E. class. I fell asleep in Wind and Choir too. The only time I did not sleep was in Jazz because class was canceled. I also not fall asleep during lunch.

The more I talk about sleep the more I want to sleep right now. I do not want to sleep right now. I want to enjoy being home and awake.

I sleep(maybe). You sleep(maybe). We all sleep(maybe). 

Day 144: A Little Night Music

Then reality kicks in. I leave for Washington D.C. next Thursday. I feel excited, yet scared. We really might not be ready for this. We can get through the pieces from start to finish for the most part, but there seems to be this feeling of "we might not be good enough right now." I have my part down, and besides the occasional note miss, I am perfect. It is everyone else that makes me worried.

I had a night rehearsal today. We played through our entire WWII monument concert and two of the three songs of our Kennedy Center concert. We did really well. I felt surprised, then again we all did. If we can have more rehearsals like that then we can make it and play well, but if not, then we gave it our best shot.

Day 143: Spring Break Recap

The most beautiful face ever.

So how are you internet? It has been two weeks and so much has happened in such a short period of time. Let us recap what happened, in a somewhat chronological order, I think.

I have a new girlfriend, her name is Robyn. You can see what she looks like if you go out and search back through my days. I figured it was about time to move on and she was very persistent on dating me. I asked her to go to Prom with me before that because I realized that I then did not have a Prom date anymore. I guess things work out after all.

I became a confirmed Catholic on the day before Easter Sunday at the Easter Vigil. I, and I know this sounds odd, but one of the highlights of the evening was getting to wear nice clothes that actually fit me. Also, my best friend Simon is now my Godfather, so now every time I see him I have to kiss the ring and call him Don Simon. There was also an entire pew that had people there for me and it was all by accident because Simon's family and my family and my friend Hannah were all sitting coincidentally in the same row. My friend Anthony was in the choir and it was an entire evening of love , for me and God. Well there goes the furthest extent of  me ever talking about religion on this blog ever again.

Last Monday I lived at Don Simon's house with his family and our D&D group till Wednesday. It only really took us two days to finish the campaign. We played it in Real Time, but not in a LARPing way, so whatever time it was in real life it was that time in the game and everything we did Simon actually made us wait to do it. Example: we had to scale a cliff and every single time our character's moved he made us wait a minute before climbing more because we had to wait for our characters to climb. We also went to sleep when our characters slept, but that was because it was 2 in the morning. It was just a great experience all around. I also made a new character because I lost my old character sheet only to find it in my backpack this morning. My new character is far superior than my old character anyways.

That was my break in a nutshell. How was your's internet?

Days 138-142: End Of The Fifth Grading Period

Day 138

So close, but so far,
Weeks like this seem so familiar.

Day 139

How soon is now,
I want to know, but how?

Day 140

Halfway, so close, yet so far away,
How interesting is this Wednesday!

I donated platelets for the first time today. It was...an interesting experience. I had a needle stuck in my arm for 103 minutes. When I was asked why I did it when it was obviously uncomfortable for me I only responded with "I like the feeling of having a needle stuck in my arm." I later realized that I sounded like a man who is addicted to Smack, please note that I am not.

I actually enjoyed it though, not the needle part, but the part about having a needle stuck in my arm, but the helping part, that and I thought it was cool(literal and metaphorical) that my blood was being returned to my body after being filtered, I actually thought that it was soothing, in a cosmic sort of way. I am doing this again.

Day 141

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow
Sorrow, Sorrow, Sorrow, Sorrow

Also nose goes, bro.

Day 142

Such glorious moments we cannot fake
Onward to Spring Break!

I will not be updating for two weeks because that is how long my break is. Two weeks seem a little unreasonable because they take and take from my Summer and it makes my life a little lonely and boring, but that does not mean that I do not find ways to make it interesting.

Now if you excuse me I have to have arm wrestle BigFoot over Hilter's grave for the honour and glory of the Czar.

Day 137: Almost Spring Break

I have one more week till my Spring Break. So close, I can taste it.

By the way, that is not my long board. Fun fact, I actually can skateboard, just do not expect me to be good, I was only able to just cruise around. I stopped though because I got a ticket for skating without a helmet. It was stupid.

Day 136: Bitterness

There are those days where you just feel an overall sense of bitterness towards everything? Like a seething hatred towards one and all? That is my mood for the entire day. Ignore the picture, it is a liar. I am tired and I wanted to stay home from school, but me staying from school is a rare thing that has never happened, except that one time I had surgery, but that was almost seven years ago.

Today Simon and I had a DnD game via text all day. I almost died. Stupid acid streams.

Day 135: Books

"Darn the light of Spring," said I. "It be very." Today is the second day of Spring. A warm one at that. I was hoping for the rains to return, but it did not. I hope that with Spring comes the time of new beginning. I hope so.

Yesterday Mr.A gave me two shopping bags full of books. Mostly music books, but there are a few about other things like poetry. I feel special Mr.A could have given them to any other kid, like my friend Zoe, but he gave them to me. I told him that I will take them with me to college. He smiled and said "You're welcome."

I worry for people, but I tell people not worry about me, Does that make me a hypocrite, or selfless?

Day 134: Complicated

Life is complicated. I try to make it not, but I always make it worse. I just wish things would make sense for once. I wish I could say "Yes". I wish people would say "Yes". I wish things would work out. I feel like I am being used. All of these false feelings I keep on paying attention to and the real ones that I keep on rejecting. I swear to you, my reader, that someone is going to get hurt. Something bad is going to happen and I will regret it. I need an answer, I need answers. Then I can move on. Then things can start making sense. I need to know one thing right now, and that one things will make the cogs of my life turn once more.

Day 133: Acceptance

I was accepted to two colleges. UC Davis and University of Redlands. UCD is only a 15 minute drive from Woodland and it is my backup school. Redlands is my school of choice. They have what I want and I want it. I know what school I want to go to, but having my Mom be OK with it is the hard part.

I also got a stupid haircut. I hate my hair. My hair is stupid. Stupid, stupid hair. I am never happy with it.

Day 128-132: Gimme Shelter

Day 128

Day 131

And it began to rain, everyday, all day, for a week. People's emotions change with the change with the weather, right? A question that I have been asking myself. What an interesting week that this has been. Things just keep on happening. I cannot say that I did not want an interesting life. Sometimes I regret it.

I had to walk to school early one morning because I had to be at school early for Jazz. I came into the band room soaked and I was three minutes late. I had to climb a fence. I was not pleased with the way I was being treated by Mr. A.

I saw the Suessical on Friday. I also walked there, in the rain. It was fun and seeing my dear friend Alec be the Cat In The Hat makes me regret not auditioning, but then again, I am lazy and would have hated it, but would have had fun.

I always wondered why all of these things happen to me. I feel like I have all of this pressure being put on me. I feel like I am being torn apart like everything has a part of me and is just tearing me apart.

Day 127: Calm Before The Storm

The title says it all. Things were so much simpler that day. Everything would become much more complicated from here on out.

Day 126: Mediations and Stories

Sometimes it is a burden to be a Peer Mediator. The whole reason I became one when I was a Sophomore was to help people out. The only drawback is that I have to deal with people and their problems. I like to help them, but there are times that their lives get so involved in a mediation that it puts a burden on my soul. I want the best for them, but sometimes I wonder if there is someone who would do the same for me.

Someday I would like to sit down and tell stories. I can think up of a story for almost any situation that occurs. Sometimes I think "Maybe I should be a writer?", but that is not my calling. I like to tell stories. The stories I tell are factual and based on some of my experiences and occasionally I can make them up, but I just want to spend a day where I have people gathered around me and I have them talk to me and then I tell them a story. I think that would be a great idea. I would like to someday put my story weaving abilities to use.

I hope I do before I graduate. 

Day 125: Flying Solo

The reason as to why my pants are rolled up slightly is because I was making fun of my friend Colin, who likes to fap.

Today has been a very tiring day and people are beginning to bother me a little bit more. Today in Weight Training Ian, Jose and Ben were all gone so I had to work out by myself. It was not all that bad, but I was very lonely and I was picked on. When we do back squats in that class we can use a pad on the bar so that the bar does not hurt our necks too much and I have to use one because I do not have a meaty neck in the class like the other kids. So I had 40kg on the bar that we use and I was squatting that just fine and when I went to go get more weight another kid came up and took my pad and now I have a mark on my neck. Then people were staring at me and making little comments to themselves. Good to know that I am loved where ever I go.

After school I went to go feed my dog so I waited till later to catch the bus home and I got on the wrong bus and I had to walk home and my feet hurt.

There is also more awkwardness in my life.

Question: If you know that you are destined to fail, then why keep up hope to try when you know that it is futile?

Day 124: Tough Decisions

In relation to the post yesterday, this day is a follow up about that. I have had to make some painful decisions today and I have to make one more tomorrow. I feel horrible about it all. I wish things could be easier, but I must act now.

I enlisted the help of my English teacher Mr. VanEyken and his infinite knowledge for advice. I do this a lot, except I never tell him anything directly and I try to be as vague as possible. Today was a little hard to talk to him vaguely, but in the end he gave me advice. I seem to be getting a lot of that today from everyone I have talked to. Good to know that people will stick up for me.

Day 123: I Am A Man

So I am a man, in the eyes of the United States Government and society. I do not feel special,. I woke up well yesterday on the day of my birthday. Life is weird.

I would also like to do a shout out to my friend Louise who was there with me the entire weekend to see my childhood die and my adult life begin.

*This next part will be conducted in the third person because, after all, this is for me.*

Congratulations on surviving 18 years of living. Not to shabby if I say so myself, which is me. There is a reason to as why I am writing to you right now and you must read this very carefully because you may be a "man" now, but you are still a kid and an idiot.

You need to start making choices, right now. Life is very complicated. Before yesterday you could have blamed everything on the folly of youth, but right now you cannot. You have to watch yourself now. You are life, you are death, you are happiness and sadness, and hope and despair. You need to control yourself because life is a serious of choices. Every choice you make from now on will always come back to you and right now you have a lot of questions to answer and you need to answer them soon. I will help you seeing that I am you and you are I. I know life is going to be painful and really confusing(especially right now), but this is your first test in life. What ever choice you make I will support you.

"Ce qui sera, sera".

Day 118-122: My Last Week As A Child

Day 118

I ate an entire box of girl scoot cookies today. Yup, I am a hero.

Day 119

I do not exactly remember, but something was bothering me, oh yeah, everything does.

Day 120

My first ever Taco Wednesday at my friend Ian's house. Those tacos were glorious. Then they fed me red velvet cake. Life is sometimes great, sometimes.

Day 121

That is me just waking up from a nap in my English class. I have a tendency of doing that in that class. Having long hair helps when they cannot see your eyes and you are suppose to be grading.

Day 122

We getting papers. That slip of paper that Jose has is his drivers licence, and I am holding $11. We are going to have so much fun.


So it all came to me last night(Friday) that this was my last week of being a child. I totally forgot about it. There were so many other kids having birthdays this week that I forgot that mine is this Sunday. Everyone else is having fun and everyone is celebrating, but what about me? My birthday does not fall on a weekday so I get to wake up Sunday morning to nothing and I get to go to Church. I am just hoping that this weekend goes well. Then again I have not made plans for this weekend so here is to another weekend.

Cheers!