Exit Plan/Statement

Exit Plan/Statement

My transition out of high school has been a long awaited one. I feel like this last year has been limbo and I could have done much more if I was out making it all happen for myself. Total opinion, but I thought that I should start this topic of with a bold statement. My plan, if it wasn’t that obvious is to study music in a post secondary institution for a full degree. I will be studying drums, jazz drums. This has been my one and only passion for the last 8 years I would say. I started taking lessons on drums at about 9 years and have been going ever since. I stopped for one year to take piano and I thought that it helped a bit. I can’t read piano that well but I still liked it. Drums have just always suited me so I am going to study them intensely after high school. Over the past two months, Capilano and Mcgill have accepted. I was pretty stoked when I found that out. I still have not yet decided but I will decide within the next few weeks. I do always have to option to go to Capilano first and then transfer all of my courses to Mcgill. I might do this because if my courses are all transferable, because I need to get the theory part of my learning up and then after maybe one or two years of doing that, I will then transfer to Mcgill and do all of the live music things where I can simply transfer all of my learning into the real situation. In terms of living, I would not be able to go to Capilano and bus every single day. I have talked to people about going to Capilano from my own home area and they say that it takes them around one and a half hours to capilano and from home and all of the way back. I would not be able to sustain a life going to Capilano if I live in Fort Langley. This is why I have proposed the idea to my parents that I will go live at my uncle Jim’s house. When I was over there a couple of months ago, I was hanging with all of my uncles and I told them about my plan to either go to Capilano or Mcgill, and right away they said that I should live there. Just for a whereabouts of where they live, they live right next to the second narrows bridge. That’s really close to where Capilano actually is. I also have many friends and people who I play jazz with who live really close to Capilano. For me this would enable faster productivity and more chances to really increase my craft. I would live there if everything works out. The only wall that I am hitting now is with my aunt. She is essentially the queen of the household. Everyone respects her and when she doesn’t like something, then it changes. I am thinking that if I go there and she doesn’t like it then I will have to leave. But if it is a success than I will be able to live and go to Capilano without a massive pitfall of commuting. I want my life to be empty of possessions, full of family and full of music. I want it simple yet very productive and filled with opportunities. I feel like this would be a fantastic decision because of my longing to be off to do my own thing. This entire past year, I have been craving to leave this school and go off to work on my craft exclusively. The entire idea of me going off to university is such a great productive idea because I have to get better on my instrument, it’s essentially my only purpose. It’s exclusively the only thing that I feel like I have to do, the only thing I am good at and the only thing I am called to do. The skills I have learned while getting to the next level on my craft is to simply say yes to every single opportunity that comes across my way. I remember at the beginning of the year I was saying yes to everything that came my way. At first I thought that this was a bad thing and would hurt me long term. At first I was stressing out so much because I was basically managing two lives. My life was so busy (it still is) but I realised that I would be able to grow so much as a kid and be able to become an adult. I still say yes to things even if I know that I won’t be able to do it, because I know that I can only grow from it. At the beginning of this year, my life was pretty unproductive. I was in school and I was very limited. I knew that I needed to expand my horizons and start bands with really good players because that was really the only way that I was going to get better. Playing with other people is a thing of it’s own. I can’t possibly replicate the things that I learn playing with other people in any way. This learning that took place only progressed and I got so much better than I was. I knew that this was a product of me saying yes to so many things. I learned at that point that saying yes to things increased my production, increased my social awareness, and increased my playing exponentially. When I progress along in my life, the skills that I have learned that have led up to my graduation will aid my in my plan to become a musician. I cannot stress how much saying yes to everything gets you really far. In order for me to get these opportunities, I have to pay for school, and in order for me to pay for schooling, I have to work. I need to work during the summer because schooling requires money. I also need to get more money through bursaries or at least try. Scholarships as well. I have enjoyed my last couple of years at LFAS but I feel its time. Its time to leave and get on with my other parts of life, time to progress more as a human being and time to really understand the world.

Self Potrait

Part two: Self Portrait

ETHAN HONEYWELL

When I look back to around five years back I see a kid who was really cocky, who was into music and didn’t understand what being in highschool actually meant. I remember failing my math 8 exam and getting under 40% and never finding out until the next year. When I realised this, I stopped and finally understood what high school was actually about. High School was not this easy thing I would just be able to coast through. It would challenge me, make me grow, make me think completely differently and show me more concepts and ideas. Since the beginning of high school i discovered my passion for music as well as the benefits it provided. Ever since I have discovered music in late grade 8 and early grade 9, my life has expanded so much with my ability to learn music. I was already enrolled in all of the musical ensembles in music outside of school and I just wanted to do more and more. I started creating bands outside of school. Me and another started a blues rock band where he played guitar and I played drums. It was fun for a while but it just kinda stopped because I realised that me and him could not work together. I learned this the hard way too. My ability to seek out people who work hard and play the heck out of their instrument just bursted beyond that point. That skill has long satisfied my needs. In late last year, I heard a band play on a stage in vancouver and realised that I had to play with these kids. I went up to talk to these kids after the show and said to them if they would like to play in maybe a combo together or just to see if they needed a drummer. I completely forget their responses. But anyway I thought about it all summer. When I was in winnipeg for a little bit of the summer I got a call from one of the most known sax players in vancouver. He asked if I wanted to be in a big band that he was putting together at the VSO school of music. I immediately said yes. The summer finished and our first rehearsal with this big band was coming up. I got to the location and when I realised that the players that were in the band were members of the band I saw the previous year who I asked to play with. So we organized some jams and we sounded pretty good. So we decided to get gigs and start making money. During one of our jam sessions we got an email to go and perform at a presentation house. We immediately said yes and planned for the gig. We practiced our butts off, made so many rehearsals and got together so many times leading up to the actual performance. When the day came, we were stoked and completely ready. We arrived, unpacked, set up and did a sound check. The night was being completely professionally recorded by the main tech engineer who works at capilano. There was a full house in the crowd and we just couldn’t wait to play. The whole night was great and everything went smooth. At the end of the whole night, we got some really nice recordings of the entire night. The recordings were really the high point because they captured exactly what we had worked towards. The recording represents me as being an example of what I have become over the past four to five years. They represent the people skills, the hard work practicing and the development of musicality. I cherish these recordings because they are what I have become.

Links - Both Sets

            

Post Secondary Institutions

Acceptance to Mcgill
Acceptance

Acceptance to Capilano University
Acceptance

Scholarship Application to Capilano
Scholarship

Budget Plan

Financial Plan

Income

Cash/Savings - 1300$

JobEarnings - 1500/month

Student Loan - N/A

Award/Scholarships - 1300$

Income Assistance - N/A

Parents - 0$

Other Income - N/A

Expenses

Tuition - 9000$/year

Books/Supplies - 1000$/year

Rent - 500$/month

Telephone - 30$?month

Food - 250$/month

Transportation - 30$/month

Medical/Dental - Covered by insurance

Entertainment - 20$/month

Other - N/A

Report Card

Report Card Side 1
here


Report Card Side 2
here

Choice Assignment Acedemic Reflection

Academic Reflection

Ethan Honeywell

First of all I just want to say that most of my accomplishment that were the most worthwhile and important were the ones that did not involve academics. I feel like my life has benefitted the most from learning an instrument that has forced me to practice. This slow deliberate practice is like sitting down to study with your phone in the other room or the computer in another room. Going to an arts school there have been many situations where I have had to prepare something for a show or a gig and there is nothing more satisfying than being well prepared for a “test”. Comparing the question of a time where I have persevered through an assignment can be looked at from a musician's standpoint. This happens at least once a week in my practice. I come across a rudiment that I can not play, like triplet paradiddles. I can’t play them yet but by the time you are reading this then I will be able to play them. It is a constant reminder that I can really accomplish anything I put my mind to. The high ropes are linked directly with this assignment. It is really interesting to listen to myself play from a year or two ago and hear how terrible I was. I thought I was probably pretty good at the time but I look back and see that I sucked. Time sucked, sound sucked, I was hitting every part of the drum. So if you want to see that through time and practice your sound gets better, look at some of your previous work, assess it and realise that you have gotten better and you can only get better. Through these experiences of practice, I realise that I will be that much better on the other end of time when I am done and have learned that idea. Music is my passion and I love being able to learn more about my passion and understand that there is no boundary to learning. Knowledge is infinite. This is an important thing for all to do. If one is desperately wanting to find there way and become good at something then they have to hunker down and do it. In my studies I have greatly enjoyed the rudiment part of practice. During the rudiment part of my practice which is usually second, I see the most results out of all of my practice. In my rudiments I encounter the most problems because there are so many things to do in rudiments. But they teach you the most and I am thankful for that. I real changed my work habits in my transition from grade 11 to grade 12 and this has helped me to become more resilient throughout my highschool years. This is a good skill that everyone should have to understand.

Choice Assignment Health Plan

Health Reflection

Ethan Honeywell

Some of the things that I have seen improvement in my personal health life is the increase of saying no to things. Saying no to things has extreme health benefits. A decrease of stress is one thing. I have said yes to mostly everything in the world and it really starts to take its toll on you if you don’t control it. I have been extremely stressed this year and I have just been starting to say no to things this part of the year. It has proven to been really helpful and makes everything better. I feel like my sleep patterns have changed and I have been getting 30 minutes more of sleep. But even then I only get around 7 hours each night. I only do so because I usually watch a show right before bed because I have so much to do in the day that when I am done, I can finally have some of my own time. My goals include getting more sleep. This semester for me is especially heavy now and I feel like it will be a lot less insane next semester. I have a ridiculous amount of things this semester and I have no time for anything but I am so stoked for next semester because things will be less insane. I really want to focus on getting more sleep. I can only do that with a lessened schedule which will be next semester. I choose to focus on these things because of what they will bring me. When I get more sleep it will then improve my work habits which are really essential for grades this and next semester, it will also improve my comprehension that is so important to learning and it will make me less stressed. As I have been learning more about this I have learned that health and mental health are super important for the well being of learning and expertise. Health is something that students don’t get a lot of these days. Health is really essential for learning because kids have many things that go on in their lives and to have more things that are stressful is tiring add up to their schedules. Kids have many things going on in high school and are expected to learn at full scale. It is well within the limits of achievement but people need to make social sacrifices to be able to achieve certain goals like marks and projects. This decision to make better choices about my goals and lifestyle really helps the well being of me and others around me. When I am stressed I tend to take it out on my family and is makes them feel bad. I corrupt others. I am learning that if I become really really stressed than I become a nut and I get really annoying. Also when I am stressed my body stops working properly. I experienced this last year  and it really took its toll on me. I become really depressed and my insides hurt and all of this crazy stuff. So I have learned that stress creates problems and in order to get rid of these problems I have to say no to things. Case closed.