u/Weary-Cauliflower153

I'm gonna start off by saying this. Am I a piano prodigy? Absolutely not. I've been trying to teach myself since I was like 10 (I'm in high school now.) It's been very on and off, and really I've only started actually taking it seriously in the past few months. But I've been so busy that it's more like I practice a lot one week I'm free and then don't touch my piano for weeks. My technique is garbage and I have no memory ability (I rely on sheet music a little too much). I also purely play choral music and pop songs, barely any classical music (except moonlight sonata and fur Elise but don't ask me to play La Campanella lmao).

I wish it wasn't though. Whenever I'm at the piano, I feel so happy and free. I can genuinely play for hours. My parents yell at me for practicing too much. I literally practiced for 10 hours today because I missed playing so much and I had nothing better to do. And I just melt into it and finally feel free.

I'm a pretty intense choir kid, so music is my life anyways. I love music theory/music in general. But my family's not musical, so I had to learn on my own. I joined choir even when my parents forbade it, and I continued no matter what. I'm not even joking, the first time I went to All-State choir and heard a piece being sung by all the amazingly talented individuals together, I started crying. It was some rendition of Hallelujah. I'm not religious and I'm stone-cold usually. Haven't cried in years. But just hearing that... that changed something. Being able to replicate that on the piano, and singing while playing the piano... That's just amazing.

I'm happy to report my family has come around a bit. The only birthday present I've ever asked for was a proper keyboard from the crappy 10 dollar garage sale keyboard I used before, and I got one two years ago. On sale for 300 dollars, normal sale price $600. Best (and only haha) birthday present ever.

Life sucks, but music is the place where I don't feel judged. It's where I can be free. Playing the piano just makes me calm and at home. Playing "Never Enough" 50 times on the piano might just make me feel like I'm enough after some point.

So even if I'm a shitty pianist? That's fine. As long as it makes me happy. Because I really just play for myself :)

Are they actually selective? I'm talking like the STEM with Phones, Biotech, and Manufacturing Workshop. I got into Manufacturing workshop with some bs application. Is it good? Also if I get into another program, can I withdraw from that?

asian f high income CA

4.0 UW rn but I'm getting a b in chem this semester for sure. 4.6 W (including that B, w/o like 4.7) and forsee around a 4.8 W GPA by senior year and 3.94 UW (factoring in the inevitable Bs in AP Chem LMAO)

Debate captain next year

Work at an independent speech and debate organization for fundraising/social media and as a speech coach for kids

Varsity Speech and Debate (I do both speech and debate): lots of local league medals but nobody cares about that. Don't do a lot of invitationals because of cost)

Expanded Congressional Debate program from 2 (yeah 2 people) to 20+ and growing and the first person to actually do well in it (national qualifier)

Science Olympiad (not varsity due to stupid team politics even though I always beat varsity, lots of national-level invitational medals but I don't think they give a crap about those and nobody gives a crap about regional medials. Got a bunch of state medals when I went in middle school tho)

Model UN will probably have a leadership position next year and got 3rd at a pretty high level conference (don't do that many conferences due to cost).

1st degree black belt in martial arts (im tryna not get doxxed so hiding details)

All state and penta-state music

coach middle school and am the assistant coach (honestly love doing it, hiding the specifics but the program was not well supported by the community and no funding from the school so I help out a lot and mentor as well.)

Will be getting my Associates Degree from cc next year with straight As

have not taken SAT or PSAT yet, will be taking both in August. I got a perfect score on the 8/9 though, just didn't want to waste money on PSAT 10.

coursework: All honors that I could possibly take and all the APs our school offers with the exclusion of AP seminar and APs that I took at cc (English, history, and psych)

I'm applying for summer programs, rn all I have is one of the LLNL ones (think adjacent to STEM with phones) and none of the rest have released.

ETA I don't think I'm getting into like HYPSM. But at most I want to get into Berkeley or LA or smth.

I'm 16F, and my mom recently got me this throw/blanket that I love! I wear it around the house because it's nice to have on when I'm cold and then take it off when I'm hot. It gives me a nice amount of flexibility and keeps me comfortable, especially because I have (minor) health conditions that affect temperature regulations, and am neurodivergent. Here's the issue: my mom said don't wear it in the kitchen because it's messy and don't wear it while eating food. I was fine with that. But now I just wear it around the house and she says she's sick of seeing me wear it and started yelling at me. I said "I'm just wearing it and I'm not wearing it in the kitchen or while eating so what's the problem?". But she's still mad and just yelled at me to take it off. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong and I miss my throw :( AITA?

Hey, I’m a sophomore who really wants to apply to college programs but lives under a complete rock. So I didn’t really find out or understand anything about them due to really limited access to the internet until like last month. So I’ve just been spamming gemini and chatgpt to give me lists but they’re genuinely awful. Most things seem to be closed now, but are there any still open?

Additional info: I cannot afford to drop thousands on a summer program but I don’t qualify for aid (above $200000 in an HCOL). So I would prefer ones that are free/low cost.

I applied for EINR, Lab Director Apprenticeship, QCamp, and LLNL camps (Manufacturing workshop and Biotech). Was already accepted to Manufacturing but it seems like they take everyone. None of the other results have come our yet.

I made a lot of grammatical errors and my essays had unfinished sentences, because I found out about all of them like the night before and don’t have spell check. I also didn’t understand that you’re apparently supposed to tie in what you did personally and like brag in the personal interest, I just talked about my scientific interests and stuff i liked about the lab/researchers. Essays were buns tho.

I just feel so frustrated. Like how are people finding all this stuff? I need something to apply to that I can do with my newfound knowledge that came as a result of trial and error.

ETA I have not taken the PSAT or SAT yet. I got a perfect score on PSAT 8/9 and perfect score on all state standardized testing since elementary school. But I don’t think that helps.