NHSI Final Reflection

I hope you've enjoyed my writing as much as I've enjoyed sharing my experiences. To all who commented, thank you so much- it was wonderful to read your responses and they meant a lot to me. Silent readers of this blog- I am curious to see how you stumbled upon it (especially if you do not know me personally) and if it kept your attention- comment, I'd like to know! I do not know the future of this blog, but i'll decide that later. I could continue posting my life experiences, but I have a feeling that my high school life is probably rather uninteresting to the general public.

Here is some insight I have gleaned through the NHSI.

Some things I learned about myself, or things that became more clear to me:
1. I am talkative, and a conversationalist, but I am not incredibly social. I am also not as extraverted as I originally thought.
2. I dislike conflict. I am also afraid of getting angry.
3. Every career is hard and no job is stable.
4. If I am passionate about something, I can work hard on it and not feel like I am working. Similarly, my attention span is longer when I'm interested. That sounds obvious, but it wasn't obvious to me earlier.
4. If I am at Northwestern, I can be away from my parents, but I am at home. I never felt homesick at the NHSI- because in reality, I never left home. Also, Northwestern is awesome.
6. If I want something, I will go very far to get it. Not knowing what I want can depress me.
7. It doesn't take a whole bunch of musicians to make playing music a bonding experience.
8. It occurred to me that I am the only student at my high school that had this experience. There were several cherubs, but no other film kids. Everything else I do at school, someone else does too. This is one thing I can remember that makes me a little unique.
9. There is so much more to learn about film- I learned so much through NHSI, and I was shown the very tip of the iceberg.
10. I knew this before, but it has been confirmed in my mind, that people are interesting and wonderful. I like people.

Some things I now notice or ways I have changed: 
1. Calling clothespins C47s makes me feel special, and seeing a C47 brings happy memories.
2. Dutch angles, handheld camera, and silence sticks out to me like a sore thumb.
3. I notice lighting and shadows. I still don't know all that much about it, but before I only noticed if I needed sunglasses, if a light suddenly turned off, or if I couldn't see. Now, I notice quality of light and if there are unusual shadows.
4. Cameras, both video and still, are infinitely cooler. And I thought they were cool before I came.
5. I try to make an effort to not jaywalk, and that effort doesn't annoy me anymore.
6. I greatly respected film when I applied, but I now have a much greater respect for film and all that goes into it.

That is not anywhere close to everything I learned, and does little justice to my acquired film knowledge, but that is what I decided to share with you. If you have questions, ask me!

I loved my experience at the Film and Video Cherub. If there are any rising juniors reading this, I strongly recommend that you google Cherubs and consider applying to a division. Cherubs was definitely intense, and sometimes stressful, but a whole lot of fun and 100% worth it. I'm so thankful I had this opportunity and I will cherish it forever.

Thanks NHSI, and to my readers, thanks for reading!
-Molly