It’s My Life Magaly Alonzo P:6

8th Grade Graduation My 8 th grade graduation day was a very busy day all the teachers had to get all the awards prepared and even the diplomas. The surroundings were very happy. It was our last day at Reinberg, we were sad, but we were also very happy to finally have graduated, to have survived 8 th grade. We were supposed to go to school than go home and get ready with our caps and gowns and come back to school where the ceremony and after party would be at. We had been practicing how to walk in, accept our diplomas and how to exit for about a month and a half. We had chosen our song two months before because the teachers wanted to make sure that we actually knew the song when graduation actually came. Song: Lean on Me by Bill Weathers

Learning how to play Bass Guitar I remember hearing the morning announcements, one of them reminding all 7 th and 8 th graders that if we wanted to join the school band, their would be a meeting after school. I decided to go because I was interested in learning how to play an instrument. I went to the meeting and got accepted into the band to play bass guitar. My teacher was a student and friend of mine so it wasn’t very hard to learn since he was a good teacher. We started learning songs that we wrote the music part for and then moved on to learning songs by Coldplay, Katy Perry, and many more for our concert that we were going to have. Song: Zombie by the Cranberries

Learning Saxophone It was the summer before Freshman year. There was Freshman connection and I choose music and art for the two classes that we could take. On the first day we met in the JROTC Room and got to choose what instrument we wanted to learn and originally I wanted to learn how to play the drums, but all of the spots were taken up so I ended up getting the Saxophone. It was kind of hard to learn how to switch notes with out stopping completely, but eventually I got really good at it. By the 3 rd day we started to learn one of the JROTC songs. Major pulled me in to check on how I was going on learning the song. He liked how I was going, but I wasn’t in JROTC so he tried to get me to join in order for me to be in D&B, but I declined his offer. Song: Pompeii by Bastille (Cover by Anthem Lights

Learning Guitar Freshman Year, Ms. Spaulding, my beginning band teacher, told my music class about a Puerto Rican Arts Program that would be offering to give guitar and cuatro classes at the school after school. I went to sign up because I had always wanted to learn how to play guitar and thought it would be a good idea, even though I was already learning the clarinet in Beginning Band. I actually got to learn how to play a couple of songs that I already knew on bass on guitar like Stand By Me by Prince Royce and Viva la Vida by Coldplay Song: Viva la Vida by Coldplay

First School Band Concert It was December of Freshman Year(2012) we had been practicing these songs since October for the Winter Band/Choir Concert. We had to go home and get changed and come back and help set up the North Gym for the concert. It was so tiring we had to set up our chairs and music stands. Then run up to the third floor and put our instruments together and then get warmed up. We were all nervous. Song : Secrets by One Republic