Saturday, March 21, 2020

What a Foolish Hare I Am free essay sample

In 8th grade, I tried out for the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony. At the time, I was the first chair flutist in my school band and had thought I was already better than everyone else. A friend of mine, who was in a lower seat than me, had already been accepted into the symphony. Compared to her, I felt confident that I could get in. I picked up my favorite song, the same one I used to make 1st chair in my band, and on the day of the audition, I pretty much walked into the room with my nose in the air. To my surprise, I received a rejection letter in the mail. I didn’t understand what went wrong or how there were so many others who were better than me. I cried for days and complained the audition hadn’t been fair. Weeks later, this failure had gradually subsided until one day, I was helping my mom do some cleaning around the house. We will write a custom essay sample on What a Foolish Hare I Am or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page As I was restacking our bookshelves, I came across a worn book, The Tortoise and the Hare. I remembered reading the story a long time ago, but I had never thought much of it back then. As I flipped through the yellowed pages, I recalled how a hare, who had ridiculed a slow-moving tortoise, was challenged by him to a race. The hare, confident of winning, quickly left the tortoise behind and decided to take a nap halfway through the course; when he awoke, however, he found that the tortoise had already finished the race. I chuckled at the foolishness of the rabbit, and all of a sudden, I realized that the old fable exactly described my own situation. I had overlooked everyone else before my audition. I had failed to work as hard as I could because of my overconfidence. I had been that foolish rabbit. I realize now that I had let arrogance cloud my eyes, and in the end, just like the rabbit, when I finally awoke from my slumber and entered reality, I saw that I had paid the price for it. From my experience, I have learned to never again compare myself to others, but instead, only to myself, and to challenge myself to do the best that I can possibly do. So instead of giving up and moping over my failure, I decided to pick myself up from my fall, challenging myself with more difficult pieces and practicing for hours on end. This time, I would push myself to my own limits, not to anyone else’s. The next year, I auditioned again and was not only accepted into the group, but was chosen to serve as the principal flutist for the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony. My performance skills were improved immensely; soon after the audition, I achieved the highest ranking in the Ohio Solo and Ensemble Contest. What I had once regarded as my failure has in the end served as a pivotal point in my journey to success.

Thursday, March 5, 2020

Prima Donna

Prima Donna Prima Donna Prima Donna By Maeve Maddox Henry Preston writes: Please, please, help nip this malapropism in the bud: Pre-Madonna. Im not kidding, Ive seen this twice in the past few weeks on comment boards. prima donna [prÄ“mÉ™ dÃ… nÉ™] (pree muh don uh) is an Italian term translated literally as first lady. In the music world, a prima donna is the best and most celebrated female singer in an opera company. Maria Callas swept into New York. She arrived, as is proper for prima donnas, in triumph. [Carmen] Melis had been a soprano prima donna at La Scala in Milan and had sung with Caruso and Titta Ruffo. Often referred to as the greatest Italian prima donna of the last half century, Tebaldi made her debut as Elena in Boito’s Mefistofele in 1944. Because some prime donne (plural of prime donna) felt that their talent and popularity deserved special treatment, the term came to mean self-centered, arrogant, uncooperative person. In this sense it is used to describe gifted or otherwise significant people who know their worth and want everyone else to kowtow to them because of it. The Senate, meanwhile, is an institution that, by nature, furthers individualistic prima-donna-ism on both sides of the aisle. This is namely for executives: how do you deal with prima donna employees? What is the best approach? Steeles A Prima Donna But We Arent Ready To Kick Him Off Stage One use of pre-Madonna is as a play on words in connection with the pop singer Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone. When it comes to out-and-out ignorance of the term, the greatest supply of examples is to be found on semi-literate blogs and comment boards, and in sports writing. General comments: you both sound like pree-madonna little girls? arguing over a game, im not trying to get involved in ur war, but how about growing up? im a young egyption princess or milk maid im the greatest pree madonna in the land, I am sick in tired reality show celebs acting like pree-Madonna. Sports-related: Ankela is a little pre-madonna. What an attitude problem. The worst thing of it is that he actually believes that he is far superior to his peers. My trainer calls me a preemadonna cause i like to look good lol. Jay cutler is a primadonna (Not like Alex Rodriguez [was] a pree madonna) Lebron Premadonna James will never win a championship!! Its amusing that a term meaning best female singer has come to be applied to burly athletes. The Italian term for best male singer is primo uomo [prÄ“mÃ…  wÉ”Ë mo]. Bottom line: Unless the context has something to do with the pop music world before singer Ciccone came along, the expression is prima donna. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:60 Synonyms for â€Å"Walk†Rules for Capitalization in Titles45 Idioms with "Roll"