Welcome to Kai Sugioka-Stone: The Graduation
My Personal Vision for the Unknown Future
Firstly, I want to clearly state that, as much as human beings are capable of planning things, the future will always be unknown and there is no way to know that this written plan will apply in any way to my future life that lies ahead. I view this “plan” as a gentle guide for the next 20 years to come,.
My (Unpredictable) Future Goals
Over the next 20 years, I have hopes of going into a small four-year college, entering a community college or taking a gap year before applying to a college. Hopefully, I’ll graduate from a 4 year into Naropa for another 2 years. After that, I’ll look for jobs and hopefully the titles will progress in my liking. I’ll start off by looking for video editing jobs, look for different opportunities in the musical world, and maybe one day pitch a film idea (basically a script) and become a film director. In order to incorporate human morality into my work ethic, I have plans that I would like to pursue alongside my career.
I’d like to find people and invest in friendships of people that have musical, film or meditation/mindful and inspirational backgrounds. This will help me to pursue worlds other my job profession and maybe even pursue professional projects with my good friends. Things I plan to pursue alongside my job include many different possibilities. One plan is musical opportunities where I compose digital or instrumental pieces to put onto soundcloud, adding to an online profile or looking for collaborations with other artists and local studios.
Another idea is having a youtube channel that I primarily use for music videos, boosting the quality and outreach of my musical content. Another thing I’d like to have going on throughout my forever-changing daily life situation is a professional photography blog/website that I update consistently with a separate collection of only politically active photographs, probably including homeless people, climate change, people’s facial expressions, body language and nature.
A broad plan I’d like to try is creating politically active current videos with my video editing and filming skills by going to political rallies and other politically active activities and getting footage. Something I really look forward to is volunteering at teen retreats and other mindfulness/meditation organizations. A little thing to have going on the side that would probably be nice for me is going to poetry readings monthly and possibly performing.
Some alternate paths (or plan B’s) that I have in mind include looking for jobs at iBme, Spirit Rock and other mindfulness and meditation organizations, becoming a writer, pursuing the animator’s dream at Pixar, being a therapist, becoming a teacher and becoming a full time monk. For far off future plans I plan to look for someone to grow old with and possibly have a family, ideally living in Denmark.
Reflecting on The Past Years
Introduction
When I first came here, I was already used to the feeling of rebellion and students fighting for the rights they want, except I came from a environment that was very forceful when compared to this environment. At ACLC, I have realized that the power you’re given as a learner compared to other schools is gratuitous and strengthening. This school really aims to let learners actively participate in what you could call the school’s highly active mini-government, as you can change and create school rules, start different clubs for others to enjoy, host different events, properly deal with learners that have broken a school rule through the Judicial Committee system. Of course, I must quote a very famous line; “With great power comes great responsibility”. With all this power provided, learners are also in a sense given this freedom that other schools can’t provide, but I believe that learners must in a sense earn this freedom. I have been able to use this power to my advantage and really develop a workable atmosphere, schedule, workflow and education that really caters to my educational ability, greatly improving my work ethic, productivity, and creativeness.
Personal Qualities, Work Habits, and Attitudes
I have a passion to create digital content. I enjoy using many different types of art mediums, such as photography, photoshop, video editing, filming, and instruments. My major is currently undecided, but I definitely have a fairly strong sense of what I want to pursue in college. I intend for my work to really represent my entire being rather than only my artistic side. ACLC allows me to express this through David Dilworth, my Digital Music and Digital Video Studio teacher. I’ve been creating songs and beats in his Digital Music class for the past 3 years, working with programs that professional artists use to make music, gaining a very unique and usable virtual music composing skill that I believe no other school offers in the way that this class does. I’ve been able I create my work not only for my own interest but also to bring people together in a unique, balanced and uncensored way with messages that are relevant to today’s world. I really want my work to acknowledge problems in today’s society in my own artistic and influential way, which I believe is seriously needed at this time and age where inequality is riddled everywhere, in more places than you think. I seriously believe that if everyone did a hell of a lot of thinking on the social aspects and constructs that are imbued into our school, there could be a spark of unity between all students, even though I keep in mind that there are serious social limits. Jason Siegel, a new teacher that has been with us since August of 2016, is attempting to incorporate and really explain teachings of buddhism like the 4 teachings and mindfulness into the everyday classroom. It is definitely having a rough start, but I think this is because mindfulness is such a new style to add to an ACLC school classroom. I believe that once these teachings have found some stability, it will work wonders on classes, making Jason Siegel a cornerstone for evolution at ACLC.
New Basics
I am slowly noticing more and more that happens around one simple action and then using that knowledge when taking bigger and more complex actions (before, during, and after). I believe that I am a very empathetic person and can feel what others are feeling with more ease than others, and mindfulness has helped me discover this gift (among many others). These emotions have the power to add a completely new level of depth to the Judicial Committee system, really making everyone take in a situation when it’s presented in a session. I believe that this skill to have compassion for others through the JC system will definitely have a very positive effect on learners. Having this skill has also allowed me to really take in others opinions when making a conscious group decision, which I think is very important as the last thing it will do is make any choice a thoughtless one. For example, when I was in Spanish 3, I found myself working on multiple group skits, and I made sure to be the one to ask myself if our group was ready to present by checking with every individual that they had their part rehearsed and ready.
Thinking and Reasoning Skills
My mindful aspect has allowed me to put a lot of thought into my conversations. I try very hard to not offend others in conversations or make unfair assumptions. I attempt to eliminate any snap-judgements and try to learn more either about the person or in general as I absolutely love authentic relationships where I patiently listen to somebody and learn about who they really are. I attempt to do similarly and state who I am, but I feel that I am not skilled in conversation. ACLC has been part of the reason why I think this is okay. ACLC has a colorful array of personalities, which I really think helps bring people together in a new way. Everyone has strengths that they show differently, and the variation at this school gives us learners a long list of strengths when our powers are combined. I choose to express my raw self in forms of art, as I believe that most aspects of individual people are indescribable and cannot be written in words (yet here I am, trying to tell you all of me in a few pieces of white paper). When it comes to thinking and decision-making in general, I almost always try my best to think liberally. What I mean by this is when I’m presented with a problem, I usually think about three questions: Have I solved this before? How can I solve this? How haven’t I solved this? In my opinion, the third one is always up for debate, but it won’t work most of the time if you think logically, which is a style of thinking I tend to stray from. I think that a very good inspirational aspect comes from this kind of thinking, showing me that I can believe things into existence that--hopefully--no one has ever thought of before. It can really encourage yourself to simply take action and can have a good impact on others when they are shown your liberal ideas. It’s so fascinating! Oh, and just breathing is very important.
Interpersonal Abilities
When it comes to conversations, I am usually on the quieter side, but this is for a really good reason. I listen. I think that in order to communicate, to understand a person, to empathize with others, listening will play a very important role. In teams, I try to contribute by hearing out everyone’s opinion to its uncomfortable extent and get everyone to speak out and be heard by everybody in the team. I believe that sort of pushing one to really give their opinion can be a little nerve-racking for others (and myself included), but once you’ve really spoken from deep down, you can come to a quality conclusion that everyone truly agrees on, and the conversation becomes a deep learning experience for everyone. Once everyone has spoken, I look to find connections and similarities between people’s points and attempt to help people come to an agreement. When it comes to race, I truly attempt to treat everyone as equal, as I believe that all humans are the same when it comes down to it, in hopes that I present people with an open mind and ideas that make them think about race, racist or not. At ACLC, I’ve worked in many groups with people that usually don’t talk to each other (and sometimes don’t get along), such as one time I had a group where I had to make a timeline for my Biology class. The way I worked with the people in the group was by recognizing everyone’s voice as a unique important part of themselves. I tried my best to have everyone take part in doing the project until there was a sense of balance in power between everyone in the group, meaning I was trying my best to make sure nobody felt over or underpowered.
Technology
Technology has become well known across the world, but there’s always going to be a wealth of information about it that we don’t know, and right now, we’re only beginning to discover new inventions. As a person that’s particularly interested in the Liberal and Digital Arts, I can see myself using a wealth of tech. What’s so crazy about technology is that, despite the topic being common knowledge, we don’t really understand it well. We need people who are willing to explore the world of unknown technology and discover how it works, and I would love to be part of this digital multiverse. ACLC has helped provide me with gobs and gobs of technological diversity: Microphones, speakers, laptops, desktops, wiring, green screens, sound booths, pianos, DSLR cameras, HDSLR cameras, Polaroid cameras, drawing tablets, headphones, the list goes on and on! As of right now, I have been very privileged and lucky to be able to work with many various digital platforms, including Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere, Reason 5, Ableton Live and FL Studio. I’ve used these programs for both school work and personal projects, such as make music in my Digital Music class and create and edit videos with the various editing software. On the other hand, I’ve used Google Docs to do quite a lot of my homework online, which has been very convenient and efficient for doing homework on the go. I plan to learn more about the fundamentals of photography and film and build my skills with multiple different techniques and newfound knowledge. When it comes to the intent of this digital era, the future is unsure, so that’s why I would like to attempt the unexplored in the film and photo world.
What I Really Have to Say
In conclusion, I am confident that I will find my future as I move forward in life past high school, trying to be as mindfully prepared as I can. Some job descriptions I may look to possibly fit one day are video editor, traveling photographer, music composer and photoshopper. There’s been a lot of different future perspectives I’ve experienced and brought my attention to thanks to ACLC’s college readiness processes. I am very grateful for the wide arrange of tools and teachers that this school has provided, and without this school, I think I would feel a lot less prepared for my future. Thank you, ACLC.
