Highlights of My Brentwood Career

We used to be all there was, but now four years later it appears we are a rare breed: Lifers. This term is currently used to describe a Brentwood student who as attended the school from Grade 9 through to Grade 12. Because of this I have the privilege of having much to look back on. In Grade 9, we were bonded together by our trip to Strathcona. I loved it there. Getting to hike, canoe, camp, climb, and adventure with people is a fantastic way to get to know new faces. Our grade was so tight knit, and I remember even having all of us sit at meals together, all crammed into one table for most of the year. I was part of the Intermediate Rock Band program where we learned covers of songs from the 1950s all the way up to present day. In May we went to a local recording studio to record three of the songs we had learned, which was an extremely exciting experience for me. In my next three years at Brentwood I was part of the Composition Rock Band (Captain of it for Grade 11 and 12), which was even better as we wrote our own songs, and subsequently got to record original songs in May. When Grade 10 came, we almost doubled in size. It was weird at first, because even though we thought we were old hands at everything Brentwood, we had to help so many of our peers adjust. In retrospect, this was a fantastic exercise in leadership. Grade 10 was a year for exploration, and new experiences. I joined Vocal Jazz Choir where I was the youngest and most inexperienced of the quartet. This forced me to learn quickly, and adjust to a higher caliber of performance, for which I am insanely grateful. Being immersed into a choir with much better singers really helped me to improve in aspects from technique to stage presence. We competed at Nationals in Vancouver which was quite intimidating but we left with a Silver rating. Grade 11 was sort of strange because there was a sudden sense of having to be leaders. It quickly became apparent that we were the new role models, which I think most people adjusted to pretty well. In first term, I went as part of the 1st XI Field Hockey team to Oliver for AA Provincials. Although we did not do as well as we had hoped, it was still a fantastic experience to get to travel and play a wide range of teams as well as bond as a team. At Concert for A Winter’s Eve I was given a solo for the first time, for which I was ecstatic. I sang a jazzy mashup of several Holiday songs, and it appeared to be well received. It was truly a surreal experience at the end of the year when people from my grade were being chosen to be the leaders of next year, but I think they settled in nicely. Surprisingly in Grade 12, there were still a handful of new additions to our class. This year of course had the smallest number of new students, but they were welcomed warmly by our whole grad class, which was quite nice to see. Doing duty in the house, although often grumbled over, was a fantastic experience. I found it much easier to bond with the younger grades in this fashion, and I found that it has fostered meaningful relationship within the house. In Musical Theatre this year, I was named Co-Captain with Caitlin Wardrop, Mack ’16. This was Caitlin’s sixth Brentwood musical, and it was my fifth. We were both ecstatic to be given such an opportunity and leadership position. The show was The Addams Family and I played Alice Beineke—an unsatisfied housewife with a flair for crawling on tables. At risk of sounding disgustingly cliché, the true highlight of my Brentwood career would have to be the people. All the friends I have met, experiences I have gained from collaboration, teachers who have helped me, and professionals I have met through opportunities here are entirely irreplaceable.  Thank you so much to every teacher I have ever had or gone to for extra help or guidance, I wish I could express just how much you all so obviously care about your students and how they fare.  Special thanks to Mr. Collis for all the music and Bob Dylan, to Mr. Snow for the life advice and getting me through Chemistry 11AP without making me hate it, to Mr. Luna for the angst and letting me start Art AP in Grade 12 with no experience, to Mr. McGill and Mr. Newns for the diverse musical experience, to Ms. Blake for making me look good dancing, to Mr. Armitage for always being on point with tech, and Mrs. Widenmaier for encouraging me to pursue the performing arts. Onwards, Jaclyn Childs, Alexandra ‘16