Friday Five: The Whole Trial is Out of Order!

This week's Friday Five:

1. What's something in which you took first place? I was given the Art Award in Grade 6, which was a pretty big deal in my school because I went to a prestigious K-12 private school where awards were only given to the best of the best. I mean, it was in Grade 6, which seems irrelevant, but that was the year we graduated to go into the "upper school" (middle and high school were in the same building) and it really shaped the direction I was going in. Because I also got the highest mark in my senior year art class, and I also got accepted early admission into OCAD for both Arts and Design (though I didn't end up going there).
   
   
2. What's something at which you'd like a second chance? University. I wish I had taken the SATs. It's not a requirement for Canadian high school students, but you can take them if you want to apply to American universities. I actually wanted to go to Parsons School of Design for Graphic Design, especially since I had completed a summer college course there the year before, but I decided to stay here. I think a part of me was scared of being by myself in another country for four years (and so soon after 9/11), and another part of me knew my parents would have a really tough time financing two kids going to school in the States (my brother went to Cornell, which is very expensive already, but adding to that tuition for Parsons as well as living in NYC for four years would be astronomical). In retrospect, though, I do wish I had taken the chance and applied because I think it would've been a crazy adventure.
   
   
3. When did you last feel like a third wheel? I don't remember. I only really hang out with one couple (my friend Maegan and her boyfriend, Jason), but they don't really do anything that makes me feel like a third wheel. Like, they hold hands and have couple-y habits, but they never leave me out of conversations or decisions regarding our plans, so it's not awkward for me to hang out with them.
   
   
4. What's to look forward to in the fourth quarter of 2018? In the fourth quarter, I guess fall weather and my birthday? But those happen every year, so it's not specific to 2018. Can we change the question to "the third third of 2018"? Because the most exciting and most notable things for me to look forward to will be in the last week of September. I will be going to the BTS concert in Hamilton on September 23 (where I won the chance to attend their soundcheck!), and then I have my trip to NYC from September 26 to 30, which includes the BTS concert on September 29 in Newark. FINALLY, IT'S ALL HAPPENING!
   
   
5. Who had an especially good fifth film, fifth book, or fifth album? I would say Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was an especially good fifth film, and it's actually my favourite in the movie franchise. As for album, I'm gonna go with Paramore's After Laughter. I'm one of the old school Paramore fans that really, truly appreciates the direction they went for with After Laughter. After this album was released, I read a lot of comments like, "I miss the old Paramore" or "I wish Paramore sounded like they used to." While I love Paramore's older albums, too, I love the experimentation that went in with the mixing, producing, and instrumentals for After Laughter. I love that it's a genre-bending album and that they could create music that they really wanted to create rather than just conforming to a singular sound. It's the first album where they really expressed the hardships of adulthood and the truth of their own stories, and it really seems like it was a catharsis for them.