The Spirit of Cerritos: Meet Cerritos High's James Hong

Editor's Note: Cerritos-Artesia Patch will be posting musician profiles of the  during their travels to Paris and London. 

An outstanding addition to the Spirit of Cerritos, my name is James Hong and I have been given the privilege to be part of the elite wind symphony of . My hobbies are gaming on all consoles, sketching, airsofting, and sprinting. Interests include concept art, science fiction, modern physics, and philosophy. I aim for spot-on organized perfection. My highest values are empathy and open-mindedness.  It is an honor to be part of a supporting community that made its way into this once in a lifetime event.

To achieve excellence means to not only survive, but own the challenges that are faced head on. To thrive over the top knowing that what was done could only be done through the correct control of effort. Using every skill towards advantage of the situation and having a sense of validity in the choices made knowing that there will be a swift victory somewhere in mind that unconsciously echoes to the minds of others. When others can feel your success, you will know the magnitude of the choices that led there.   

The Cerritos High School Wind Symphony was asked to perform for the community many times because of its great sounding program. Some examples would be the and the District Board Meeting in San Diego where we arrived in charter buses as this was our first step into performing for our community.

Perseverance and dedication comes with unbound time and effort that allows endurance and will power to increase drastically.  As people learn to flex when times seem unbeatable, being in a tough and tight spot will prevail for the moment.  A recap of the situation must be analyzed so that a stronger return will allow for more efficiency. 

I am a returning band member who has a lot of marching experience leftover from middle school and elementary which was the foundation of the musical part of my life.  Those two years in middle school was absolutely brutal to my health. Lack of sleep causing a certain degree of memory loss and slight malnutrition damages energy levels. Middle school served mostly as an endurance test and I did hold on as long as possible. I was in band where I played the clarinet as my main instrument, drumline pit section which won the award for highest pit at state championships, and was one of three drum majors.  Drumline took the most out of me but I hung in there until results began to override logic as I began a bad habit of pulling all-nighters to finish homework. I was conditioned until I was buff enough to have an eight pack from simply lifting equipment. I had dropped band for my first two years of high school because my parents believed I would continue to be overwhelmed but persisted until I rejoined recently and am recovering my musical skills by reviving the clarinet. As I joined, marching season had begun and months of dedication, time, and determination had been spent preparing for the finale of marching season. This year, we had entered a new circuit and did extremely well as our hard work started to pay off. The point is I’m here now and am determined to thrive!

When effective teamwork takes place, it is because a majority of the group is either strong enough to make up for the flaws of teammates who compensate them with the return of the same favor or every individual member is self reliant and independent in unison. My favorite example of this is the lone wolf.  Each lone wolf is an alpha regardless of gender or size because when they come together, a pack of lone wolves is efficient. In the same sense, teamwork can be effective through multiple strategies taking on a reasonable goal that will aim high enough that it will eventually lead to a path up the ladder to success.

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Click here for complete coverage on the CHS Wind Symphony's once in a lifetime opportunity to represent the city of Cerritos and the country on the world's biggest stage.

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