Senior Emily Trachsel’s schedule and life is anything, but perfect and stress-free; more than half of her classes consist of rigourous IB courses and a large workload from them. Aside from taking one of the most difficult classes available, Trachsel takes theater, chorus and creative writing.

Her passion for the arts are not only exemplified through her schedule with the contrasting classes, she also does practically every single show for the Annandale Theater Company. Additionally, she dances for her own dance studio in her freetime and has been dancing in general since the age of two.

“A lot of actors are concerned about how they will look, but she has the big picture in mind and wants to do what’s best going to serve the production as a whole,” theatre teacher Katherine Brunberg said.

Trachsel, like many other students, are able to participate in numerous art classes or find other ways to show their passion about art in the many forms of it. Art can be a means of expression to allow people to share their own ideas, interpretations or messages to the world, loved ones or to themselves. When people think about art, or examples of art, they may see classify it under performing or visual arts.

What some people don’t consider is the language arts, specifically poetry. Students are able to take creative writing as an elective course, where they can engage in units filled with poetry, journalism and short stories. In these classes, they are able to express themselves through means that are seldom known to have a large audience.

“I think that poetry is the most raw form of art in a way, obviously this can be argued for any form of art,” Trachsel said. “It’s taking things that can’t be defined by words and defining through truly capturing whatever you’re trying to say, like an emotion, a feeling or a concept that you are trying to portray.”

For years, students have been studying famous poets of their choice or already set in the curriculum from the poetry units in many English classes. Though some students do not necessarily favor these units filled with creative writing and analysis of notable poets, it’s always important to find a way or a time for a person to take a break from the typical high school day filled, some filled with long lectures by teachers. Poetry can serve as a way for one to express themselves through words and phrases if they aren’t artistically inclined.

“I feel like I would be able to express myself more easily and share it with people. I can write poems for people and give it to them, but I can’t just come up to somebody and do five pirouettes,” Trachsel said.

Poets would be able to specifically show others their various poems, without a need to explain it, since it can all be interpretive. Even if a drawing has a thousand words, a poem can literally be a thousand words and still be as personal and require much interpretation.

“Anything is art. I truly believe that anything is art if you want to call it art, like a piece of dirt,” Trachsel said. “A lot of people, especially with poetry, look at it and they’re just like ‘huh, that doesn’t make sense, that’s not art,’ but it’s a lot different than that.”
All of the forms of art allows anyone and everyone to express themselves anyway that they see fit. If a student isn’t able to dance or song, they are still able to show their passion, ideas or opinions through other means.

“I think that being an artist has made her a better communicator, it has built her confidence as a leader,” Brunberg said. “She has become way more confident working in the different
Arts.”

Being involved in the any form of the performing, visual and/or language arts allows people to gain different skills that they would not be able to gain in a classroom setting. It allows you to further your passions and gain a sense of your interests that would thus help strengthen your identity and/or personality.

“Sometimes I feel like when I’m writing poetry, I would have a different personality, but it’s who I am truly,” Trachsel said. “It’s not necessarily written on my sleeve and that’s what I love about poetry and maybe art in general.”