Hello to you all interested in attending the Maine Coast Semester. My name is Simon Q Schraga, I’m from New York City, I’m attending Semester 75, and I would like to tell you about my favorite part of Maine Coast Semester: Saturday night activities. On Saturday nights, YOU will get a chance to prepare the night’s activities with a crew of your classmates. The scale for these events is massive. We’ve done hide-and-seek games, pumpkin carving, a lip sync battle, Shark Tank, a fashion show where we made outfits out of trash (shown below), and much more. One particular
An event I’d like to tell you about is a Community favorite this semester, the coffee house.
The coffee house is an event where students can display their talents in energetic, mystical, elegant, magical, interpretive, and high-energy performances. The coffee house was the first event held at MCS, and I had an idea for a performance, but it was one I was far too scared to execute. I had the idea to perform a dance from a small movie that was released on Netflix recently, my idea? Perform Soda Pop from Kpop Demon Hunters. However, I didn’t immediately sign up because I was nervous. Why would I perform a song like that to 35 of my new classmates? That just sounds crazy, right? However, one day, I heard two girls singing Soda Pop to which I said, “Hey, I taught myself that dance!” They then reply, “You should perform it at the coffee house!” So that, dear reader, is how some very light peer pressure encouraged me to perform Soda Pop to 35 people. I went up on stage, my heart beating out of my chest, and I did not like my performance. In my mind, the timing was off, I wasn’t singing well, and I was nervous throughout the performance. When I finished, I rushed offstage, breaking down from how much I disliked my performance. However, afterwards, I talked to people who legitimately enjoyed my performance. I remember one student, in response to my detestation of my performance, told me, “It didn’t matter if you were off, your energy and passion were clear”. When I look back on that moment, I realize I choreographed almost the whole song, and I actually had the confidence to go up and perform. I think that it’s because I did that that I gained the confidence to be a fuller form of myself at Chewonki. I think this energy has culminated at some of the most recent events I’d like to tell y’all about, first of which was… Another coffee house!
At the 2nd coffee house, I performed a song called Idol by YOASOBI, which is a Jpop song (any anime watchers here? Maybe 1 person reading knows what I’m talking about). This song carries a lot of meaning to me, so I performed it. I mixed the Japanese and English lyrics together to allow people to understand it while still clearly showing my love of Jpop. The best part for me was that people were enjoying the music, and I got to present myself to them through the vessel of the song, which was a great experience for me. Then, soon after, came one of my favorite events, the lip sync battle.
Each cabin choreographed and put on a lip sync performance. I want to start with how much I loved this event; every cabin’s performance felt so perfectly like them. Some quick shoutouts were Gillies performing Tequila, a song with 3 words, all of which are “Tequila.” We also had ranch as the Spice Girls, Gordy’s flawless lip sync to one of the songs of the semester, Poster Boy by 2hollis. As well as Orchard performing Teenage Dirtbag with some 10/10 acting, and the (allegedly) winning performance, with SoHo’s fully choreo’d rendition of Timber. And of course, the performance that didn’t actually win, but a winner in my heart, Binnacle’s performance. Where we became Your Idols by performing another Kpop Demon Hunters song, your idol. Choreographing a dance for 5 others was an experience. We choreo’d the first verse, then some of the chorus, at which point my cabinmates asked, “Hey, we don’t have time for the full thing, what if we just tried to mirror you for the rest?” This was an interesting approach, and some thought it spotlit me too much, but we had fun. And I infinitely appreciate their willingness to engage with my artistic vision.
Overall, these events are my favorite nights of the semester, and they allow me to fully project and be my genuine self. I have this mentality where, if people are laughing or smiling at what I do, it’s not embarrassing. I feel super free in this place, like I can do anything with no judgment. It’s the best feeling in the world, and this is one of the few places where I have felt it.
Simon Schraga, Semester 75
Simon is attending from Grace Church School in New York, NY
