Charlie Nogaki's Odyssey by Charles Nogaki

Ausable Club

charlesnogaki1 — 2024-09-13 16:38:24 UTC

I've been going to the Ausable Club in the Adirondacks since I was 3. I have my childhood memories there and it is an amazing place without good wifi so I can connect with my family. From capture the flag on Monday pasta night to 10 hour hiking trips climbing the highest mountains in NY, this place has grown on me and gave me some of the best and important life experiences.

Stage

charlesnogaki1 — 2024-09-13 16:43:51 UTC

Performing along with theater in general has been a very important aspect of my life. I started it pretty late in my life since covid, but it has helped me grow so much as a person! Although most of my experience with performing and theater is positive, something I struggled my whole life became supplementary and a big challenge that couldn't go away. In general, I have a hard time with confidence and giving a group of people or an audience in this situation what they want or expect. For theater, I struggled with showing an audience my talent because I would get scared that I would not go beyond their expectations or embarrass myself. To give a little context, before I explain the outcome because of my fear, in middle school my voice was fluctuating through puberty, so it was very low, but since last year my voice is now naturally high and I'm a tenor (which is generally the highest vocal type). So, last year when I would get scared of singing in front of people, my voice would always go low to where I'm used to. This wouldn't help me with usually being able to sing the very high notes that most boys can't and how I would be off key. Through this challenge, I realized that my insecurities and anxiety limit my ability to show my true talent and ability. Although this would seem that this is only a negative aspect, striving to overcome it and not shy away from theater discovered my determination in different things that I am interested in or something that's important. This weakness stuck with me until the beginning of this summer, as I was working with OBP to perform Rock of Ages. In the beginning, I was still worried that I would embarrass myself by singing poorly. But, the executive producer for the show told me how while the show should be its best, but because of how positive the OBP community is, no one will judge you or think differently. So, with how powerful working with people with or without special needs and how happy they are being included in a show and how no one will judge me there, I was determined to sing truly even if it sounded bad. With this intent in my mind, I sang just fine and my other cast members gave me compliments. Even in the performance, having confidence while performing and showing my talent made me discover my true strength in performing along with how much the audience liked me. This made me feel so great and since then I never had a problem with my confidence when performing. From this experience, what I learned about life is that while you might do something bad or embarrassing, people are most likely going to forget that and not remember in like a week. Also, I learned that you shouldn't be scared of not doing something right for people or what people think about you because if people think or say something bad about me, that is their problem.

Camp Dudley

charlesnogaki1 — 2024-09-13 16:51:02 UTC

Camp Dudley is a place that has also had a big impact on my life. It has showed me to be a respectful, hard-working person who want to achieve things. Dudley has also made me connect with a bunch of boys from all over the country and even the world. I have kept many of those friendships even though I haven't seen them in a year for two.

Greenwich, Ct

charlesnogaki1 — 2024-09-13 16:54:01 UTC

I was born and been living in Greenwich my whole life. No matter where I am, Greenwich is like my home base. The town is so nice and safe that I don't need to worry about truly anything like that.

West Lyons Farm

charlesnogaki1 — 2024-09-13 21:44:53 UTC

This is my Grandparents old house where I would go a lot to spend time with them. I would sleep over at least a few times a month. I loved how they had a pool for the condo complex and my family even did the ice bucket challenge there! One of my favorite memories was when my grandfather had a fake bb gun that only made the sounds like a bb gun to scare all of the bad animals out of the pond that didn't belong there. I thought it was fun to scare them!

Tennis Court

charlesnogaki1 — 2024-09-13 21:48:08 UTC

Tennis is my favorite sport to play and it's a sport I've grown up playing. I really love the sport because of its competitiveness and the art behind it. Also, I used/still struggle with confidence in general and mentality when playing tennis, but I love it though because it helps me gain confidence and stop anxiety.