Written by Gavin Carlisle |
Photos by Gavin Carlisle and Abbey Norton |
Another Morgan talent has popped up, and this will be the last Morgan talent article of the school year. He is Freshmen Willem DeVries, and he’s a talented individual in many ways. He can act, write poetry, play instruments, and sing. In seventh grade, he moved to Clinton from East-Haddam.
Willem’s interest for instruments sparked in fifth grade when he decided to start playing the trombone. The following year he transitioned to playing percussion. Ever since he has been in the band playing percussion. His favorite percussion instruments are the snare drum and tom-toms. Willem has commented that he is excited to continue playing percussion in the future and will most likely play it during college.
Willem began acting in eighth grade when he was put in the musical Guys and Dolls. More recently, he acted in Hello, Dolly! this year. He will try to continue acting, but it depends on whether Music teacher John Lampe will cast him in future musicals. Willem also noted that “I used to do hip hop dancing, but…I was really little.”
One of Willem’s favorite activities is writing poetry, and he said he has been writing poetry since either seventh or eighth grade. This year, Willem joined the Lit Mag Club, supervised by English teacher Julie Frydenborg. Willem’s poem, The Recipe of Love, is featured on page 5 of this year’s publication of the Lit Mag Club. Willem said he will generally write about everything, and he likes writing short poems but dislikes writing slam poems.
Willem said he enjoys writing poetry because “It’s really soothing, and some poems I really don’t mind putting my time into if it is going to be good. I want people to actually see a good product.” Willem will definitely be writing poetry in the future, as he plans to go to college to become a better author.
Willem has support from everywhere, from his friends, family, and teachers. Freshmen Logan Cummings is currently in the Lit Mag Club with Willem, and he said, “He can come up with poems within like 10 minutes and have a piece that’s short but fantastic.” Another one of Willem’s friends, Freshmen Rachel Schmardel, acted in Guys and Dolls and Hello, Dolly! with Willem; she also is in the Morgan band with Willem. She said, “He’s really talented. He can write. he can draw. He can play the drums. He can act. He’s like…got all of the talents. It’s impressive.”
Willem has said that he will definitely continue writing poetry and play percussion for the rest of high school and college. He will try to continue acting in high school but will probably not continue to in college. He is a very talented person, and he will continue to be successful in the future. Willem hopes to be a great author one day.