Jacob Guereque Excels Behind Scenes
Senior Jacob Guereque's designs, love for theater, hard work and willingness to help others has not gone unnoticed. He is respected and admired among House Crew. Senior Ben Heppler, a fellow designer, spoke on his friendship with Guereque through working alongside him in theater.
"I have known Jacob since freshman year," Heppler said. "We had some classes together and then became friends through theater. One thing about him is that he will work until someone has to pull him off. He will work until either it is done or he is forced to stop. In my time working with Jacob, I've noticed he will lock in, and ignore everything else in the world. Outside of theater, I'd say he's a pretty cool guy."
Along with theater, Guereque has participated in Madrigals since spring of last year. Along with singing at Wednesday Mass, he has had the opportunity to perform at concerts and last year's Baccalaureate Mass. Working with music teacher Michelle Vardaman for a few years, said she admires how caring and hardworking he has been and his progress throughout the years.
"Jacob is so caring, and I truly believe God answered my prayers by introducing him to me," Vardaman said. "He is quite thoughtful and creative, and has helped so many students in their interest with theater. I'm not sure he knew he was going to be interested, but as soon as he figured out it was something interesting to him, he fully committed to figuring out how he was going to be involved, who he was going to collaborate with, what questions he was going to ask and how he was going to prepare himself, more than just throw himself into it. A lot of people will get too excited and not think things through, but not him."
Starting with History of Rock and Roll, Guereque has taken music classes since his sophomore year. He eventually began performing in Madrigals after a conversation with a close friend.
"I actually joined Madrigals after a deep conversation with one of my friends and a senior last year, Henry Nguyen," Guereque said. "He knew I liked singing and encouraged me to join. I really like being able to learn complicated songs and perform them for people. My favorite song I've sung with the choir is 'Prayer to Saint Francis'. I have also performed at last year's Baccalaureate Mass and a few Sacred Concerts, which are shows that some of the high school choirs participate in."
Though he has enjoyed both choir and theater, he has faced struggles with performance anxiety and the stress of deadlines.
"Whenever I do have performance anxiety, I'll just try and not focus on the crowd of people, but instead focus on the music and how I'm singing it, and listen to the people around me, because that's also an important part of singing in a choir," Guereque said. "Some struggles include deadlines, because I like to dream big which often takes a lot of time out of my schedule."
Despite any challenges, Guereque has persevered and continues to encourage others to join the community.
"My biggest advice would be donât let people's words get to your head, because in the end, what they think can't affect you all that much in the long run. And, if you only focus on what people like, the negatives that people say, then it'll hold you back from actually achieving what you want to achieve, but it's important to at least take some things into account, but also focus on the positive, and ultimately, try not to dwell too much on all the negatives, because there will always be positives in your work. I hope to see both the theater and the choir grow to the potential I know it has."
Guereque said he wouldn't have been able to accomplish so much on his own. He thanks family, friends, mentors and crew members, especially past theater teacher, Lauren Gengler, Vardaman and Heppler.