Gone forever?

The seniors are leaving and I feel like I will lose some of them forever. Who knows when the I'll see them next after graduation. This past year they have really grown to be good friends and some are even closer than that. I have been so greatful to be in the varsity show choir this year because I have bonded with all of them. There are not many juniors left, well girls at least. None are even very close to me, or ones that I want to be close to. Speech, the musical, and show choir have really opened my friend world up to different people outside of the stupid little clicks at our school that are still going on. They are ridiculous, and I love having friends from every circle anyways. Diverse people give you different look and view points on life. You never know who could change and impact your world.

Many of the seniors I know I just will not see this summer, just because I have never really seen them outside of a school event. There are some though that I am sure I will hang out with a lot over the summer. Especially the show choir seniors, which there are so many of them that we are losing, I will definitly keep in touch with. The bond of relationship, whether friendly or annoying, in show choir is so incredibly deep. You are with those people every week for most of the year. You have not only show choir practice but then class and just regular choirs with them.

Today is their last day and then soon we will be seniors. I can not imagine yet that we only have one more year left and then we are off to our own life and away from this highschool. I do not even see myself sitting on the senior bench every day next year, or being the oldest class in the school. It will be crazy to finally get this last year over with. But doing it without this years seniors is going to be really weird. I do not know what friends I will be with next year. I feel like all the genuinely amazing people skipped over our class and are above and below us. I know I will definitly be friends with a lot of the soon to be juniors next year. Seniors are leaving though and I will miss them and wish them the best of luck in figuring out their future ahead of them.

The Results!!

Well the show choir results were posted last friday. And let me tell you, there were a lot of tears everywhere. No one knew who was going to get in exactly. I was kind of torn for who I wanted to get in. Sophomore year I was being considered for Happiness and I really was hopeful that maybe I would get in. Our director told us that there was still seniority and that they might be considered more over me and another girl. That ended up what happened. I can understand letting a senior have the spot over me completely, since I still had two years to try to make it.

In the call backs all the returning girls from last year had a guaranteed spot. There were a bunch of sophomores in the call backs and we knew there was competition for all the other spots in every singing section. At the end there were four girls that had to go up and sing. I knew they were the ones being debated on. The returning alto girls (the three of us that made it) had to go up and sing with them together. There were a couple soon to be juniors and a couple soon to be seniors. I really liked one of the juniors and I thought she would do really good in Happiness, but again there were seniors to compete with. I was torn in the decision because I did not really want the other girls to make it that were older but I wanted seniority over the younger girls, or else it would completely counter act what I went through my sophomore year. I really was torn because I thought the year would be more enjoyable with the soon to be junior than the others. But there is always next year for her and maybe someone will drop out or he will add someone new to the group.

There was one sophomore boy that made it into Happiness this year. I do not really know this kid very well at all, but apparently a lot of the senior guys do not really like him. I have already met some of the new junior boys and know a few of the junior girls, so next year will be enjoyable hanging out with them and creating new bonds of friendship.

The group should be amazing next year. And like every year, for any results, there are always different opinions. There is so much talent this upcoming year. It is unbelievable how much our show choirs have grown. I can not wait until we start to compete next year because I know we will be amazing.

Marriott

The Monday after we got back from break we had a performance right away at the Marriott Hotel for some business people. It was supposed to be a banquet I think to reward their "good/hardworking" employees. We had to be there a little bit after school so we could get ready and set up for the performance.

Most of the guys went into the big banquet room and helped set up the risers while the girls did their hair in the other room we were all getting ready in. All of a sudden I hear that one of our guys has cut their finger pretty badly. My mom was helping him out because she teaches a first aid and cpr class for the venture crew that I am in. Apparently he sliced his finger on the riser and it was cut really deep. It was bandaged up and no one really sent him to get stitches even though he needed them. I think he was just trying to make it through the performance first.

It is time for us to perform and we go out on stage and stand in our positions. A reverend says a funny little prayer and sits down in front. Now everyone is going through the buffet line at the back of the room while we are starting to perform so it is a little weird. And then everyone else is eating at the round tables in front of us. We start our show and it is going pretty good other than the awkwardness. As we get to our ballad we start off and we all seem really out of breath. Who knows if it was the room that was hard to breath in or none of us just did not really have as much adreneline as we usually do but you could tell it was a little rough. During the beginning, which is a really quiet time, the reverends phones goes off. He takes it out of his pocket and just looks to see whos calling...not even silencing it. After a couple seconds the reverend, who is in the front and center table by the way, opens up his phone and starts talking. It was sooo distracting and weird. I think he might be suffering from mental issues though, so I have to give him a little bit of a break.
During the middle of the ballad the guys finger has now bled through the bandage and is making a little pool on the stage of blood. He has a little five person solo part in the next song but right after the ballad he has to leave to go get stitches. So now we have an awkward situation to perform at in the first place, with a distracting phone conversation, and a leaking cut finger on stage.

....it was quite a performance.

Nashville!!!

Nashville was such a great experience. It was so much more than what I was expecting. I did not really have a good experience when I went on another kind of trip the spring break before that, so I was so glad that it had surpassed my expectations.

First there was a tremendously long bus ride there, but.... oh well. I pretty much slept most of it away anyways. When we got there we stayed at this amazingly huge hotel. It is the biggest hotel I have ever stayed in. There was like a jungle type area in the middle with a gondola ride going around the center. In the middle of these places were little shops and gifts places to go enjoy on free time. At the beginning of the trip everyone was in awe of the hotel, the city, and the time we were about to have. But soon everyone was switched into show choir mode. We had to go that night we got there to watch other groups. They ranged from middle schools all the way up to varsity groups. All of the groups were good and had different styles. There was one middle school group that just blew everyone away. They had sooooo much fun. There was a little red head in the group that I had caught my eye from the beginning and then I find out that he has the funnest solo later in the show. He had everyone laughing, clapping, and enjoying themselves. It was so powerful to see the entire auditorium in an uproar over this little boy and this middle school group. I loved it, and that is the show I remember most out of all the show choirs.

We performed the next day and found out that we had made it into finals which was exciting. That Friday night we went to the mall and Dave and Busters. It was kind of a relaxing evening before we had to perform the next morning. Then Saturday we perform our show and come to find out that we only make fifth. A lot of us were so upset and just started getting mad in general and taking it out on other people. I thought it was a little ridiculous. I mean we had beat lots of others out of finals. Yeah, we had been going pretty strong but things happen. I just really wanted to enjoy the experience for what it was and not dwell on the fact that it could have been better if we would have gotten a different placing. Oh well. I'm still glad we got to experience how it felt to perform on that stage in the Grand Ole Opry. The sound was so amazing. I kind of wish we had listened to our own show from the back of the theatre, but that would be kind of hard to do and perform at the same time. This experience was soo fun and great.

Spring Break!!!

This spring break has come up pretty fast. Actually the entire school year has gone by pretty fast I think. Maybe not the school day or week itself but... Well I just really love breaks. The worst part is going back to school after they are over. This spring break though I have a full schedule. The Thursday before our show choir group leaves at 3 in the morning to head for Nashville, Tennessee. From there we come back that Sunday. After that I have Monday free then Tuesday at 6 in the morning I get to leave again to go to Colorado with Venture Crew 2000 that I am also in. I do not get back until the Sunday before break at about 9. I have no idea when I am going to be able to do my homework in between all of that. And I know that my teachers will give it because obviously breaks are when homework should be done. Plus I will have to make-up those first two day that I will be gone.

This spring break should be very exciting though despite all the homework I will have to worry about. I can not wait to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. The stage I have heard is amazing to sing and dance on. I think the experience will be unforgettable. There is a spot on the stage that is a part of the old stage. It is a different color of wood and kind of out of place. This spot is supposed to be like lucky or something like that. Many famous people have stood on that very spot in the floor. A lot of people in the group really want to stand there. And those that have that kind of a spot onstage are so excited and think it will be destiny or something when they stand there. I can kind of see the excitement peice but I really think a lot of people have stood there and never been really famous so I really do not believe that part of it. The experience will just be amazing in general though singing there on the stage.

I really can not wait for this spring break. Hopefully all the hecticness and stressfullness can get behind me and I can concentrate on having an amazing experience spending time with friends in a new place and just having so much fun!!!

Coming Up...

In a couple of days, our show choir will be having another competition. My weekend is going to be really full with things to do and I just hope I can accomplish all of the homework I need to finish. I am excited for all the events I have to do, but also I want everything to go smoothly and exceptionally.

Tonight I have the speech concert, where I perform my musical theatre part for friends and family. Right after school though, I have a tennis meeting to go to until who knows when. Then since speech is going to get in the way of show choir practice tonight it has been moved earlier now to 4:30. So somehow I will have to get home to change for that and then go to practice until 5:15 where I then have to go have one more last practice with my musical theatre group. Then at 6:30 all of us will meet that are performing tonight and soon after we will do the performance. I am just hoping that it will get done early so I can get my homework finished for the night.

Friday is not so busy I guess, since I can not really do anything because my hair has to be put in sponge curlers early that night for show choir. At 5:30 on Saturday morning all the speech people are meeting at school to get on a bus to drive to our competition site. This is why I have to have my hair done so early, so I can take them out early in the morning. My musical theatre group performs at 10 and from there we are supposed to carpool over to Davenport where our show choir will be performing around 3. I probably won’t get back until really late that night.

I really hope that my entire schedule works out alright. Especially I hope competing for the speech competition and then quick trying to get over to the Davenport show choir competition will be fine. If it does not work out this year then we won’t be allowed to be in speech next year, and I have been really enjoying it so far. As I said earlier, speech has really been a new area I found that I want to keep pursuing and I do not want a confliction with show choir to stop that.

Overall, I am very excited to show what I can in every performance that I will be doing. I think every moment should be very fun and enjoyable. I want everything to be a great performance so we can do well. I think the busy schedule will feel worth it if that happens and I won't mind doing what homework I can during my only free times.

Oh Boy!

This weekend we had our first show choir competition for Happiness. It was called Supernova. Everyone seemed to have mixed feelings on it. Many were excited to show others what we had got or even to perform in their first competition. Others were nervous to see how we would do. The night before when the prep show choirs performed, all of us from the other choirs came to support our prep group. They did a great job and ended up getting first place in prep that night. Everyone was so happy. I think some varsity people were nervous to follow up after our prep had gotten first.

The next morning we came early to watch our freshman group. They put out a lot of effort and I really think their show could be something this year. They all have the drive to really be great. They ended up only getting second out of the two groups there though.

The thursday before we had performed our entire show for our audience of friends and family. Our show choir director was sick and couldn't make it there though. He was still a little sick on saturday but he pulled through and came at ten for the day. We all knew that this day round performance had to be amazing right away. We were competing against eleven other amazing show choirs that all had a lot to give. All of us were just worried about getting into finals let alone where we actually placed if we got in.

When we got out on the stage, I knew we all had to pull it together. We had to really sell our show and all we could do. After leaving the stage we all felt generally good about our entire show. We knew not everything was perfect but we set out to have fun and perform and that was what we accomplished.

All of us went to day round results. We ended up making finals! As we were making our way back to our rooms, there were rumors of what groups placed where. I did not want to listen to everyone, since I just wanted to find out from our own director. The wait was such a long time and everyone was talking about the rumors. There were rumors that we came in first and that we came in seventh in finals.

When our director came in. Everyone was so excited that we just made finals that some people were crying. Our director told us that we had... guess what? We were ranked 1st in day rounds! There was excitement and talking everywhere. We had just beat out eleven amazing groups and set fear in all of them that Happiness can be the best.

That night we ended up going last, knowing that every other group wanted to really see how good we were. We all knew we still had to bring it, and we were not a guarantee to get the place we got in the day round. There were new judges and it was a different mind set going in to the performance. I was really afraid that everyone was not going to fight as hard as they could be.

The groups all performed before us and had stepped up their game. As we went on to the stage, I really felt important and no matter what happened the day round had really made us feel like we could all accomplish what we wanted and had worked hard for.

Right after our performance we went to the gym to see the results for finals. Our group knew it had been a much better performance then the day round and was really hyped up. At that point I don't think we cared what place we were going to get, we were just in the moment and enjoying it. As the results came we ended up getting second to the varsity group from Urbandale. I never saw their show, but they usually are the group to beat. Even though we did not get first we still were proud and excited that we had beat out ten other amazing groups that day.

This just gives us something to work for and get better to be the best. I can not wait for our other competitions to see what our group will really do and if we will keep this fight to win in our minds when we perform.