Joining Central Singers is the worst decision I have ever made.
Almost every day I get to school at 6:45, an hour before most others. I spend the first two hours of my day singing. I hate it so much, though not for a reason many may think.
I have been in the group for my last two years of high school, making connections that I know will be gone once I take my last step out of the building. The people I have met along the way will someday be strangers that I once knew.
Every time I walk into that classroom, I know that I am part of a community, which is the worst of all. In a month, I’ll have to leave behind the feeling of true acceptance. I know that even if I mess up, I won’t be shamed, instead, I will be built up and supported. The same group of people I spend the wee hours of morning with have shown me what it means to be in a community.
My whole life has been spent surrounded by music, that being the only thing able to give me complete comfort.
I hate choir, I hate that I got so comfortable with those around me.
Even though I am planning on continuing my music education into college, it will never be the same as it is now. I’ll have to meet so many new people, people who I didn’t have the pleasure of growing up with. I will never have this tight-knit group of people to create harmonies with again.
I will no longer have the ability to walk into the choir room half asleep and talk an abundance of nonsense with the people around me. I won’t hear Mr. Ivory as he goes on tangents about a show or book that is so niche that none of us ever understand a single word coming out of his mouth. I will forever be thankful for the opportunity that I was presented with at the end of sophomore year; one audition changed my perspective on life.
In roughly a month, I will have my last ever performance with these people. I try not to think about the sadness of the situation, but rather the positive impact one audition made for my life; my life has forever been impacted by the people I surround myself with every morning.
Not only have the other singers made an impact on my life, Mr. Ivory has changed me forever. Though sometimes he drives me insane, to know him is to love him. To think that next year I won’t have him telling me I’m singing the wrong note is gut-wrenching.
For the last four years of high school, I have watched that man direct choirs, and it just hit me that I am about to experience this for one last time.
I hate choir. I hate that I must leave it behind.
