I will never forget the first day that I slowly climbed that long long stair case in the Music building. I was kicking myself all the way. One of the ladies that I work for goes to church with the director and had been after me for months to join. I had finally given in and here I was. All I wanted was to turn around and leave. But I didn't, thank God! I had one friend in choir but climbing those stairs I didn't know that he would be there. That first day I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I loved the music, and the people looked fun, but I was scared and felt alone and didn't have my brave face on very well. But, I was also committed, and I love to sing. So I kept going back. It didn't take long for me to learn that these people were totally awesome and I loved them, but it took them longer to learn to love me. I'm not sure they all do yet, but thats ok, I still love them. To me it felt like I sort of found a spot when I went to see a play put on by the Music Theatre Workshop class. It was a totally great play and I got very into it. The next day in class it was so fun to have that in common with the ones who are in that class! The end of February when we went to Meridian for the Community Choir Convention I felt like I was finally a part of the group. That was when choir really got fun for me. At that point I realized that every person on that bus was special to me. The time since then has been a lot of fun!
Last Thursday at the awards ceremony I got to sit with the Reflections Singers. They are a smaller group from Choir that does more music and does a lot of special services and stuff. It was so much fun! It was cool to see/hear how much NOISE we made whenever one of us won an award. I'm pretty sure that we were by far the noisiest bunch in the auditorium! That afternoon while I was doing homework I randomly popped onto facebook to see that one of our band directors had posted saying that the choir director and Reflections Singers had been in a bad wreck on their way to a performance. My heart went through the bottoms of my feet!! I had no idea if everyone was ok or if anyone was dead or seriously hurt or anything! I immediately tried getting ahold of people and finally got a call about an hour later saying everyone was ok. Banged up and some injuries, but ok. The complete horror of that hour is going to stay with me for awhile!!
Tonight, as we gave our last performance, it was so incredibly good just to be together. All together. We were missing one of our members who got pretty roughed up in the accident, but she is alive and ok. Thank You God! I think sometimes that you don't know how much you love people until you are faced with the reality that they could be gone. Saying goodbyes tonight was hard. I wanted to cry. I love each of these crazy kids so much! I call them kids because (although they don't know this) they are a lot younger than I am. Yes ya'l, I'm 24. A lot older than you :)
Choir taught me a lot. Let me give you a few things that got cemented in my brain a lot more deeply. #1. People don't notice each other, they only notice themselves. Nobody thought about my presence nearly as much as I thought they did. #2. People like people who are themselves. I learned this by trial and non-error. Once I relaxed and was myself, people liked me. Voila!! Amazing new friends! #3. New things always make you grow. Sometimes we don't like to grow, I get that. But if you never try something new, never stretch your world, never go out on a limb, you will not grow. Amen. #4. People are people are people. We all have feelings and fears and hurts. We all have insecurities. We all want others to like us. Thats just how we are! #5. People like people who like themselves. Its not easy to like ourselves. To see our value. To be comfortable enough in our own skin that we can look outside ourselves and love others. But its pretty vital to being like Jesus. And #6. People like people who like them. We like those who genuinely like us and reach out to us. Its just human nature!
I am so glad I joined choir. I would not trade the experience for anything in the world! I already miss my dear friends so very much! They are truly a part of my heart! So ya'l, (EMCC choir) when you think of me, drop me a message :) You know I would LOVE to hear from you! Any of you. Any time! I love you all so very much! I pray your summer is totally amazing and that you go on to have wonderful lives! Follow Jesus, and remember not to talk during practice or use your cell phones in church! :) :)
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