This week, I had the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience at the conference center for A Brand New Year Choir, A Celebration For Latter-Day Saint Youth. On Tuesday, we performed without the audience, but we still taped it. On Wednesday and Thursday, the conference center was completely filled, and many were turned away because there was no more room. It was an amazing experience that I'll never forget.
We performed for the first time on Tuesday and then Wednesday and Thursday, and had the cameras on us. It was pretty strange having all of these cameras all over you and not knowing if you were on or not, so you had to smile and be paying attention the whole time in case they caught you. On Wednesday, Dad told me that Ashley said I had a close up on the big screen. I had no idea, because I can't just turn around and look whenever I want to. The next day at school, a couple of people came up to me and said that they saw me on the big screen at the conference center the night before, and they thought it was extremely cool that I was doing it. I don't know if I got a close up last night, but the cameras were right by me many times.
On Tuesday-Thursday, I was super tired during school from being up so late the night before for choir (well, staying up late on Monday was my fault). We got out at 10PM and I had homework. All of my teachers decided that this was a perfect week to play movies in their class, so I was falling asleep in most of my classes. I was extremely miserable on Thursday. I was super tired and hungry (there was barely anything worth eating for breakfast and I didn't have time) and I hadn't figured out a ride and Mom kept on calling me over and over again in science so I used my hallpass that I just barely got (that I get only once a term) and went into the bathroom to call her. I could get a ride from Kaitlin (Mom had school 3-9PM) but I had to go over to her house and I had no way of getting there either. Mom suggested I ride my bike. It's super cold, I'm more than two miles away from the school, and she lives right by the school. I started going a bit crazy in the bathroom saying I don't want to do this anymore and stuff like that (which of course, I didn't actually mean, I was just upset). Mom said that she'd take me out of school so I can rest and get things done before I have to leave. I went back to class after being in there for ten minutes. I wonder if the teacher thought I was having problems. Mom came and got me and I got the address of Kaitlin. We dropped Emma off at kindergarten and Mom and this one guy she knows (is he in our ward? heh, oops) were talking about how they don't like Obama at all and how they're both trying to find jobs and they're going to help eachother out. When we got home, I called Lori and then Sue. Sue said that she could take me to Kaitlin's house. I was excited when Mom went shopping because she got lots of wonderful foods to fill our barren cupboards.
We went to the conference center at 5PM Tuesday-Thursday. On Wednesday and Thursday, we met in the small theater in there where they hold plays. We talked and looked at some of the footage and decided what we needed to do to make our performance better. On Thursday (which was last night) we were told that when we look at this in January or ten years later, we shouldn't have the regret that we could've done more. We needed to give it our all that night, since it was our last performance. We talked a bit longer and then we were informed that the prophet was coming. They said that there is a chance that he won't be able to come, but he had said that he'd be there. They told us that this isn't about him. We can't be singing to him, looking at him, or trying to shake his hand. This isn't about him, this is about the youth of this church. We then sang some of our songs and primary songs. I recorded us singing many times on my cell phone, but the cell phone recording system is crappy. It was still such a cool experience to have 400 youth in that room and to sing with them. Everyone was very upset it was our last night together, but a girl said to some of us that we shouldn't be sad that it's over, we should be happy that it happened. (BTW, Pres. Monson ended up having something come up and he couldn't attend. That's okay, his spirit was still there.)
They gave us a little bit of time to go to the bathroom, fix our clothes, hair, or make-up, and put our stuff in the dressing room and then go out in the choir seats. I needed to get something from one of the directors which took a while and then I had to go to the bathroom. I had to run as fast as I could to the dressing rooms and quickly throw on some lipgloss and check to see if I look okay, and I was the only one left in there. I ran out to the seats, and then the program started about ten minutes later. We started singing our opening song, and it felt so good to sing there.
While Elder Holland was talking, my heart started beating faster as I realized this is it, I'm about to go out there for the last time, and never see most of these people again. It was a sad realization, and it brought me down. I told myself that I can't feel sad yet, I have to give it one last shot, and give the audience what they came for.
When he was done speaking, the choir went to their dressing rooms to change and make sure we still looked good. When I was done getting dressed and putting on more lipgloss, I ran out to my spot on the very left of the audience (from the audiences view) and up some stairs to the second level of seats and waited to start. The audience were given some instructions and told that they were going to be recorded which excited a lot of them, though I knew most of them wouldn't actually be shown. When the music started and everyone shouted "HELLO!", I ran down the stairs and started shaking hands with a bunch of people and giving them high-fives. When the second chorus started, everyone ran on stage singing and put up the number one with their fingers at the end. I barely made it onto the stage in time.
Brother Dahlquist and Sister Dalton started talking and asked us if we wanted to have fun and saying they couldn't hear us while we're breaking everyone's eardrums trying to say yes. Brother Dahlquist said "Do you want to have the kind of fun Sister Dalton is talking about? Good, clean, wholesome, latter-day saint fun?" and we all scream "YES!!" Sister Dalton says "Well, why didn't you just say so? Because when you say yes to having that kind of fun, what you're really saying is...Jacob...?" And this guy name Jacob starts to sing and we all start clapping and standing up and dancing. That's my favorite part of the whole performance, that beginning part and then the song "Yes!". I can't wait for all of you to see it.
We continued on singing songs, talking, having discussions, watching video clips, and just having a great but spiritual time. I think I liked Thursday's performance better than Wednesday. We had a live discussion group, talked with this guy named Brad who found out about the church a year ago from going to the lds.org website and asking a friend about (he got baptized a few weeks ago), and having a super fun time.
The audience was more into our performance than the night before. They showed more of them on the big screen. People who saw themselves on the screen waved and smiled and were so excited. When this guy was giving everyone instructions for the third segment, this girl was on the screen and caught picking her nose. She looked at the screen and quickly dropped her finger and put her hands to her mouth. I'm not entirely sure if it was real, but she was digging pretty deep for gold. Poor, sick, sick, girl.
When we sang our second to last song, I was trying to put everything into it. When we got up and waved and sang our closing song, I felt so full of energy, but sad at the same time. When it was over and the audience started to leave, I felt so empty. That was it. I won't be doing anything like that again. I probably won't be with this group of people ever again, only in memory.
They kept us after again to go over some more parts to record. They said thank-you for being so good about this, so whenever they said that we needed to do a part over again, instead of groaning, we cheered. During one period of time when some people were getting microphones changed, I played the laughing game with Kaitlin Archibald and Andrew Wood. The guy who I liked but not as much anymore said something funny, and then I couldn't stop laughing. I was in the middle with my head on Andrew and Kaitlin on me, and then I got them laughing a bit too. I felt super sad thinking that I wasn't going to see Andrew anymore. I didn't want to ask for his email or number, because I always feel weird doing that to guys. This girl in our group (we were A's, and Andrew and I were A2's) sent around a list where everyone puts down their number(s), name, and emails and she was going to email this to all of us. That gave me hope. When we were finally done recording, the YW and YM general presidency people talked to us. I got give Sister Dibb and Sister Cook high fives before the show started. After they talked, Brother Boothe told us that they actually have two more parts for us to record. We all cheered. When we were done for good, we went backstage and got our stuff. I went out to the stage again when I had my bag full of stuff, and Andrew was there. He came up to me and we gave eachother a high-five and knuckles, and then he hugged me. I was in heaven then. I haven't had a guy hug me, and that is really all I ever wanted to make me happy. Even if I didn't know a guy that well, hugs are magical to me. I was glowing inside as my self-esteem sky-rocketed. He asked to see my phone and he put his number into it and then texted himself. I thought happiness was going to burst out of my skin, I felt so special. I told him thanks for making this a better experience because he was so funny and made me laugh a lot. We said bye, and I went with Kaitlin and her Mom to the place where a lot of the cast were. We got rootbeer milk (on Tuesday I think, one of our directors told us that if he could, he'd take all of us to get rootbeer floats and rootbeer milk was the closest they got, it was surprisingly good!! I loved it even though it sounded like someone who likes to mix foods made it, like me), our CD that we recorded on October 25, and a poster. There wasn't really anyone I saw who I wanted to sign mine since I didn't really know them. I ran up to the guy who was a convert, Brian, and shook his hand. Kaitlin's mom found a pen for me, and eventually the youth soloists and youth came out and I got a lot of them to sign my poster. This guy who was in the choir was playing hymns on his harmonica which really added to the feeling that was there. I was happier than I thought I'd be when this ended.
Kaitlin's mom took me home and Mom said that I didn't have to go to school the next day since I would be so tired and I have a lot of homework to do and it was 11:30PM. I went into my bedroom and looked through my For the Strength of Youth pamphlet that I got from there and listened to my CD.
I felt so sad and lost as I listened. It's over, it's all over. I went to this practice a little over a month ago (Sunday, September 28) expecting to be in a Mormon Tabernacle Choir youth version, but it turned out to be so much more. In just over a month, I made new friends, learned new songs, and got to perform in front of about 45,000 people over the two performances, I get to be on TV and shown all across North America and potentially, to the world. I was chosen to be in this, and I've had the experience of a lifetime. People were told that it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to see this performance live, well I was in it. It's been such a great experience and now I don't know what to do now that this is over. We had talked about have a 20 year reunion in 2028 when we'll all be around 32-38 and have 8 kids each. I can't wait for it to be shown so that I can watch it, and I can say that I was in it and I don't regret anything and I had a once in a thousand lifetime's experience. It totally beats being in a Mormon Tabernacle Choir youth's version.
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705260981,00.html
We performed for the first time on Tuesday and then Wednesday and Thursday, and had the cameras on us. It was pretty strange having all of these cameras all over you and not knowing if you were on or not, so you had to smile and be paying attention the whole time in case they caught you. On Wednesday, Dad told me that Ashley said I had a close up on the big screen. I had no idea, because I can't just turn around and look whenever I want to. The next day at school, a couple of people came up to me and said that they saw me on the big screen at the conference center the night before, and they thought it was extremely cool that I was doing it. I don't know if I got a close up last night, but the cameras were right by me many times.
On Tuesday-Thursday, I was super tired during school from being up so late the night before for choir (well, staying up late on Monday was my fault). We got out at 10PM and I had homework. All of my teachers decided that this was a perfect week to play movies in their class, so I was falling asleep in most of my classes. I was extremely miserable on Thursday. I was super tired and hungry (there was barely anything worth eating for breakfast and I didn't have time) and I hadn't figured out a ride and Mom kept on calling me over and over again in science so I used my hallpass that I just barely got (that I get only once a term) and went into the bathroom to call her. I could get a ride from Kaitlin (Mom had school 3-9PM) but I had to go over to her house and I had no way of getting there either. Mom suggested I ride my bike. It's super cold, I'm more than two miles away from the school, and she lives right by the school. I started going a bit crazy in the bathroom saying I don't want to do this anymore and stuff like that (which of course, I didn't actually mean, I was just upset). Mom said that she'd take me out of school so I can rest and get things done before I have to leave. I went back to class after being in there for ten minutes. I wonder if the teacher thought I was having problems. Mom came and got me and I got the address of Kaitlin. We dropped Emma off at kindergarten and Mom and this one guy she knows (is he in our ward? heh, oops) were talking about how they don't like Obama at all and how they're both trying to find jobs and they're going to help eachother out. When we got home, I called Lori and then Sue. Sue said that she could take me to Kaitlin's house. I was excited when Mom went shopping because she got lots of wonderful foods to fill our barren cupboards.
We went to the conference center at 5PM Tuesday-Thursday. On Wednesday and Thursday, we met in the small theater in there where they hold plays. We talked and looked at some of the footage and decided what we needed to do to make our performance better. On Thursday (which was last night) we were told that when we look at this in January or ten years later, we shouldn't have the regret that we could've done more. We needed to give it our all that night, since it was our last performance. We talked a bit longer and then we were informed that the prophet was coming. They said that there is a chance that he won't be able to come, but he had said that he'd be there. They told us that this isn't about him. We can't be singing to him, looking at him, or trying to shake his hand. This isn't about him, this is about the youth of this church. We then sang some of our songs and primary songs. I recorded us singing many times on my cell phone, but the cell phone recording system is crappy. It was still such a cool experience to have 400 youth in that room and to sing with them. Everyone was very upset it was our last night together, but a girl said to some of us that we shouldn't be sad that it's over, we should be happy that it happened. (BTW, Pres. Monson ended up having something come up and he couldn't attend. That's okay, his spirit was still there.)
They gave us a little bit of time to go to the bathroom, fix our clothes, hair, or make-up, and put our stuff in the dressing room and then go out in the choir seats. I needed to get something from one of the directors which took a while and then I had to go to the bathroom. I had to run as fast as I could to the dressing rooms and quickly throw on some lipgloss and check to see if I look okay, and I was the only one left in there. I ran out to the seats, and then the program started about ten minutes later. We started singing our opening song, and it felt so good to sing there.
While Elder Holland was talking, my heart started beating faster as I realized this is it, I'm about to go out there for the last time, and never see most of these people again. It was a sad realization, and it brought me down. I told myself that I can't feel sad yet, I have to give it one last shot, and give the audience what they came for.
When he was done speaking, the choir went to their dressing rooms to change and make sure we still looked good. When I was done getting dressed and putting on more lipgloss, I ran out to my spot on the very left of the audience (from the audiences view) and up some stairs to the second level of seats and waited to start. The audience were given some instructions and told that they were going to be recorded which excited a lot of them, though I knew most of them wouldn't actually be shown. When the music started and everyone shouted "HELLO!", I ran down the stairs and started shaking hands with a bunch of people and giving them high-fives. When the second chorus started, everyone ran on stage singing and put up the number one with their fingers at the end. I barely made it onto the stage in time.
Brother Dahlquist and Sister Dalton started talking and asked us if we wanted to have fun and saying they couldn't hear us while we're breaking everyone's eardrums trying to say yes. Brother Dahlquist said "Do you want to have the kind of fun Sister Dalton is talking about? Good, clean, wholesome, latter-day saint fun?" and we all scream "YES!!" Sister Dalton says "Well, why didn't you just say so? Because when you say yes to having that kind of fun, what you're really saying is...Jacob...?" And this guy name Jacob starts to sing and we all start clapping and standing up and dancing. That's my favorite part of the whole performance, that beginning part and then the song "Yes!". I can't wait for all of you to see it.
We continued on singing songs, talking, having discussions, watching video clips, and just having a great but spiritual time. I think I liked Thursday's performance better than Wednesday. We had a live discussion group, talked with this guy named Brad who found out about the church a year ago from going to the lds.org website and asking a friend about (he got baptized a few weeks ago), and having a super fun time.
The audience was more into our performance than the night before. They showed more of them on the big screen. People who saw themselves on the screen waved and smiled and were so excited. When this guy was giving everyone instructions for the third segment, this girl was on the screen and caught picking her nose. She looked at the screen and quickly dropped her finger and put her hands to her mouth. I'm not entirely sure if it was real, but she was digging pretty deep for gold. Poor, sick, sick, girl.
When we sang our second to last song, I was trying to put everything into it. When we got up and waved and sang our closing song, I felt so full of energy, but sad at the same time. When it was over and the audience started to leave, I felt so empty. That was it. I won't be doing anything like that again. I probably won't be with this group of people ever again, only in memory.
They kept us after again to go over some more parts to record. They said thank-you for being so good about this, so whenever they said that we needed to do a part over again, instead of groaning, we cheered. During one period of time when some people were getting microphones changed, I played the laughing game with Kaitlin Archibald and Andrew Wood. The guy who I liked but not as much anymore said something funny, and then I couldn't stop laughing. I was in the middle with my head on Andrew and Kaitlin on me, and then I got them laughing a bit too. I felt super sad thinking that I wasn't going to see Andrew anymore. I didn't want to ask for his email or number, because I always feel weird doing that to guys. This girl in our group (we were A's, and Andrew and I were A2's) sent around a list where everyone puts down their number(s), name, and emails and she was going to email this to all of us. That gave me hope. When we were finally done recording, the YW and YM general presidency people talked to us. I got give Sister Dibb and Sister Cook high fives before the show started. After they talked, Brother Boothe told us that they actually have two more parts for us to record. We all cheered. When we were done for good, we went backstage and got our stuff. I went out to the stage again when I had my bag full of stuff, and Andrew was there. He came up to me and we gave eachother a high-five and knuckles, and then he hugged me. I was in heaven then. I haven't had a guy hug me, and that is really all I ever wanted to make me happy. Even if I didn't know a guy that well, hugs are magical to me. I was glowing inside as my self-esteem sky-rocketed. He asked to see my phone and he put his number into it and then texted himself. I thought happiness was going to burst out of my skin, I felt so special. I told him thanks for making this a better experience because he was so funny and made me laugh a lot. We said bye, and I went with Kaitlin and her Mom to the place where a lot of the cast were. We got rootbeer milk (on Tuesday I think, one of our directors told us that if he could, he'd take all of us to get rootbeer floats and rootbeer milk was the closest they got, it was surprisingly good!! I loved it even though it sounded like someone who likes to mix foods made it, like me), our CD that we recorded on October 25, and a poster. There wasn't really anyone I saw who I wanted to sign mine since I didn't really know them. I ran up to the guy who was a convert, Brian, and shook his hand. Kaitlin's mom found a pen for me, and eventually the youth soloists and youth came out and I got a lot of them to sign my poster. This guy who was in the choir was playing hymns on his harmonica which really added to the feeling that was there. I was happier than I thought I'd be when this ended.
Kaitlin's mom took me home and Mom said that I didn't have to go to school the next day since I would be so tired and I have a lot of homework to do and it was 11:30PM. I went into my bedroom and looked through my For the Strength of Youth pamphlet that I got from there and listened to my CD.
I felt so sad and lost as I listened. It's over, it's all over. I went to this practice a little over a month ago (Sunday, September 28) expecting to be in a Mormon Tabernacle Choir youth version, but it turned out to be so much more. In just over a month, I made new friends, learned new songs, and got to perform in front of about 45,000 people over the two performances, I get to be on TV and shown all across North America and potentially, to the world. I was chosen to be in this, and I've had the experience of a lifetime. People were told that it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to see this performance live, well I was in it. It's been such a great experience and now I don't know what to do now that this is over. We had talked about have a 20 year reunion in 2028 when we'll all be around 32-38 and have 8 kids each. I can't wait for it to be shown so that I can watch it, and I can say that I was in it and I don't regret anything and I had a once in a thousand lifetime's experience. It totally beats being in a Mormon Tabernacle Choir youth's version.
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705260981,00.html
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