On the first day of winter break, I volunteered with TAGS at Food Assistance Warehouse. The organization collects donations of food and distributes it to elderly people in the community for whom it may be difficult stay fully supplied and nourished. I organized the pallets of food and helped back the bags for the January distribution.
Overall, although the work was a little dull, I thought it was significant to be helping the elderly. That is a demographic that is often overlooked when it comes to outreach and a fairly large percentage of elderly live below the poverty line. Sometimes I think that we as a society can become so focused on a single problem that we forget the other ones that may exist.
Like in 2012, the youth group at my church sold Christmas trees to raise money. This year, the money is not just going to our outreach efforts at Glory Ridge; it's also funding a trip to Spain in June, helping defray the cost so more people will be able to go. Also like last year, the sales consisted of manning a table outside of the church on Sunday mornings and then loading the trees onto cars two weekends in December.
We didn't sell very many trees the first few weeks despite our best efforts, causing the youth leaders to reconsider our strategy somewhat. I suggested moving the table to a more prominent spot, which we did. Things seemed to pick up after that, perhaps because we moved the table, or perhaps due to the efforts of Meredith Scott, one of the youth leaders who single-handedly sold something like fifteen trees one morning.The distribution days were the same ordered chaos, although by now we had become quite experts at lashing trees to cars.
We raised a total of $4,000, considerably more than the previous year. That was especially good news given that the money was going to more than one thing. Another successful fundraiser to make all of the youth group's outreach programs possible!
As a fall retreat, the senior and junior high youth groups at my church went to Glory Ridge, the same place we go to for our mission trip each summer, at the beginning of November. I had never been before; the Glory Ridge week in the summer has always coincided, unfortunately, with the YMCA national championships.
Glory Ridge is a camp that many church youth groups go to during the summer in order to work on service projects for the local community, one of the most impoverished region in the state. Instead of working for the community, however, our group instead worked on preparing the camp for winter and contributing to on-site construction projects: clearing undergrowth, building a set of stairs into the slope, working on a new staff cabin, and chopping wood. The new cabin was particularly important, as it would help the camp expand its mission.
We spent all of Saturday working. I mainly worked on the cabin, sealing cracks in the wood with caulk, painting, and constructing steps for the porch. I had never applied caulk before and soon discovered how messy it could be; even when I released the trigger on the caulk gun, it still oozed out of the tip.Needless to say, there were some pretty messy places on the interior walls.
By the end of the day, we had painted almost the entire exterior of the cabin and finished the porch and staircase. Since I may never get a chance to go to Glory Ridge in the summer, I am glad I was able to do this weekend; I was still able to contribute to Glory Ridge's outreach efforts and the efforts of my church to alleviate poverty and human suffering. I had always been a little apprehensive about going to Glory Ridge, but now I know what it's like. Maybe I will be able to go next summer, my last chance before college.
Glory Ridge really is an incredible place and ministry; it has done so much for the people of Madison County and I'm glad to be able to say I participated in it.
The marching band has a week-long camp every year in August, usually within two weeks of the start of classes. It's the time where we introduce new members to the basics of marching as well as learn the new drill and music for the halftime show.
This year, we are playing a selection of songs by Santana, a group I have never listen to before. Not knowing the music makes it more difficult to learn; just last year we had done the Beatles which wasn't hard for me to master because I already knew most of those songs by heart. The drill Dr. Stuber wrote is also quite complex, more so than usual. It was going to take a lot of effort to master.
Doing anything outdoors in Greensboro during August is a grueling task in and of itself, and learning the drill was no exception. Our outdoors sessions were complemented by intensive musical rehearsal inside the band room, which would quickly grow hot and stuffy as well. This was coupled already with my general distaste for marching band. It did not make for a particularly enjoyable week.
By the end of the week, we had pretty much mastered the music and had learned the drill to one of the tunes, though not without considerable effort. I was feeling overall pretty good about the show, especially since I had learned marching techniques that would have previously been unfathomable and mastered difficult music; even if you dislike something, it's hard not to feel proud after you have put a lot of work into something. Hopefully the student body will like it.
Given that this is my last marching band camp, I could not help but reflect on my overall experience. It has not always been enjoyable, and I don't think it's something I'll miss. But you'll have to do many things in life you don't want to, and marching band has taught that if you put in effort, you can at least be proud of what you did, even if the doing wasn't so pleasant or enjoyable.
The YMCA Long Course National Championships was the culmination of my swimming training for the year. Held at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center (site of the 1996 Olympics), the meet features some of the fastest swimmers in the country. This was my third time at the meet, having previously qualified when I was 15 and 16. I had qualified to swim the 100 and 200 back in the meet and I had signed up to do the 200 IM, 100 freestyle, and 50 freestyle as time trial events (as I did not have the actual qualifying times). The entire team went down to Atlanta as a group because for the first time we had enough qualifiers to justify traveling as a group.
As it was the meet I had been in a sense preparing for all year, I was quite anxious in the weeks leading up to it. I wanted to do well and drop time, but I was also worried about psyching myself out. Sometimes if you stress about a meet too much, you'll end up not doing so well.
Things started out well enough. I felt strong and fast in the water during warm-ups the first days, which put me at ease for a while. But I started to get nervous as the 100 back approached. I ended up dropping some time in the event, but not nearly as much as I wanted too - such a small amount that it was practically insignificant. Although disappointed, I tried to keep myself from being discouraged for the rest of the meet.
Overall, the meet turned out to be a mixed bag. Although I dropped time in several events, it was never very much, less than I was hoping. A high point was the 200 free relay, on the last day of competition. Our team placed in the top 16, a major improvement on our entry time and we got a ribbon (and the y-nats ribbons are pretty fancy). Although I was disappointed with my performance, I realize that I can't expect to perform phenomenally at every single meet. Going through periods of little or no improvement is just part of being an athlete, and I still have a year of training left to put in some more hard work.
The Senior and National teams of my swim club volunteered to act as timers at the 14&U Long Course State Championships this weekend.We timed the swimmer's races and recorded them for the scoring.
Being a competitive swimmer, it's actually sort of weird to be timing other swimmer rather than be in the water racing. Timing at the 14&U championships also brought back memories of when I was young enough to swim at that meet.
It turned out to be a pretty exciting night; we watched a lot of fast swims and helped the meet run smoothly. Many kids got personal bests in their events and several records were broken.
My church has various outreach projects throughout the year, though usually I am unable to participate due to other commitments. One I was able to participate in after school got out was Stop Hunger Now, a Raleigh-based organization that the church was hosting. On Sunday, June 2, the church had three shifts during the day to pack meals to be shipped to Africa to fight global hunger. The organization uses a very efficient system that was fascinating to see in action: plastic bags traveled from station to station, a different ingredient added at each one until being sealed and put into boxes. Each meal can feed 4-6 people and is very nutritious with added vitamins and nutrients.
My job was to package the meal for shipping and to ring a gong whenever we hit the 100-meal mark (we were all supposed to cheer when this happened). After something of a slow start, everything began to go smoothly. The number of meals we packaged astonished me; everything went so quickly. By the end of the shift, we had packaged nearly 1,000, far more than I expected. I didn't think we could have that much of an impact, but in reality anyone can make a difference.
Global hunger is a very pressing issue; before we started packaging, the leader from Stop Hunger Now outlined some statistics about starvation. To be honest, it was a little disheartening; the numbers seemed overwhelming. But the important thing is to not be discouraged by the enormity of the task. We must persevere in the face of any challenges to be successful. I hope there will be a time when no one goes hungry.
Every year, the music department at Grimsley puts on Concerto Night. Students audition for the privilege of playing a concerto with an accompaniment by either piano, strings, or full orchestra. This year, three students were picked for the concert: a trumpet player, vocalist, and a pianist. Additionally, the combined wind ensemble, orchestra, and chorus would perform the first movement of John Rutter's Gloria. Normally, I would not participate in Concerto Night because the euphonium is typically not included in a full orchestra. I volunteered, however, to play the trombone parts for Gloria and the piano concerto because we lack a sufficient number of trombonists.
We rehearsed the pieces many times before the concert. The piano concerto (the Warsaw Concerto) was a modern piece featuring a very complex piano part. Overall, though, it wasn't too difficult for the accompanying orchestra; the trickiest part was the many key and time signature changes. Gloria, on the other hand, was very difficult and probably one of the hardest pieces I have ever learned. It featured a fast tempo, frequent use of accidental notes, a high pitch, and, to complicate everything further, it was written in tenor clef. Before Gloria, I only knew how to read treble and bass clef. For an entire rehearsal, I just sat without playing teaching myself how to read the notes. Given our tight schedule, I was not sure if we would be able to learn the piece, as different sections were having problems staying in time with each other and there were some balance and tempo issues as well.
We were all therefore relieved when we managed to pull it off. All the concertos went smoothly and we played Gloria better than I thought we would, especially given the short amount of practice time. It was actually sort of thrilling to have done so well. Looking back, I'm actually proud and impressed that we pulled it off. I guess that just goes to show that when given a group is given a challenge, it will generally rise to meet it. A little practice doesn't hurt either. And I now know how to read tenor clef.
Every year, the North Carolina Bandmasters Association holds auditions for honors bands at the country, district, and state levels. Every audition involves learning a predetermined solo, unique for each instrument, playing several memorized scales, and sight reading a piece you have never seen before. I have auditioned for All-County and All-District every year I have been in band, so at the beginning of the school year I went out and purchased the solo for the euphonium this year, "L'Allegro" by Koepke.
With everything I have going on, I did not get much of a chance to practice the piece until winter break. It quickly proved to be the most challenging piece I have ever learned for my instrument. Being a low brass instrument, the euphonium does not often get complicated melodic parts, and that is basically all the solo was. I practiced the solo dutifully for about an hour each week leading up to the first audition (for All-District, at the end of January), as that was all the time I could allow.
My audition for All-District took place at Cary High School. I felt nervous going, worried that I had not practiced enough. When my number was called, I first went to a room to play my scales, scales I had memorized years ago and knew by heart. But when I played the first scale, I faltered and played several wrong notes in a row. This mistake rattled my nerves, and although I got back on track, I was uneasy for the rest of the audition. I made many mistakes on the solo and the sight reading was poor. Needless to say, I did not make the band. I was upset with myself, for being so nervous, for letting one mistake throw me off balance, but most of all for not practicing more.
I got in as much practicing time as I could before All-County auditions. My audition was much better this time around, and I did make the honor band.
The old adage certainly proved true: practice makes perfect. I also learned not to stress out about every mistake. I let the error on the first scale get to me, which ruined the entire audition, even though one botched scale would not have affected my overall. It's important to persevere and try your hardest until the very end.
On Martin Luther King's Day, the GHS marching band participated in the NAACP-run parade. For the parade, we had prepared the funk song "Fire" by The Ohio Players. It was a little challenging to learn how to play in a funk style, but I feel that we had a pretty good handle on it by the time the parade arrived.
My section was much better at marching in step this time; I had made sure everyone practiced during class. We also played the piece without any major mistakes, always good for a musician. Overall, it was an enjoyable parade despite my dislike of marching band, mainly because of the enthusiasm of our audience, many of whom seemed to genuinely like our performance. It is also a privilege to make music in honor of one of America's greatest figures.
