Choir Convension

Wednesday 5/9

*Picture-time! Seniors usually don't take school pictures since they take senior pictures (I'm gonna make Nikki take mine some day) but this year, with the new principal and all we're going to have release cards, meaning that you have the right to leave school during study hall etc, and for those we need pictures. I think I want to have mine anyways, I peeked and they turned out good, and it's always fun to have pictures to send to Grandmothers and Grandfathers.

*11 Choir-people left in the school van to go to North west high in Grand Island where the convension was held. During the day four speakers talked to us about their experiences, how to make our choir better, to believe in yourself and that you actually can make a difference in the world. I bet that not one of those 200 students attending walked out of that auditorium without feeling filled with hope and joy, with the thought on their mind that they're so small in the world, but that they can make a difference. The speakers were great. My eyes teared up several times during the day. They just really believed in life, no matter what they had been through. One of them had cancer and had been fighting it for a long time, but his feelings towards life erre just wonderful. He was constantly happy, enoying everything in life, seeing just possibilities and being such an optimist all the time. It was great to see. The last man was as good. "Dont judge, celebrate". If you're judging people you don't have time to love them. You don't have to like everyone, but you have to love them for who they are. He had been an alcoholic, you got to know that during his last 5 minutes of speach, out of maybe an hour. No one knew, no one could have guessed. "If you think something positive about someone, say it!" So true, so true...

*At lunch at Valentino's, italian buffet. I totally overate, it was so good! You just had to try a bit of everything, and if it was good you took some more. The best of it all were those cinnamon-bread-cake-thingies. It's hard explaining. It was like bread, really good kind, soft, compact, kinda sweet rolled in cinnamon-sauce-thingy. It was sooooooo good! omgomg. Anyways, think everyone overate that day. Didn't feel that good afterwards, haha.

*We were talking about how better singers make a better choir, but that there's a lot of other things that affects it too; Devotion, respect, how you want to try new things, soul, dedication, inspiration and passion. He let us sit down, close our eyes, hold hands and listen to him talking about 9/11, about the men who offered lives to try to save others. After that, still holding hands, still with closed eyes, we sang America. "Our country 'tis of Thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride, from every mountain side, let feerdom ring" The feeling that that brought, even though I'm not even american, was unbelievable. It sounded so good, so pure, so passionate. 200 people. It was mighty.

*Each one of us got a coffee bean in a bag when we got to the convension, and in the end we got the explanation, here's the story:

-"A girl was sad and depressed, everytime she got rid of one of the many problems she had, another seemed to appear. One day her father, who was a cook, took her into the kitchen. He started boiling water in three different cans. His daugher said "What are you doing, what am I doing in here". The only thing he said was "Just wait, you'll see". In one can he put an egg, in the second a carrott and in the third a coffeebean. After a while one the stove he took them off and showed them to the girl. "When problems hit you, would you rather be the egg; that had a hard shell but with a light playful spirit that when exposed to hot water still is hard on the outside, but looses that light and lovely spirit and turns hard and bitter inside, or, be the carrott; that after being exposed to the boiling water becomes weak and easy to wound, OR", he said,"would you be the coffebean that after getting in hot water, instead of being affected by the water, changes the water after herself, and the hotter she gets, the better the coffee tastes."

Everyone, Choose to be a coffeebean!

Your beloved Pärlan