My high school choir teacher is retiring at the end of this school year. They had a retirement party for her Saturday night and a lot of old students came to her final concert on Friday night.
It was fun to see old faces, but really strange to see kids I babysat or taught in Primary in the high school choir. I felt really old.
For the song O’ Sifuni Mungu Mrs. B let any past members of Varsity Choir get up and sing. Here are the words to the song, and here is a rendition of it, though it’s not as wonderful as the choral one we sang, but it gives you an idea.
As a long side note: I hate singing any kind of solo’s. I had friends in choir that were just naturally talented singers and I hated any focus on me, since you often got criticized or made fun of behind your back in high school or worse, made fun of to your face. I was in the catch all Girls glee choir my freshman year, then Varsity for the following three years. My senior year I auditioned and joined Expressions, or the highest choir, but I’m sure I made it partially due to the fact that they needed altos. Four of us auditioned, you had to audition every year regardless if you were already in it, and all four of us made it. Fortunately solo days were few and far between and I only sang twice in front of the group. I’m really not a talented singer. I depend on others to help me find my strength as an alto, unless it’s a song I know really well.
Well, my senior year for the final concert I decided I would audition for one of the short solo’s in O’ Sifuni Mungo. Part of my reasoning behind it was my friend Alana was the only alto who sounded nice in the small group that auditioned and there were two alto solo’s so I decided that I would be the other alto and was gonna rock the solo, no matter how nervous I was.
Before I auditioned I practiced in my room all night. I recorded myself over and over again and listened to the recordings over and over again until I felt confident that I sounded nice and would get support from my friends and classmates, rather than criticism. I approached Alana and asked her how I sounded. She was so surprised that I had a voice, since I tended to sing quietly, and helped me get the timing correct. In my nervousness I rushed the beat and was off a little.
I went to the choir room and practiced and I remember Mrs. B also being surprised. I got the first solo, or
All creatures of our God and King (O sifuni mungu)
Lift up your voice and with us sing (o sifuni mungu)
I also performed Friday night, or the night that you know you’re good ’cause she saves the best for Friday.
I was so nervous, but I nailed it, and it has been my only solo.
Back to the weekend.
It was wonderful singing with the choir during a song that meant so much to me.
There’s also the tradition of having all the alumni come up and sing the song Friends, so I did that also.
Afterwards I talked with old friends and caught up a little and then headed home.
Saturday night was the retirement party. I went a little late and saw a handful of choir friends from my past. It was so weird to see some the the sophomore guys in choir grown up and how they’ve become men. I feel as though I haven’t changed and here they were so different, and some barely recognizable.
The best part of Saturday night was having a young lady I babysat come up to me and recognize me. I hadn’t seen her since she was nine or ten and she was so grown up. When I saw her parents at the concert and found out she was in the choir I had fun guessing which young lady she was, and I did guess right.
I told her how surprised I was that she even remembered me and she told me ‘of course, you were my favorite.’ Then how recently her and her parents had ran into my mom at JoAnn’s and the first thing she asked was how I was.
It was fun to be remembered since I often feel forgotten by those in my past.
Later I was trying to think if I remembered any of my old babysitters or young woman in the ward when I was only nine or ten, but my babysitters were my older siblings so that was no help.
It was fun to reminisce and see old friends.
Tonight I cried while watching the Country Music Awards while some singer sang a song about the high school girl wanting to grow up and her mom telling her ‘ you’re gonna miss this, you’re gonna wish it hadn’t gone so fast.’ or something to that effect. I don’t listen to the radio much so I don’t know the singer’s name or the song title. It also talked about missing young motherhood. I think I’m just a cry baby tonight, because I also cried during masterpiece on PBS tonight.
Life was hard in high school since I was so quiet, but I do miss the friends I made there and the true worry free life that I had compared to now. Though I wouldn’t trade being a mom, just trade the letting the parents worry about the house bills and all that jazz. Though I worked my junior and senior year so I could have the money I wanted without burdening my parents as much, but I heard I maxed out the gas card a couple off times. (Sorry mom and thanks for not telling Dad about it.) I was also spoiled, according to my older siblings, because I didn’t technically pay for my car insurance, which was part of the deal if you drove. My allowance, or lunch money for doing chores, just stopped and they paid my insurance. I think they even saved a couple bucks, though I spent that in gas. I was the last kid in the house and I had to do lots of the chores that I shared with siblings, so I think it was only fair.
