13. Raise Your Voice

I have done choir for a total of six years. It wasn't something I always loved or thought I would be putting that much time into. In Jr. High, I kept doing it because all my friends were. High School I continued choir into my Sophomore year to fulfill my art credits. I was surprised to find that I started to love it! My choir teacher impacted me greatly, and I decided to try out for the A Capella Choir for my junior year. I was so happy when I made it! We got to go on choir tour to New York City where we were even privileged to sing in Carnegie Hall. Although my choir teacher was retiring, I decided that I would continue to do choir for my senior year. We were getting a new teacher who was fresh out of BYU. He had been our student teacher for my junior year, so we had an idea of who he was.

The time for auditions came, and I was super sick! I could hardly sing. Right before I went in for my audition, my friend asked me if I was only trying out for A Capella, or if I was trying out for Chamber Choir as well. Chamber Choir is the top choir at Mountain View, and I thought there was no way I would make it. At the last second, I thought I might as well try out and see what happened. I went into the audition and did my best, although I felt I probably did not make it since I had been so sick. I wasn't worried about making the big choir, but I had no expectations to make Chamber. A few days later on the morning of prom, two girls came into my room at 5:00am. They woke me up singing, and congratulated me on making Chamber 2014! I couldn't believe it!! The girls blindfolded me as we kidnapped another girl, and we went to a big breakfast with the new
Chamber choir. I remember looking around the room and I had no idea who half of the people were.

A few days later, I became even more surprised. In order to join Choir Council or be involved in a presidency, you must apply for a position. I had some senior girls come up to me and ask if I was applying for anything. I told them no, but I watched as a girl wrote my name on a paper, wrote down my phone number, and circle the position Chamber Choir President. I just laughed it off, since she had left the rest of the application blank, I figured she was just being funny. That night I received a call from the current Chamber President, and she said they were so relieved to see I had applied and asked if I would take over the role for the coming year. I quickly accepted, but in my head I had no idea what just happened. I worked hard with Mr. Taylor over the summer to get everything ready since it was his first year too, so we learned together! Being president was hard work; I was in the classroom almost every day. I decided on a theme for our choir: Raise Your Voice. I chose it because personally I did not have the confidence in my voice, so I wanted everyone to focus on "raising" their voice with singing as well as raising their voice to becoming a better person and standing up for what is right in all we did.

I had no idea being president would be so much work, but it ending up being the greatest blessing of my senior year. I learned so many valuable things, and although I struggled with many feelings of inferiority, I came to love everyone so much and I feel I got the most out of the experience that I could have. There aren't words to describe my love of music, and especially my love of Chamber Choir. Walking off that stage the last time brought tears to many of us; it was almost unbearable for me to think that it was suddenly over. I had put hundreds of hours and all my energy into this position, and I could not be more grateful for the opportunity I had. When I think back to senior year, what I will always remember most will be the friends and memories I made from Chamber Choir, and I hope to always remember to "raise my voice."