Friday, May 6, 2011

Collegiate Singers, a new kind of "family"

I haven't been going around telling a lot of people this, but I made Collegiate this semester! At the beginning of the semester, I felt very "black sheep-ish" in that choir. I was holding back, I was neverous, and just all around shy. Last night, we had a "Collegiate retreat". We enjoyed dinner and then played getting to know you games, we did some blending things, and then we had a sectional "heart-to-heart". We, the altos, played getting to know you games first with the basses and then with the tenors. With the basses, we played the Name Game. It's when you have a piece of paper rolled up and a person in the middle. Somebody calls somebodys name; the person in the middle then runs toward the person whose name has been said. That person wants to say someone else's name before the person in the middle hits them with the paper. With a big group like that, it was a little hard but it was fun!

With the tenors, we played "Who, What, Where?", it's like "Clue". Three people from the group went out into the hall and the rest of the group decides on a murderer/who, a weapon/what, and where the murder took place. So, for example, our first one was Abraham Lincoln, with a toaster, in the swimming pool. One of the three people who went out come back in and call on three more people, each of them takes one of the subjects and acts it out for the person from outside. The person who was outside then acts all three out for the next person who comes in and so on. By the end, you typically get really weird answers! Like for our second one, we picked the Teletubies to be the who, nunchucks as the weapon, and on the moon as the where. We ended up with a Lamanite as the who, nunchucks as the weapon, and I can't really remember the where. Either way, it was hilarious!

After that, we went to Brother Kempton. This, for me, was the highlight of the entire evening! We went in, as an alto section, and he put us into places where we could balance each other out. After he did that, he gave us a message. He told us that we were part of a family; when we are absent we are missed, not just vocally, but our personality and spirit. He told us that we were put into this choir because we each had traits that he admired and wanted in the choir. Whether they were vocal or a part of our personality it didn't matter. "The Collegiate Singers motto," he said, "is 'Never hold back!'." and it relaxed me a great deal. I had been so scared to sing infront of all of these amazing people that I was holding back. But I am valued as a member of this choir and it excited me a lot!

We then moved onto our "alti" sectional/bonding time. We went around and told each other a strength we have, a weakness we have, and what we hope to gain from the choir. As it came to my turn, I stated my weakness: I hold back. I told them that I was nervous because I was in with all of these amazing singers and I said something along the lines of "I walk in and think, oh my goodness it's Collegiate! I'm so scared to sing!" One of the altos looks at me and whispered "Hey Sarah, you're in Collegiate now too!" Ha ha, it made me laugh! But it is true! I feel so much better about my choir family! I feel like I have a place and a purpose and, despite the fact that I don't necessarily know what it is, I am to do my best to make Daddy Kempton proud and to share my tesitmony with him and the other choir members daily in that class!

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