Time To Say Good-bye

This past week has been really hard for me! I've been saying things like: "This is the last time I . . ." and what not. It's not a very good habit, but for some reason I can't stop it! I think about it all the time! Collegiate yesterday was the worst though! It started off beautifully! We had a lot of snacks and desserts and just sat around and talked to each other. Then there was a man who played the organ in Africa that Brother Kempton had met; we ended up Skyping him and singing a song for him (he was in Wyoming I believe). It was cool to watch his face as we sang to him, he loved it!

We continued to sit around and eat for quite some time. Then, about fifteen minutes before class was supposed to get out Brother Kempton asked for people to share their experience this semester in Collegiate; I didn't dare say anything, because I knew if I did I would start crying. We went until the last three minutes of class when Jessica brought up that it was her last semester. Brother Kempton had al the people who were leaving raise their hand; mine went up. I didn't start to cry, but I could feel the beginnings of it coming. I thought that that would be the worst of it . . . nah! Brother Kempton said that we would be singing "God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again". I couldn't help myself and exclaimed, "That's really rude!" Before we even started singing I began crying.

I felt happiness and sadness wash over me all at once; Collegiate has been such a wonderful experience for me! I've made such wonderful friends and I'm so grateful for the love and support I've received whilst I've been in the choir. I was sitting by my friend who was also graduating and we just cried together! It was definitely the hardest moment of my college career (that's right, juries didn't even compare)! After we sang I avoided saying good-bye to Brother Kempton; I just didn't want to. Eventually he got me! I'm so grateful for that man and for the wonderful atmosphere he helps create as the director! I started thinking of him as a father figure and I'm so grateful for his constant love and support to all in the choir! I don't think I could thank him enough for all he's done for me!

My semester has ended and I'm excited to begin the next chapter of my life as a BYU-Idaho Alumni and a music teacher! There are more adventures out there, and I'm going to keep growing. I've only made it about 250 miles out of the 1,000 . . . I've still got quite a bit to go! There's still so much to learn, so much to see, so much to do, and so much to be! Here's to the next chapter, cheers! :D

Patriot's and Pioneers: Gettysburg

I just finished my last performance at BYU-Idaho and I couldn't have asked for a better performance to go out with! We were remembering the Battle of Gettysburg and the Gettysburg Address. We had a guest, Edward Hermann, come and narrate parts of the program! It was absolutely amazing! The last half was my favorite! That was the portion of the program that focused around Gettysburg. We sang a long set that included:

• Battle Cry of Freedom arr. by Brother Kempton (this recording is only the Union, but Brother Kempton added the Dixie/Confederate in there as well)
• Tenting Tonight
• The Dying Soldier arr. by Brother Mack Wilberg
• Of the People, By the People, For the People written by Brother Brown (faculty from BYU-Idaho)

My favorite is 'The Dying Soldier'. I cry every single time we sing it! And yet all of these songs have a message of hope in them! As soon as Sister Solberg put her arms down, I broke! Tears started streaming down my face and I felt overwhelmed! The audience jumped up after we finished, there was a powerful spirit there! I was reminded by my Grandma Anderson that I'm related to General George Pickett from the Confederate's. He led the raid that is now called "Pickett's Charge". It was really cool for me to think about George and what he did.

After we sat down and watched people begin to trickle out I felt the overwhelming sense of finality. That was my last time singing in the BYU-Idaho Center; in fact, that was my last performance at BYU-Idaho. I felt deflated, and yet a great sense of accomplishment! I've had the opportunity to perform and share my testimony through song so many different times over the last five years. I'm grateful for this final chance I had to bare my testimony! I'm also grateful that this isn't the last time I get to share my testimony through song; I can do that every day! However, my time at BYU-I is drawing to an end, and it's really bitter-sweet for me. But, onto the next chapter of my life!

Recital Day!!!

Well, today is the day! I am so ferociously stoked! I've been preparing for this for five years and it's finally here! I've got a dress that I LOVE, I feel prepared on all of my songs, and I feel all-around really good! The nerves are starting to kick in, but that's normal.

On Wednesday night I did a run-through with Brother Peck in the Recital Hall. It was fantastic! There's one song in particular that we had run earlier that day in my lesson . . . and that's the only song we ran. We were laughing so hard in my lesson that we couldn't really get through the piece! Wednesday night was no exception! It was hilarious!

Update:
I'm finished!!! I've been working on this for five years and I finally finished! Oh my goodness, the relief that I felt after was overwhelming! Mirisha and I also got a standing ovation! It was an incredible experience! My day was crazy! I needed to go to the store to get flowers for Brother Peck, Sheryl, and Sydney. The one's at Albertson's were cheaper, but I don't have a car (Albertson's is 1.5 miles away from where I live) . . . so, I decided to walk! Not the brightest idea I've ever had. It was about 89 degrees and I was dying most of the way there and back! When I got home, I still needed to cut up fruit and get things ready for that night! I started to feel stress and anxiety settle in; I knew that I was supposed to take it easy so that I could have the best recital possible. However, I'm not very good at "taking it easy". At about 2:30 I went over to the Snow building to get ready. My friend and accompanist, Sheryl, did my hair and make-up. At one point during the "getting ready" process, Sheryl said it was time for my first surprise. She pulled out these little, sparkly, twisty things that you put in your hair. They were beautiful! Later on she pulled out jewelry that, again, was beautiful! Needless to say, I felt very spoiled!

My family met up with us at about 4:30. They came, we talked, and then they left to grab dinner. Sheryl and I both got dressed and then went to warm-up. My nerves started to rise from my stomach to my throat, as did my excitement! Finally, it came time to perform! I felt so excited! When I walked out, I was told that people kind of gasped and awed because of how I looked! I felt beautiful! Not just pretty or cute, but beautiful! The recital, looking back, feels like a giant blur! All I could remember was that I was going in, singing, and then coming back out for a break! I felt amazing! My final song, I was incredibly excited for! The song is called "The Serpent", by Lee Hoiby. It's the song that we ran Wednesday and I couldn't get through because I was laughing so hard! I'm pleased to say that I didn't laugh at all when I sang it during my recital!

I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to do my recital this semester! It was such a fun thing to do . . . I kind of want to do it again! I'm so grateful for all of the love and support from my friends and family! I honestly don't think I could have done this without any of them! Next stop, graduation! :D

Recital!! *Note: One of my favorite things about all of these pictures is that you can see my tan/burn line on my chest. At least we know that I'm a modest person!

Mine and Mirisha's poster

My wonderful family drove 4+ hours to come see me sing for thirty minutes! I love them!

My wonderful friend and accompanist Sheryl. She's been with me since my first semester and it has truly been a blessing to grown with her!

I had the blessed opportunity to sing with this wonderful young woman, Sydney. She is absolutely incredible and I feel truly honored to have been able to sing with her!

Final Jury!

Earlier this week, Monday, I had my final jury! This jury was to determine if I could do my recital or not. In all honesty, I was feeling quite terrible about it! I've been experiencing allergies for the first time in my life and I had no idea what to do to help my voice. The symptoms had been going since Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. It seemed that no matter what I did I couldn't get my voice to be right. When I went home last weekend I had my Dad give me a blessing to give me extra strength for my jury.

I warmed up Monday morning at about 8:00 and after that warm-up I didn't feel much better about my jury. I felt good about the information that were in the songs, but vocally I didn't feel that great. Sheryl--my accompanist and dear friend--was a great help in helping me feel a bit calmer than I was the days before. We said a prayer together before we went over to Brother Olsen's office. As we waited outside I started saying a prayer, asking that I have extra strength for this jury.

Then, we were called in.

There were three teachers on my jury: Brother Olsen, Brother Peck, and Sister Ashby. I went in, presented Pauline's Aria from Tchaikovsky's opera The Queen of Spades, and I felt okay about it. Because Brother Olsen is my Master Class teacher and Brother Peck is my voice teacher, Sister Ashby got to pick most of the songs. I sang four of my seven songs and I wasn't asked a single question! As I walked out Brother Olsen told me to keep an eye on my e-mail. When the door was closed I looked over at Sheryl and I just shook my head. I felt terribly about the whole performance! I wanted to go in and absolutely blow the jury away. However, because of these silly allergies I couldn't do that! I felt that, because of that, I wasn't going to pass my jury. I felt delated and quite disappointed. I have been working so hard, and I wasn't able to show that to the jury.

A couple of hours later I received an e-mail called "Jury". It took me several minutes to open it, but when I finally did I felt a wave of relief wash over me. It said:

"Sarah,
I am pleased to share that you passed your jury this morning, and you are clear to continue on to your recital on 6/29."

I had passed my last jury!! I couldn't believe it; yet I couldn't feel excited about it because I felt like I had had such a terrible performance (it didn't help that my allergies were really make me feel ill as well). So, as I told people that I had passed, there was no enthusiasm in my voice at all! As I spoke to my Mom and Dad, they both had to ask me several times if I was okay. I just didn't sound excited. Fortunately, later that night it hit me that I had passed . . . my recital is coming up; I have a recital to look forward to! I was ecstatic!

I've been preparing for this recital for five years, and it's now here! A week from tomorrow I have the opportunity to perform for my friends and family and I couldn't be more excited about it! I found a dress yesterday and I'm so excited!!! Now, just to finish posters, programs, and planning refreshments! Almost there! :D

"A Wrinkle In Time"

This past weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to go home and try to get things ready for my recital next week. My friend, Helen, and I travelled down to Heber Friday evening and spent most of the day Saturday practicing our individual instruments. However, we took a couple of hours out of our day to go see BYU's production of A Wrinkle in Time. I had been receiving e-mails about BYU's production for a few months and I finally decided to read it. This year is the 50th anniversary of the book, so I figured I might as well read it! I read it in a couple of days and absolutely fell in love with it! It's such a fun book!

As I thought about it, I was curious as to how BYU was going to do this as a play. There were some things that just seemed like it would be really hard to do on stage. Oh my goodness, it was amazing! The actors had games for the children in the audience to play to learn more about dimensions, planets, and so on. It was sweet to see the children learning about things that the show was going to mention. It was quite fantastic! The audience/children was also included during the performance. The actors would have them recall the information about things they had learned previously to the show. It was wonderful!

I actually got in "trouble" during part of the show. I don't remember what Mrs. Which said, but she said something. Some of the audience laughed; she turned to them and said, "It's not funny." I began to laugh and she turned to me and said, "I said, it's NOT funny!" The actor playing Charles Wallace turned to me and apologized. It was really hard for me not to laugh after that. I wish I could explain how well done this play was! There was such imagination used in the costumes, set, and just all around! There was so much left up for the audience to interpret, which I thought was fantastic! The cast did such a great job, as did the sound and light technicians! Honestly, one of the best plays I've ever been to!

I have to share my favorite part! When Meg is going up against IT and she exclaims that she just needs to be herself; for some reason that hit me. I think that that could be an overarching theme for the entire play; we don't need to be anybody else but ourselves, why should we want to be?

BYU-I've Never List

So I've realized that there are so many things in Rexburg that I haven't done in the five years that I've been here! My goal is to achieve all of these things before I walk in July. So, here's my BYU-Idaho I've Never List:

• Hiked R Mountain: (CHECK: July 20, 2013 @ 6:00 am; we watched the sun rise!!!)
• Eat dinner at the hospital (CHECK: July 23, 2013)
• Gone to the dunes: (CHECK: July 22, 2013 w/Ian! We had a great time jumping off the dunes, roasting marshmallows, and asking each other random questions)
• Go to Guitars Unplugged
• Gone night canoeing (CHECK: May 24, 2013)
• Eaten at Big Jud's: (CHECK: July 20, 2013)
• Hiked Cress Creek (CHECK: May 31, 2013)
• Go to Rigby Lake
• See the IF Fireworks (CHECK: July 4, 2013; picture to come)
• Do a Recital (CHECK: June 29, 2013)
• Be in the 4th of July Parade (CHECK: July 4, 2013)
• Go to Blue Hole (CHECK: July 4, 2013)
• Go to the Haunted Swingset

There's other things too, but I can't think of any off of the top of my head. However, when I do I will write them down!

Spring Choirfest

On Thursday I had my first concert of the semester. Good heavens, it was awesome! The concert consisted of the Women's Glee, University Choir, Women's Choir, and the Collegiate Singers. All of the choirs did so well, and all of those involved did such a fantastic job! We (the Collegiate Singers) sang six pieces: Peace (Unto Zion), Zion's Walls, If Ye Love Me, Lux Aeterna, William Tell Overture, and Let Me Fly!

I'll be totally honest, the last two were my favorite! We aren't as polished as we could be on William Tell, but all the same it was hilarious! I am so grateful for music in my life and for the chance that I have to learn the technical side of it, but also the spiritual side. Music strikes me to my very core, and I know that other people are the same way. Music touches me in a way that words alone cannot do. However, when combined with music it becomes even more powerful. It completely resonates within my soul and I love it! I'm so excited for the opportunity that I'll have for the rest of my life to help people feel and express through music! Music has been such a blessing in my life; it has strengthened me through the hardest of times and added extra enjoyment during the best of times!

Can you imagine a world without music? Boring! There's music everywhere we go! In the movie August Rush, August says "The music is all around us, all you have to do is listen." It's so true! I'm so grateful for music and the blessing it is in my life. I'm grateful for the comfort I've received, the strength, and also the pure joy I experience whenever I'm around wholesome music!