It seems like the festivals never end during the spring semester. Our choir was going to take part in the regional Choral Festival. We would be evaluated and get a grade similar to the Solo and Ensemble Festival, either a 1, 2 or 3, with 1 being the best.
One thing you may have already figured out about our choir is that ANYONE can get into it. All you have to do is register for the class. Our choir teacher told us about how the larger schools hold auditions for their choirs and if you simply lacked the ability to sing, you didn't get in. The larger schools were always able to get 1s during the Festivals. Our teacher told us that because our choir was open, we would probably NEVER get a 1 and that getting a 2 was likely the best we would ever be able to achieve. She didn't go around pointing fingers at our weaker voices, she just gave us a realistic expectation.
The Choral Festival was held in Hobbs, which was about a 90-minute drive away from Artesia. We loaded up on the bus. I was really excited about going because I knew I would likely run into Dayz there. While Orld was also in the choir, that other guy from the Drama Festival and Student Council wasn't a part of it. That would mean a little less irritation.
We arrived at Hobbs High School in the morning. We weren't scheduled to perform until the afternoon, so we watched a few choirs perform. They were so much better than us. It really doused my spirits to know that we would probably never do much better than average. Between choirs, I tried to located Dayz. I was unsuccessful
Then came time for us to all get on the bus and go out to eat. We went to Furr's Cafeteria. When we arrived at the shopping center, I saw the buses for the Portales School District driving away. That meant I missed Dayz and an opportunity to eat lunch with her. I wondered if I was ever going to catch up with her.
After we ate, we returned to Hobbs High School. When we got there, we saw the Portales buses in the parking lot. I saw students getting off the buses. I had to wait for the people in front of me to get off our bus before I could run outside. I quickly located Dayz and ran up behind her. Orld was also hot on my tail. I surprised her and she seemed happy to see me. I ignored any reaction she had to seeing Orld.
However, we didn't get much of a chance to talk because we had to go and do one last rehearsal before our performance. It was really hard for me to concentrate because I didn't know if I would get to see her again.
We waited out in the hall before we were set to go on. I saw Dayz one last time in the hallway. I recall wanting to go to a water fountain to get something to drink, but our choir teacher wouldn't let me. That meant I was going to have to sing with a dry throat. That was not fun.
We sang three pieces. Per the rules, one had to be acapella and another had to be in a foreign language. We just learned the phonetics and sang it. One the hard parts about acapella was staying on pitch. Gifted adjudicators could always tell when we wound up off pitch and we would get graded down for it.
Normally, after our performance, I would have gotten to just hang around with Dayz. However, this particular Wednesday that the Choral Festival was scheduled was also the same day the students who qualified for the academic trip were leaving for Albuquerque. I was supposed to go on that trip along with two other students from choir. However, they had arranged for someone to drive us back to Artesia after we performed and then the faculty member in charge of the Student Council would drive us to Albuquerque. I will go more into detail about the academic trip in the next blog post. Just know that it meant more days off from school.
As expected, we got a 2. I guess we could pride ourselves on the fact that we didn't get a 3.
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