still alive...

Well, believe it or not, I am still with the living. We had our final audition in the All-State process this past weekend, and I could not be happier to have it all over with for one more year! By now, you all know that I tend to get entirely too involved with my students and their successes or failures. It floors me when they are hurt from this process. I guess it comes when you spend so much time working on something so distinctly personal. The biggest difference between the voice and any other instrument is that your voice resides within you. You can't really blame it on a sticking key or valve or whatever. If there is a problem, it is so hard to just have to admit, "They're better." The great news is that we had more kids make it this far than we have ever had before! The problem with that: guaranteed more heartbreak! We are SO proud to have three students make the choir!!!!

Denisha, 6th Chair, Alto 2

Kandra, 10th Chair, Alto 2

Kashif, 7th Chair, Bass 1

WooHoo!!! Denisha and Kashif are both seniors and had never made the choir before. It was such a great moment to see them succeed and all their hard work pay off! We also had 4 alternates to the choir! This is the greatest number of students placing in the final audition that Frenship has ever had!

Namanda, 1st alternate, Alto 2

Molly, 2nd alternate, Alto 2

Brooke, 2nd alternate, Soprano 2

Kelsie, 2nd alternate, Soprano 1

As proud as we are of these four, there is no harder place to land in the end than just outside of the choir. SO hard! You know, this year, our kids had a lot to overcome through the end of this process. Without gory details, one of our student's brothers was paralyzed from the neck down week before last. A junior at our high school, a friend of several of our juniors, was killed in a car accident week before last. A 12 year old family friend was removed from life support the morning of the audition. Our hopeful 4-year all-stater woke up vomiting the morning of the audition. You can imagine what stomach acids do to your voice. I say all of that to say this: I could not be more proud of my students. They teach me new things all of the time. This weekend, I saw first hand perseverance, dignity, teamwork, pride, and class. They ALL have made me so incredibly proud this season. I really do have the greatest job in the world with the greatest students. I wouldn't trade you guys...