(The following post is 895 words long. Excluding this line. Beware.)
I daresay one of the worst moments of my life took place yesterday… during math lesson. It was the first period in school, and I absolutely dread math lesson. What made it worse was obviously the big event that was to take place later in the day. That anticipation and excitement coupled with nervousness was to last in the pit of my stomach for the whole day.
So after being forced to blindly copy math notes as well as get rather low for my Alit paper (2nd period), the journey for the day began.
We had lunch then changed and prepared for our very last practice before we set off. That last practice was short, confirmative, and very encouraging. Realising we had mixed up the timings for the bus to set off, we had to hurry slightly so as to make sure we were on time.
Finally, we were there. The place was crowded, but not packed. We spotted at least 3 schools, the one before us, and the 2 after us. There, the worst disaster we ever imagined took place. Somebody dropped an instrument, the stringed side down. I was close by, so when I saw and heard it, I was utterly shocked. I was so afraid that the broken string and fallen bridges would hamper our long awaited performance. I immediately prayed that they would fix it, somehow. Some tears were shed – no wonder, as it was really a huge blow at that crucial moment. It was not the time to blame anybody, however, and tears were quickly wiped away, problems quickly fixed (I don’t know how, but everything was fine soon after), and we were on our way to the tuning room.
There, the “moths” in my tummy fluttered ever so. Efficiently we warmed up and tuned our instruments, and before long, the guy with the timer held up the “Time’s up!” sign.
Out we went, to wait for our turn. Our turn for our fates to be sealed. We tried not to listen to the other school’s playing, as we were afraid to be affected by their different interpretation of the set piece. It was too loud, though, so we gave up, and just listened. And watched our conductor’s look of… disapproval?
Finally, the music stopped. The time was here. In we went. We strutted in as proudly and elegantly as we could. And my, how we rocked that stage!
I was calmer on stage, but not entirely. I tried not to look at the audience. Instead I looked at my fellow mates and smiled reassuringly, confidently. We played, we swayed. Everything we ever worked on in the past 6 months, all flooded our subconscious and was brought out in our playing, from the heart. Loud was glass breakingly loud, and the mysterious misty feel was mysteriously misty. And I totally love my section. All the phrases were brought out nicely, confidently, with a nice volume to it. There might have been a few stumbles here and there individually, but put together, the outcome was one of the best we ever played. I loved the energy. Towards the end of our second and last piece, I indeed felt a tinge of sadness that that 15 minutes on stage was coming to an end. But too bad, the judges would have to let us, the recipients of the last gwh they were going to give, leave the stage!
The next maybe half an hour to one hour was spent eating, toileting, cheering, highing, eating, drinking, and, eating. The place was packed to the brim, so we mostly stayed outside at the open area, until it was time to go back in. The smart us went over to the other door where it was extremely empty when we got there. We weren’t allowed into the hall to hear the results, but we could stay outside to hear from the live video on the television screens.
The first part of it comprised of the judges commenting on the whole competition. I had wanted to listen, but the anticipation was getting to me and everyone else, so much that we were only clapping when we sensed the finality in each judges’ short speech. We were like beggars who only want food and nothing else, who only wanted to know our results. We sat outside on the floor, knee to knee, waiting impatiently. And finally, after 5 judges, we got what we wanted.
When we heard our school’s name being announced, I would like to imagine all our ears pricked up like a dog’s. And when the result was announced, we went haywire like monkeys out of a cage. Thankfully we were one of the last few, so we could quickly resume our cheering (we had stopped kindly to allow the others to hear their results), as well as joyful jumping and happy hugging. We were totally ecstatic and elated. Like being high on drugs. Tears came to some people’s eyes. It was pure joy. And what made it even more special was that sense of togetherness, the shared joy. It wasn’t like getting first in class, or getting 300 presents on your birthday. It was knowing that we all had a part it in and we all made it happen and we all deserve that title, together.
I love us. Thank you for that Gorilla With Helmet.