(set: $header to false)(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 0s)[(transition: "dissolve")[There's always so much going on here. (stop:)]]]
\[(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 3s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
It's different every time. (stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 6s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Sometimes she's playing piano. You like to hum along as you pass by if it's a song you know.(stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 9s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Sometimes she's holding a lesson.(stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 12s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Sometimes you can hear a different hour's rehearsal from another class.(stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 15s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Sometimes it's quiet there, and all you hear are flute trills instead.(stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 18s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Sometimes, very rarely, all is silent.(stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 21s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
But no matter what's happening or which school you're in, it's a nice place and you have a lot of [[good memories]] there. (stop:)]]]](set: $header to true)(set: $year to "6th Grade")(set: $response to "That sounds cool")It's the first day of 6th grade. Moving classes is a bit confusing, but at least you and your homeroom group moves together. You step into the choir room for the first time, not counting the middle school orientation. You're not sure what to expect, because you've never been in choir before (because it didn't exist in elementary school).
All you know is that when the guidance counsellor lady told you that it was a full class period of singing, you said, "<mark><tw-link class='cyclingLink' data-cycling-texts='["That sounds cool", "That seems fun", "I would like that", "I want to do that"]' onclick='clickCyclingLink(this, "$response");'>$response</tw-link></mark>." The counsellor wrote it down, and now here you are, excited and maybe a little bit nervous.
You do know that you already like the teacher. (It doesn't take much for you to say you like someone. Also, she helped you carry in your school supplies this morning, because you were carrying far too many notebooks and were probably being accidentally trampled by the bigger students around you.)
[[Skip ahead a bit.]](live: .1s)[(if: $header is true)[Year: $year <br><br>]]The first official piece you start learning is a song called "Circle of Friends." You don't think much of it at the time, but years later you'll still be getting fragments of it stuck in your head.
You really like this. You like the music, you like the people, you like the teacher. Even though it's awkwardly jammed into your schedule at the end of homeroom and you have it only every other day, you're really glad you decided to join.
You've already fallen in love with the handful of songs you've been learning, and even though you're sick for that first concert (which is a little dissapointing), you're still going to remember those forever too.
[[The year goes on.]]From then on out, nothing terribly remarkable happens in 6th grade. There's a talent show at the end of the year, and you sing a song. Everyone likes it, and you feel kind of proud and are pretty confident in yourself.
Eventually, [[6th grade ends]].(set: $header to false)(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 0s)[(transition: "dissolve")[Gray uniform shirts that are far too big for you. (stop:)]]]
\[(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 3s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Alternating choir and band, and running eagerly from math class to get there. (stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 6s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Standing in the music hallway, admiring the mural. (stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 9s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Switching between the two voice parts because you were 6th graders and it didn't really matter. (stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 12s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
This is what you [[remember|to 7th]] of 6th grade.(stop:)]]]](set: $header to true)(set: $year to "7th Grade")
\You're in 7th grade now. Band and choir sort of have their own hour (although they still share and alternate days), so you go there while your homeroom-mates stay in for study hall. It's about the same as last year, except now there are eighth graders and voice placements. You're a soprano now.
You also take general music class for one of your not-very-elective elective classes. That's pretty neat also, and you [[fall into a fandom]] while you're there. The class watches //The Phantom of the Opera// together for one of the units. Looking back, you'll realize the movie production isn't all that great, and that there are many other productions that are much better, but that doesn't matter right now. All you know is that you absolutely love it.
A little too much maybe. But that's a memory for eighth grade. For now, all that matters is that you found a new thing that you really like, and your teacher is the one who showed it to you. She instantly becomes your //Phantom of the Opera// buddy, even if she doesn't really realize it. None of the other kids seemed to like it as much as you did, and none of your friends watched it. But you did.
One thing you'll remember later about yourself is that you always believed that one day, by some miracle, fictional characters would visit you at school. You believed it in 2nd grade, and you still believe it to this day. You don't know why. You know that, logically, it should never happen. But you believe it, and even though it never happens, it always fills you with fresh excitement for your new fandom.
[[Continue on.]]That year is also the first year you participate in Solo and Ensemble. One of your friends had done it the year prior (you think), and now that you're filled with self-confidence and a few of your other seventh grade buddies are doing it, you decide to give it a shot.
It's a little rocky. Your solo isn't picked until the last minute, right before winter break, and you really don't help with the process. But in the end, you learn and even memorize it in time for the big day. You sing ["Wiegenlied"]<link|(click: ?link)[(open-url: "https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T-AJd5zZsjMjwbVNcDRLl24_jMTcfpxR/view")], the one where no one is quite sure who wrote it, but in English.
That day, you're a bit of a nervous wreck underneath your excitable exterior. I mean, you're pretty excited too. But you've also never done this before and it makes you nervous.
You do fairly well. You do miss an entrance, and then you fail to realize you missed an entrance, and that gets kind of messy, but it's fine. You get back on track and it goes smoothly from there (other than a few places where you forget the words). The judge is pretty nice. She thinks you're cute, and doesn't seem to mind the hiccup, and you score pretty well.
You also remember watching a few of your schoolmates, eigth graders that you only vaguely know. You listen to a duet, "Dona Nobis Pacem," which you'll also be getting stuck in your head years later, and watch Leah Hawksford perform "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" from //Phantom of the Opera//. You silently vow that you'll do the same thing some day, even if it kills you. (`Spoilers`: It doesn't.)
[[Soon, 7th grade is ending.]]But before it does, you learn that you're going to have to move this summer. That makes you super sad, because you love the friends you have here and //you only had one more year of middle school, dang it!// But you're moving, and there's nothing you can do about it.
The last concert comes and goes, and you keep one of the songs, ["Flying Free,"]<ff|(click: ?ff)[(open-url: "https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lOoVUWtZZEjyvII1G9jsUsxCn_PnN-ZS/view")] in your mind all summer long. It's going to circle back to you eventually.
At the end of that year is the band and choir's end of the year mini trip over near the Twin Cities. That's a long way from Hayward, but it's close to the place you're going to be moving, so that gives your mom an extra excuse to chaperone. Also, you end up getting a bloody nose on the bus.
But you get there, and you have a lot of fun. You spend the day with your group of friends, and even though you're not super duper excited about amusement parks in general, you liked this.
After the trip, your mom drives you home. You stop at your new house on the way to take a look inside. You've already been cleaning and bringing a few things over the weekends, so it's not like you haven't been here before. But it still makes you kind of sad.
[[7th grade ends]].(set: $header to false)(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 0s)[(transition: "dissolve")[Excitedly showing your teacher all of the newest things you've found, related to your new big fandom. (stop:)]]]
\[(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 3s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
A multitude of festivals and group events. (stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 6s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
A hallway in another school that smells weirdly like pea soup. (stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 9s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Being late to Life Science because choir runs a little late some days. (stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 12s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
This is what you [[remember|to 8th]] of 7th grade.(stop:)]]]](set: $header to true)(set: $year to "8th Grade")
\You're flailing. Socially, that is. You're in a new school, and it was okay for the first week or so. You had been following a group of girls from your advisory, who showed you around the school and ate lunch with you. But now that you're a few weeks into the school year, they've kind of stopped talking to you and you feel like you're just awkwardly tailing them everywhere.
There's one girl in your class that you think might be kind of nice—you haven't talked to her or anything, but you see her everywhere. She's in almost all of your classes, including band and choir.
There's also the other new kid. Technically, you met her at the summer band program, but you really don't know anything other than the fact that she plays flute like you.
You [[reach out to them]].The maroon-haired girl you see in all of your classes is named Isabel. You think she's really cool and you //really// want to get to know her better. She probably thinks you're a bit weird at first, because you're still trying to figure out how to make friends again, but you bond over alternate dimensions and will get along swimmingly in the future.
The other new kid is named Sam. She used to go to New Richmond. You don't actually know where that was, but you both are kind of following each other around trying to become friends, so it just sort of happens. You also learn that she lives down the street from you, which is super cool.
Suddenly, your self-confidence is spiking again, heading straight through the roof in a confusing cacophony of //Phantom of the Opera// songs, alternate dimensions, chickencats, meowing at people, and [[pretending to be fictional characters]].In addition to some rather weird habits of yours, you also join the school musical, //Cinderella//. You've never done anything like it before, since there never was one in the Hayward Middle School (that you knew of, at least). You're kind of intimidated, but you like music and you've enjoyed Dramarama, so you think it's going to be a good time.
You end up being the Queen. Isabel is your herald, and Sam is in the chorus. You three spend a lot of time quietly messing around and miming the scenes you're not in while you're not actively rehearsing. It's a lot of fun, and you end up with a ton of inside jokes that you'll still reference 5 years later.
[[8th grade continues.]]You do Solo and Ensemble again this year, too. It's not exactly like it was last year, since it's at your own school and stuff, but it's still fun. You at least learn your song fully this time, and don't mess it up again. You sing ["Lass from the Low Country,"]<llc|(click: ?llc)[(open-url: "https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ofiUFzn7oop8OnuGvvFRcWO5TPaEewCt/view")] which you remember someone from your school singing the year before.
At some point in the early spring, you get to sing with the high schoolers. You don't retain much about that concert, other than that you sang a song from //Frozen// and some other things happened that will come back to haunt you later. You get to meet the high school choir director, sort of, although you don't remember much about that other than that she falls off the stage at one point during that season.
At the end of the year, you do the talent show again. You sing "Yubikri Genman". You definitely skip a verse, but nobody notices because the song is in Japanese and they've never heard it before, plus you weren't singing with an instrumental. It's pretty great, and you have fun.
Eventually, [[8th grade ends]].(set: $header to false)(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 0s)[(transition: "dissolve")[Singing //Phantom of the Opera// songs with your friend while you walk around outside instead of doing gym.(stop:)]]]
\[(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 3s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Crude drawings of you as the Queen, sent by elementary schoolers.(stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 6s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Singing the opening song from //Frozen// at the 7-12 concert.(stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 9s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Your two new friendships growing exponentially and basically exploding into greatness.(stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 12s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
This is what you [[remember|to 9th]] of 8th grade.(stop:)]]]](set: $header to true)(set: $year to "9th Grade")
\You have no idea what you're doing. High school is weird. Learning stuff is about the same as ever, but now there's backpacks and two floors and homecoming and all kinds of things where no one really told you how they worked.
Plus, the end of 8th grade also marked the end of your New Friendship High, and you've realized how crazy you must have seemed the year before. (Not that it stops you or anything; you do host a "Maidens Feast" and "Ceiling Appreciation Project" and generally make a spectacle of you and your friendgroup during lunch.)
At least classes themselves seem to be pretty much the same, even though you're in [[Treble Choir]]. (It's different, but you know that it's just how this school district works, and even though it's all girls, it's still just choir.)Treble Choir is fun. Every girl in your grade is in it with you, which also means that you get to be with Isabel and Sam again.
One thing that does disconcert you a bit is when Isabel tells you that she can't hear you singing (it also comes up in your lesson, when you share it during second semester). Your voice has always been quiet, whether speaking or singing, but even looking back on it, it wasn't something that you had actively noticed until late in 8th grade.
And now, of course. Now it's been called to your attention. You spend the entire year working on it.
[[Time continues on.]]Your freshman year passes in a blur of Maidens Feasts, Undertale, and eventually Solo and Ensemble. You and Isabel both sing the same solo, "Deep River." (Of course, on the day of Solo and Ensemble, you also forgot that your parents wanted to listen to you, and agreed to go early because there was an available space. Your family was down the hall, eating lunch.)
You, Sam, and Isabel also do a trio. It's a really simple thing, ["Twilight at Sea,"]<trio|(click: ?trio)[(open-url: "https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xCiltUs5bQfoR27LbSOJUBsEY3F_iMCC/view?usp=sharing")] but it gives you enough difficulty as is. You sing second soprano for it, which is kind of fun, but it ends up being one of your group's weaknesses. Together, you score a 2, which is not bad, but you all know you can do better.
Your choir also goes to see //Sister Act// at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre this year, and you and Sam sit together and share cake. You don't remember a whole lot about it, or even when during the year it happens, but you really enjoy it.
[[Freshman year is coming to a close.]]In the late spring, you all sing for the Large Group Festival, although it's hosted at your own school this year, so it's a little bit different than what you remember. You remember at least one of the songs you sing, ["Go, Lassie, Go,"]<GLG|(click: ?GLG)[(open-url: "https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TU5xUs61UWtV0NCq8z4GeatU_8tnF-oe/view?usp=sharing")] and you remember that the clinician was really cool, but that's about it.
At one of your concerts, you sing ["Flying Free"]<FFA|(click: ?FFA)[(open-url: "https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qjMOYJALu-jR_5PYIe30B1zNI0hbFNYN")] again. It's pretty exciting, and you're thrilled because it reminds you of 7th grade (and it's a really pretty song). There's another song at that concert that'll continue to get stuck in your head all the time: "Hope is the Breath of Music." You don't know why you like it so much, but you thihnk it's really pretty.
You enjoy the final—it's a performance for your classmates, and you sing "Past the Stargazing Season," a song by one of your newest favorite artists.
You forgo the talent show this year. It intimidates you too much, now that you're in high school.
Instead, you do a concert for your English teacher. It's scrappy and short and wedged in on the last day of school, but you think he enjoys it. You and Isabel shared both your choir lesson time and the English hour from which you left, and your teacher always joked that you'd have to make up for it by performing a concert. You knew he was joking, but you took it literally anyway, since it was more fun.
You and Isabel sing "Kyrie Eleison," from the 1963 //Lord of the Flies// movie; "Cheese," a parody of an Imagine Dragons song; "All Eyes," another Imagine Dragons song (but Isabel does it twice as fast); and "Oh! One True Love" and "Oh! Dungeon" from Undertale. It's fun, and you invite your choir teacher, but it runs past the end of class and you don't get to finish.
That year, your choir teacher retires, too. You give her a little notebook, a bookmark, and a rather scrappy CD reminiscent of something you made for your 8th grade teachers.
And with that, [[9th grade ends]].(set: $header to false)(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 0s)[(transition: "dissolve")[Backrub Thursdays and lots of morning stretches.(stop:)]]]
\[(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 3s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Running to health class after choir so you could sit by Isabel.(stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 6s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Hearing "For the Beauty of the Earth" played on a kazoo.(stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 9s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Looks of confusion from your English class, but applause nonetheless.(stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 12s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
This is what you [[remember|to 10th]] of 9th grade.(stop:)]]]](set: $header to true)(set: $year to "10th Grade")
\You're a little nervous. Okay, maybe a little more than nervous. It's hard to describe. You wouldn't say you're outright nervous, but you're more than a little nervous.
Today, you're heading into the school to meet all of your new teachers for the year. A lot of them are the same, so //you really shouldn't be this anxious// but it happens anyway. You're also meeting the new choir teacher for the first time. That probably has something to do with it.
It shouldn't matter this much, since a lot of your teachers are going to be new to you, but you've been speculating all summer.
You walk into the meeting room and the woman closest to you turns around, introduces herself as the new choir teacher, and offers her hand for you to shake.
You [are vaguely surprised]<aa|(click-replace: ?aa)[[appreciate the gesture]<aa2|(click-replace: ?aa2)[[probably look a little stunned]<aa3|(click-replace: ?aa3)[[//are taking too long to respond//]<aa4|(click-replace: ?aa4)[shake her hand]]]].
You take your seat next to your mom and the meeting passes with you in relative silence. Being surrounded by adults that are involved in your academic future is kind of intimidating.
[[Continue...]]Everything's a little different from what you (and all of the older grades) have grown used to, but things are good. You like the new teacher. Plus, she asks very few questions when you give her a barrage of Undertale-related ones, including asking her to pose dramatically for you (twice). (Your history teacher is the reason for this, kind of. He said something about being a lumberjack, which reminded you of a video game character, which inspired you to draw all of your teachers as the fictional characters they reminded you of. You'd change your mind later, but for your choir teacher, you'd picked Mettaton.)
Aside from a four-part version of the national anthem, the first piece you start learning is "Can't Help Falling in Love," which you regard dubiously at first, but grow to like. (You'd been hearing it a lot at the time, and would grow sick of it a lot later, but you didn't mind performing it.)
[[Things continue swimmingly.]]Sometime before the Holiday Concert, you audition for an extra small ensemble. You end up being in the women's group, which is aptly named "Select Women." It'll change in the future, but right now, that what you all are. For the Holiday Concert, your group sings "I'll Be Home for Christmas," and you already really enjoy this. Isabel and Sam are there with you, and evidently you all have some amount of fun, because all three of you continue in those after-school groups until your senior year.
You don't know it yet, but this group is where you'll meet one of your future best friends, Talissa, long before you follow her around on an AP English field trip or join her in DI.
[[There's a lot of cool people in concert choir.]]That's one thing you missed a little bit when you were in Treble Choir—having people you didn't know there with you. It was kind of nice at the time, since you were a freshman and other students intimidated you, but now you're meeting all kinds of people outside of your grade.
One of them is a girl named Leah—she's a senior, and she's also in AP English with you. You think she's a Cool Dude, and although you're certain she thought you were weird looking back now, she was always very nice to you. You sit between her and a girl from your grade, Harmony, in choir.
Isabel and Sam aren't in that hour with you. You're in 8th hour, and Sam was there during first semester, but now the three of you are split up. You're not sure how much you like it, but it does force you to not rely on them as your Fellow First Soprano Buds.
The three of you still manage to put together a trio for Solo and Ensemble, though, and it's not terrible. You sing ["Schof Main Kind,"]<SMK|(click: ?SMK)[(open-url: "https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AxbmOLVST2t8CRjnMUNQp2d7jn9lTYj5")] a song that Sam picked out, and this year the three of you pick voice parts that make sense—you're the first soprano, Isabel sings second soprano, and Sam is your alto. You fare much better that year, although you don't make it to state.
That year, you fulfill the wish of 7th grade you, too: you do a musical theatre solo, and you sing ["Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again."]<WYW|(click: ?WYW)[(open-url: "https://drive.google.com/open?id=1y-hxRhDxRcM_aZTQyGh0gjFn0TlHp4Y7")] Better still, you make it to state—with both of your solos, actually. You sing ["O Mio Babbino Caro"]<OMB|(click: ?OMB)[(open-url: "https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IOI_X9esThfxGUKrNXni4rxAlHdMFXQ2")] that year too, and your first time at State Solo and Ensemble, everything comes full circle. Just like your first time at District Solo and Ensemble, you flounder a bit near the end of your classical solo. This time, you don't miss the entrance, you just completely blank on what you're supposed to be singing, but you figure it out eventually.
[[Before you know it, the last semester of 10th grade is approaching.]]You don't remember much of the final concert, other than that you sing a //Beauty and the Beast// medley. That's a lot of fun, and you really enjoy it. Along with Leah, you're one of the people who starts up at the auditorium doors and runs to the stage, and that's fun too.
The final project happens soon after, and you sing "Death by Glamour," from Undertale. Your choir teacher is a little bit concerned, not really knowing what it is, but she lets you do it anyway with some minor corrections to your lyrics. It's really fun, albeit kind of scrappy, and it finally marks the end of The Year of Mettaton.
You also do the concert for your English teacher again. (You took AP English this year, and because the current AP English teacher was retiring soon, she was training the 9th grade English teacher to teach AP. You end up having him for all three years he teaches.) You add a few more songs, and invite your choir teacher again. You think she enjoys it. You also get to finish it this year, because you held it in the 30-minute block of focus at the end of the day, rather than the 15 minute class period on the last day of school.
That event is the firework that ends your year, and [[10th grade ends]]. (set: $header to false)(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 0s)[(transition: "dissolve")[Lots of hissing as your new choir teacher works to untrain the upperclassmen.(stop:)]]]
\[(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 3s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Getting all loopy at UW-Eau Claire while eating a sad, cold, plain bagel.(stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 6s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Forgoing the quadrennial choir trip to New York.(stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 9s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Tiny chairs in a room in a church, waiting to perform.(stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 12s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
This is what you [[remember|to 11th]] of 10th grade.(stop:)]]]](set: $year to "11th Grade")(set: $header to true)You're a junior now. That's vaguely frightening, but not imminently. Everything has settled into familiarity now, and nothing terribly new has happened yet. You're in 4th hour choir this year, along with Isabel, Sam, and Talissa. You got used to being separated from Sam and Isabel, so it does feel a little weird to be with them again, but you like it.
You are in Select Women again this year, and it's pretty similar to the year before. The seniors who were in it last year are obviously gone now, but there are still several people in it that you know, like Talissa, Isabel, and Sam.
That year, Talissa also encourages you to join Destination Imagination with her. You're a little apprehensive at first, because you don't actually know what that is, but Isabel and Talissa are gonna be there, so you join.
It's a //lot// of fun. You spend most of the time at the meetings freaking out and acting like you just drank a full sugar soda, but that's alright.
You can't help but be reminded of yourself in 8th grade; it seems like your junior year is going to be another [[explosion]]. It's not quite like 8th grade again—its more like a breaking glass than a firework—but when DI happens, you go off the deep end again, just a little bit.
It's less obvious outside of DI than it would have been in 8th grade, but if your self-confidence was measured on a weirdness v. confidence v. time graph, you're rising on all of the axes.
In terms of choir, that means that you're trying to become a more active proponent of the group. That year, you agree to go to District Honors for the first time, you do far too many Solo and Ensemble pieces, you attend every early-morning Select Women rehearsal that you can, and you and your friends sing pieces from the [[7-12 concert]] all day long at DI. You notice a pattern, when the middle schoolers come over to do the annual concert in February. It's one stupid little incident that makes you start seeing everything as coming full circle—your choir teacher ends up too close to the edge of the stage and slips off, although she does catch herself before she really falls.
You remember that the high school director fell off the stage when you were in 8th grade. You didn't think much about that at the time, and to be honest, you only remember the incident through other people telling you about it, but the whole concert seems frighteningly familiar to you. When you hear the 8th graders sing "Who Will be a Witness," a piece you remember performing at this same concert when you were in 8th grade, it makes you want to dig through all of the old concert programs that your mom kept.
The similarities run deep. You find that at both concerts, the high schoolers sang "Loch Lomond" (which becomes one of your favorites; you, Talissa, and Isabel sing it with your DI group all day at the regional tournament) and both times one of the soloists was named Zack (although the first time, his name was spelled differently). There is, of course, the other two similarities that spurred this trip back into the past.
As you look through programs, you find yourself looking back further into the past until you're back in 6th grade again. You briefly contemplate your future career, but this contemplation never really goes past this point in time. You do vow to join choir in college again, though, and all of this digging inspires you to create this Twine story.
[[Your junior year speeds by.]]April comes, and it's a confusing mess of preparing for Solo and Ensemble, refining your group's DI performance, working on a club with Isabel, and thinking about the fact that you're going to be a senior next year. You end up needing to prepare five different pieces for Solo and Ensemble—you have your classical and musical theatre solos, a [trio]<hex|(click: ?hex)[(open-url: "https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jYpaqaezrzO3x4shPivLUrj3pxZ3miH1")] with Sam and Isabel, and two pieces for Select Women that you really enjoy—and even though neither of your solos goes to state, both Select Women and your trio still do well enough to make it there! Solo and Ensemble is held at your own school this year again, which you still find a little disorienting, but you have fun while you're there.
You go to see //Newsies// at that dinner theatre again, and this time Isabel is able to go too! You sit with her, Sam, Talissa, and a few of your other friends. It's a good time. Talissa gets coffee and you drink her half and half.
You do the concert for your English teacher for the final time (although you plan on resurrecting it again the next year for the new English teacher) before he leaves the school, and you extend it just a little bit to make it extra special. You even bring parts of your Mettaton cosplay into school, leaving it up in your math teacher's room.
Your choir teacher holds an awards night this year (you actually fill out the form to letter this time, even though you still have no idea what that really means), and there's ice cream. Graduation comes and goes, and this year you actually have some seniors you know. You're not sad, though, because this time you're actually good friends and you know you'll be able to bug them over the summer.
The final project comes and goes—you sing something from another video game, //Doki Doki Literature Club//, and prepare all kinds of drawing cards for it—and everything starts to wind down.
[[11th grade ends.]](set: $header to false)(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 0s)[(transition: "dissolve")[Confusedly perusing the cafeteria at UW-Eau Claire.(stop:)]]]
\[(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 3s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
Select Women performing "White Winter Hymnal" and not quite sticking the landing.(stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 6s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
You and Sam watching your teacher perform in a musical.(stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 9s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
A Voces8 concert that lasts past your self-imposed bedtime and adds a new artist to your playlists.(stop:)]]]
\(live: 1s)[(if: time >= 12s)[(transition: "dissolve")[
This is what you [[remember|to 12th]] of 11th grade.(stop:)]]]](set: $year to "12th Grade")(set: $header to true)You're a little frightened. Not only is it your last year of high school, but there's a lot of new teachers in the building, several of which you have that year. You know for a fact that there's no reason you should be nervous because of that, because the last time this happened, the new teacher ended up on your very extensive "favorite people" list, but the fact that they're [strangers]<info| still frightens you a little.(click: ?info)[
//(`Spoilers`: They end up being some of your favorite people too.)//]
This year, your little before-school meeting is held at a little round table in the choir room, since the slightly-intimidating meeting room is full of something else. It makes you slightly less intimidated, and eventually the conversation dissolves into whether or not you can eat bacon, and you're no longer frightened.
You stick around a while to talk to the principal and guidance counselor, then to show your choir teacher your newest costume (you've been working on Christine's Star Princess dress from //Phantom of the Opera//), and finally return home.
[[Senior year is off to a strong start.]]Hiya!
Thank you for being my introduction to choir :) It's something I've really enjoyed, and although the majority of this Twine story took place in Baldwin, my time in Hayward was super important to the development of everything that transpired.
I have to admit, a lot of the events between 6th grade and now have kind of melded together, but I have distinct feelings of thinking "this is really cool!" from my time in choir back in Hayward. I kind of wish there was more I could say here, but in reality, there are only a few scattered events that I remember vividly, and a lot of those memories are only triggered by the pictures and videos my mom took.
I do know that the one decision that the career counsellor in 5th grade convinced me into was a very good one, and I think that having a really dedicated teacher helped. A lot of the things that I've been doing here in high school are things that I vaguely remember touching on in middle school, and even though I know there are going to be similarities, it was still kind of cool to connect all the way back.
I'm still a little salty that the one, singular concert that I was sick for was that very first winter concert back in 6th grade. C'est la vie.
Either way, thank you so much for being a Cool Dude and introducing me to all kinds of things that I really love!
[[The End]]Mrs. Lamb--
I'm going to be honest, I don't remember a lot of 8th grade. I spent most of that year vacillating between being sad about moving to Baldwin (my letter to self from that year, which I just got back, expresses that a little) and being absolutely crazy around my new friends. A lot of 8th grade choir went over my head a bit, but I do remember that I enjoyed my time there regardless :)
I'm kind of sad that I only really had you for a year, unlike some of my peers, but that one year was still enough to keep me interested in choir despite everything else being super duper different. Plus, 8th grade is when I was introduced to the idea of school musicals. Although I only did that for one year too, it was totally the highlight of my 8th grade year.
Either way, thank you for providing a constant for me when I was feeling super resentful about having to leave Hayward. I think 8th grade into freshman year was the time that I really started to be more interested in choir than I had before (moving out of it being a new, introductory thing), and even though it was a short time, I'm super glad that I spent my 8th grade year here in Baldwin.
Thank you :)
[[The End]]Howdy!
Thank you so much for being a Cool Dude^^tm^^! (That puts you on my extensive list of "people I like.") I'm a little sad that I only had you as my choir teacher for one year, but I really enjoyed that year! I think I thought the idea of having a treble choir was a little weird at first, but I grew to really like it.
I'd also like to thank you for being my first exposure to high school choir. I didn't think it would be much different than middle school choir, and it really isn't, aside from the members' collective skill level. Freshman year was also my introduction to sight singing, and although I still find it a little frightening because I'm not the best at it yet, I still found it to be a really cool thing!
I'd also like to thank you for just being a super nice person in general. Freshman me was still really weird, but in all of the blatantly obvious ways from eighth grade, which wasn't always flattering.
Either way, thank you for being an awesome human being :)
[[The End]]Heya!
Thank's for being a Cool Dude^^TM^^ and helping me a lot over the past three years. By the time you read this Twine story, I've almost certainly already said it, but thank you nonetheless.
High school me has alternated between being kind of crazy, like in 8th grade, and then realizing that she's really weird and feeling vaguely self-conscious, and it's cool that you didn't mind me in the first mindset and encouraged me in the second.
I've accomplished a lot since 6th grade, and although I've had a plethora of different choir teachers, the last three years have been helped by you :) And although high school me might feel super awkward when called out on her improvement, elementary school/middle school me is screaming in a good way.
Thank you for being a wonderful human!
[[The End]]You're in 8th hour choir for first semester again, and once again Isabel and Sam are in a different class. You don't mind it too much, though, and one of your other friends, Alyssa, is in this hour with you. The two of you rely heavily on each other and have a lot of fun.
Your first concert kicks off the year, and one of the pieces you perform is "Baba Yetu." To you, it seems like the kind of thing that would be done at the end of year, but you enjoy it a lot regardless. It goes on your DI playlist that year.
Select Women starts up again, but this time it has a new name, "St. Croix Valley Voices" (or "SCV^^2^^," as your friend Faith likes to call it). Isabel and Sam move to Vocal Jazz this year, but that's okay too. You're not as dependent on them as you were freshman year. Plus, this year, you're challenging yourself to be more daring and confident, like the seniors you knew for the past three years.
You participate in District Honors again, and you and Alyssa continue to lean on each other. It's a good time, and you keep a bunch of the pieces from it saved in your Spotify playlists.
The Christmas season comes quicker than you expect, but that's okay too. It's one of your favorite parts of the year, and you're a little sad when it ends. SCV^^2^^ performs a version of "Winter Wonderland." You have a solo, one of the first ones you've ever even tried out for. You end the first semester with a Secret Santa event, in which you and Faith end up giving each other dinosaurs, and you continue to the [[second half of senior year]].During second semester, you're in 3rd hour choir, and you're with Sam and Isabel again. The 7-12 concert sneaks up on you all (there's an inordinate number of snow days this year), but everything goes well enough. The Treble Choir sings "Go Lassie Go" again, and that makes you super excited.
Solo and Ensemble is early this year; the last time you remember it being early like this you were in 7th grade. You're preparing a large amount of pieces again—two solos, two SCV^^2^^ pieces, and a trio—and it comes up sooner than you're used to. Your mother is worried about it being snowed out, but everything ends up alright.
Your [musical theatre]<FILWL|(click: ?FILWL)[(open-url: "https://drive.google.com/open?id=1c0uDCm6786YQLXqBra9781hB-YIZnvIi")] solo doesn't make it to State this year, nor does your trio, but your [classical solo]<W|(click: ?W)[(open-url: "https://drive.google.com/open?id=10_rdg-8lh5qvxfPf-743wi62hNI8LnP3")] (for which the judge was particularly spirited and interactive, which you think is a good way of judging) and the [two]<GTGY|(click: ?GTGY)[(open-url: "https://drive.google.com/open?id=10fGS58346uW8J1Q8kecPY_gYi0IyQghA")] [SCV^^2^^ pieces]<Java|(click: ?Java)[(open-url: "https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gyaR6SBs9MCFdXbG0hpzvHJkmvWIzyTS")] do.
Your school also hosts the Large Group Festival, something you don't remember happening very often, and you rehash one of the pieces from your February concert. (You never go back for "An Die Musik," though, which makes you a little sad. You really liked that one.)
[[Your senior year is ending alarmingly fast.]]The end of your senior year comes in a bundle with preparing final concerts, a super delayed snow day, State Solo and Ensemble, and an a capella concert in Prescott.
Between all of the things happening in April and May in choir, the big event you're planning for the club you, Isabel, and one of your other friends founded, AP tests, and trying to come up with an interesting valedictorian speech, everything melds together into chaos.
The final concert comes and goes. You get another solo, which officially affirms your completion of your beginning-of-the-year promise, and you, Sam, and Isabel sit next to each other on the floor watching the senior slideshow.
You almost want to cry when you see your three names, but you don't because you've already exhausted that feeling of dread thinking about how the concert was coming up (also, you still need to perform). Isabel's mom bursts into song in the front row of the audience before the seniors can give their gift to your choir teacher, and when the seniors are able to get their present, your teacher cries a little, for the first time. (She's also terribly ill, and you're not sure if that has something to do with it.)
SCV^^2^^ does their final performance together before you graduate, and eventually, [[12th grade is ending]].Not-so-interactive fiction created by "Nathalia Manana."
The colors belong to the rainbow.
The font belongs to Dalton Maag.
The Storyline belongs to Reality because it's not actually fiction.
[Again?]<again|(click: ?again)[(reload:)]It's not quite done yet, but by the time you finish this story, you know it will be. You're a little bit scared, because your life has been relatively the same since kindergarten, as far as your general daily schedule goes, and all of that's going out the window next fall. It's a little terrifying, but that's not really the important part here.
You started this story because you dug through concert programs your junior year and realized that your choir teachers have been super influential to you.
You wanted to make something for them in return, and you ended up with this.
You want to say [[thank you]].[Please enter your password.]<pass|(click-replace: ?pass)[(set: $pass to (lowercase: (prompt: "Enter your password:","AAAAAA")))(if: $pass is "circle of friends")[(goto: "Mrs. Jones")](elseif: $pass is "who will be a witness")[(goto: "Mrs. Lamb")](elseif: $pass is "hope is the breath of music")[(goto: "Mrs. Thompson")](elseif: $pass is "loch lomond")[(goto: "Ms. Vought")](else:)[That's not a password I recognize.
[Try again?]<again|(click: ?again)[(goto: "thank you")]]]
[[Don't have one?]]If you're here, you're probably not one of the people I sent this to originally. But thanks for reading anyway! You probably maybe don't know me, unless you didn't know you had a password or just happened to know me, but that's okay.
I thank you for reading my whole spiel regardless.
[[The End]]