As I prepare for my next competition with Entourage, (It’s at North $20 for an all-day pass, shameless plug, February 15th) I wanted to reflect on my previous competition in the sparkling land of Omaha, Nebraska.
As I packed for this exciting and unreal experience, I began to worry. What was I going to wear? What if I didn’t know the dances? Or even worse, what if the competition doesn’t have good food????
As I quickly fell into a downward spiral of worry, I decided to procrastinate packing until as late as humanly possible. I went on with my week carefree, avoiding my impending doom.
As Thursday quickly approached, I made sure to finish my homework all the way through Monday’s assignments, as I knew I’d have no time to complete it otherwise. When Thursday had finally arrived, I was beyond excited.
I showed up to our dress rehearsal, ready to go with my trusty hair-tie and a new pair of tights. As I squeezed into my corset for our opening, I felt the nerves of everyone building up. We all had so much left to do! It was already 6 pm on Thursday night, 12 hours before the bus left for North, and I hadn’t packed or curled my hair!
After we had a smooth few run-throughs of our show with costumes and the combo (shoutout to the Hot Brockets, y’all amaze me), I was ready to lie in bed and sleep. That was until I realized I had hours worth of packing to do.
I rushed home in a frenzy and curled my hair as fast as humanly possible, and got to work. The number of things to pack had increased dr
amatically from previous years because we were staying an extra day. As I shoved clothes and makeup and my conditioner into a tiny duffel bag, I looked at myself and thought: “that is very much adequate.”
As I finished preparing myself for the long trip ahead, I settled down for bed at 2:30 am, ready for a long winter’s nap. Suddenly, my alarm starts beeping and it’s 4:00 am…Time to get up! I hopped in the shower, drove to get some Dunkin’, and dragged myself into the building.
As we all lugged our bags onto the bus, the energy really kicked in. Although the trip was long, it was jam-packed with joy. At the World’s Largest Truck Stop in Iowa, and then spent the rest of the day munching on Culver’s and singing show tunes.
As we arrived in Omaha, we enjoyed a night of BRUTAL rehearsals, we finally got to the hotel, and with that, a night of silly dancing and eating Pringles.
Waking up on Saturday, I had accumulated about 4 hours of sleep in 2 ½ days. Despite my sleep deprivation, I was nothing but ready to take on Millard West. We drove to the school and spent the morning cheering on High Heeled Harmony and eating Panda Express (thank god for good food). Soon enough, it was time to take the stage. In my…unique…costume, I strutted down the hallways to warmups.
As we all held hands and sang our ballad together, we knew we were ready to perform. We took the stage, and for 15 minutes I felt the happiness that I had missed for so long. We performed our asses off and had the rest of the day to watch groups and have fun. Or so I thought.
As I walked off the stage, I felt AWFUL. Legit so sick and gross. I sat through the critique we had but spent the rest of the day nauseous and ill. As the finalists were announced and Entourage was one of them, everyone was so thrilled. Although all I wanted to do was perform, I didn’t think it was humanly possible.
I sat and basically cried for two hours, so upset and angry with my body, I felt like it
was rejecting me. I called my mom crying, and she dragged me to the nurse in the school. I kept yelling that they wouldn’t let me perform, but my mom was having NONE of it. She sat me down and as they took my temperature, a shroud of worry clouded the nurse’s face.
“102.3”
WHAT??? Absolutely not. I started sobbing. There was no way that I was going to miss a performance my last year in show choir. Unfortunately, mother knows best, and she made me pack up my bags, give some air hugs goodbye (couldn’t risk whatever awful illness I had spreading to others), and was on my way.
Although I did get to watch the performance through Facetime, I definitely am still heartbroken over my loss of a performance. Despite that, I now realize how much I have to cherish all of my other performances.
With all this being said, it’s our senior year! So, what better way to spend your Saturday than coming on down to Clash of the Sequins on February 15th at North and enjoy my final year of show choir with me!! See y’all there!
(Also I don’t have Coronavirus, it was just strep sorry for the clickbait).
Strep is the WORST; I got it a lot in elementary school. I’m so sorry this happened to you at such an inopportune time! It’s absolutely awful having to miss something that you’ve been looking forward to doing, but I’m glad you were able to perform at least once. Good luck at all your future performances!
Thanks so much! Yes, strep is the worst, especially with all the singing I do! I will say, it was kind of nice getting to go home early and be at home on Sunday rather than in Nebraska, but I still missed the performance a lot.
HA I loved the title! So sorry to hear that you had strep; I had it multiple times from ages 10 to 17 and it SUCKS. I’m also sorry to hear that you had to miss a performance. I’m in a few ensembles, both through the school and outside of it, but I’ve heard that show choir is one of the most demanding extracurriculars at North. That definitely says something about your character if you are willing to put so much time into rehearsing. I really enjoyed this blog, thanks so much for writing!
Haha, thanks so much! I think that although show choir is very demanding, all fine arts require a lot of focus and talent, so I’d congratulate legit anyone who’s a part of it. It’s so hard! Also, I could never play an instrument, so that’s something I must applaud you for.