My Home
This essay was written for the purpose of being read at the choir
banquet this past year, for the essay contest... but that didn't
happen. Read about how being in choir has changed my life.
Gazing at a small black and white picture of the Chamber Singers in
the �99 AHS yearbook, I thought, �It would be so awesome to be in that
choir.� Last August, two years after first seeing this amazing choir, I
approached the choir room for the first time in two and a half months,
realizing my dream was about to become reality�-I was about to become a
Chamber Singer.
I stepped into the room and was immediately swept into a
feeling of comfort, of peace, of excitement�because I was returning to
my home, my sanctuary; but at first glance, it doesn�t look anything
like a home, let alone a teenager�s. A classroom full of maroon chairs
on four different levels, closets in the back, pictures on one wall,
musical references on the others, trophies in one corner, and a newly
installed whiteboard with a wooden piano sitting in the middle of the
room is what the eye first sees. There�s so much more that the eye
can�t see, however. For this is my home�-and the people who live there
along with me are a family, a family bonded by a love of music.
When I first entered into this home two years ago, I felt like
a foreigner who was invading someone else�s home. However, once I
started singing, I discovered that people like me lived in this home,
and it slowly became my own. Like in any other home, I grew here. I
grew new friendships with the family that already lived here. My
knowledge of music theory, which helped me attain my goal of making
Chambers, grew here (thanks to lessons starting with �What key is this
in?�). My voice grew in many ways here. My respect for the greatest
choir director on the planet-�the head of the home, Mr. Lutz�-grew
here. My exposure to singing in different environments grew here. My
appreciation for music grew here, and, most unexpectedly, my love grew
here. I�m not talking about love for music�-that grew here, too, but
that�s not what I mean�-or love for friends, which also grew here, but
the love of a man... and I�m not talking about Mr. Lutz. True, we all
can�t rest easy until we see his shiny head in our sight�-how can you
not love him? No, what I mean is that in this family of singers, I
found someone to love. In many ways, he helped me grow, too. He, along
with this home we share, helped my confidence grow. And my faith in
miracles has grown remarkably, now that this home has given me
many.
As I look back on the three years I have spent in this home and
forward on the precious year that I still have, I know that I have to
let go of some of my family when they move out of this home. And when I
move out of the home that holds my bed and my biological family at this
time next year, when I leave for college, I will look back on the
memories that home has given me. Sadly, I�ll have to move out of my
other home in a year, also-�that home otherwise known as F-2 at
Arlington High School... the choir room. Though it will be one sad
day-�my home has given me so much-�in my heart I know that the family
living in that home just continues to grow, and that they will become
part of my family, too. It is our home. We are the family that lives
there. And as long as the love of music is still there, our home will
never be destroyed.
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