Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Craziest High School Memory

Today's Blog Bash Challenge over at www.notyouraverageteen.com is to talk about high school memories. I happened to really enjoy high school and have many many fond memories. I was a cheerleader and realized then that I love being in front of a crowd. I'm a little pressed for time, so I will recount my most famous one.

I sing. I've been a singer my whole life, from singing with a hairbrush in front of the mirror in our motorhome while driving to Florida to singing in a local well-known Chorale to singing at a wedding. In high school, I was in chorus and loved to sing. Another cheerleader and I sang the National Anthem at basketball games my junior, her senior year. I loved it. People said it was great. Who knows, they were probably just trying to butter me up for something. I'm just glad we didn't have American Idol then or I would have thought I should be America's next idol and I assure I would not have been.

When she graduated, I sang the National Anthem by myself. I still loved it but it was lacking a little something without her. One night, I got through the first verse. As I was beginning the 2nd verse, I had this horrible thought that I might have just started the song all over again because it sounded like the very same words might be coming out of my mouth. A conversation with myself began in my head as I was singing and I had no idea what was coming out. I did all of the thinking I could in those seconds while I was singing verse 2, sure that I was really just singing verse 1 all over again and I really couldn't decide.

So I stopped, mid word. And I said, into the microphone "I just forgot the words..." This caused hysterical roars of laughter, myself included and I wasn't really sure what to do. I didn't run away, I wasn't ashamed, I just stood there with the mic wondering if I should start again and maybe the words would come back to me. So I started over. And the crowd sang with me. And every single time I have sung it since (they let me continue singing at the games, with a mic and everything) I catch myself thinking that verse 2 sounds like verse 1 and I'm just repeating it. This is the sort of thing that happens when you go on auto pilot.**

Word got around very fast and there was a silent tension at the beginning of every game after that, wondering if I'd forget again. Instead, I'd just sing, hoping it would be fine, realizing that I'm not so afraid in front of crowds, especially if I have a mic. I LOVE my voice on a mic. I would talk on one all day if you gave me one.

My friend was in the auditorium next door to the gym while this was all happening. Her version is equally entertaining. She said they were having play practice and could hear someone singing and then all of a sudden there was silence. And then roaring. And then singing again.

Ahhh to be back in high school again.

** this has nothing to do with high school, but it involves my personal auto pilot. I got into that mode quite often, especially at school, when I am teaching the concept for the 3rd time that day and it's the 100th time in my career and I'm just on auto pilot. Sadly, this sometimes happens at the gym, when I am teaching a class, and I have to force myself to focus. For a long time, I taught Pilates and since the nature of Pilates is to do the same exercises all the time, my auto pilot had its own phD in the stuff. One day, I was auto piloting as we were warming up. A woman had just asked me about something that I thought I had already emailed her about. As auto was conducting the warm up, I thought "I'm sure I just emailed her" and as I tuned in, auto was saying "Good, now nice deep breath, INHALE and EMAIL". I kid you not.

2 comments:

  1. At least you didn't freak out. I don't sing well so I admire those who can.

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  2. Wow Thats a great story! I have issues with auto pilot too! Mine tend to be answering my phone (which rings in music) the same way I answer the phone (which rings in rings) at work, or even worse like I was at a previous job!

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