For Remembrance's Sake: Our first Inunion
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Good evening everyone, I am Sarah and she is Jia Min and today we’ll be giving you a little peek into what’s been going on in our lives since taking that little leap of faith to join RGSSB, a community of passionate music makers, and ultimately, batch ’13, Bandemonium.
Bandemonium. Bandemonium is our batch name, derived from the word “pandemonium”. No, we are not saying that we want to bring chaos everywhere we go. Instead, “Bandemonium” is intended to reflect our batch’s wacky and bubbly personality. It expresses how we hope to bring joy, life and music wherever we go.
So as you all know, band is three times a week, totalling about 8 hours. What do we do during band? Basically, play our various instruments. And I think you should know that it is no mean feat to pick up an instrument and be able to master it to even this level as you have seen. You may think: “Simple! You blow air into a stick of wood or metal and press the right keys.” But no, it’s more than that. It took hard work to get here, where we are now.
At the beginning, most of us were timid Sec 1s, afraid to ask for help, afraid to say anything, well, you get the idea - we were afraid. On our instruments, we could only produce noise, not music. Speech between us was awkward and we were not very bonded. Yet we persevered. We started sharing our woes with each other and the bonding began. After all the time we spent together, during practices, playing wacky games and organising batch outings, we’re more coordinated and very comfortable with each other. In just 9 months, we’ve found our place in band, and band has found its place in our hearts.
Indeed, we have grown. Band was not the first choice for a few of us, and neither has it been the most exciting prospect after a long, tiring day of lessons.But whatever the case, look at us. We’re all still here. We’ve worked long and hard, with blood, sweat and tears, to get where we are now. Batch’13, be proud of ourselves. Aren’t you glad that you chose to join Band? Who would’ve thought that you’d be ever sit in a classroom singing Justin Bieber songs with your section batchmates when you were supposed to be taking a break from sectionals? But then, Never Say Never, right?
After these long months, we’re now “graduating” from our Recruit Band experience, embarking on a new journey, or perhaps a continuation of it, in Main Band. Hopefully, or perhaps definitely, we will grow closer to our batch as well as band and maintain strict self-discipline, humility and spirit of learning.
But it’s often easy to say what you will do, but hard to do what you say. Today, we promise ourselves that no matter how many more commitments, responsibilities and obstacles we face, no matter how much stress there is, no matter how much more free time is sacrificed, we will do our best and nothing less. Like Alyssa Farmer once said, obstacles are put in our way to see if we really want to reach our goals or if we just thought we did.
When band gets us down, complain not, batch mates. My dad and his friends played tic-tac-toe in the sand under a mango tree during band practice. So, we’re blessed to have a carpeted, air-conditioned room to practise in and most of all, to bond and have fun together.
Now you’ve caught a glimpse of the fun we’ve had in band thus far, it’s time to conclude this speech with a set of acknowledgements. Hence……
To Mr Goh, thank you for patiently coaching us, and bearing with our unwillingness to practise, and thank you for making us laugh. To all our seniors, thank you for patiently guiding and teaching us, for caring about us and for always being there for us. To Mrs Koh, Mr Asmizar and Miss Tan, thank you for your concern and guidance in our first year here. To our parents, thank you for supporting us through our journey in RGSSB so far, for encouraging us and even picking us up after band finishes late every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Last but not least, we would like to thank our batch mates, Bandemonium-ers! I’m sure we all mean a lot to one another. Our support, our friendship, we will all value. We’ll never forget all the fun times we’ve had, and we’ll look forward to the fun times to come.
Of course, as we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. We will strive and aim to bring RGSSB to the skies!
Musical Carnival
breaking the MUSIC.
10:26 PM
#blog-pager-older-link {
float: $endSide;
}