On Choir Tours

From Bus Ride on 4/13

And there we were! In the mountains.. Riding on the bus… watching some stupid movie.

And yet here I am typing away on the computer, on the road from DC to Ohio.

So far tour has been.. tour. Rather boring as far as tours go. But tour none-the-less. Tours are very interesting times. You learn more about people then you could ever want to know. You are basically living with 50 other people for a week, with much time spend on a cramped bus. Then again not all you learn is bad -- Relationships are strengthened throughout the time spent together. You learn amazing things about people, some of whom you may never have talked to before.

What is also unique about tours is that once it is over most things go back to being exactly the same. Those people who you talked too a lot during the coarse of tour, go back to completely ignoring your presence when you get back to “real life.” What’s weird for me is that this is my final tour. When I get back I won’t have much time to form or strengthen relationships with those people who I have been in school with for four years. A month and a half left-- then everything begins again. New people, new school, new teachers a new place to live for the next few years. So what did these past four years, specifically choir tours mean? All they become is a flash of memories and a few pictures, but have they really impacted me? Choir tours… perhaps not, but being singing for the past four years? Definitely!

It was about this time 8th grade year when my sister was trying to talk me into trying out for Troubadours. I really was never much into music, especially singing. I never really listened to all that much music or anything. But there I was an 8th grader who was about to leave grade school. She finally did talk me into trying out for the best singing group offered at the school I would be attending next year. Then to fast forward a few months. There I was the kid in the middle of the summer before he entered high school who opened a letter not expecting much. Then reading that he had made it into troubadours and was one of three basses and the other two were seniors. From then on.. I developed a love and respect for music. It became the sanctuary for my mind. The best way to control my feelings or develop feeling within me. I love the quote that I found recently, “Who needs psychotherapy when you can listen to B Minor Mass?” Its true through music you have one of the greatest things for your mind. Music calms your mind, it clears it, it works, and it stretches the imagination. As I look back at the kid who stood there and opened the letter I can barely recognize him. Music has truly changed my life and without it I don’t know where I would be today.

So choir has definitely changed me, but what of tours? There are lots of memories from tours, But have they changed me? Perhaps some. Such as singing “Kyrie, Eleision” at ground zero in New York. That is not something one forgets quickly. I have seen many places I probably would have never seen if not for choir tours such as the sight of JFK’s assassination, or all the things that I saw in Washington DC this year. But still has tour meant anything? Perhaps not much for me, but for those who heard the choir sing. Hopefully, for that is what tour is really about. It’s about us proclaiming Christ. Especially this year as we tour right after Easter! Christ Crucified, Died, and Risen! Alleluia We Sing! So even if tour doesn’t seem to have that much meaning for me, it does for some of those who hear us sing and those hosts that we stay with. We have the great opportunity to interact with others and spread the Gospel.

So I guess tours do mean something. Even one’s like this where we only have the chance to sing two concerts.

The Peace of Christ who has been raised be with you! Alleluia!