There are so many things that made my high school career memorable. I made countless memories, joined a few clubs, and met so many people. However, the best decision I made while in high school was definitely joining show choir. Although I have been out of high school for two years now, I still reminisce on all of the shenanigans and memories I made with the group. While I am not involved in show choir now, here are ten show choir influenced occurrences that still happen on a day-to-day basis.
1. Hearing a song you once performed and having to now perform the entire routine.
We are all guilty of this one. You can be in the car, a grocery store, campus dining hall, or just alone at home. But, as soon as that song comes on, your inner star begins to shine through and before you know it, your left foot is beveled and your bladed hands are slowly rising to create a "wide V" above your head.
2. Going on YouTube to look at important things and winding up watching your old shows for hours.
Since you have watched your favorite year's show so many times, you know that it has 2,860 views on YouTube. You also know that at least 857 of those views have to be you because you have watched it an unhealthy amount of times.
3. Seeing a number line and knowing exactly where you'll be standing because you have experience.
I'm just saying, being 5'10 meant you were either on 0 or 15, there was no in between. That wasn't always a bad thing because you never really had to think of what number and what riser you were supposed to be on. You literally had 2 spots to remember.
4. Finding a person of similar stature in public and knowing that you guys would have been mirrors.
It's a weird thing to think of, but I catch myself doing it at random times. For instance, I will be in line at Chick-Fil-A, and I'll see a tall, slender girl with long legs. Instead of thinking about what I am about to order from Jeff behind the Chick-Fil-A counter, I'm thinking about what numbers we would have stood on had we gone to the same high school, at the same time.
5. Smelling a certain smell and thinking of show choir.
Anytime I smell the "Mega" Aussie Hairspray in the huge purple can, I am instantly brought back to the ladies dressing room the day of a competition. We sprayed that hairspray on everything including: the bottoms of our shoes. our faces, our tights, our invisible bra straps to make them stick to us, oh and of course, our hair.
6. Knowing that you may be tired, but you'll never be as tired as you were on competition weekends.
Between leaving school at 8 am to be the first ones at the competition to not returning back home until 1 or 2 am, you get pretty beat. I mean, you wake up at 5:45 am to get ready for not only the competition, but also your first class of the day at school. You then take a very loud, very energetic school bus ride for 2 hours to the competition. Once there, you spend hours watching the competition, getting your teammates ready, scuffing up the bottom of your t-straps, visiting friends from other show choirs, and finally practicing your set. After you have competed your 20 minute set, you then wait more hours for the award ceremony. Following the award ceremony, you either have another very loud and energetic bus ride home, or you have a very quiet and hostile bus ride home. However the bus ride goes, one thing is always the same: you're always dog tired when you finally pull into your high school bus lot.
7. Scrolling through Facebook and seeing your high school show choir's page.
One minute you're watching a video on how many pug puppies can fit inside of a baseball helmet, and the next you see the parents of your old show choir asking for volunteers to work the next spaghetti dinner. You know you've been an alumni of not only the high school, but the show choir, for quite some time now, but seeing the progress -and drama- of the current show choir is too intriguing to actually unfollow the page.
8. Having stories to tell about "weave malfunctions."
Almost every girl involved in show choir has a horror story to tell you about fake hair. Whether it got stuck in the zipper of her dance partner's pants, completely fell out on stage, or was sewn in so tight that it got stuck coming out- it was a mess. Honestly though, I think the process of putting the fake hair in my head made me a stronger person. Between the pulling, stabbing, aching, and itching the fake hair forced us to undergo, us girls were still able to kill the kick-butt hair-ography in our routine.
9. Living vicariously through your younger show choir friends.
You have come to terms that you yourself can no longer be on that stage, but you refuse to accept defeat. So, you suddenly turn into the mom from Mean Girls, and begin living through your underclassman friends.
10. Quick-changes.
Have a class in 10 minutes? No problem because show choir has literally prepared you for this moment. You have changed from a button down shirt tucked into a tight, pleated skirt into another tight dress full of rhinestones and sequins, all while unbuckling and taking off your regular t-straps to put on and buckle your tap t-straps. If you can do all of that in a minute and 34 seconds, you can definitely throw on some yoga pants, an over-sized shirt, your Nikes, and make it to class on time.
If these 10 things sound familiar to you, you might have been involved in show choir.
