For as long as I could remember, my life was a slew of after-school rehearsals, late night concerts, an array of performance attire, and best of all, singing. I had been singing since around the time I could talk and was in choir during almost all of my grade school years. I was given amazing opportunities and wonderful memories being in choir. All my friends and family heard me talk about was choir and they were all immensely supportive and proud. So when I decided not to continue singing in college, it came as a quite a shock to those that knew me.
Let's go back to beginning. I am four years old, and my grandma is driving me to KinderMusic, something she would later do with all her grandchildren. That, for me, is where it all began. Then, singing and music were games and fun times. As I grew up, I would take my hand at instruments until moving to Indianapolis when I was eight years old. That was when my mom enrolled me in the Indianapolis Children's Choir.
Just recently celebrating their 30 year anniversary this last weekend, Indianapolis Children's Choir (ICC) has become the prestige of children choral performance and education, and I was given the wonderful opportunity to grow up in it. I started in my new school, already with an activity I loved. It later compelled me to join the choir at my elementary school and then middle school. In high school, I would join the Advance Men's Choir and Pike Encores, the top show choir that I would later to go on to serve as president of for two years. Choir was a huge part of my life. I was always in rehearsal, always practicing, always traveling. I performed in fantastic venues and places with choir. I performed at the opening gala for The Palladium in Carmel, Ind., a frequent performer at Hilbert Circle Theatre in downtown Indy, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, and Lucas Oil Stadium. I traveled to sing in Oregon, Hawaii, and even performed in Carnegie Hall in New York City twice. Choir was my life for a decade, and immensely part of who I was.
When I began looking at colleges, I tossed around the idea of going into music, and seriously considering it for a while, before deciding it was not the path I ultimately wanted to take. I eventually decided to attend Purdue University and began looking into choral programs there. Purdue has no school of music, but Purdue Music Organizations is a stellar program, one of the same prestige and rank that I had with ICC. I auditioned for their Purdue Varsity Men's Glee Club in the spring of my senior year of high school, and was honored when I was accepted. After being accepted, I had the summer to learn the songs and then I would return in the fall for a retreat before the first week of school.
As summer commenced, I became increasingly excited about college, as any soon to be freshmen would. All these new opportunities, new things to try, a new way to live. As I began doing my research, I realized that being a part of the Glee Club was a very big time commitment, and that there were somethings I may not be able to try because of it. It was this that ultimately led me to decide to drop choir.
This was not an easy decision for me. Choir was everything to me and music was such a huge part of my life for so long. Singing is not something easily parted with. It took a lot of self-deliberation and internal reflection to realize it was time to try something new.
Since dropping choir, I was a part of an athletic team, joined a fraternal organization, found a love for and performed slam poetry, became a mentor for local kids, and became involved with the orientation program. Not all of these things I could have done while still being in choir. That is not to say that people in choir do not do these things. I know many people that are able to juggle the workload of being in a choir here and becoming involved on campus. It is totally feasible and should not deter anyone away who wants to take a shot at both, but for me, it is not what I wanted.
Choir had been such a big part of my life for so long. It was full of quick car-ride changes, late night dinners, hour long rehearsals and concerts. Being a part of a choir was the best part of growing up and shaped me into being the man I am today, but I wanted to experience new things. Who knew what else was out there that I had missed because I was too busy in rehearsal. Giving up choir was by far the hardest thing I have ever done, and not a day goes by that I do not miss it, but I do not regret my decision to give up choir. My life has been filled of beautiful new opportunities and have pushed myself to do things I never would have done before. I still find myself singing old choir staples and do my best to support my past choirs as well as choirs here at Purdue. My life has changed, I hope for the better, since deciding to part ways with choir, but it will always be a part of me. Nothing can ever take way that feeling of being on stage and doing what you love. So even if I don't participate anymore, choir still holds a big part of my heart.
