It can sometimes be daunting to think about the millions of choices that we make in our lifetime, and how each of these choices send us down one certain pathway in life. Let’s say you’re running late one day. You woke up late, you’re stressing out, and then you spill coffee on your favorite shirt and you decide that you have to change it. As you drive to wherever it is that you are going (work, school, etc.) you see a crash. What if you had decided to get up on time and be productive? What if you decided you could easily cover up that coffee stain so that you could be on time? You could have very well been a victim of that crash.
While this is a pretty terrifying way to think about it, I would like to share a story of one choice I almost didn’t make, and one that completely changed my life.
This was back when I was a junior in high school. I had applied for this summer program called Governor’s School North Carolina in the area of choral music. Governor’s School is a six week summer program for gifted students all over the state of North Carolina. Students stay on a college campus and along with their core classes for their area of study, they are also required to take classes that have to deal with social issues, philosophical issues, and attend seminars about every topic under the sun. Bottom line, it was pretty much a lot of learning, and I applied to the program because I knew it would look great on my college applications.
When I got my acceptance letter, I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t like the idea of spending six weeks of my summer learning, especially not in choir classes. The last three years that I had spent in choir at my high school all but killed any love I had once held for music. I have been singing for as long as I can remember, and I honestly can’t remember a time when I didn’t sing. To ask me when I started singing would be like asking me when I started breathing. Growing up I was always a part of the church choir, and I loved music class in elementary school. But I finally found real choral music when I was in the seventh grade. I joined the choir, and it wasn’t just everyone singing the same melody together…it was more. It was real. It was a challenge. Throughout all of my awkward preteen years in middle school, chorus class was my safe haven. It was a place when I could connect with people over music whether we were friends or not. It was something that I excelled at. Then in high school that starry-eyed passion that I had found for choir was decimated. Singing in my choir had become something that stressed me out and something that I hated doing. Class was not a safe place, and I couldn’t wait for it to be over every day.
So you can see why the thought spending six weeks of my life at Governor’s School studying choral music was not something that excited me. I hated the idea of it because I had come to hate choir.
Through much convincing on my parents’ part, I did end up going. I packed up my stuff and I went to Governor’s School West (GSW) at Salem College. This is one of the very few times in my life when I will happily admit that my mother was right.
your peers, and to accept and appreciate when others have different opinions. Most importantly, I found my forever people. I me
At GSW I found my love for music again, and so much more that that as well. I discovered what it was like to really enjoy learning, without having to worry about grades and assignments. I realized how amazing it is to have a truly intellectual conversation with t people who became the best friends I could ever have. These are friends that I am still so close with four years later, and who I know will be a part of my life forever. I couldn’t imagine my life without them.
What if I hadn’t gone to GSW. What if?
I can’t even begin to imagine how different my life would be if I hadn’t had this amazing once in a lifetime experience. I probably would have quit choir my senior year of high school, and not have gotten involved with music in college at all. Music is the building block of who I am as a person currently. Without Governor’s School, I would have become an entirely different person.
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