"Someday Soon, We All Will Be Together"

Tonight was my last Christmas concert, and it was quite a lovely concert. I played in four different groups, which is significantly more than in the past. The music was beautiful. The audience was huge. My friends were close. And then I remembered it was my last Christmas concert with those close friends. Suddenly, the evening became still as I sat offstage listening to the band play "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and looking at my beautiful orchestra. This orchestra has been my life for the past four years and it is hard when I finally realize that the year is slowly ending.

Next year, I don't know where I'll be, but I know I won't be in high school. My mornings will no longer consist of a group of dorky kids who take AP classes and tell ridiculous jokes that only an orchestra kid could understand. I feel like I've been everywhere with the orchestra, and in a small sense, I have. We've been to Canada, to Oregon, to Vashon Island, and soon to California. We travel together and there's something about 6 hour bus rides that bring you together. These mornings and journeys have meant the world to me and I don't want them to end, but like everything, they will eventually come to a close. The memories will be there for eternity, but it's simply not the same as being in the moment.

So, although we've fought more than I would hope and we have done things that we now regret, the orchestra is perfect. It is full of laughter and more energy than I've ever seen. I will miss it so much, and I am so grateful that the world of orchestra is not yet at a close. And I will be back, yes, I will most definitely be back. Just like that wonderful song says, "Someday soon, we all will be together" and we will, I know we will. It is moments like tonight that will bring me back. Moments filled with love and emotion that you don't experience in just any group of friends. Only in orchestra (and perhaps a few others, but that's a whole other story).