A-B-M-A! 153!

Chants and Cheers Competition

          Last February 5, 2016 my class had to compete in a "Chants and Cheers Competition." This is what happened.
           
          My palms were sweating, knees weak, arms are heavy. On the surface I looked calm and ready. But in reality I was trembling with anticipation and excitement at the thought of performing in front of a whole audience in an auditorium. I stood there together with 24 of my other block mates, we were all nervous, I can tell, as I looked at each of them breathing heavily and wiping the sweat off their face. 

          I told myself, "This is it. It's either go hard or go home." I was especially anxious as I was the one assigned to start off our performance. So I stepped on to the stage together with my block mates, then I shouted.

          But before that, let's go back a little while. About two weeks before the event.

          So the information about the competition was given to us about two weeks prior. My block mate Azul Espenilla was tasked to lead the class, while I was assigned to be the co-leader. We kept reminding everyone to submit their own ideas for us to be able to finish the actual chant and practice as soon as possible.

          And then we made the chant, but only with a week left before the competition. If it hadn't been for our Grammar and Composition professor; Ms. Joie, who forced everyone in the class to make a contribution for the chant since it was a seatwork, we couldn't have even joined the competition in the first place.

Our piece, written on the whiteboard.

          So with only a few days left, we had to memorize the piece and assign various tones and styles to it, to truly make it a competition piece. We tried everything, from making each individual recite it on their own, to writing the whole piece on the whiteboard so everyone can memorize.

          And we did, we memorized the piece. But, we still didn't have actions and movements incorporated in our formation, and the problem was it was only a day before the competition.

          As it was the day before the competition, it was all hands on deck as we needed to get everything ready, we still didn't have costumes, props, and movements in our chant. So one of my classmates volunteered to buy all of our costumes, and the other volunteered to bring the musical instruments we needed. We practiced until 9 pm, polishing our performance and modulating our voices, thankfully, everyone cooperated.

My block mates before we performed. They were the same after, only frowning.

My block mates, enjoying themselves before we perform.

          So fast forward to the day of the competition. It was the day we had to perform what we worked so hard for, it was the day to face the crowd with strokes of green acrylic painted on our faces while wearing our skin-tight camouflage shirts.

          We were the third ones to perform out of the six contenders. While we were waiting for our turn we couldn't help but glance at each other. We felt like soldiers looking at each other before going in to war.

          But then it was our turn, it was game time. Like I said on the third paragraph, it was go hard or go home. This moment was important for me as it was a moment for our block to become as one, something that rarely happens.

          So I stepped on to the stage together with my block mates, then I shouted. I won't go in to details about our performance, but I can tell you that it was mediocre. We had time to prepare but we didn't, perhaps we still lacked the unity we needed, but our unpreparedness still got us the fourth place, which if I may say so myself, isn't so bad.

          As I was performing with them on the stage, I realized something. These are the moments that I should treasure, because I will miss them when I grow up. We chanted with our hearts and cheered with our souls, it was a crazy and wonderful experience. We may not have won the competition, but we learned a little more about ourselves, and that for me is our victory.

        A-B-M-A! 153!