I hope you have found a friend...
This one time, at band camp.... Band Camp Stories, no1.
The first time I posted this, the top page and a half got deleted. I don't know how, but here is the article in its entirety.
Most of the time in band, you go with traditions that have been set in place by people far gone, seniors from a long time ago that thought it would be cool to try something new and different. That new and different thing becomes a tradition passed on my word and action to new band members who repeat those same actions as they grow older.
The tradition I'm going to talk about is not one of those traditions.
Back when I was a freshman, I was able to experience the amazing thing that was band camp. All my friends were there, and everyone that I did not know became a fellow sufferer through band camp. We had a bond. At the end of the week, the band held a little "dance" that everyone was invited to under the premise that you could only get a pizza dinner if you came. Needless to say, everyone went. So I'm enjoying my first "band camp dance." The seniors had previously taken the time to, earlier that day, decorate the room with ribbons, duct tape, ballons and the like. Wootah.
In the middle of the dance, two of the senior girls go up to sing a song. (I'm ommitting names for privacy reasons). One plays guitar, and the other sings. The song they sing is "The Freshman" by the Verve Pipe, and I have to say that I cry. It's a bitter sweet tale of love lost as a freshman, and it really struck my heart strings. It was at that time that I decided to sing a song. I wanted to do something cool like that, so I decided right then and there that I'd sing a song at the end of the dance, sort of like a closer.
I go up to one of the girls that sang and ask if she has the song I'm looking for. She does, thinks my singing is a good idea, and gives me the CD. I'm a little nervous, so I ask a guy friend who is a junior to sing with me. He agrees.
At the end of the dance, our band director announces that we have early practice and then a show for the parents tomorrow. She also says that, "Before we all go, we have one last request. Alex wants to sing one last song, and then you can all head back to your rooms. Alex, take it away."
I walk up and grab a chair, and sit in it backwards infront of the entire band. My friend sits down, and I look out at everyone and say, "I'm going to end this dance with a song that I think's pretty appropriate. The song is called Closing Time, and it's by Semisonic."
I put the CD in the player, and play it. The first song is Closing Time, and so I begin to sing.
Closing time - time for you to go out, go out into the world.
Closing time - turn the lights up over every boy and every girl.
I look up. Everyone is amazed. They've never heard me sing before, so instead of hearing what they thought they'd here, they here my voice, which, although isn't amazing, is decent enough to make everyone in the room quiet down and listen. I close my eyes and remember the next couple of lines.
Closing time - one last call for alcohol, so finish your whiskey or beer.
Closing time - you don't have to go home but you can't stay here.
I'm looking up at everyone in the beginning of the song, and I'm surprised to see some of my friends crying. Not just the girls, but some of the guys as well. I'm trying to sound happy, but it's not really working, because I'm still pretty choked up because of Freshman.
I know who I want to take me home.
I know who I want to take me home.
I know who I want to take me home.
Take me home...
Closing time - time for you to go back to the places you will be from.
Closing time - this room won't be open 'til your brothers or you sisters
come.
So gather up your jackets, and move it to the exits - I hope you have found
a
friend.
Closing time - every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.
Yeah, I know who I want to take me home.
I know who I want to take me home.
I know who I want to take me home.
Take me home...
Closing time - time for you to go back to the places you will be from...
I know who I want to take me home.
I know who I want to take me home.
I know who I want to take me home.
Take me home...
All of the girls in the room are in some form of crying. Even our band director is getting pretty emotional. The last line does it for me. It's hard for me to get out the last line of the song, I'm so close to breaking down and crying.
Closing time - every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end...
The dance ends, and everyone kind of files out of the room. I just sit in my chair and cry. Brandon comes up and tells me I did a good job. Ms. Meyer tells me through choked down sobs that she liked it, and she thought it was appropriate.
I've sung this song every year of the four years I've been in band. I've done it solo Sophmore - Senior year, and especially my senior year was really emotional. I couldn't finish the song at the very end. The most emotional part of this whole ordeal is this: Now that I'm not going back to camp, I have to have someone sing the song in my place. I picked a young man with a great heart, and a beautiful soul. At the beginning of the song, I told everyone a little bit of this story, and told them that I'd carried on my tradition for as long as I could, and to see if it was a tradition worth keeping, I was going to give the honor to a freshman boy. If he so chose, he could end the tradition by not singing it his sophomore year, or continue it until he was a senior. At that time, he would pass that experience to another freshman boy.
When I called Weylin up to sit by me and learn the song, he burst into tears. "Alex," he said, "I don't know this song. How could I ever sing it?" I looked at him with tears in my eyes and said, "All you have to do for me is choose whether or not you want to sing. The words will come with time." He sobs for a couple of seconds and then says, "I'd love to."
My friends, in all the time that comes to pass, there will be an end to that. In everything you have, there will be an end. My hope and wish is that all of you can leave this time we've had together with a friend.
All I have become, all that I am,
Alex