Diligence Pays Off

I tend to put lots of details in my stories. Here's one just like that.

So once upon a time, I didn't think I'd still play in concert bands after my mission. The old ElEd program prevented me from taking classes during rehearsal times, so I just assumed that the year before my mission would be my last year in Wind Symphony. Which was way cool, because we ended with a bang with our tour to Korea and Japan.

But then, I got home and things changed. I missed playing in band soo much. When I first got back, I learned that my major program changed a little bit, requiring an additional minor and yet another semester of school. At first I was a little bummed. But then, I realized that with those changes . ..I could still be in band! And then I realized that the Wind Symphony was touring. Again. International tour. Again. I thought of it as "Wow, that would be really cool, but I don't know how I can do it and still be on track to graduate . . ." But it just kept creeping back into my thoughts.

And then the clincher for me was one class of Institute. Yeah, surprisingly I got something out of Institute over the summer. That particular day, we discussed Elder Oaks' talk about desire. It was sitting in that room when I realized I had a desire. And I needed to work to achieve that desire.

For me the tour hype isn't so much as traveling to another part of the world. To me, the tour experience is a missionary experience. We share something that is so much a part of who we are, and it literally does invite people to come unto Christ. I remember having those same feelings right before our Asia tour as well. So, I started praying rill hard to have the opportunity to tour again.

But as I learned in Institute, desires or faith without action do no good. So I started practicing. Thanks to good home teachers who inspired me to work on a personal goal for the month, I made a personal goal to practice more often. I even set a goal to not read a pleasure book (one of my favorite summer pasttimes) until I had practiced. I admit, I hadn't practiced much (or hardly at all really) since before my mission. But I started it up again. Scales and etudes have always been tough for me because technicality just isn't my thing, but I started with those anyway. Luckily, I few days after I started practicing, I received the specific audition materials! That got me really working. I'd spend an hour or so a day, just working on those 6 short orchestra excerpts, often times later in the evening. I even scheduled a lesson with Dr. Hinckley who gave me lots of help. I tried to remember to pray every time I started practicing, and that helped my practice sessions a whole lot. I even found time to practice during band camp week. Who knew there was extra time in that week? It felt so good to notice improvement in myself, and I seemed to be making a lot of life connections from practicing to other aspects of life. Meanwhile, I just kept working and praying.

Fast forward to the first day of school. Audition time for pretty much every studio in the School of Music. Clarinet studio auditions are blind auditions, and mine went pretty well, I suppose. I honestly don't remember at all how I played. All I remember is feeling so calm. About everything. I wasn't nervous, I wasn't over-confident, I wasn't in tears, I wasn't angry. I was just calm. It's like that feeling you get in the temple I suppose.

I received the results today. Not only did I make the Wind Symphony, but I placed second. That's the highest I've ever placed in the Wind Symphony since even before my mission!! And I was assigned to play in an orchestra this year, too! (I still have mixed feelings about that one because I'm assigned to play bass clarinet which I've never ever played before in my life).
I think the main feeling I have right now is .. .well, definitely an element of surprise for how well I did, but mostly it's just gratitude. And an even greater knowledge that the Lord knows what He's doing. He knows who needs to be in that touring band, and He made it possible for those people to be in it. I'm not meaning to praise my playing ability by any means when I say that, but I have an even greater testimony now of how the Lord rewards our righteous desires and diligent efforts. I haven't even had our first rehearsal yet, and I'm already super excited for the touring year. =)