The Abingdonian 2019

11 www.abingdon.org.uk Michaelmas Term session. Of course, a lot of credit is due to the School House boys for putting up with daily emails sent regarding venue changes for each group and to the tutors for keeping people on task as the temptation to speak has proven very prominent in each year of rehearsals. After rigorous sessions and big uncertainties over how the parts would sound when merged together, everything started to come together during the session two days before the actual performance. Chatter questioning our song choice and how we were going to “butcher” another renowned song turned into discussion of praise coming from houses waiting to enter the Amey Theatre stage and foyer, who had overheard our rehearsal. Of course, we had minor issues and slip-ups to fix in the following sessions which made us quite nervous about the performance, such as some sections not projecting loudly enough. However they were all quickly corrected as we were all attentive and were more importantly proud and excited to show the school what we had made together as a house. On the day, we were the second to perform, following O’Doherty’s House, the winners of last year’s competition. Performing second wasn’t exactly an advantageous position, as potentially our piece might be overshadowed by a performance only because it was performed more recently. With doubt over my conducting abilities, I started to panic, but what happened next is something that I will remember forever. Everyone in my team, as well as many people from my year group walked over to encourage me, saying I should just enjoy the moment, and it would pass before I knew it. Of course the nerves were still there until the moment I walked onto the stage, but the encouragement of my peers, as well as those who applauded in encouragement in the audience as I walked onto the conductor’s platform, reminded me of the beauty of this competition, where it is not about the individual, but instead it is an appreciation of everyone in the school across all year groups. The performance was over in a flash, and we were treated with silence. However, the next moment the outpouring of applause and smiles and thumbs up from members of my team filled me with joy as we had not failed our week’s preparation, and “School House” chants erupted on stage. I would like to point out that the quality of the performances given by other houses were beyond my expectations, and it is definitely true that the quality of performance is improving year by year. Most notably, I would say that Crescent House’s Mr. Blue Sky and Austin House’s Don’t Stop Believing had definitely got me really nervous about our chances of winning. However, as the adjudicator used the words “exciting, interesting, and strong” to describe our performance, and after the announcement of Crescent House as second place, followed by even louder “School House” chants, I felt a weirdly familiar sensation within me. It was not the joy of winning the competition, but the sense of belonging and pride in being involved in something that means so much to that many people. Although we did not have African bongos or a charismatic front man standing in front of the school bravely reciting a passage in an African dialect, I believe that our efforts and enthusiasm during and outside of our sessions resulting in a banger of a performance truly emulates the spirit of house singing - to bring everyone in the house together, and be ambitious together in hope for success. All that is left to say is that I am sure that after this year School House has established itself once again as the house to look out for, and I am sure we will live up to these expectations in the years to come. Finally, I would like to thank my team, Alvin Tam, Andreas Lo, Graham Suttie, Ilya Korzinkin, Hamish McAlpine, Jacob de Jongh, Alec de Jongh, Oliver Lee, and Dennis Wei, as well as those in the ensemble, and finally everyone in School House. Thank you for your efforts, you’ve all done yourselves proud! Marcus Kam, 7KJY