Great River

It has always been the competition that Happiness claims; the one that we always get crowned grand champion at, well at least for the past six years. This year, with how we had been scoring and how much harder the competion was, things were looking different. We hadn't thought, no matter how lucky the place may be, that we would even place in the top three after getting fourth at our last one. But, the magical day somehow caught a hold of us.

Another early morning for the showchoir "gangs" as we stumbled onto the bus around 8ish. Luckily, Happiness didn't have to perform until 5:45 so we had alllllll day to relax and gain energy for our performance. The bus arrived sooner than later, and we all huddled into the big gym area with the rest of the groups.

The day went by quite slowly, as we sat around for an hour or two, walking around aimlessly, being bored. Protege performed around noonish and of course, they were amazing. My friends and I stayed in the auditorium to watch other groups; some who were outstanding... and others who I had to keep from laughing from (not to be mean or anything).

It grew closer and closer, everyone was starting to feel it. I, for one, don't actually get that feeling of "Oh, my god we're gonna perform!! Aghhasognj;adjognak;jfg!!" right when we start getting ready.

No.

It is when we link arms with our partner, and walk in single file to our warm up room. Our supporters, well family, come and cheer us on and the sensations burst inside of me. I officially become pumped.

The performance went by like a blur; they always do. Afterwards, I never know how I feel. Whenever we do kind of bad, I think we do normal and whenever we do completely amazing, I feel like it is still normal. It isn't until I see all the hugs and joyious smiles that I know we did an amazingly wonderful job; I saw that all over after our performance.

Critique was pretty good, as well, actually way better than good. The guy was in love with us! He talked and talked and talked about how wonderful he thought we were, and to top it off, he told us he thought we were in first place for the day round. For how crappy our year had been going, I just wanted to go up to the man and give him a huge hug; I loved everything!

We eventually calmed down and ran to the awards, still in our costumes due to time, and listened for who made finals.

Protege had one the prep division, again, so we hoped we could get up there right along with them. Then came the random drawing of the six finalists for the finals round, and we had to go second! Everyone was freaking out because we had just performed and now, all worn out, we had to go right back up there and give a second, ten times better, show. While getting ready, our director informed us that we were second in the day round... SECOND. Only 16 points behind first which sounds like alot, but is really only a couple of points per judge. No matter the circumstances, we all got ready again and performed what people said was THE best show we had ever done.

Waiting... waiting... waiting and then finally, awards arrived. I was super tired and worn out, but became all hyped as we all held hands and waited for our outcome. Sixth place... fifth place... fourth place... third place... breath held... second place Happiness! We didn't care, it was second place; second place! The group that won had been amazing, and the group that got third was almost exactly like them and we BEAT THEM.

It was a day to remember, and with the results, our group has started to gain more confidence; confidence that we had been lacking for the whole year.

Jefferson is this weekend, and with how we performed at this place, I know we can claim the gold without a doubt.