I’m in a little bit of a mopey mood this week because my mom and sisters will be making the trip to West Texas for Harmony Plains Singing School on Sunday, and I won’t be going with them this year. I recently took off a week and a half for the cruise, so I need to be available to work in the research lab this coming week. I definitely wouldn’t have traded the cruise for Singing School; that wasn’t even an option for me. But there’s somewhat of an incompleteness to my summer, it seems, when I have to miss HP.
I’ve had some of the best times of my life out there in the heat of Cone, TX, which might seem crazy to someone who attends for the first time. Yes, it’s like 100 degrees every day, and children and adults over age ten aren’t allowed to wear shorts due to modesty standards. There are mosquitos, and the warm water for the public showers doesn’t last long. Last year we had an insane frog plague. Classes can get boring at times, and everyone has chore assignments. People sleep in tents, trailers, or on cots in classrooms. The high school/college class NEVER wins the annual volleyball game due to the fact that, at that age, everyone thinks of him or herself as an ultra-athletic star and thus cannot make the mature decision to pull out and let only the best six to eight people play (haha, as you can probably tell, I’m way too competitive about this).
Some people may wonder, ‘Who would even want to go there?!’ but let me just say that all of these negatives don’t even come close to the wonderful things about Singing School. I love, love, love all of the singing, the fellowshipping, the late nights spent trying to come up with challenge songs against the adult class. I love the early morning “Again from calm and sweet repose, I rise to hail the dawn…” wake-up over the speakers as well as the nightly Taps reminder that it’s lights out time. The morning devotions. The chance to lead your favorite hymn in front of the congregation (hey, that only happens for me at Singing School). And yes, even that volleyball game (it’s a love-hate relationship).
I’m not sure when I’ll be able to attend Singing School next because next year and the next I hope to be immersed in graduate school studies somewhere, and after that, who knows (well, the Lord does!). Fortunately and unfortunately, my cuz Kels is in the same boat as me. Fortunately because we can share sad, nostalgic stories about our times at HP and console each other when the week rolls around and neither of us is able to be there. Unfortunately because I really do wish she could go for the whole week, even if I can’t make it. I hear that she does get to go for a couple of nights next week, and maybe for old-time’s sake she’ll wear my name tag and confuse people like we used to do when we were little and no one could remember who was Kaci and who was Kelsi. Just kidding!
Also on a musically-related topic…I’m teaching myself to play the piano! My mom is stellar at it, so she’s available to help when I’m at home practicing. I’m inspired by a man named David, who was on the cruise with us, and as I was watching him play one night, I thought, ‘Man, if he can do it, I can do it.’
