This week was a pretty stressful week as Happiness had 4 practices combining for 20.5 hrs. You work tirelessly to clean the show and give constant effort throughout practice. I would like to run through my particular week to show teachers and other students how much work Happiness really does.
Day1, 2, and 3: I wake up at 5 a.m. to go to swimming practice. I precede to my zero hour A.P. Chemistry class and try an soak in all the information. We are notified about our six page lab reports being due Wednesday. Class ends and I go to United States History. This class talks for 30 minutes about stories and personal experiences then spends the last 20 minutes on actual history. Such a waste. I proceed through the monotony of my day and get out of school at 2:45. I proceed to the auditorium and change into shorts. Those will no closed toed shoes, a happiness shirt, and shorts on will be yelled at by Damon. Damon is our wonderful choreographer. He is brilliant when it comes to designing moves and putting a show together. His down side? Mean and off topic. He expects total silence because talking wastes time. We start practice at 3 p.m. From 3-6, we worked on the second song. He told his own little stories for 30 minutes out of the 3 hours. It is a huge time waster that slows practice to a screeching halt. The changes we make are so small. Move your hand like this; don’t bob your head; don’t flex here; make sure your head is always out. It is necessary but extremely boring. Worst yet, you are sweating so much because you have to give 100 percent effort the whole time. Every move. If you don’t, he stops and calls you out on it. When 6p.m. rolls around, he breaks for 30 minutes to eat. The food is caloric and heavy. When we return at 6:30, nobody wants to dance. We are exhausted and full. Muscles ache as we put good effort into the songs. By the time 9 p.m. comes along, most of us our drenched in sweat and just want to sleep. He gives us a lecture and lets us go home. Most of us have two hours of homework to do. About 60 percent of Happiness doesn’t do it and just take the zero. I decided to do my homework. I finish around 11 p.m. I am in bed by 11:30. The next morning I am up at 5 a.m. to do the whole thing all over again.
Day 4: The same process except the end. He brings us together after three days and tells us we are cocky and we suck. He sees greatness in us but we aren’t reaching for it. He says our effort is bad and we are banking off of last year. I am in a little shock. We worked so hard and we leave with a bitter taste in our mouth. We all want him gone. Half of us are sick because we are sleep deprived and overworked. This is only the beginning I am told. The week after Christmas is much worse. Lovely.
Day 5: I didn’t get any of my homework done and I take two tests I am not ready for. I have had no study time because of Happiness. I proceed to sleep in half my classes as I too, am getting sick. The weekend is full of activities, makeup work, and swimming. I try and recoup as I head in another week full of swimming and Happiness.
We aren’t some little dance group. We spend hundreds of hours working in sweat, trying to perfect the art of performing. Singing, dancing and acting. We have to connect to our show so the audience can connect to it. We overcome the negatives and push forward. Happiness is more than a show choir, it’s a varsity sport.
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