By Gracie McNeely ’12, Senior Contributer

In the McNeely family, my sister is the academic, my brother is the athletic, and I am “the artsy one.” It all started in sixth grade when Mrs. Jacoby taught (required) sixth grade chorus and we learned “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” In hindsight, it probably sounded awful; however, I enjoyed being a soprano, and that didn’t stop me from continuing my artistic career. I decided to join the musical that year, and ended up being the only sixth grader in Guys & Dolls, surrounded by inspirational high schoolers like Charlotte Alter ‘07 and Ryan Damodaran ‘07. I couldn’t wait to grow up and be a mentor to young kids like myself.

In seventh grade, we learned from Mrs. Depalma-Iozzi, singing songs like “Cat’s Cradle” and “We Are the World” and my focus on choral music began to dwindle. I was more interested in my vibrant social life (I was invited to like eight Bat/Bar/B’Nai Mitzvahs, no big deal). I still enjoyed the 2007 musical, Pippin, and knew I would continue the musical throughout my NA career. Eighth and ninth grade included absolutely no choral training, although I still did participate in Klemperer’s New Clothes and Bye Bye Birdie. The former was a blast! No comment on latter.

Sophomore year, Mr. Lal had officially convinced me to do chorus. How? I don’t remember. All I remember is sitting on the very last seat of the first row sitting next to nobody singing a song I’d never seen or heard before and thinking it was a terrible mistake. Sight reading? Grace, you don’t know the first thing about sight reading…But I didn’t have the heart to drop the class, so I just kept sight reading. I improved with practice, and eventually my other friends started joining chorus.

Junior and senior year, after joining Evening Singers, my friends and I had officially become choral snobs. We would listen to other high school groups and think, Oh man, that bass is GLORIOUS, or Oooh, they’re flat. Do you think they’re flat? Yeah they’re flat. Yeah, we became critical, but we also started to appreciate choral music. When Mr. Lal would announce we would be singing an Eric Whitacre piece, we would jump for joy and rejoice. Why? Because his pieces are challenging and beautiful. One of the things I’ve really learned about choral music is that difficulty is good. When you’re challenged, you’re determined to overcome that challenge and show everyone you can do it.

The second thing that I really learned from the arts department is having fun is essential to get a job done well. Yes, that does sound super cheesy, but here’s an example. In sixth grade, I played a “hot-box singer” in Guys & Dolls. Was it a huge part? Nope, but it was one of the most fun shows I’d ever been in. I was really invested in my part – despite its small size – and after the show my parents said I was absolutely fantastic. They’re my parents, so it had to be true. Six years later I played the Wicked Witch in Wizard of Oz – a bigger part – and it was even better than my hot-box performance. I had fun with voices, facial expressions, and my cast members, and the show was a success. It doesn’t matter what your part is, it matters what you make of it.

So why am I telling you all of this? Why do I ask so many rhetorical questions? I don’t know. Yes, this is an article about the arts department, but it relates to others as well. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the arts, in school, or in sports, just remember: always accept a challenge, and have fun with it. It’s your life, and you should make the best of it.