We just finished the fundraising concert for the school.
The school is in a precarious position. Our lease is ending and we are looking for a place. Our 2nd graduating class is leaving the school soon. The team is close to fully formed, and the founders are transitioning into a new way of working. There’s a lot of uncertainty.
In a strange way, eeverything seems to be unfolding in a strangely coordinated way. The timing of all these events somehow all seems to make sense. I know this way of thinking is probably some form of cognitive bias, but it is reassuring to believe that things could have been a lot worse if these changes happened in a different order.
The fundraising concert came at just the right moment amid the chaos. If the particular timing of the fundraising concert was actually planned, we should consider ourselves master strategists. We didn’t. Everything just fell into place, and I am forever amazed by this coincidence.
The fundraising concert also affirmed one thing—it was a show of force of the strength of the team we have assembled. It was a well-executed event, and the crowd was fully engaged. Many parents approached us afterward to praise the experience. Their level of engagement noticeably increased following the event. Some volunteered their industry knowledge to support our efforts with the new school site, while others connected us with contacts to aid in the location search. I believe this surge in involvement was largely due to the vibe created by the concert.
This concert was actually more like a gala. In addition to performances, we had stalls outside of the hall, selling handicrafts and baked goods. We had time auctions, art silent auctions, and performances from parents. These were all firsts and they came during the busiest month of the year. We managed to execute this because of our team. Yes, nor and I still did quite a bit of heavy lifting, but without the team, we would have worked ourselves to death. I am glad we were able to have this event as evidence of our team’s ability.
I also had regrets, particularly about the parents performance. We performed two oldies – 海闊天空 and 活著Viva. It was wild that these songs happened to be the only pop songs I actually worked on and performed in my youth. Getting to play them again nearly 30 years later blew my mind 🤯. The emotional stakes were high for me. I wanted everything to be perfect, not only because of what the songs meant to me, but because I knew I may never get to perform them again. I didn’t fully realize their significance until after the show, until after some of the slip-ups.
I wish we had practiced the instrumental sections more thoroughly. I wish we had tuned our instruments properly before going on. I wish I would remember to turn on the pickup on my violin. I wish Gap had taken the task more seriously. I wish we would work harder on keeping the right tempo.
Don’t get me wrong, there were many pleasant moments too. I am grateful Jerry turned out to be so resourceful and reliable. He played the drums and helped us find a studio to practice in. Janet added pure magic by adjusting parts of the score with her dizi. The male singers put in real effort and sang the backup vocals well. And, of course, getting to perform with Nor on stage?! 無語ed.
So I am torn. I wished the performance was better. The less than perfect recordings of the performance will likely be what’s left in the universe of this magical moment, this likely once in a life time moment of nor and I performing my own arrangements of two of the favorite pop songs from my teenage years. Oh well. It is what it is.
I am grateful and happy this actually happened, at this stage of our lives, at this moment in our school’s journey. It was magical- so magical that I wish I have done everything I could to manifest its magic to the fullest. But it is okay, because I also know that the flaws and regrets were the lessons I probably needed the most from this particular episode.
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