NATS

The NATS chapter auditions were yesterday. I think they were successful, even though half of the finals weren’t posted until well after they were to have begun. Truthfully, I think we’d have been fine on my original schedule, but Steve had asked me to condense it, and we just weren’t able to tabulate that fast, as I had predicted. Half of my tabulators never showed up, so the teachers pitched in during the afternoon. The room was full of tabulators all afternoon and we still seemed hopelessly behind. But all the double checks left me feeling confident in the quality of our work.

My colleagues have been very supportive. Sometimes I wonder if they are as positive about me behind my back as to my face, not because I think they are two-faced, but because they go much easier on me than I expect anyone to. When I lamented lightheartedly that things were not going like clockwork (as I had become accustomed to at regional), my colleagues were always very quick to point out my strengths and the exceptional challenges that made these auditions different. I was particularly surprised to find that we managed substantially more auditions today in just one day than regional does over two days. That made me feel like we accomplished quite a feat, even if it did take longer than we’d hoped.

Most of all, I am proud of myself for maintaining a level head at all times – even those times when I was sure everyone must’ve thought I was the worst auditions chair ever (which, in reality, probably was not true), I kept my focus. I acknowledged the stress in my internal dialogue, but I kept redirecting my thoughts to the task at hand so it wouldn't overwhelm me. I was able to smile all day. And when people came up to me throughout the day with problem after problem (i.e. they sang in the wrong category, they didn’t meet the repertoire requirements, a judge didn’t show up, finalists didn’t show up, the doors were locked, room conflicts with other CU events, etc.), God granted me the wisdom and quick thinking to come up with solutions that seemed to keep everyone happy. In short, it was an answered prayer. A lot of answered prayer. I also learned a lot today – I have many ideas for improving things next year in order to avoid some of the pitfalls I discovered this year. I had the best training in the world for this job, but it definitely still has a learning curve.