Day 11 – 20/11/11

Here we go again, oh here we go again.

I'll skip the morning classes, boring and without interest. Today was supposed to be important for us. The lists' presentation, in front of the students, is an important venue to show the members and speak about the program.

I had a few guidelines and ideas about how to keep it interesting, a few jokes along the way. The first critical moment happened at 2pm, right before my afternoon classes. Our Luna informed me that we were expected to present something more than a speech. Something involving several members, showcasing our motivation and creativity.

The presentation was in 4 hours. Challenge accepted. Afternoon classes would have to do without me, today.

I grabbed the first idea that came to my mind : write a small song that we could sing to the others. Fitting the mlp theme, but how could we learn it that fast ?

To simplify things, I chose to use a base I knew everyone would know : winter wrap-up, rewriting the lyrics into a different language and using an election campaign tone. (I'll post the lyrics if someone ask, but I doubt a lot of people understand French around here).

That took about 2 hours. At the mid-afternoon pause, I started to gather the members, and I had to ask them a difficult thing : skip their classes just like me in order to prepare the song. It wasn't difficult for them to accept, but very hard for me to ask.

Our list is meant for fun. It is not important for their future, while their classes might be.

Just before the class ended, the second critical moment. Luna (again), that had been attending his classes, explained that is was a very important class upon which a significant part of our grades would be based.

Funnily enough, it was for the management course. I went to the classroom and met with the teacher. I explained my case and managed to negotiate that I would do the class as homework during the week. Not a solution I liked, because I already have little time left for myself because of (or thanks to) ponIIE, but I didn't really have another choice.

I gathered the list members willing to try their hand at singing and went to an isolated classroom. 2 hours left, and 4 singers for a script needing at least 5. Scootaloo, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and myself. No choice but to work with that.

I won't speak much about the quality of the repetitions. It was better than what I expected, and worse than what I was wishing for. Rarity joined us around past 5pm, and quickly learned a few lines toward the Rarity and Fluttershy duet.

6pm. We aren't ready, but we're out of time. At this point, the only thing I can do is remind everyone that if they laugh, either with or to us, we win. But we have to do it through their reactions, no matter what. That's what they will remember.

I have no idea if it was a failure or a success, in the end. The other lists had Weak things to show, and our song was the most interesting thing to see (seriously, most of the lists had barely more than a mascott or a drawing on the blackboard).

We started singing, and it was horrible. We messed up really bad, having awkward stops, missing lines and everything. During the full thing, everyone in the public was singing other songs as loud as possible, shouting or simply boo-ing us.

And when everything was finished, they all applauded.

I not sure what to think of it. It was an epic afternoon, and I regret little of the choices I made then. I believe the students saw we made something and went through it, and respect that. The conditions were such that no-one was able to hear the lyrics I made, but we agreed to re-record it and broadcast it with our school student-only email system.

Tomorrow, I'll have much less to do for the list, but homework is catching up with me, so that should keep me busy.

For now, rest !

Celestia, out.