For the last few weeks, my English and global classes have been working together to read The Canterbury Tales. My global class would read The Knight's Tale, being the longest tale, and then we would work are way around the rest of the tales in English.
We have been reading them for a while, and along the way, you always have your say. The first thing I thought of was how foolish this lesson was. I didn't understand why we were learning about different types of crazy, free-spirited people, and why they were going on a "journey" to Canterbury. It didn't make sense to me. At first, I wasn't enjoying it. I was over thinking the whole concept, and why we were reading it. Then I thought of the saying, "You only get back, what you put into it". I wasn't going to let this one lesson take over my love for my favorite class, so I did exactly what I though of. I put in the most effort I could.
In a few sentences, The Canterbury Tales is a whole book dedicated to a group of twenty-seven TOTALLY different people. They are all going on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, and to pass time, they all decided on telling stories.
Some of the characters, to me, were a little strange. Take The Prioress for example. She is a woman who is described as a modest and quiet character. See doesn't believe in hurting animals, yet she feeds her two beloved dogs, animal flesh. We were told that she sings terribly, and she never, ever let's food drop out of her mouth, so in other words, she was a larger woman. She is somewhat a little shy, and very dainty.
Last week, my English teacher had announced to the class that we had to preform skits for the "Renaissance Fair". As soon as I heard skits, my heart skipped a beat. The Renaissance Fair had been being prepared for several weeks before we were told about the skits. The teachers had other activities planned, along with the skits. The group I was put in already had amazing ideas of what we could do. I told my group I didn't know if I was capable of fulfilling a big role, but I got one any ways. From that point on, I was psyching myself out. (Like I explained in my previous blog). I had to preform as The Prioress, and sing poorly one of my favorite songs, Skyscraper.
Today was a day, I will Never forget. It started off when I first woke up, just like any other day. I woke up to the thought in my mind of people laughing at me, and not with me. I soon told myself I had to let that thought go. I was in with the good, and out with the bad. That was my "motto" all day long. I soon found myself, downstairs eating a doughnut for breakfast. I told my mom that I was hoping I wouldn't see the doughnut again. She laughed, and continued on with her motherly duties, as if I was kidding. At the time I wasn't. Later on in school, we were surprised with the movie, Robin Hood, which is not my "cup of tea" but, I couldn't do anything about it. So, I took that time to reflect every aspect of my performance. I was thinking about my steps, my facial expressions, and how high my notes would have to go to show that I was actually attempting to sing bad. The worst thing that could happen is for people to think I was trying to sing good, and then get made fun of. That thought left my head too.
Around, one o'clock, it was time to take the stage. I was so nervous, my knee caps were shaking, which I would like to add, NEVER happened to me before. When it was our turn to go up and preform, I had an easy task. I had to get the IPod to play a song out of the speakers. Easy. I was holding the speakers in my shaking hands and waited for my cue to press the play button. When I got the signal, I pressed the play button, and very soft music started to play. The speaker, and the IPod were not connected. When I tried to re-connect them, the music stopped and everyone stared at me. I wasn't thinking so, I just started to hum the music loudly. Everyone laughed. The laughter didn't feel like enough, so, I decided to give myself a few nice comments about how awesome I was for thinking on my feet. About two minutes later, I heard the lines from my overly examined script, I had been dreading to hear. "Our next contestant will be The Prioress." Great, that was me. My heart sunk in my stomach so far, it had joined the butterflies. I then took the microphone, along with a deep breath, and began my lines. I stuttered a little bit, and forgot my words, so, I improvised. I made a name for the dog I was holding, McJagger, which was influenced by my favorite song, which was stuck in my head, Moves Like Jagger. And, I even made a few unscripted steps toward the judges. As I began to sing, I closed my eyes, and just let the worst voices come over me. It was a terrible sound, but it was supposed to be bad. So, in that case, it was a good, bad signing. When I was done, I finally opened my eyes to find everyone cheering. They were supposed to be booing, but I guess they were so memorized by my "great" voice, they must have been clapping for an encore.
You know when you try something, and you absolutely love it, so you continue to do it over, and over again? I got that feeling. I could have stepped on another stage and just started singing again, without any worries in the world.
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