Leaning on the Empire State Building

It's always in the most mundane places that we tend to have the greatest experiences. Oddly enough, we can't remember the answers for our finals but we can remember the silliest things in years past. One of the earliest things I can remember quite vividly is taking pictures when I was 4-5 years old with my brother and sister. We each had our own tote bag and it had our pictures on it. We used those tote bags as our backpacks when we went to a care center called Mother's Day Out. This was a year before kindergarten! But could I remember all the things my Old Testament teacher lectured over for the Final today? Definitely not!

One of my favorite mundane experiences with music, isn't exactly in the most mundane place but rather in a place quite famous: The Empire State Building. My choir in 10th grade had the opportunity to go to New York for a competition called the Festival of Gold. Whilst we were in New York we planned to go inside and up the Empire State Building- I mean who wouldn't want to go up a famous monument? I do have to say, it was one of my favorite experiences during the trip.

Now, before I go into what I did, I need to explain the building a bit. You don't go to the very top of the Empire State Building, but rather there is a set floor that you can go to-and if you pay more you can go even higher to a certain floor. Of course, as it is a skyscraper the build is quite tall! So really, how to get up to the designated floor you need to take an elevator, walk around a hallway, take another elevator  then go through another hallway and climb a flight of stairs, then another elevator and so forth until you reach the floor. Now when you get a whole bunch of Choir Guys and Gals in a spot there is bound to be singing! So what did we do? Well as we were climbing up the stairs we started singing the arrangement of Lean on Me that we learned for Pop Show earlier than year. As we climbed the various floors we sang at the top of our lungs our parts! Of course, we weren't the only ones there! Other people joined in as well! All up the flight of stairs we sang and sang. I mean, it's not everyday that you can sing in the Empire State Building!

It's very funny, I always struggle to remember our concert rep that we had that year for that competition, but a memory like that is something that is quick to surface. It makes me wonder, why can I remember this musical experience vividly when I can't remember the actual performance-which was the entire purpose of the trip. Both were enjoyable and both were fun. We always tend to remember the mundane, it just sticks out like a sore thumb. The unnatural, or rather the imperfect. How simple it is to remember a mistake than a success? It kind of serves as a reminder. A reminder of what is important. We learn from our failures, we remember the joy we had in a random mundane event. If we only remember what we need to know, and our success- what is there to learn? Never underestimate the mundane- I mean you remember stuff for a reason you just have to figure out for yourself! So..."Lean on" those memories. They're useful :).