Lessons learnt

Dear all,

I had been wanting to write something after the results of the contest was announced, but my laptop crashed on Friday, and I lost all my files on my hard disk. Please pray for me that I at least somehow get my files back.

It was a pity that I couldn't be there to listen to you perform Friday afternoon. However, I did rush over to Da An after my conference ended at 5:45. When I arrived, I saw an expressionless Lu Ming. He simply shook his head, and I knew what he meant.

Mr. Wang called me later that evening, and said that you weren't in your top conditions while on stage. He thinks that you were all too nervous to give your best. "They only demonstrated 60% of what they could do," he lamented, "but it's a lesson learnt, and they will improve and have more confidence when they have better control of their instruments and gain more experience."

Your senior who listened to other schools agreed that Hwa Jiang performed pretty well.

I guess that pretty much sums it up. It would be too naive if we thought that we could "easily" claim victory. Music, though subjective to a certain extent, still has its objective criteria when determining good and bad. I listened to your recording, and agree with Mr. Wang that you could have done better. Pitch and focus are probably the two major issues. You need more practice in order to play with a better pitch and sound; you need to gain more experiences in order to learn how to concentrate and focus.

Even though we weren't able to "break and make history", I think the result still teaches us some valuable lessons. What is important is not whether or not we won. What is important is that we now know what it means to work hard. We also know how it feels to win (two weeks ago) and to lose. We also begin to think how we could improve ourselves, in terms of playing techniques and team spirit. We also discover that no matter what, there are always a group of people on our side, cheering for us, supporting us, and loving us: your parents, your seniors, and your teammates.

CKMB is just a way of life. Winning and losing is part of the game. Happy with tears and crying with a broken heart are also emotions you might taste in the future. That's what makes life so rich and interesting. Grasp every moment and make the most out of it. Don't waste time, especially when you are young and just beginning to embrace life in its entirety.

We have a lot of things to do ahead of us. You need to make sure that you don't sleep in class for the next two weeks. You need to make sure you write your homework and review your studies. You also need to make sure that you pick up your instruments and keep those long tones loud and beautiful even when the exams are coming up. Memorise the music when you are tired of studying. Exercise those legs when you feel tired.

Keep going, and you'll find life even more wonderful.

Good luck.