It was just a normal day in the school. Nobody's birthday, no one
leaving. I was waiting for the bus when it happened.
"Hey! Are you going?" Noor, my BFF, asked.
Going where? There's a field trip? Or a party? Am I invited? Noor
must've seen the look of confusion in my face.
She sighed.
"Haven't you heard? The Blue Jays invited the entire junior
classes to sing the national anthems for the teams playing," Then she got
even more excited. "We're going to be on the field! And on the jumbo
tron!"
Does that mean we will be seen by thousands of people?
"Cool! Where's the permission form?! I
just must go!" I asked hoping, by any chance, she got me one.
She handed me one.
Yes! Thank you Noor! I thought happily.
"I got this for you when you missed the meeting. I knew you
would want to go. You owe me now!"
Whatever. This will be totally EPIC! Just like last year.
Last year, only the 5/6 French immersions sang at the game and the
rest of us only watched with envy. We all wanted to be seen too! They got to
stand on the field and be on the jumbo tron. Luckily this year, we get to be
there as well! Watching was cool, seeing people you know on the field, however,
this year would be amazing to do it like them!
This task sounded easy, singing only 2 songs on the field. Yes
that's perfect-except that we're singing the national anthem. The national
anthem is a very solemn and serious matter. We are representing both countries!
"This will be easy peasy for me," one student bragged.
We'll see about that... Maybe the singing will be
easy, but the meaning from the heart won't be. You have to mean what you’re
saying.
A meeting was called. Everyone wondered why exactly we would need
to meet for such an "easy" event. We all sang one round with ease.
"This is our first meeting," muttered Noor. "Soon
this will be our last."
I rolled my eyes at her sarcasm. Hold it. The music teacher is
about to say something. Everyone was shocked and surprised when our music
teacher's face wrinkled in disgust when we all were expecting praise and shock
at how 'beautiful' our singing was.
"What is this? You're singing it like as if it were a
joke!" Her brows furrowed as she continued. "Stand up straight. This
is the national anthem. It's no joke!"
Every one grunted as they stood straight and gained posture. Our
music teacher was still furious.
"Get serious about this. We're not just representing the
countries, but our school too! You think anyone would want to send their kids
here, seeing how messy we are?"
Few of the kids managed to mutter a "no". The rest, with
their heads hung low, staring at their shoes, only shuffled their feet. This
was not as easy as they think.
"Get together and try again," our music teacher, Ms.
Tai, said, still very disappointed.
The next round was worse. Everyone was singing as if they wanted
to get it over with. A few of us didn't even sing at all! If this were the real
thing on the field, the whole stadium would be buzzing with alarm as they see
us muttering a few words. I mean-national anthems are supposed to be powerful,
stating how successful that country is. Our singing sounded as if at any
second, Canada or America will fall to the hands of another country. The words
won't match our dull tone. 'True patriot love...' Our singing isn't
very patriotic.
"Stop, stop!" Our music teacher yelled waving her hands
frantically, trying to stop this horrible noise. "You are all singing as
if you don't care for these two countries," Pause...
She's doing that teacher thing, waiting to let her words
sink in. Well hooray, because it's working. Everyone was feeling
uncomfortable.
"We're Canadian. We should be proud of that."
"Yeah, proud of what?" someone muttered.
Unfortunately, our music teacher overheard.
"Excuse me?" She glared. "Of course we should be
proud! Canadians invented baseball! You all should be proud! Besides, you all live in Canada. Their providing you a home. And you're sill not proud? Or at least happy about it? Next
week, I better hear some decent singing or at least some
decent music," she said, sternly, as her eyes bore into ours.
"Yes, Ms.Tai..." A couple of us mumbled.
As we were exiting, (finally after what seemed like
eternity) Noor trotted up to me.
"Wow, she's mean," she said.
"She's not mean, she's evil!" I retorted.
"Seriously! We are just kids!"
Noor sighed.
"Well, hope we'll have better luck next time," Then she
muttered under her breath, "If we are even alive by then."
So that's how the day ended, with everyone worrying about 'next
time'
Now that I'm home, I should be practicing. Except, what
should I practice? Singing the Canadian anthem with pride and the American
anthem with disgust? However, I'm from the United States. It would be wrong to
show disgust to them. So I should sing both of them with pride? Well that
wasn't right either. 'No man can serve two masters.' Oh, who cares? I'll just
sing both with pride. After I practiced both, one after the other, with pride,
it still didn't sound right. Why does it have to be so difficult to
be American and Canadian? Now that both the anthems are sung with
pride, it feels as if I'm not proud for either of them. It's like gold. Since
gold is rare, having one brick would be valuable. On the other hand, if gold were
common, a brick or even 10 wouldn't be valuable.
"What am I going to do?" I moaned.
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