Eat. Sleep. Play.

This is what the schedule consists of each year at the All-State Florida Music Educators’ Association Conference in Tampa. After attending All-State my sophomore year, I was aware of the strict devotion to music that this trip would require, as the honor of being selected through a rigorous audition process comes with a few expectations. However, within the brief slips of time between the hours upon hours of going deeper into Edward Elgar’s “Enigma Variations” and trying to acquire at least six hours of sleep, the unexpected moments which come to define each All-State trip occurred.

The room fiasco

After arriving in Tampa with 19 other strings majors on the evening of Jan. 13, I made the journey up to the top floor of the 27-story hotel with my roommates, strings juniors Sofia Perez and Nozomi Yasuda. After what seemed like a 10-minute long elevator ride, due to the magnitude of people present for this conference, we finally arrived at our room. With our suitcases, backpacks, and instruments in hand, we found comfort in the possibility of having a few moments to settle in before we were expected to attend a concert that evening. We walked into our room, however, to find only one bed. Our little time for “settling in” was instead occupied by having to drag our things back down the elevator to hold in a chaperone’s room before our new room was ready.

Impromptu dance party

After the exhaustion that is two days full of seating auditions and rehearsals, the other strings majors and I looked forward to the All-State tradition of going out to eat at the Thai Thani restaurant on Friday night. Following the many laughs that ensued over dinner, we gathered outside to enjoy the live music being played by some type of 80s rock duo. One of the greatest sights one can ever behold is seeing a group of strings majors attempting to dance. Although I am sure the other people who came to enjoy the music would have much rather preferred not listening to a bunch of high schoolers belt out the words to Bon Jovi’s “Livin on a Prayer” and watching them dance interpretively. I can honestly say that that was one moment that will stay with me throughout the entire All-State trip was dancing in a conga line up and down a flight of stairs.

We lost our roommate

After making our way back to the hotel from the dance party, Perez and I gathered up to our room to discover that Yasuda was not with us. We waited about 10 minutes for her to respond to our text messages or come back to the room to settle in for the night. We decided that it would probably not be a good thing to tell one of the chaperones that our roommate was nowhere to be found. Perez and I decided to embark on a journey to find our friend. After traveling down the elevator and walking through the lobby, we finally found Yasuda on the outside patio of the hotel playing cards with other students on the trip.

While I thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to learn from educators and make music with serious musicians from all across the state, the moments that will stay with me are those brief ones in between the big ones.