That One Time I Choked While Playing the Organ for Convocation

The first semester I played organ for devotional I was also asked to play the organ for convocation. The reason they asked was because they held the convocation in a stake center- a church building- but they had it in the chapel, which means you're supposed to be super reverent. (I don't know why they picked the chapel.) So to keep people from whooping and hollering they asked for an organist to play quiet hymns or whatever on the organ. And I was the lucky one chosen.

This means that I play prelude, postlude, and I also played while they read names. This means that except for when they read a name, I was the only thing they were hearing. Me. Playing the organ. Nothing else.

I was sorely unaware of this fact when I went in there.

So I panicked a little, but told myself, Ashy, you'll be all right, just stay calm, you're a pro, you've played devo...

Despite pep-talking myself, I realised I was still shaking and nervous. I made one mistake. You're fine, just keep going like it didn't happen, no one probably even noticed it... I made a second mistake, and a third right on the second's heels. Seriously, you'll be fine, just stay calm...

Then I remembered the advice the organ professor gave when I played my devo hymns in masterclass the day before devotional. Just take a deep breath. Just breathe.

So I took a deep breath.

And I choked on my spit.

If you've ever done that, it's largely embarrassing in and of itself. But here I am, sitting in front of an organ, in front of hundreds of people in a silent chapel except for the guy reading a name every thirty seconds and my organ playing, and I choke on my spit. My eyes watered up, I couldn't breathe, I needed to cough but if I did I would have stopped playing and then everyone would have noticed for sure, but I didn't want to just cough all over the organ...

I don't know how badly I messed up. I don't want to know how badly I messed up. I just kept on playing, even though I couldn't breathe, letting myself cough a little when I felt like I could. Finally I regained control of myself, and it got a lot easier to play all of a sudden. I'm not sure if that was because I could finally relax after trying not to cough, or if it was knowing that no matter what mistake I made after point it didn't matter because I'd already messed up really badly anyways. Either way, the rest of it went pretty well after that, in my mind.

Except for the end, where I finished all of my predetermined pieces for the reading of names part and then there were still a dozen people to go through, so when I finished my last piece I was frantically scrambling for my hymnal to get it open and start playing with as little silence as possible between pieces. That was fun.

And to make matters worse, the guy who was doing all the announcing and who was kind of running the whole convocation got up after they finished reading names and said, "And special thanks to our organist for her wonderful job."

I couldn't decide if he was serious or just trying to make me feel better.

Perhaps I didn't completely blow it when I choked. I honestly don't remember- I was kind of trying not to die at the time. Maybe my fingers just magically kept on going. I kind of doubt that, but maybe...

So yeah. That's my story. You can laugh, that's why I posted it. I laugh about it too!

Really quickly, in other news my delphinium died. And my calibrachoa got bugs on it. A friend picked out a bug spray, and so I hope it works. And I think I'm slowly killing my friend's orchid that I'm babysitting.
Oh, and the opera! I'm in the pit for a production of The Mikado. It's SO funny!! There are so many jokes and silly things (from what I can hear under the stage, anyways- and the audience laughed a lot too.) I hope I get to see it on a night that I don't have to be in the pit.
And there's only three weeks left of school. That makes me feel better too.