A revelation

Many of you know I'm in Las Vegas this week for the Sweet Adelines International Competition.  For those that don't know, it is essentially the olympics of our organization.  It takes a tremendous amount of work and dedication to get here and only 34 choruses out of the 600 or so worldwide get the opportunity.  When I sang with BGC, we were in the "big show" and placed among the top ten in the world.  Such an incredible honor.  SPC is in a different place.  And we knew that coming in.  We're one of the smaller choruses in the contest, many of our members were unable to come and we have less international experience than most of the choruses. Still, we are very excited to be here and to have the incredible opportunity of performing on the international stage.

Yesterday was a very exciting day.  We had a wonderful rehearsal together in the morning and the excitement and energy were palatable as we were going through the pattern.  It felt great on the stage.  The performance wasn't perfect (but even the best chorus isn't) and when we left the stage we all felt that we left it all out there and did exactly what we were prepared to do.  Our friends, family and fans enjoyed our performance and not a single person seemed to be disappointed.

Then we got our results.  We haven't seen the judge's comments, but we know our scores from each category.  A category that is usually our strongest was one of our weakest.  There are a lot of reasons and we'll know more details when we read the comments.  But it is still heartbreaking to have so many hopes and a vision of where you'll place and then have that totally crushed.

I was one of the few people in that moment trying to put a positive spin on our scores and experience.      And I was able to make that comparison thanks to my running journey.

The picture above shows two moments of pure happiness and joy.  I was in the moment and so proud of what I was doing.  Then came disappointment.  In the race picture I was a little disappointed with my finish time and pace.  I had been training for months and I didn't reach my goals.  There were multiple times where the sag wagon was dangerously close.  But the important thing was that I crossed that finish line.  How many people have never started or even dreamed of doing a 10k?  I was doing something a lot of others never will try or have the opportunity to do, and I finished.  Along the course of that race, I learned lessons on how I can improve for my next one.  I'm using that experience to build and grow.

That is exactly how I am choosing to look at yesterday's contest.  Did we have the place and results we wanted?  Certainly not, but we were there and gave it our all.  We prepared and trained just like I do for my races.  And we were totally happy in that moment.  Actually, most of us were happy with our performance until the results were announced.  We can choose to dwell on a less than stellar score and placement or we can channel that energy into more fruitful pursuits.  We can think about how some choruses will likely never have the opportunity we have and work just as hard week after week as we do.  We were at the bottom of the pack, but being at the bottom of this pack still means we are one of the 30 best choruses in the world.

This contest, much like my first 10k were growth opportunities that I am going to take advantage of.  I choose to find the positives and use them to drive me forward towards personal growth.  And my running/fitness journey and friends and motivators are the ones who helped me make this switch in perspective, so for that I will forever be grateful.