By: Kelsey Cabaraban

This feature story was first published at The Cat Kid Inside as part of the students’ requirements in DEVCOM 26: Introduction to MultiMedia Writing.

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The second night of the Xavier University’s Festival Days started at the heart of its campus with various chorale melodies and Christmas harmonies filling the church. Just a few steps in front of the judges of the Daygon sa Xavier Ateneo contest stood Wella as she conducts her college’s winning performance.

Emmanuelle “Wella” Paayas – a second year nursing student – accepted her role as project head for the daygon performance. No dramatic announcement, no enlightening epiphanies, no spotlight montages. It was more or less a simple assignment of task that she took. While she originally felt little to no pressure about the entire event, she didn’t know the weight of the whole experience she was about to have.

Take one: pre-production jitters.

Everything began smooth-sailing, there were new changes to the daygon requirements such as the inclusion of faculty and staff in the competing colleges the strong front continued on with the support of the faculty and students. Rooms reserved, snacks sent, and schedules set – the juggle between academic demands, duty hours, and late night rehearsals began. As project head, it was natural for Wella to step in and keep the smooth flow.

“Members of the choir would do vocal exercises, while I would buy them snacks. I made it a point that every rehearsal they would have something to eat.” Wella remarked at the task on hand, “I think it’s a matter of boosting their morale and helping them stay motivated to stay in the choir.”

However, working schedules bit by bit turned to a matter of question as the days passed and rehearsal nights continued. “I was overwhelmed because I was not really familiar with the way rehearsals worked,” Wella admitted on the growing problem, “I wasn’t really musically-inclined so I didn’t know what to do but I always tried to find reassurance sa akong friends nga ‘am I doing enough’? [or] ‘should I do something?’”.

(“I wasn’t really musically-inclided so I didn’t know what to do but I always tried to find reassurance from my friends [such as] ‘am I doing enough’ [or] ‘should I do something?’”)

It was hard work in its own essence, and by the second week of preparation, smooth-sailing somewhat turned to course waves. Between practices and academics, it was a matter of finding their harmony. Tension built up from the rehearsals reverberated like a plucked string while attendance turned a low note, as Wella observed. Some people tried to fill in spaces but the solos were especially hard to fill with the demand of schedules. Once again, it was only natural for Wella to step in.

“Whenever they would practice together, they would make me stand in front and then help them coordinate like which direction to go to [or what were] the cues especially.” The project head recounted on their rehearsal routine. “It’s hard to move in sync with the beat especially when they’re singing different notes. It’s not like they’re singing the exact same lyrics at the same time. They’re singing it at different tones, different rhythms.”

Well blended melodies fronting pent up frustrations and whatnot, the rehearsals went on.

Take two: Tense days ahead

The competition was only days away now, and attendance and dedication were still in question. There was still so much to be done in so little time, and like a tensioned string snapped – confrontations broke out, and several words were flung back and forth in the room.

Any overwhelmed and greatly stressed person would probably pick a side of the conflict or contribute to it by keeping quiet. Either way, this was when Wella took a step further: she needed to act as a mediator between performers. “I really tried my best. Like nagfight gyud nako nga i-defend ang mga people nga wala especially that some of them were part of the previous choir and had prior engagements. And I understood the frustrations of [other people].”

(“I really tried my best. I [fought] to defend the people who were absent especially [because] some of them were part of the previous choir and had prior engagement, and I understood the frustrations of [other people].)

Reasons after reasons, Wella tried to convince others to dedicate a little bit of their time for the rehearsals, or at least show up. It took a lot of convincing, but by the end of the day, everything seemed set.

Seemed.

A sudden last minute plot twist was the last thing everyone, most especially Wella, needed at the night before the event – yet one emergency after another and two pull outs in one night was more than enough to send Wella to a frenzy. They were left with little choice but to efficiently solve the problem in the most simplest way:

 “Luckily kay whenever unavailable ang soloist namo, someone would always fill in” Wella mentioned, “because we cannot compromise the entire practice just because absent ang isa ka soloist.”

(“Luckily, whenever [one of our] soloist is unavailable, someone would always fill in because we [could not] compromise the entire practice just because one of them was absent”)

With a deep breath and the powers of being the project head in check, Wella approached one of the people that filled the soloist’s part and delivered the news: “You’re doing their part.”

Take three: D-day

A million thoughts ran through Wella’s head on the day of daygon. However two of which stood out the most – their words of their college Dean Dr Ramona Heidi Palad that with the full support of the College of Nursing, she personally believes them to be the winners, even when the contest was yet to happen, and the results were yet to be calculated. The other of which were the words of their musical director and quoted, “We don’t have to win but we should. We shouldn’t think that we will or we have to win but we have to believe we will because we put in so much effort and we were extremely proud of what we achieved.”

Weeks of rehearsals faded away like the end of a song, and the day of performance clicked like the tap of a beat.

The lights were bright. The songs of other competitors vibrantly echoed through the church walls. Their dean was sitting in the front most row. So many things were happening all at once, but Wella was in focus of what was in front of her – the fruit of their hard worked rehearsals all coming down to a spectacle of a winning performance.

“When I was in front being the conductress, ma feel gyud nako ang pride while seeing them perform. Naa ra ang judges sa akong likod. Wala na ko na hadlok, I just felt proud gyud.” (“When I was in front being the conductress, I could feel the pride while seeing them perform. The judges were behind me. I wasn’t scared. All I could feel was being proud.”) Wella said.

Like another tap of a beat, everything happened in a moment.

It was overwhelming. The issues, the stress, the preparations – everything and everyone was all over the place, and yet it didn’t feel like anything compared to the rush of pride and emotions as they performed in front of Wella along with the crowd.

It was unexpected. It took several blank moments for Wella to realize that the trophy was just a walk to the stage away from her hands, just a few steps away for them to proudly receive.

It was amazing.

“Usually when you hear about being head of something before usually you think that it’s more work to do. But majority of the time I didn’t think of it as work it’s like something I looked forward to”