When I Was At My Best

 Hello fellow Hixson Scholars!  My name is Jessica Overturf and I am the 2011 Hixson Scholar from Warren County.  One important thing about me is that I love music.  In my opinion nobody can go a day without music.  I had been involved with music from those choir classes we took in kindergarten up to my senior year being in Sound Revolution, which is another name for our show choir in school.

     My first year in show choir was my junior year in high school.  I tried out in 8th grade to be in it in high school but I never made it so when I tried out I wasn't really expecting a good outcome.  Of course it was a complete shock to me when I found out I made it but after going to all the rehearsals and practicing my music it really did pay off.  As my junior year in show choir ended I could not wait for my senior year!  I told myself it was going to be the best one yet and I was going to step up during competitions and be a good leader for the underclassmen.

     The year started very well the whole team seemed to click which I was excited about.  As rehearsals went on everyone got better and better.  Even during rehearsals our teacher would bring a few people up to make sure everyone had good facial expressions for a song or the correct arm movements.  One comment I received was that I had great facial expressions.  Now if you're not in show choir you won't know this but it's extremely important to be on point with the music like that.  I took that comment in feeling good about the competition season.  Our first  competition was at DC-G and our 'rivals' Pella AcaPella were there.

     It has always been a goal of ours to beat them and we were going to try our best.  We did our set and it was awesome!  We killed it and we were excited to see how we placed, so along come awards.  Colby and I are up on stage standing in anticipation to see what we placed.  Slowly but surely we get best male vocals, best female vocals, etc., then they say the runner up was Pella AcaPella, we won!!  Norwalk Sound Revolution placed first!  This brought the whole team closer than before and we were ready to do it again the second round, and we did!

     I was so happy with the team and myself.  We pushed ourselves to be our best and the reward was accomplishing our goal!  I want to carry this on to college by setting goals for myself that I can take little steps at and accomplish.  Not all goals are going to be easy.  I know it will be a struggle but with a little help from others and motivation I know that it's possible to surpass those goals.