...to quote my high school's chorus mascot, Bill the Cat.

So, my high school choral teacher is retiring. I hardly know what to say about it. Choir was a big part of my life in high school -- learning to appreciate and perform music, sure, but there was more than that, a social aspect. There was this community that formed in and around the choral program. Of course there were cliques in our school, and it seemed to me that a lot of the clubs/activities tended to have a "type" of person. But I think chorus sort of, sort of, overcame that; Meistersingers was pretty diverse (well, for a high school in Montana), but it had more community than a normal class or even some clubs (like Spanish Club). It's easy to attribute that to being a group in performance, but I didn't get that same feeling in chorus at Cal. I think Mr. Haughey really valued that sense of community and helped foster it.

The school district had a teacher strike during my senior year, and there was a lot of bad blood all round. It was particularly inopportune for the Meistersingers, since we were rehearsing for a big performance in New York. Mr. Haughey set up special rehearsals on weekends to try to make up for lost time. I think it showed how much his job meant to him and how much it meant to us. People complained about the make-up school days, but I don't remember anybody complaining about an extra rehearsal.

I really wish I could have put this all more elegantly. But thbbbt.