The story behind the performance
The day before I sang this with my choir, I was up all night studying for my AP Chemistry final (bad habits from the past, I know). It was my first time acting on stage, my brain was full of chemistry, and I was exhausted. The skit (not shown) that my dear friend Marc wrote was all about his deeply rooted love for Disney music. My role was to play the guy who purports his hatred of Disney's trivial corniness, only to admit his love of Disney at the offer of a solo - Go The Distance from Hercules. This song embodies my approach to adversity. I simply step back, look at the big picture, and envision the place "where a hero's welcome, would be waiting for me / Where the crowds will cheer, when they see my face / And a voice keeps saying, ‘this is where I'm meant to be’”.
No matter how much I keep the lyrics "And I'll stay on track, no, I won't accept defeat / It's an uphill slope, but I won't lose hope / Till I go the distance, and my journey is complete" in mind, there will always be times in life where I make mistakes. As cliche as it may be, as long as I embrace my vulnerabilities and accept that failure will be part of life - I will also take out the positive lessons from my mistakes. The song before Go the Distance was I'll Make a Man Out of You, in which Marc brilliantly put physical comedy into. Jumping jacks, push-ups, sprinting, and many other physical exercises were hilariously injected into the performance as we prepared each other to face the Huns. The physical exercise and exhaustive amount of chemistry knowledge got to me. One minute and nine seconds into the song, I ran out of breath and completely forgot a verse while thinking of ionic bonds. At first, I freaked out and felt that I had disappointed both the audience and my Prep brothers. Three minutes and twenty-five seconds into the song, I decided to simply embrace my failure and make the best of the rest of the song. I lived out the words I was singing: "I will search the world, I will face its harms / I don't care how far, I can go the distance / Till I find my hero's welcome, waiting in your arms".
In that last minute and five seconds, I sang with a changed mindset and enthralled the audience. I faced the the world’s harms of physical and mental exhaustion. I decided that I could go the distance and ultimately find my hero’s applause waiting in my audience.