Carnegie hall!

A few months ago my men's choir, Tactus was invited to sing at Carnegie hall. We will be one of only a couple high schools, and to my knowledge the only public high school to be asked to attend the event. The concert is set up by DCINY Distinguished Concerts International New York. The man who was curating the event was using you tube as a means to find groups to come sing, when he stumbled upon our version of "prayer of the children" (which is still on youtube you can look it up as Tactus ((BTW Tactus is not pronounced like cactus but more like TAHctoos))prayer of the children). So he found that he liked us he talked to his supervisor which is the director of Chanticleer who also is a director of one of the colleges down there, i think its UC Berkeley, Which surprise we had gone down there for our Choir tour two years ago and had stopped by him, so he knew we were good. So we got invited and we accepted the invitation. The problem is is that it is going to cost us upwards of $65k  to get our whole choir there, approximately $1700 per student, so we have been fundraising our butts of. What im really trying to say, is that if you're rich and you happen to read my blog, or even if you're not rich but would like to donate any amount, which is tax deductible, please visit our website sendustonyc.org thanks in advance.

my life revised 650 word version

Born in La Grande Oregon on February 4^th 1994 my brother Allan was born atypically. Flash forward 2 years, April 30^th, I am born healthy and loudly crying, my parents were happy for that, in Scottsdale Arizona. Flash forward two more years and a move to Los Angeles California, my sister Mia, also born atypically. What is atypical? My brother and sister were born with a genetic defect, Cri-Du-Chat, which is French for cry of the cat, they cry softly and quietly when young. Cri-Du-Chat also causes mental retardation, and other physical effects. For example my brother cannot gain weight, however he has great gross motor skills. My Sister has always been a chubby blonde haired child, she has terrible gross motor skills, but her fine motor skills are great. Here is snippet of my abnormal life.

            So flash forward to my first memories, I remember of my brother and sister, is of playing in the back yard of my current house, in the dirt. We owned two yellow steel Tonka trucks, and my brother and I would sit in our backyard and play with them, I never even realized he was developmentally delayed, until I was probably six. I knew that I was smarter and bigger than my sister, but I was older, I was also bigger and smarter than my brother, and I didn’t get that he was older than me. This confused me at the start, and I began to wonder why that was, eventually my parents explained the situation to me. Right then and there I loved my brother even more.

 He was always my friend, my loveable goofy brother who has the most contagious smile you have ever seen, though there is no perfect child. One day I remember quite vividly we have air vents in our floor. Allan pulled one out when I was probably ten; he just left it there, upside down. Keeping in mind he has been told not to play with the air vents and leave them out, they have sharp edges. However when I got in the room something entirely different made me mad and I literally was hopping mad I’m sure you get the rest of the picture. That’s my awesome brother for you, in a nutshell, loveable and goofy, sometimes obnoxious.

            My sister is a goof ball too. She would always go in my room, and “borrow” (*cough* steal *cough*) my stuff and play with it, and when I would get home from football or wrestling she would go and hide, of course not what I enjoyed most. A year ago she was diagnosed with Angioimmunoblastic T-cell Lymphoma; this diagnosis is beyond rare for anyone under the age of 20 having only a couple diagnoses ever. She went through her first round of chemo, no longer chubby. She went to Salt Lake City in early November to get a bone marrow transplant from her own cells, anticipated to be there for three months came home in early December on my dad’s birthday, with new dark brown hair. They thought that the cancer was gone, they were wrong. In June they found the cancer was back so they started several new drugs for chemo. Currently my sister is in Salt Lake City with my mother, and they have a month left. This time however the donor of the bone marrow was our sister Jessica age five, so far in early October everything seems good, and she should be home with my mom in a month.

            I realize that I have really told the background of my siblings, and that’s because they are what has made me. My siblings have taught me so many things; patience, responsibility, Trust, understanding, listening, patience, love, respect, kindness, long suffering, and did I mention patience. My siblings are who I am, and I am their protector.

My life story

Feel free to share, ill post two revisions of this, one where it is a maximum of 650 words, and one where i fill out my sisters side of the story in a bit more detail, and add stories from my childhood. thanks for taking the time to read.

Born in La Grande Oregon on February 4^th 1994 my brother Allan was born atypically. Flash forward 2 years, April 30^th, I am born healthy and loudly crying, my parents were happy for that, in Scottsdale Arizona. Flash forward two more years and a move to Los Angeles California, my sister Mia, also born atypically. What is atypical? My brother and sister were born with a genetic defect, Cri-Du-Chat, which is French for cry of the cat, they cry softly and quietly when young. Cri-Du-Chat also causes mental retardation, and other physical effects. For example my brother cannot gain weight, however he has great gross motor skills. My Sister has always been a chubby blonde haired child, she has terrible gross motor skills, but her fine motor skills are great. Here is snippet of my abnormal life.

            So flash forward to my first memories, I remember of my brother and sister, is of playing in the back yard of my current house, in the dirt. We owned two yellow steel Tonka trucks, and my brother and I would sit in our backyard and play with them, I never even realized he was developmentally delayed, until I was probably six. I knew that I was smarter and bigger than my sister, but I was older, I was also bigger and smarter than my brother, and I didn’t get that he was older than me. This confused me at the start, and I began to wonder why that was, eventually my parents explained the situation to me. Right then and there I loved my brother even more.

 He was always my friend, my loveable goofy brother who has the most contagious smile you have ever seen, though there is no perfect child. One day I remember quite vividly we have air vents in our floor. Allan pulled one out when I was probably ten; he just left it there, upside down. Keeping in mind he has been told not to play with the air vents and leave them out, they have sharp edges. However when I got in the room something entirely different made me mad and I literally was hopping mad I’m sure you get the rest of the picture. That’s my awesome brother for you, in a nutshell, loveable and goofy, sometimes obnoxious.

            My sister is a goof ball too. She would always go in my room, and “borrow” (*cough* steal *cough*) my stuff and play with it, and when I would get home from football or wrestling she would go and hide, of course not what I enjoyed most. A year ago she was diagnosed with Angioimmunoblastic T-cell Lymphoma; this diagnosis is beyond rare for anyone under the age of 20 having only a couple diagnoses ever. She went through her first round of chemo, no longer chubby. She went to Salt Lake City in early November to get a bone marrow transplant from her own cells, anticipated to be there for three months came home in early December on my dad’s birthday, with new dark brown hair. They thought that the cancer was gone, they were wrong. In June they found the cancer was back so they started several new drugs for chemo. Currently my sister is in Salt Lake City with my mother, and they have a month left. This time however the donor of the bone marrow was our sister Jessica age five, so far in early October everything seems good, and she should be home with my mom in a month.

            I realize that I have really told the background of my siblings, and that’s because they are what has made me. My siblings have taught me so many things; patience, responsibility, Trust, understanding, listening, patience, love, respect, kindness, long suffering, and did I mention patience. My siblings are who I am, and I am their protector.

Questions

Why does this life of ours just sort of drag on some times. Do you all know what I'm talking about, occasionally we just live life really slowly. For example about a month ago I was still in my summer vacation, my pre senior year summer vacation. And then school started, it was like someone took a giant mat of rubber and wedged it against the conveyor belt of my life, it was kind of insane the difference. I think its mainly because I added about 6 more hours to everyday, and a lot less down time than I previously had. Which means I'm being more productive, but everyone knows its great to have some down time, and i actually really enjoy the amount of downtime that I get. anyways what are some questions you guys have?