Opinion: All State versus Kpop, a personal battle
February 17, 2016
The date we left for All State: February 10.
The day of the EXO concert: also February 10.
All State and my favorite boy band’s concert on the same day. Both are events that may occur only once in high school. If you were forced to choose, what would be the better choice?
All State is a competition hosted by TMEA where different players compete for spots in three different orchestras: strings, philharmonic, and symphony. Students from all over the state compete against one another. It’s a competitive event, and one cannot be guaranteed a chair for future All State competitions just because they made it in a certain year.
On the other hand, EXO is my one and only favorite kpop boy band. Since they spend most of their time in Asia, they don’t visit the U.S. often for concerts. However, it happened thanks to Mymusictaste, an organization that brings bands to their fans all over the world for a concert.
Since I’d never had a chance to see EXO in real life and probably never will in the future, I wanted to go see them and cheer them on, especially since they’ve been dealing with stalker fans, jealous haters, and the loss of three members. But alas, fate played a cruel trick on me. A week later before the tickets were to be sold, I found out that the concert was on the same day that we would leave for All State at 6 a.m.
After this, I considered my options. Should I skip All State, have the time of my life at the concert, and possibly get kicked out of orchestra or should do the right thing and attend All State even if it meant crying for a few months.
My heart told me to follow my dreams and attend the concert, but my brain told me otherwise. I knew that if I skipped All State, I would get in a lot of trouble. After all, a lot of time, money, and effort went into me making All State, and not a lot of people make it in, let alone a freshman.
After much thinking, I decided to go to All State. Having returned and reflected about the whole experience, my brain tells me that I made the right choice, but my heart tells me that I did not.
