hymn sing

If this is what you imagine when you hear the words "hymn sing" then you'd be wrong.
"Hymn sing" at St. Andrew's Upper School is anything but prim and proper. In fact, my advisory proved today that it could really be quite the opposite. They were loud. Borderline boisterous. And at one point I had to stifle all the fun and tell them that they could not do the wave during a rather quiet hymn. (I did tell them that perhaps they could try it at a hymn sing in the future.) The result of their enthusiasm - well, there were many results...
We all had a blast during chapel today. Singing loudly without a care in the world about whether or not we were on the right key. Showing the freshmen how "it's done" at a St. Andrew's hymn sing. Bonding in a very funny way.
I actually got called out in chapel today - Mr. Dickson said, "Are they yours?" pointing to my advisees wondering if they belonged to me and I said, "Only some of us can be so lucky!" And then he stuck the microphone in my face during one of the hymns. Thankfully everyone else was yelling so loudly I couldn't be heard.
Somewhere between dance moves to "Go Tell It on a Mountain" and actually nice singing of "Seek Ye First", Mr. Dickson fell in love with my advisory. And even requested that we sit in the front row all year. I'm not sure anyone really wants that except for at hymn sing time, but I do have to confess that this advisory is making their way to the front row of my world.
I'm always worried when I say good-bye to one advisory if I'll be able to love another. And then after a few weeks, I'm already worried that I won't want to tell the current group good-bye. Lucky me to be in a job where this happens year after year and where hymn sing happens week after week. If you've never experienced anything like it (and, trust me, most of you haven't!), imagine 300+ teenagers belting out hymns from a hymnal as if they are top 40 hits on the radio. It's astonishing. It's frivolous fun. It makes me smile. And it's part of what makes St. Andrew's the place that it is...and I'd sing to that.