First impressions are THE MOST important key to relations with your peers. A good first impression goes a little something like this. It is not at all awkward, both people are completely themselves, and you usually walk away hoping to have another conversation. When I met Mr. Warren, 2017-2018 Riverside Choir Director, everything went the absolute opposite way than what it should have.
I met Mr. Warren at 2017s open house. As many of you know I have a huge passion for music. I heard that we had gotten a new choir director so, of course, I made it a priority to meet him. I walked into the choir room and there he was, chatting with parents of students he will soon teach. From first sight, in all honesty, I thought to myself, "This dude is straight out of college and probably doesn't know what he's doing!" I was really determined to talk to him at this point. Side note, I am famous for one thing and one thing only... making situations VERY awkward. Sure enough, I revealed my awkwardness to Mr. Warren right of the bat. I remember specifically saying, "Where did you come from?" Now, c'mon. If anyone asked you that, obviously it would be weird the for rest of the conversation. I have no idea what I was thinking. Anyways, we shared a laugh and he answered the question. The conversation wasn't really going anywhere. I desperately wanted that awkwardness to end so I let the conversation fizzle out. When meeting him, I was really hoping to get "immediate approval" from him for some reason, if that makes sense.
On the first day of school that year, Mr. Warren took off like a rocket, immediately starting off teaching us warm-ups and vocalizing us. His attitude towards his new job was really amazing to me, inspiring if you will. My next encounter with Mr. Warren went SO much better than the first time and I had a new perspective of him than I had had before. I had the whole choir with me and we all got to know Mr. Warren together. Skipping ahead to him picking out songs for us to perform at our Spring Concert... there's no other way to say it other than Mr. Warren was and probably still is BOLD. He chose 3 songs; Make that change by Michael Jackson, Somebody to Love by Queen arranged by Glee, and And So It Goes by Billy Jole. All of these songs are highly challenging as is and would be a battle for us because of our division/ rank because of our school size. We had never sung a piece with this level of difficulty. Mr. Warren chose to do these songs anyway. He believed in us so much and it helped us all grow closer as a choir family.
Sadly, Mr. Warren's career at Riverside High School ended too soon. He left us within one year of being at Riverside High School. Meeting Mr. Warren and having him as a choir director was such a blessing to my life. A good way to describe him is just a normal teacher. One thing was different about him, though. That one thing is the passion he had for his work and his students. He wanted all of us to succeed and succeed is what we did. The 3 songs that I labeled "bold," we performed with so much confidence and we all felt good about them. From meeting Mr. Warren to watching him leave Riverside High School, so many memories were made, stories were told (hints to the title), and relations were built. He is and will always be a role model to me for his passion for music and dedication to his students and his job
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