Wallitner Weekly 10
Hello everyone!
A lot of productive things happened this past week.
Last week was the last of several major hurdles to overcome before summer break. Yesterday was my fiancee’s last day of school, so she had all sorts of graduation ceremonies to attend. One of which was presenting a talent show video that I had put together for her students.
The admin at her school liked the video so much that they may have me make a “Beginning of the year” video in the fall. Which I may try to spin into also writing a school fight song for them. Because even elementary school kids should have some school pride.
I set up the sound equipment and performed for a high school graduation this week too! They had me wear a black robe and pink hood (apparently the pink means I have a music degree). I didn’t walk when I graduated from CWU (because COVID), but sitting through that graduation made me realize I didn’t miss much (except for the sunburn haha). Everything went really well, but I was not moved by the three hours of generic graduation speeches in these unprecedented times.
I have a lot planned for next week too!
Next week I finish my last batch of virtual ensemble videos. Once I turn those in I will be free to write music and make theory videos without feeling guilty about an impending deadline. I have a lot of ideas for how to teach theory online that I am excited to try out!
I heard a lot of mediocre speeches this week.
This week I attended a high school graduation. I have already mentioned that, and by the header of this section you could probably tell that there were not a lot of good speeches. For reference, this school had 5 valedictorians. They all deserved it. All 4.0 students taking AP classes and going off to fancy schools. But they all spent wayyyy too much time talking about all the things they missed out on whilst attending high school online (in my opinion). After the third or fourth student speech the tone had been set for the graduation. Talk about all the bad stuff, and then say “but if we can do that, life after high school will be easy.” Which isn’t wrong, but it’s not particularly inspiring.
The teachers also fell into this rut, talking about having to learn how to share their screens and teach math online. However, one teacher deviated from this trend. I think he was the leadership teacher. He drew attention to how he taught his classes in countless houses, several countries, and so many other cool places, all from his office downstairs. He drew attention to how students were going on midweek hikes and vacations during the school year and were still able to do their classwork. He drew attention to the fact that even though the students and staff missed out on so much of their “normal lives” they were still able to do so much living. It was widely regarded as the best speech. It drew attention to the light within the darkness, not just the light after.
But this teachers speech pales in comparison to one I heard last weekend.
Last weekend was the Chelan fly in. Which I usually refer to as the Wallitner family reunion, since almost everyone on my dad’s side of the family are pilots. We all go and fly airplanes (not me, I am perfectly fine on the ground) and we camp in Chelan for the weekend. It is a great time for everyone, but especially those who like to fly airplanes.
This year it was very windy, so nobody wanted to fly. There were a lot of people who drove in and some who braved the gusts, but attendance wasn’t very high in comparison to previous years. No, this year pretty much only the Wallitners and close family friends were there. Which amounted to probably 50 people.
At dinner time we had a prime rib feast, and my grandfather said a prayer. He started it with “If you don’t pray then that’s fine, just shut up and listen.” he went on to thank the Lord for the food and the friends, and then he started to get a little choked up. He said something to the effect of, “When you’re my age, I hope you all can stand in front of a room of people like this. Surrounded by family and friends. Family is everything.” which of course led to many of the Wallitner men, including myself, to start tearing up. Several of the men said it was just “super dusty” and “the wind blew dust in their eye”, because none of the Wallitner men would ever cry (Excluding me, I write poetry, I cry). Our family is very important to us. And there were several non-related family members there that day. Such as my dads childhood friend of 50+ years.
It was after that prayer that everyone realized something. The fly in is not about the flying. Thats something I knew all along. I am the guy who doesn’t fly, who goes to hangout with his friends and family in Chelan. That’s what its always been about. The sitting and chatting in a lawn chair that’s not actually very comfortable. You would think that if you take the flying out of the fly in that the weekend would be ruined, but it was one of the best ones yet. Because flying is not the reason we go. We go to be together. To chat about nothing and pretend that it’s the most interesting and important thing in the world.
That’s the difference between the high school graduation speeches and my grandpas prayer. The students focused too much on what they missed out on. The “flying” if you will. But that leadership teacher touched on it, and my grandfather nailed it. The flying was never important. It’s the moments on the ground that matter. The song isn’t important, it’s who you sing it with.
