Do you remember?
Do you remember waking up to days, weeks, months where all you had to think about was what you loved to do most, in the company of the people you most loved to do it with?
Do you remember sound checks and rehearsals...
Churches upon churches...
More masses than you'd ever attended in a single day?
Do you remember passing the hat for money? And being so thankful for every deutschmark, franc, guilder, peseta, tolar, lira, and much later, euro, that our voices earned for us?
Do you remember the bread broken with strangers who made the meals and cared for us, so that after those meals they were strangers no more?
Do you remember taking too long to load the bus with suitcases that got heavier at each stop...
... and laughing at the most ridiculous things that only we could find funny, together?
Do you remember the applause and the cheers, how they made your heart feel all warm inside no matter how tired you were... and smile so hard you thought your face might split apart?
Do you remember singing our joys, sorrows, triumphs, exhaustion, even our goodbyes?
Do you remember what it was like to win?
And what it was like when we had to start all over again?
That was when I wish someone had told me that in spite of everything I feared, what I loved would continue, grow and flourish.
And though the songs may be new ones...
The faces may have changed...
And although now we can only be on the outside looking in...
It looks and feels as sweet as I remember. And I know they'll always remember it this way, too.
Wiping my eyes after the Glee Club sang for the morning service at the American Church in Paris, I asked Gutsy: "Why did we have to grow up?"
I'm not sure, but I think maybe we leave some things behind to make room, to clear space for new and different things...
... things that make new selves of us, and that assure us every day that becoming an adult is worth it.
And while we leave some things behind, some things, like laughter, music and friendship...
...are simply forever.
"We'll always have Paris," goes the famous line from Casablanca. But I think we'll always have much more than Paris. And for that I will always be grateful.
