Hiding the Teacher’s Tears

 

 When I was a junior high school student, I was a member of the broadcasting club. Our main activities were broadcasting music and stories during lunchtime. Moreover, when our school had events, we prepared and took care of sound facilities.

 Ms. H was a musical teacher in our school, but she was once a professional classical singer. I heard she studied vocal music in Italy.

 One day, Ms. H produced an event. Every student in our school had soprano and alto recorders for music classes. She proposed we all play one tune in the gym at the same time. The tune was one of the most popular at that time—“Silk Road” composed by Kitaro. Ms. H taught how to play the composition in musical class. Sometimes she taught individually. Finally, she made all the students play “Silk Road.”

 At the day of the event, I didn’t take part in the performance because I was a member of the broadcasting club. One of the members had to take care of sound facilities in broadcasting room. That one was me.

 After the performance, someone rushed in the broadcasting room. It was Ms. H. She started to cry. I was surprised. But I hid myself because I thought I should not watch an adult who was crying. I remained hidden until Ms. H stopped crying, and I went out the broadcasting room. I didn’t tell this incident to anyone. At least I understood Ms. H wanted to hide her tears from her students.

 Now, I am the same age as Ms. H at that time. Lately I understood vaguely why she was crying.

 A musical teacher in a local junior high school where I commuted could not be in her position. She studied music in Italy. She might have aspired to be a successful and profitable singer. But if her dream came true, she would not be able to teach the junior high school students individually. She would not be able to listen to the group performance in the gym.

 In those days, there were hundreds of students in our school. That was before the birth rate decline. The masses of students playing “Silk Road” must be a spectacle.

 Ms. H also taught songs to a chorus club in the school. Our school became famous because the chorus club won many contests. Sometimes the chorus club sang songs in Latin.

 Now, I live a life which I didn’t dream of when I was young, but I enjoy my life. Sometimes happy events happen unexpectedly.

 In movies, we always watch dream-come-true stories, but a normal life could also be dramatic.

Picture by mr jun