Ambassador Reunion
- May 18, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: May 19, 2019
I had this girlfriend in college who, for my 22nd birthday, gave me a tremendous gift: Juggling clubs. I knew how to juggle balls, but juggling clubs is completely different; the rhythm is changed, your tosses have to be more precise, there is more potential for hitting bystanders with what was once used in battle as a weapon.
I would spend that summer teaching myself how to juggle clubs.
I still have those clubs and from time to time impress my children with my abilities to juggle, while they impress me with their ability to dodge falling juggling clubs.
The real gift that birthday was not a set of juggling clubs. She knew I didn't know how to juggle clubs - but she knew that I could and I would learn to do it. The real gift was believing in me.
I recently attended a high school reunion of sorts. A group that I was a part of (it is equally true to say Ambassadors was a part of me) was celebrating a 40-year anniversary. Ambassadors is a group and a class at Fenton High School; a by-audition show choir. The best singers, dancers, and performers in the district given an opportunity to sing, dance, and perform.
It was beautiful to see so many of my high school friends at the reunion; the family of Ambassadors who, from 1998 to 1992, I spent more time with than I did with my own family. With each new face entering the old high school cafeteria, a bigger and brighter smile came to my face. It has been 27 years or more since I've seen these faces. We have more wrinkles, a few extra pounds, and some gray hair, but not much else seems to have changed.
For those of you who came to the reunion - thank you! It truly was a great night.
Holly and John Hodgkin (and anyone else who helped organize this evening) - Thank you!
Nathan Stark- Even though I could walk to your house from mine, thanks for driving all the way across the state to be there. I loved seeing you.
Laura Legant- I see you more than any other Ambassador alum but I don't tell you enough how proud I am to be your brother and how much I love you.
Jason Church - We only see each other every few years, but I still consider you one of my oldest friends.
Jen Tippett Herrmann - I've typed several thank yous to you here - some inappropriate, some very serious, but none of them quite hitting the mark for explaining the impact you and your family had on my life back in high school. So, I've erased them all and decided to simply say that it is always great to see you. (And yes we can be friends on Facebook.)
Brad Wright - Thank you for your kind words about my dad. And thank you for what you are doing with the kids in Ambassadors. Thank you!
Holly Henderson, Mike Pierce, Clare Decator, and Wid Rogers - I remember watching you perform in Ambassadors as a kid. You made me want to do it too. Sidenote: One of you had great dimples, and I have to admit I had a 12-year-old crush on you. (Not you, Mike.)
Ben, Carrianne, Heidi, Kaelee, Annette, Patty or Tricia (whatever your name is now), Karl, Jeff, Shari (so glad you decided to come), Jennifer, and everyone else I'm forgetting from the groups I was in - Please know performing with you was one of the great joys of my life. You have had a profound impact on the man I have become and getting to see you again last week made my heart happy!
It was while talking with Lynn Ferguson, the director of the group while I was involved, that I first used the word gift while talking about Ambassadors.
What a wonderful gift I was given to be a part of Ambassadors.
Yes, I can pick out the bass line of any song I here and can harmonize with anyone who can carry a tune in a bucket. But these are not gifts that I unwrap each day:
Confidence is.
Leadership is.
Teamwork is.
Public speaking is.
Understanding an audience and performing for THEM is.
The process of preparation and delivering a polished product is something I unwrap every single day.
Ms. Ferguson was someone who believed in me and my abilities. She invested in me. Pushed me. She gave me those gifts and they are more valuable to me than the two college degrees I've earned (but not yet paid for).
On the radio for 20 years... that never could have happened without these gifts.
Several years in media relations, and now is development/fundraising for a non-profit... none of it happens for me without Ambassadors.
In fact, without Ambassadors, I'd probably be employed by the circus as a juggling clown. Juggling would be my only employable skill without Ambassadors.
Then I started thinking about the gift I was given by all of the Ambassadors in groups before me. How they inspired me to want to perform and showed me that it was something I could do. To think, a group of high schoolers in 1978 - kids I don't think I've ever met - set in motion so many events that would have such an impact on me. Thank you!
Even Ambassadors who have come after me, have gifts for me to unwrap. While watching these talented kids perform last Saturday, I was inspired. It was like unwrapping all those gifts again. Thank you! I wanted to jump up there with them - sing the bass part of Java Jive (Waiter, Waiter, Perculator). I wanted to give them all hugs and a pep talk; tell them how talented they are. How great these moments are. To remember these people. Enjoy them. Appreciate them all as precious gifts to be unwrapped and enjoyed now - not 27 years later.
There is beauty in this shared-experience of Ambassadors. We're family. We're one. Together, we'll be the best of all worlds, just you and me. (see what I did there?)
Thank you all.
Now, it's impossible to go to an Ambassador Reunion show and to have it not turn into a show choir competition... In other words, what year of the Ambassadors was the best?
And the answer will always be, undeniably:
the Gold-medal winning 1992 Ambassadors!*
*1991 was also a really great year, but we did not win a gold medal that year.
OOOhhh... Let the debating begin!
What is the greatest gift you have ever been given?
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