Personal Narrative: Allstate

Allstate is the pinnacle of a musician 's high school music career, and is the standard to which they are held to for the rest of their musical journey. Whenever someone mentions they were a musician in school, if the other person also was a musician, he will invariably ask, "Did you make Allstate?" As a high school student at a music festival or camp, at least one person is bound to say, "Hey, you 're pretty good! Would I have seen you at Allstate?" To someone who isn 't a musician, it 's difficult to describe what Allstate represents to us. It 's hard to articulate the crushing feeling of rejection that comes with a botched audition, when the numbers don 't add up as high as they should and the boxes are filled with helpful comments that only show how big a screw-up it was. I would know, because I 've tried - and failed - to get into Allstate three years in a row. Even though I am also a vocalist, I 've always auditioned as on my flute. With good reason, the hardest instrument to get in for is violin, but the flute comes in a close second. It 's simply the nature of the instrument: in ensemble music, flutes tend to have runs, or long strings of many notes played in a quick manor, which require advanced players. The more advanced …show more content…
Throughout my life I 've managed to come out close to the top, so I 'm not used to failure, and it 's hard for me to reconcile myself with. But the truth is I 'm just not good enough to compete at that level. Once I understood that, it was easier. I may be a good flute player, but I 'm not a stellar one. And that 's okay, because I 'm human. I am not defined by my ability on the flute. I have other talents, like my voice. This year, my senior year, I made the decision to audition on my voice, because my failures helped me learn that while I can dream the impossible dream, I can also recognize my own talents and love myself for who I am. I am not perfect, but I am