St. Joes

Some friends of mine recently went to a reunion back at my old high school, which is how I found out that my old choir teacher still works there. Mr. Olsen helped me embrace my creative side and got me completely hooked on music. I do what I do because of him.
Today I went back to shake his hand, do a little catching up and possibly hook myself up with some recording opportunities with his choir class. I was completely taken aback by the changes when I got there. The poor old school that I attended is now a state of the art facility. The music department, that had only a handful of second hand equipment, now had a full orchestra, a top of the line recording studio and even its own radio station!
I was almost sad to see that there was no evidence of the life I had in this shool when I found a corner of it that had not been affected by the passage of time at all. My favourite spot in the whole school even. The drama department sat in the deepest and oldest part of the whole school and many decades ago was once a gymnasium. In my first year there it was still a gym and a massive dividing wall seperated it into two sides. One being the drama department and the other an old unused television studio. It was here that I discovered and explored music and escaped to with all of my friends at every possible opportunity. Much time was wasted here. We were never denied access, never disturbed by anyone, and we could get away with anything our twisted little minds could think up.
The following year saw major changes to the sub basement. The old studio was seperated permanently and turned into the music department, where even more memories were made. Besides the sad removal of an old wooden two story stage, perhaps the coolest structure Ive ever seen in a school, the drama room remained exactly the same. The only changes made since then were new posters of recent productions that adorned the old walls.
While looking around I saw something that darn near made my heart stop. Three beautiful paintings of different flowers paired with very well painted chinese characters. I didn't even recognize the paintings until I saw the signature in the very bottom right hand corner. Tomenas signature. I was instantly taken back in time. My life since graduation was completely lost. Had I not known better I would have taken a seat and waited for my friends to show up, trouble hot on their heels.
I almost cried when I left that room. Almost.

Note: Mr. Olsen was no longer part of the music program but I was introduced to the current teacher. He was more than willing to lend me his time, equipment and even his own students to help me out with my own recording projects.