"I carry your heart with me. I am never without it. Anywhere I go, you go, my dear" - e.e Cummings

This actually isn't the official quote by e.e. Cummings. This was a verse in a song that I sang in tenth grade with the all girls show choir, Reflections. Around winter break, our chorus teacher, Mrs. Gregory, told us that she was going to be out of school for a little while because she needed to get surgery. She told us not to worry, she would be back, and we would practice harder than ever for our competitions while she was gone. While she was gone, we had Mrs. Graham. Mrs. Graham had a sort of hard attitude about her; she knew Mrs. Gregory personally and was extremely excited to teach our class, and help us clean up our shows. We worked hard while Mrs. G was gone. My first competition was coming up on Friday, March 5, and I was a nervous wreck. On Monday morning I walked into school, and I saw all of the teachers walking out of the auditorium. I didn't really think anything of it, and went to my first period gym class. As we were sitting on the bleachers (we didn't dress out that day) the announcements came on. The speaker announced that we had lost a special one of our teachers that morning. Her name was Mrs. Gregory.

I literally couldn't believe my ears. I immediately started crying, and turned around to hug Hieu. I sat there hugging Hieu for what seems like hours, thinking that this couldn't be true. Mrs. Gregory had to come back to school! She had to see our show. She had to see me perform. She had to see us place at competition. I looked across the gym at Kaylyn, and ran over and hugged her. We were both in Reflections. At the beginning of our freshman year, Mrs. Gregory had told us something important. "You are my future show choir girls," she said. Mrs. Gregory knew I danced, and the passion that I had for it. She always bragged to Mrs. Jennifer, our choreographer, whenever I had to leave rehearsal for dance class. She was so proud of me for everything I did. Every time we did a writing assignment, she told me she LOVED my hand writing. Whenever I walked down to fourth period, I could smell popcorn because that's what Mrs. G loved to snack on. Nothing was ever going to be the same.

Mrs. Graham chose for us to sing a rendition of this song at our spring concert. Every time we sung it in class, I felt chills. Some people may say this is an exaggeration, but I'm not lying. Every time we sung this I felt something inside of me stir. It's like she was there listening. We executed that song perfectly every time we sung it, and it was the night of the spring concert. I wasn't nervous about our show. I wasn't nervous about the opening song. I was only nervous about "I Carry Your Heart." I'd been waiting to sing this for a crowd, for the crowd to feel the feelings we had toward the song, for a long time. It was finally the night. A few verses into the song, I was crying. Mrs. Gregory wasn't an ordinary teacher. She was someone special. She always gave people her personal advice. She complimented students daily. She told us that she gave a student her lunch every single day, so she could spend her lunch money on her show choir costumes. Mrs. Gregory was special.

A part of Mrs. G will always be with me, just like this song says. If I hadn't gotten those chills every time we sung this song, I don't think this would be true. I think about Mrs. Gregory every single day. If I see a pink sky, she's the first one that comes to my mind. Mrs. Gregory was really an amazing woman, and I wish more people would've gotten to know her amazing ways.