Nick : Class of 2019

It is impossible to turn members of the Class of 2019 away. Especially this fellow. Nick has been one of my staunchist (is that a word?) supporters ever since attending the middle school band camp I recruited him to when he was done with 6th grade. Honestly, I think I gained a fan in him because I conducted a piece that I allowed the french horn players to go "bell up", meaning blast full throttle (with good quality tone of course) and angle their bells up for it to be even louder. Nothing more majestic to me than that. I attended a conference last spring where the keynote speaker talked about just how important the Band is to humanity and one of his references was Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. Do you really think the walls would've come tumbling down if they'd been playing violins? 

But I digress. I've now photographed the whole group that Nick started hanging out with in the band room before school every morning (Jaden, Ana, Allie, Gina) and I'm so saddened that my time with these young lives is nearing an end! 

Check out Nick's socks! This image below is his: "I'm ready for a gig" image: 

On the way to our last location, we paused here to give him a wide shot of downtown Des Moines:

While I'm a little jealous that the band department now has to share Nick because he's decided to not only join choir and (gasp!) auditioned into show choir, I'm super excited that Mr. Krupke gets to experience Nick's leadership prowess. Nick can gather/organize his peers unlike few before him. His Pied Piper-ness rivals Mr. Krupke's in all honesty and I'm so glad the choir department gets a dose of what we've now dubbed the Serck Smirk:

Outside of music and leadership roles in school, Nick has competed in 4-wheeling since he was 6 years old. His mom, Ricci, brought the license plate from his 4-wheeler and this reminded me of why I love senior sessions: I get to learn about new hobbies and activities every. single. time! 

Nick, 

Oh how I will miss seeing your smiling, confidence-inducing grin during Band Camp rehearsals! Knowing I had at least one enthusiastic supporter in the ensemble gave me energy and empowerment to keep going on more occasions than I can count. Come for one last hurrah next summer and I promise, I'll give you a "bells up" opportunity, even if the music doesn't officially call for it. And always, always, with quality tone. ;) You are going to take the world by storm and I can't wait to hear the wide-reach of your influence. 

You are awesome, 

Mrs. Krupke

PS You can view more of our time together HERE.