Junior Amanda Anzaldua breathes in for a quick gasp before singing the next long note while moving her dark brown hair out of her face. She begins to sing her note perfectly as the song continues. Her small caramel fingers hold her black binder in a tight grasp while she looks ahead in her sheet music to see what the next note will be.

After joining choir, Anzaldua quickly learned to love and enjoy the atmosphere.

“I’ve been in choir for about eight years now,” Anzaldua said. “It all started when my friends got me into choir [and] now every time I [turn] in my schedule [for the next year] I have to have choir in it.”

It wasn’t until Anzaldua’s sophomore year when she found the courage to audition for the varsity Main Street Choir. Anzaldua felt at ease on her first day of varsity choir as everyone welcomed her with open arms.

“You walk in and see all these friendly faces [and] we all joke around sometimes,” Anzaldua said. “If they see you sad, they’ll get really concerned and ask what wrong [so] it’s kind of like they’re always there for you.”

One expectation of Main Street Choir is that each student grows and improves on his or her technique each year. With the help of director Steven DeCrow and his persistence to want perfection, Anzaldua works hard to understand every note in the sheet music when she receives it.

With this being her second year on varsity, she continues to try her best each and every day. Even when she may not be able to reach a certain note, she goes home and practices until she can perfect it.

“She’s always been very sweet and quiet,” DeCrow said. “However, her musical skills have increased dramatically. She always works hard and strives for perfection.”

Faced with an enormous amount of stress from her classes, choir gives her a sense of relaxation. No matter how upset or mad she is, when she steps into the choir room she is much happier than before.

“To me, choir means a sense of freedom,” Anzaldua said. “You go into choir, it’s like you get this whole different atmosphere [of] fun [and] stress relief.”

Although her friends from elementary school didn’t choose to stay in choir, she didn’t let them determine her own future. Anzaldua decided to stay in choir and was able to met new people whom would soon become great friends.

“We’ve been close friends since early eighth grade and she’s still an amazing person to be around,” junior Lorenzo Martinez said.

Anzaldua will always be encouraged by her choir family to pursue a career in music, but she feels as if she has their support no matter what path she chooses.

“I could go off and do something with my voice in my future because music is the one thing that inspires me [to choose] whichever path I would like to take,” Anzaldua said.