On March 1st, 2010, we anxiously but excitedly embarked on our way to the Sijhou Township Office to perform at the Sijhou Township Mayor’s Inauguration Ceremony. The exciting part was that our lion dance troupe were recognized enough to elicit a performance invitation at the mayor’s inauguration; the anxious bit was that we had only practiced for four months before this, that we did not have a lot of experience. Fortunately, our headmaster and coach were present to give us a boost and to take away at least half of our anxieties.

  Our bus arrived at the Township Office, we unloaded our lion dance props, and carried them to the venue where we were to perform. Then the headmaster gathered us all together, and gave us a good pre-performance pep talk. He told us that we were first on the program, that every township resident and dignitary attending the ceremony will be watching our performance, and that he hoped we would try our best with our hearts and souls, to bring forth our best lion dance, and to go for it, I believe in you all. It was this last sentence, “I believe in you all,” that gave us the boost of confidence that we needed.

  The ceremony finally started with Mayor Huang standing at the door, our drummer began beating the lion drum, while we were in position awaiting orders from our coach. The coach lighted some gold ceremonial paper, arrayed himself into position, and we started waving our lions. Boom! Went the drum. Boom! Qiang! The noises disguised our anxiety, and seeing smaller lions to our side also performing diligently, we gradually forgot to be nervous at all. After several minutes, Mayor Huang took out a red envelope, we slowly moved the lion head next to his outreached hand, and used the lion’s mouth to accept the red envelope from the mayor. Instantly, firecrackers went off in a racket, and that was the end of our lion dance performance.

  Afterwards, we felt much more relaxed. We watched our lower classmates perform martial arts moves, they were all so forceful and rousing that we couldn’t help but feel that the lion dance troupe of our school will certainly be improving every year.