On Wednesday the 30th of January, the school celebrated Sri Lanka’s 71st Day of Independence in gym. The celebration included speeches, lighting of the oil lamp, raising the Sri Lankan flag and performances by various groups. The band played the national anthem, so I was there to perform as well. We practiced the anthem twice before, but since we play it every year and is not a very challenging piece, it did not require much practice. We arrived half an hour before the assembly started and played through the piece twice, just so that we all got the feeling for it. Directly after the raising of the flag by the Seth, the SGA president (his blog is here) we played the anthem. The song went well, I only missed one high note, which was fine since it was early in the morning. The acoustics of the gym were quite bad, so I had to play loud to make the sound reach the audience which was a bit tiring.

The band playing a song. Photo credits: GeckoNet

My favorite part of the assembly was a speech given by a leader of the SLU – Sri Lanka Unites, an association that focuses on reconciliation of the people of Sri Lanka after the civil war, especially on the youth cohort of the population. The speech was very powerful as the speaker was really into the subject matter and seemed very motivated, giving me something to think about.

Practicing the anthem in band. Photo credits: Aidan McCoy

The assembly reminded me of how important it is not only for countries to become independent, but especially of the challenges the country faces to become stable after such a big change. It often happens that conflicts arise, so it is a big challenge, in which every citizen plays a part, to overcome this and succeed in creating peace and unity within a country.