My first kind of band

   Remember when I told you i don't have any opportunity to be in a band? Well, that was kind of a lie. Since October 2017 I participate in this kind of a project created by me and my classmates - "Potok". Literally it means "Stream" but the name is a mix of Polish word for "after" and "TOK", the abbreviation of Theory of Knowledge (which we have to study in the IB).

   Every month we visit the local hospice. We come to every single room, where we perform in front of the patients. I play the guitar, my friend Maya plays the ukulele and the rest of us sing. We always have to choose songs that are in Polish and were popular in the 60s-70s, because then everyone can try and sing-along. Sometimes they also tell their stories related to these songs. Once Mrs. Irene told us about the time when she was a volunteer during a holiday trip for disabled children. She had to perform a song on stage with the child she took care of. It happened to be the song we decided to play in her room! Of course she wanted us to sing it once again, and she was really happy. I was also very happy when I found out that she left the hospice two months later, and now she is able to live in her own home again! Isn't that amazing?

   It's not always that happy though. There are always people who say depressing things, or people who always look happy and then you find out that they passed away few months later, or families who visit their relatives in the hospice and have to go out of the room because they start crying when we sing the songs, or people who tell us to go away because they don't want to hear the music. Well, sometimes we decide to come inside anyway and perform for them, and when we finish they tell us to play once again or ask what other songs we know. In balance, it gives us more joy than sorrow.

  I hope we will be able to play there next year too, but maybe not as often. Even though we really enjoy it, it might be exhausting sometimes.