When I heard about the Fresh and Smooth production, I did not know what it was. I thought it was something involving yogurt containers. The first thing we did was hear the song we were dancing too. The song is by David Dobbyn and it’s called, 'Welcome home'. We had a few weeks listening to it and we know the lyrics and other stuff. Then came the speakers Phillipa, Frances, Palak, Aymen and Tupou and another character, Marmite (Bentley). Those people were getting better at speaking by the day. Then in week 3, we had the dance. We had about 7 bags that were green and not heavy. We had seven groups. The speakers were in the front of the lines so they were seen. I started out as a normal dancer. We practiced for a long time. However, one day we were sitting on the mat and we were talking about the people who were speaking then Aymen said he couldn't come to the evening shows because we had one in the morning and two at night. So Ms Tuipulotu asked Dayton if he wanted to do it but he couldn't make it so she looked around and asked me. I said yes and after that, I felt nervous. My line was “ Duh i don’t even think they had yogurt containers when the teachers were born, they probably had to make their own yogurt, in the snow, after walking up a hill in bare feet you know how Ms Green goes on and on about how good we have it nowadays compared to when she was a student”. I was prepared for what was ahead. We had practiced nearly everyday in the classroom and everywhere else!. Finally, I heard we had the finale. I was so nervous because I had never spoken in a crowd before except when I spoke Samoan in front of my church. It’s week 6 getting ready for week 7. I was not ready to speak in front of people and plus we just had a full school rehearsal. I spoke in that too! So I was a little bit shy and anxious and also nauseous. Week 7 Tuesday 10:00 and the 6:00 shows ok in the morning. I wasn't stressed or anything because Aymen was speaking yes! No lines at all until 6:00 at night but lets just enjoy the moment I thought while we were watching the classes. My favourite one out of all of them was our one because I am biased. 6:00 at night was the show I was speaking in. When I got here I saw my friends Demetrius and Dayton hanging out so I joined them to calm down and to not think what was going to be ahead. We also played manhunt in the mean while. Then we went to change into our Owairaka shirts. I had a grey one with green writing on them. It said “learn, play, eat, sleep and repeat. Back to the story we were walking to the hall. I was hoping my Mum, Dad, and my Sister Caramia would be happy with my performance on stage that night. We got into the Pohutakawa Room feeling like I'm gonna vomit all over the place, my mouth not ready to speak. Dayton tried to calm me down looking at the wall and listened to Room 14 dance. Then we were called up. The backstage area was buzzing with whispers, me and teacher (Navala) were whispering to each other before the performance. I was so nervous at the start. We got on stage, the golden lights were beaming on my face, the curtains getting pulled by Ms Landel and out of nowhere the music started playing. Afterwards, we were dancing, twirling, and giving the bags to the person at the back. It was awesome. And it just kept getting better. The end.
