Community
In Loving Memory of Mr. S, Nathan Sugimoto
Kayla Kawamura
After enduring weekly after school rehearsals with oftentimes brutal but constructive feedback, with a shrug of his shoulders and a slight tilt of his head, Mr. S would famously mutter during a pep talk before a performance, "Who cares if you mess up? It's all for God!" Although Mr. S wanted us to do our very best, he always pointed us to the Lord--the Creator of music. Each Evening of the Arts and Christmas performances were truly dedicated to the Lord. Band was more than just fine-tuning and developing our music skills.
The band room was always filled with laughter and silly antics. Mr. S would also often pour out his Biblical knowledge and share life lessons with us. At times, we felt like children being lovingly lectured by a parent and attentively listened to his monologues. Although Mr. S could be tough on us and incessantly made fun of us, we knew his love language was humor--boy did he show his love frequently. I'll never forget our final performance senior year. Throughout the year, he insisted he wouldn't cry when we graduated. He was proven wrong and cried as he wished us well while giving each of us a lei. Mr. S's hope was for each of us to continue music after high school and to forever love music like he did. Music and worship truly brought joy to Mr. S and we all were incredibly touched to take part in that joy with him. Thank you, Mr. S for enriching my life with music and for helping me use music as a form of worship.
