Always warm up your voice.

Even if you're just car singing. Because you can tear your vocal chords and it will be heartbreaking.

My friend, Jackie, and I went to visit our friend Emily last Friday. We all love to sing, so you can just imagine how much singing there was. By then time we were on our way home, my voice was tired since I didn't warm up. Jackie told me not to sing for the rest of the night and to drink warm tea with honey.

I got home and drank said tea with honey, and several hours passed before I took my sister to her friend's house. On the way back, I was singing along to Maroon 5 (which is perfectly in my range, and I can hit every note, no trouble) and during a note, I felt something in my throat rip. I started coughing and it felt like something started dripping down my throat. It had me panicked, so I stayed silent and drank more tea with honey when I got home.

It felt better on Saturday, so when I went to rehearsal, I sang like I was supposed to. Bad idea. It started hurting again during the song. After rehearsal, I called my mom, Emily, and Taylor and told them all what happened.

They all said the same thing: warm tea with honey and to stop talking.

I got out my white board and didn't talk for the rest of Saturday night, all on Sunday, and then today I had a doctors appointment.

I told him what happened and he told me to try not to talk, and definitely don't sing for the next several days. And then he referred me to a doctor that specializes in this stuff and would have the tools to go down and take a look at my vocal chords.

I have rehearsal 5 nights this week, and I'm supposed to sing in every one of them. I sent an email to my director about it, but she has yet to reply, so I shall attend each rehearsal with my white board. Starting tonight.

Hopefully whatever I damaged is easily fixable, and I can still sing later on.

The moral of the story? Always warm up your voice.

And to listen to Jackie. Because she is always right and will smack you for not listening to her.