This was a date I will always remember; with an experience I will always remember. It was something that I will tell my children and my children’s children.

On Dec. 4, 2012, I got on a plane and flew to Washington D.C. I put on a black dress and pearls later that evening and got on a bus with 25 other high school girls, singers from a choir, Allegro, that I am involved in.

When the bus finally stopped, I got off and walked through security to the White House. I sang my little heart out in a reception room for three hours. My feet killed and my hands were swollen, but I fought through it because I was just told that I was to go to another room, adjacent to the Oval Office through a secret door in the wall.

While there, I was asked to line up in front of a fireplace with my fellow singers and wait for an entrance. An entrance from the most well-known family in my nation. An entrance from the President and the First Lady.

I shook their hands, said hello, and sang for them. Just Allegro, no one else. All very important eyes on us.

Nothing could have taken away from that moment where I knew that I was making history. How many people from northeast Kansas can honestly say they have met the President of the United States by the time they are 16? This is something that I will never be able to do again and I will probably never know anyone who will be able to do this as well. I’m lucky.