October 2020: following in her parents’ footsteps, and how just one summer was enough to guide her path.
By Evelyn (Yee) Zimmer, LSM alumna and Advisory Council Member.
Looking back, I lovingly remember that attending Lutheran Summer Music wasn’t ever a discussion point. It was a pre-determined entity, of which I was informed of at a pre-determined time. Perhaps Mom and Dad, who are both alums of the LSM experience, knew I needed it. Knew I needed to meet people like me, people who thought like me, felt music and God like me.
Mom spent the better part of the 2010-2011 school year explaining that LSM was going to be the experience of a lifetime. And I do mean the better part of the year – I was signed up in September (in the ‘early bird’ category) for a camp that began at the end of June. Somewhat unintentionally, I proceeded to spend the better part of the year not recognizing my summer plans, and was relatively absentminded until May. As the school year came to an end, I became alarmingly aware that the summer would be spent in a cornfield, in the middle of ‘nowhere’, with complete strangers. (And, I’d have to figure out how to do my own laundry!!)
My name is Evelyn (Yee) Zimmer, and I was an LSM student in 2011 at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. I played bassoon in band and in a small ensemble, and sang in the Chapel Choir.
It was the most eye-opening and life changing of summers.
When I arrived, it was like stepping into another country. My family had traveled a great deal, so I already recognized the rolling, unending cornfields. Yet seeing the campus, the students streaming about, moving in their belongings … it was thrilling, terrifying, and quite foreign. Suddenly, I was surrounded by 150 other students who not only wanted to be as engrossed in the music as I did, but wanted so much to be growing in the Word of God. I was astounded. They were all like me - people who loved music, God, and all of the emotional connections that that kind of foundation provides. It felt like home almost instantaneously. By the end of that extraordinary month, there was immense definition and clarity on how I wanted my life to be.
I did not return to LSM the following summer, or any summer after that. Several people since then have asked me that, after such a wonderful experience, why did I not return? I never returned because that month had enveloped everything I needed to receive. I did not want to go back and have a different memory created. The memories and experience of that summer were exactly what I had needed, and all that I desired.
At the beginning of this year, I joined the LSM Advisory Counsel in hopes of helping students find their social and emotional groundings as I did. My experience at LSM distinctly shaped the decisions I made about college and where I wanted to be in the formative years of my young adult life. I wish that for other students – a chance to see how their lives could be different, what kinds of people they might meet, and how their relationship with God would be nurtured. That summer brought together two of the most intimate parts of my being – a sure love of beautiful music, and a steadfast devotion to our unfailing God. I hope and pray for that unparalleled experience to grace many, many future students. As for my single-summer, life changing experience, I am forever grateful.
Evelyn (Yee) Zimmer
LSM 2011
Advisory Council Member