Auditions

Emma had an instrument audition this morning, for the West Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts (GSA).  This was on the heels of her audition last Saturday for the WV All State band.  Last week’s audition did not go very well for her.  In fact, as I stood outside of the audition room listening to her play, my heart broke for her.  I have heard her practice those pieces for months; sometimes flawlessly, sometimes with mistakes, but never the way had she played it that day.  She was too nervous and she choked under the pressure.  She walked out of the audition room with such a look of defeat and despair, all I could do was open my arms for her to fall into.  I was so grateful that Derek showed up after her audition, because her mood completely changed upon seeing him. 

Today’s audition went so much better!  She came out of the room smiling, relaxed, and happy (making me an extremely relieved parent).  After she gave a hug to a girl she knew from another school and exchanging wishes of good luck to each other, we headed home.  On the drive home, Emma described today’s audition and went over the questions he asked her.  The judge sounded like a nice guy who helped the kids relax as they performed for him.  When I asked who else from her band was auditioning, she ran through the list of names which brought us to another conversation.  Apparently in school yesterday, upon hearing Emma say she was auditioning for GSA, one of the girls turned away from Emma and said “I don’t know why she’s auditioning for GSA.  She couldn’t even make All State”.

I don’t understand why this person would choose to say something like that, other than she has an extremely over-inflated ego.  If you have ever auditioned for anything, especially anything musical, you only get one shot.  There are no “Oh wait, let me try that again” moments.  You are either on that day, or you are off.  Sometimes you can recover, sometimes you can’t.  Even the most talented musicians have off days.  It happens.  Emma is second alternate for All State and, for as bad as her audition was, she was only two points away from making the orchestra.  I think that says quite a bit about her talent and she should be proud.

I don’t think my child would ever say something like that to another child, either to their face or behind their back.  Given the mom network in place around here, I am almost positive I would have heard from someone if Emma were ever mean.  I hope that I raised my children to be thoughtful, kind, and compassionate (Frank passed his sarcasm on to them).  Emma may not be in Honors and AP classes, and she’s made a couple of bad decisions that she has been apologizing for over a year for, but I’ll take her silly, kind heart any day of the week.  In fact, my 15 year old daughter still holds my hand in public, which to me is priceless and worth way more to me than Honors and AP classes.

Parents, remind your kids to be kind to each other - Life is too short not to be.

Mom rant over, now to prepare for today's swim meet.