A couple months ago, a friend I used to work with, sent me an email telling me about a show at the local high school in March. Her daughter was in the show. This particular show was not a play or a musical, but a singing, dancing Glee like extravaganza. I had heard that the local high school had performances like this and that they were quite good. So good that they had, in recent years, been on Oprah and traveled all over the world to compete. In fact, the hit show Glee, had been somewhat based on the vocal program at John Burroughs High School. They even fashioned the room on Glee after the one at JBHS. Last year the teacher I had at the Parent Education Class I took Georgia to, was the mom of the director of the vocal program there. This how I came into all this information. She really liked to brag about her son, and with good reason. It was after that I found out my friend's daughter, was involved in the program. Being somewhat of a Gleek myself, I was up for checking out a show sometime. So when Marie sent me the information, I bought tickets for Sonya and myself.
I decided to just take Sonya for a few reasons. First and foremost, Glee is something she and I watch together. Now before you freak out about what content my child is exposed to, I usually preview it, or at least know what the episode entails, so it's nothing I can't explain and she shouldn't know about. She did NOT watch the episode about everyone losing or trying to lose their virginity. Obviously, we are not ready for certain conversations. However, it's opened up other conversations for us and she asks me questions when she has them. And to be perfectly honest, most of it goes over her head. She just loves the singing and dancing. Not to mention, I was watching shows like Three's Company when I was her age. I did not get the whole Jack pretending to be gay thing and living with two girls until I was much older. I just thought John Ritter was funny. It didn't really seem to effect how I turned out, although maybe it IS why I was okay living with a boyfriend before marriage. See mom and dad-it was TV's fault! Anyway- Sonya loves Glee, so I thought she would enjoy this show. I wasn't about to take the other two because I knew there was no way they would sit through a show that long and I figured Andy wasn't chomping at the bit to go. Plus Sonya and I needed some bonding time. We don't get enough alone time, which I think is what is contributing to her acting more and more like hormonal eye-rolling teenager toward me. I needed to get her back to a 7 year old little girl.
So, Saturday night we got dressed up and headed out of the house excited to find out just how good this vocal program was. While we were searching for our seats I ran into a friend Andy used to work with. I was surprised to see her and she informed me that they come to this show every year.
"It's AMAZING! You're going to LOVE it!"
She did not exaggerate. For almost three hours we were entertained with songs from every genre. There were dance numbers with all the songs and the costumes. OMG! THE COSTUMES! I can't even tell you how many times those kids changed. And the kids, they WERE amazing. I couldn't get over the voices on kids 14-18 years old. I couldn't believe I was watching a high school production. The amount of time, energy, dedication, talent, and yes money, that went into this production was incredible. I enjoyed every minute of it. Sonya did as well, although she started to fade toward the end. We didn't get out of there until 10:30 and her bedtime is two hours before that, so yeah. She was a wee bit tired. She fought to stay awake though.
During intermission, I found my friend Marie and commented on how beautiful and awesome her daughter was. And she was. That wasn't me being nice, that was me being completely honest. Her daughter is in the highest vocal group, plus the acapella group. She was fantastic and so incredibly pretty. I'll let you know when she becomes famous. Marie asked Sonya if she was enjoying the show and she said yes. Then she asked if she thought she would want to be in it someday. I knew the answer to that one. Sonya is not my performer. She has told us this herself, on more than one occasion. Even though, she was in the school variety show and is all about doing things in front of the camera when I pull it out. Still a huge audience that like freaks her out. She might change, but I doubt it. My money is on Lana or Georgia getting up there. In fact I'm hoping one of them does. Which brings me to one of the most surprising thoughts I'd ever had. As I sat there that night, watching this talented bunch of kids and all the hard work they had done, more than once this thought went through my head:
"I can't wait for my girls to go to high school."
Never saw that one coming! Even though I've always feared the teens years, I see now that there will be much to look forward to.
I decided to just take Sonya for a few reasons. First and foremost, Glee is something she and I watch together. Now before you freak out about what content my child is exposed to, I usually preview it, or at least know what the episode entails, so it's nothing I can't explain and she shouldn't know about. She did NOT watch the episode about everyone losing or trying to lose their virginity. Obviously, we are not ready for certain conversations. However, it's opened up other conversations for us and she asks me questions when she has them. And to be perfectly honest, most of it goes over her head. She just loves the singing and dancing. Not to mention, I was watching shows like Three's Company when I was her age. I did not get the whole Jack pretending to be gay thing and living with two girls until I was much older. I just thought John Ritter was funny. It didn't really seem to effect how I turned out, although maybe it IS why I was okay living with a boyfriend before marriage. See mom and dad-it was TV's fault! Anyway- Sonya loves Glee, so I thought she would enjoy this show. I wasn't about to take the other two because I knew there was no way they would sit through a show that long and I figured Andy wasn't chomping at the bit to go. Plus Sonya and I needed some bonding time. We don't get enough alone time, which I think is what is contributing to her acting more and more like hormonal eye-rolling teenager toward me. I needed to get her back to a 7 year old little girl.
So, Saturday night we got dressed up and headed out of the house excited to find out just how good this vocal program was. While we were searching for our seats I ran into a friend Andy used to work with. I was surprised to see her and she informed me that they come to this show every year.
"It's AMAZING! You're going to LOVE it!"
She did not exaggerate. For almost three hours we were entertained with songs from every genre. There were dance numbers with all the songs and the costumes. OMG! THE COSTUMES! I can't even tell you how many times those kids changed. And the kids, they WERE amazing. I couldn't get over the voices on kids 14-18 years old. I couldn't believe I was watching a high school production. The amount of time, energy, dedication, talent, and yes money, that went into this production was incredible. I enjoyed every minute of it. Sonya did as well, although she started to fade toward the end. We didn't get out of there until 10:30 and her bedtime is two hours before that, so yeah. She was a wee bit tired. She fought to stay awake though.
During intermission, I found my friend Marie and commented on how beautiful and awesome her daughter was. And she was. That wasn't me being nice, that was me being completely honest. Her daughter is in the highest vocal group, plus the acapella group. She was fantastic and so incredibly pretty. I'll let you know when she becomes famous. Marie asked Sonya if she was enjoying the show and she said yes. Then she asked if she thought she would want to be in it someday. I knew the answer to that one. Sonya is not my performer. She has told us this herself, on more than one occasion. Even though, she was in the school variety show and is all about doing things in front of the camera when I pull it out. Still a huge audience that like freaks her out. She might change, but I doubt it. My money is on Lana or Georgia getting up there. In fact I'm hoping one of them does. Which brings me to one of the most surprising thoughts I'd ever had. As I sat there that night, watching this talented bunch of kids and all the hard work they had done, more than once this thought went through my head:
"I can't wait for my girls to go to high school."
Never saw that one coming! Even though I've always feared the teens years, I see now that there will be much to look forward to.
1 comment:
Kris, now you know why we rarely had TV when I was a kid, except during football season. It was the "devil's" contraption. So, yes, TV probably did encourage you to live the lifestyle you did, but I think that you still turned out mostly OK, just a little more liberal than I might have liked... ;-)
Dad
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