The Talent Show

Gianna came home a few months ago telling me that an 8th grader came to their classroom and told them about Talent Show Tryouts.  She was ecstatic and said that she bravely raised her hand to receive a registration form. This was BIG news.

Most people assume that because Gianna is so extroverted, that she loves being in the spotlight.  This is not true.  Gianna has always been terrified of being called up in front of people and for them to be "staring" at her. This happened when she was two years old and attending Story Time at the Library and since then - even refusing to go to Children's Church because people would be watching her walk down the aisle.  She once said she didn't think she could ever get married since everyone always looks at the bride.

So when she said she'd consider trying out for the talent show, I was floored.  I wanted to encourage conquering this lifelong fear early on.  I explained to her that most of the gifts God gave her were going to have to be in front of people, so we had better get comfortable with that daunting task. 

At first she told me she was going to dance with her best friend from her class.  I gently explained to her that dancing wasn't at the top of the list of things she was the very best at. Plus scheduling practices would be tricky.  I nudged her in the direction of singing or acting and she seemed pretty open to it.

The next day, my friend called asking if Gianna was trying out for the talent show with anyone.  Her daughter and Gianna were together in school the last two years.  When I told Gianna that Nacey might want to try out with her, she was thrilled.  She said, "That's perfect!  Now we can support each other!"

Then began the not so pleasant task of choosing a song and rehearsing.  HOLY CANNOLI!!!!  You can HAVE the whole stage mom bit.  Our 1st practice, they sang the song once thought they were done.  They didn't have the lyrics down like we thought they had and they certainly needed some polish.  Lawdy - the other mom and I were WIPED OUT!  We enlisted the help of our friend Jessie to help them practice - which did alleviate some of the pressure on us. 

When try-outs came - the moms were a little more nervous than the kids, but they were CHAMPS. We told them that was the ONLY thing we cared about ---- that they did their best at tryouts.  We told them we didn't care if they made it in to the talent show, we just wanted them to practice getting up in front of people and sharing their gifts.  But OH MY WORD!!!!! They were ADORABLE.  Our pride was dripping from our eyes.  And even though we were partly praying against it, they made it in the Talent Show!  More practice. More nerves. More crazy stage mom rants. Ugh.

But boy, was it worth it.

They were just precious. Enjoy!