Unearthing Treasure

Sometimes I feel like raising a child is like unearthing buried treasure. It's such a long process to watch your child grow and develop, and there's not much in parenting that's more fun than when you child discovers his/her talents, gifts, and passions.

Snapper tried a lot of different things over the years. She did Scottish Country Folk Dance, ballet, swim team, karate, musical theater, volleyball, choir, and piano. She stunk at dance, was fair at volleyball, and has been outstanding at everything else. Now she's a freshman in high school, and is honing in on what she loves.

Snapper loves performing.

In 4th and 5th grade she sang in her school chorus. She lit up the stage with her animated face and whole-hearted singing.

In 6th grade she totally wowed us by winning her school's public speaking competition, and then going on to take 2nd place out of all the 6th graders in the entire county!

In 7th grade she recited Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" and got top honors. She also landed--and totally owned--the part of Sally Brown in "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown."

In 8th grade she sang in chorus again and sang a solo in a Christmas special. She also was in "Annie Get Your Gun" at school. In April she sang in the state vocal festival and earned a Superior for her solo.

This year she started piano lessons. She is singing in concert choir at the high school and was a soloist in the fall concert. She recited a poem in the mandatory school-wide poetry recitation competition, won for her class, and earned a spot in the final. She went up against the other 19 finalists (five from each grade) and took third place in the high school! That achievement earned her an invitation to join the JV Debate team in the fall, and an invitation to audition for the spring play. She auditioned and landed one of the female leads. With the encouragement of her choir director, Snapper entered in a vocal competition.

The competition was today. Snapper is only 14 years old, and she has some pretty amazing pipes. She did a great job on her song, "Songs My Mother Taught Me" by Dvorak. The judge started to give her critique, and then she changed her mind. She said, "You have so much potential. I'm going to give you a voice lesson here and now. I want to see what you can do." So she did. She spent seven minutes with Snapper, giving pointers and having her do a few vocal exercises. Then she had her sing part of her song again.

Y'all, it completely took my breath away. I'll let you watch the video so you can see what I mean. I think today would make it onto my list of Top Proud Mommy Moments.

The video is a brief clip of Snapper's initial performance, followed by a couple of vocal exercises, followed by a clip of her second try at the song after the little voice lesson. The judge was so pleased! She was beaming and delighted with the change. She never did critique Snapper or tell her what rating she got. She'll get her score sheets back at school on Monday.

Oh...by the way...she doesn't get her vocal talent from me! LOL!