The pre-school kids also got promoted to the next grade. Lorena graduated from the 3-4 year old class to the 4-5 year old class. She hasn't been on stage much, but from past experience I've known her to not like being in the spot light. She usually "freezes." She went to the front of the room with her classmates and they were supposed to sing and dance to a few songs as their teacher led them. She barely moved a muscle and looked like she was going to cry most of the time. When we got home that night we asked her why she didn't sing with the other kids and she said "I was a little nervous." I'm not sure where she heard that word as I try to not say or imply that she is nervous, or shy in front of crowds, but apparently she knows what it means somehow.
Even though she didn't participate, she did stay on stage with her classmates. She was nervous but she persisted. We explained to her that night that everyone feels nervous and it's perfectly ok to be nervous sometimes. Not that I'm a nervous nelly by any means, but I have my moments where I have to do things I don't like doing. It can be at work when I have to make phone calls all day long, or when I have to have a hard conversation with a co-worker...or when I have to do a devotional in front of a large group at work, or lead a panel discussion for our local chamber of commerce....or whether it's at home and I don't want to clean the house or pay the bills stacked on my desk...my point is that we all have to do things sometimes that we don't want to do or that get us out of our comfort zone.
Lorena did something she really didn't want to do on Monday night and I'm proud of her for it. I'm sure some of the other kids that performed vocal and piano solos were also nervous like Lorena when they got on that stage, but I'm so glad they chose to do it anyway. They were able to share their God given talents with the audience and we were all blessed as a result. As the saying goes, we don't grow unless we push ourselves outside of our comfort zone. I'm glad I got that reminder from my brave 4 1/2 year old this week.
I learned to perform at home...whenever we had company my father would play the piano and I would sing, “Im a Little Teapot” with all the actions. I think it helped, because I don’t remember being nervous when on stage in school; but I did develop some ‘stage fright’ as an adult.
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