Em's Farewell Concert

Em's not taking band again next year, so this was her last concert as a clarinetist. There are other electives and extracurriculars calling to her.

I'd force her to stay at it, but I've done that with piano lessons, and I pushed it too far. I realized, almost too late, that if I kept at it, Em would look at music the way I look at Scouts and baseball, things I resent so much I have trouble accepting their existence at all.



I mean it. I get pissed when the Royals win a game. I'm the opposite of a fan. I want my baseball club to lose every time. Don't bother being second to worst in the game: if you're going to suck, suck hard.

And Scouts, well, that's a dark place to go.



So I now accept and support Em's decision. One of the electives taking the place of band is a foreign language class I think she'll absolutely devour. And art, very cool.

Thing is, whether it's the spring musical, a band concert, theater camp, a dance recital, whatever, if she's been on stage I get the best smiles for her pictures.



Really. Sometimes she won't smile at all as a way of making a statement about Dad the Shutterbug. And true, she gets horrible stage fright and puts herself under intense pressure to perform perfectly, but when she's done, she's so lit up she just can't contain it.

Mo seemed to dig it, too. That, and she dug Daddy and his 'camerases.'