The National Anthem

A pretty neat thing happened to Justice.  He was asked to sing the National Anthem at the school homecoming game.  That was a pretty big deal, and he was extremely humbled to have that opportunity.  

That is one of the things I love about Justice the most.  He is SO humble.  He is grateful for new opportunities, and he never puffs up with pride, and he never acts stuck-up or gets a big head.  He is always humble.  I really appreciate that character trait in him and it will serve him well throughout his life.

Anyway, he was so excited.  His choir director approached me at a school activity and asked me if it would be all right for him to do it, and I said "sure!"  She was concerned about him being too nervous, performing in front of such a large crowd.  Ha!  No worries, I assured her he would be fine, that he does well in that sort of environment.  

But then I did start to worry.  I didn't bring up my concern to Justice, because I didn't want to put it in his head and start something that wasn't really an issue.  

Remember the piano recital?  The tragedy of that whole mess?  That is the very first time I have EVER seen him nervous or worried.  I mean it honestly never crosses my mind that he might be nervous about something.  He's cool as a cucumber, always.  He's the kid that donned the elf suit for the Christmas program in third grade, remember?  There are no nerves there.  But now that I know he's not invincible to the butterflies, I did get a little worried for him.

Worried SICK, actually.  I was so nervous the weeks leading up to Homecoming, and I was shaking like a leaf when he was sitting there on the sidelines, waiting to sing.  He seemed fine.  I asked him a couple of times whether he was all right, and he looked at me like I was nuts.  He was sick too, but in the literal sense.  I had forgotten until looking at this picture, he's sucking on a cough drop.  He had a terrible sore throat and cough the weekend before he was supposed to sing.  I honestly think it helped his voice.  It was sort of raspier and I really think it helped him hit the high notes.  

But let's face it.  If he messed it up, it would have been terrible for him.  If he confused the words he would be devastated.  Kids would tease him, it would be awful. You see folks on TV who are paid performers screw up the National Anthem all the time.  It happens.  Oh, and what if his voice cracks?  Remember last year when Justice sang as a first Soprano in the Tennessee Treble Choir?  With his sweet high pitched voice?  No more.  His voice has started to change, and he is desperately trying to figure out where his temporary range is during this in-between puberty thing.  So yeah, I'm worried about way too many things and making it a far bigger deal than it really is.  

I was worried for nothing.  He was awesome.  Beautiful, just beautiful.  No words were messed up, no voice cracking, he hit all the notes, even the highest ones.  

And one more footnote in the "why I left my kids in Covington Schools" book, two of his old teachers from elementary school were literally in tears after he sang.  How sweet.  

You are probably sitting there like "please just shut up and show us the video!" Because there has to be a video, right?

Ugh.  Yes, there's a video.  Sort of.  My stupid phone cut off in the middle of the song due to "lack of storage".  That has NEVER happened to me before and even now when I think about it it makes me sick to my stomach.  

Here is the part that I have.

I'm not going to lie, every time I listen to it I get a lump in my throat.  I am so happy for him, he's got some sort of courage to hop up there and take chances like this.  I wouldn't have ever done that when I was his age, even if I did have the voice to pull it off.

Since that initial performance, he's been asked to sing at a few more local sporting events, and I do have a complete audio version that I will upload in another post.  He's done a great job every time, but his first performance was his best.  Not sure if it was the raspy voice, the sound system, or the venue, or the fact that it was my son standing there singing like that, but I will never forget that first performance.