My Stage Debut...and a Dream Fulfilled!

Before we took our trip to Charleston this week, we first went and spent a day with my parents in Georgia. Unfortunately, this had to be a quick trip because Jeff had to attend a couple of meetings there and then rush back to be at football practice. Anyway, this quick trip was not without a little excitement for me. We had made plans to go to Wednesday evening church with my parents because we rarely ever get to attend their church. This particular night had been set aside for a Kick Off for the children's programs starting back up, as well as a little farewell time to the summer. The church had brought in a clown team that was phenomenal. Normally, I'm not much for clown programs because it's always been like a "you've seen one, you've seen 'em all" kind of thing. I knew the girls would love it, though, so we were pretty excited about the whole thing.
The clowns, Baskin and Sunshine, were BIG into audience participation. That whole thing is like an immediate break out in sweats cause for great concern for me. I do NOT like to be up on stage doing anything remotely silly. I don't even like to go to the mall for fear of crowds and being in the midst of lots of people. I do, however, love speaking in front of people, but please, don't ask me to do much more than that, and even more...do NOT pull me up there thinking I will like it because I can promise you, I WON'T! Anyway, I should know better by now than to even be this way because no sooner had I told my sister, Katie, that I had a bad feeling about this...yep, you got it! I was pulled up on stage! I was mortified, but I masked it by laughing uncontrollably, praying I would not break out in uncontrollable sobbing. Thankfully, I did not have to be on stage alone, but there were five other adults that shared the privilege of a most certain humiliation. I, however, had the privilege of being the "line leader." This would most certainly be an honor I would love in school as I often sought to be the Teacher's Pet. On stage, though, was a different story altogether. I mustered together all of my courage and put on a happy face and gave myself a good old Little Engine that Could pep talk..."I think I can, I think I can...." Until she (Sunshine) told me I would have to wear a hat! A what? Now, I love hats, but not all hats love me. I once again became mortified...that is until I saw the hat of my dreams! I was given the honor of wearing the Indian headdress! I have always wanted to do that. You may wonder why an Indian headdress. Well, the song we were going to perform was to the tune of "YMCA" only it had different words and motions. So, Sunshine began to fit me with my headdress and I felt a sense of pride and honor overcome me, which could not be diluted by the fact that my dream had come true only from the hand of performing a children's song. I didn't care what I was doing as long as I had this headdress on! So, we were given instructions on how to perform the song, and then Sunshine laid one on us...we would have to march out in the audience all around the sanctuary! What???? I never did well in aerobics because of the whole coordination thing and now some clown named Sunshine was telling me that we would have to march AND do hand motions all at once! "I think I can, I think I can..." Sunshine sealed the deal for me when she checked my headdress and looked me in the eyes and quietly asked me if I was OK doing this. I said, "sure." She proceeded to encourage me by helping me to focus on the ones out there I would be blessing, and how Proverbs speaks of "laughter is a good medicine for the soul." OK, I got the laughter part down. Remember the "uncontrollable laughter" part? I was still laughing this whole time. OK, I can do this! And you know what...I did it! I definitely didn't get all of the motions right or even stay on the beat, but I did it and I laughed the whole time, certainly a good medicine for me that day. Quinn thought me a little strange, McKenna was like "that's not MY mom", and Bailey and Avery sat there thinking I was down right cool.
Me? Well, I was letting out a big secret. I want to be on stage pretending to be someone I'm not just for a moment, and what better way to do it in my favorite hat!