'Tis The Season

It's concert time at most schools. I went to The Boy's Festival Celebration concert last night. The show was wonderful as usual. The students are like that.

But the part I loved last night was not the formal part of the concert. It was The Boy in the school hallway with his friends before and after the concert.

When mom and I arrived, I espied The Boy and Butterfly Boy sitting in front of their lockers. The Boy was strumming his ukulele and Butterfly Boy was playing his guitar. Two other friends sat around them. The kids were singing! So I gave mom some coins. We walked by the kids and threw change into their guitar box. Soon, other parents were walking by and throwing change into their guitar box too.

Later, I bought some cookies and put them in the guitar box. The kids dived at the cookies and Butterfly Boy shouted, "Oh Sylph, I love you!" Can you imagine any teenager saying that to an adult in front of their friends?

After the concert, mom and I filed along the hall with all the other parents to get to the main lobby to wait for our kids. We were led there by Carol of the Bells playing on violin. Well, there was The Boy with his ukulele in the middle of four violinists. Three of them played the tune while The Boy strummed and one violin plucked their way through the song. Parents were already putting money in their violin case.

As the kids repeated their tune, two more kids came up and started scat singing with the music! They sang solos in the concert and they sounded fabulous now in this impromptu performance. Parents applauded and laughed to see how casually the kids grouped themselves for such good fun.

That's the thing about these kids. They love to perform and they have talent. And because they spend time doing what they love, they are easy going. Although teenagers often give their parents grief as they express their independence, I think The Boy and his friends also do pretty innocent, charming, and cool things sometimes.