It was with a pride swelled heart that I sat last night beside an equally proud husband and watched Miranda, (our 8 year old) perform on stage in a interschool spectacular called wakakirri.
A few months ago I went along to watch her first performance, competing against 10(?) other schools in our region of Melbourne/victoria. We (all the parents) left that night, with the belief that our wonderful little people had not taken out any placing in the competition, let alone taken one of the nights awards. A week later we were all pleasantly welcomed to the fact that not only had they done marvelously on the night, they had taken out FIRST PLACE! They were off the the grand finals, in the City, to compete for the place of Victorias winners.
As you can imagine, the children, all ranging between 7-8.5 worked tremendously hard on their performance, which was based around the events of last January and the King Lake, Black Saturday Bush fires. These fires affaected our children in a way that I dont think any of us really realised until we saw their performance. It was from the heart and showed the australian spirit, to help when others were suffering. My heart almost burst with the pride that i felt watching such little people perform something that was such a grown up kind of situation. One that we would love to think our children would never have to be exposed to. (loss & destruction). Athough, through this exposure, it has awoken our children to strength, courage and the australian spirit of just getting on with things, rebuilding and survival. Something very important for our children to know.
Anyway... where was this proud mum!?
Oh yes... last night, Matt and I rushed up to the 2nd floor of the Melbourne Town hall to take out seats with many other parents from our school and many others, to watch our children perform in what would for the most of them, be the biggest moment in their little lives so far. Our school was 2nd to perform and through tears of pride that fell I watched my little girl dancing around on stage, enticing the flames with her gusts (of arms). She was the wind that drove the fires on that fateful day. Such a dark and omnimous part, looked so beautiful... and PROUD.
Those same tear filled eyes then looked to her father, who with no doubt had a heart as large with pride as mine, and surely aching as it stretched to its limit, threatening to burst.
Ofcourse, we are bias... while the other schools all did wonderful jobs, our little people, (who were the youngest of the performers on both the first night, and this, the grand finals) were definately, the best story of the night. And... ofcourse, the best dancers, story writes, full stop!
hours later, our weary little people came and sat in the dress circle with us, and watched the rest of the performance. Many of them, tightly held tiny fingers crossed. They were all anxiously awaiting the last performance to be complete so that judging could be undertaken. WOW... I did not realise that they were going to find out their fate, then and there.
Awards weere given.... we were down to the last award... the most prestigeous award of the night and again, our beautiful babies faces were long, they had seemed to miss out on awards again when all of a sudden the presenter of the night started to talk of "heard ship and the australian way. The strength to pull together when hearts weere so low and hope was bleak"... It was the Beyond Blue award. (beyond blue were the main sponsers).... and what performance do you think they were talking about when they were leading up to the presentation of this award? None other than Jamieson way .... OUR LITTLE GUYS HAD TAKEN OUT THE BEYOND BLUE AWARD!!!!!
Pop.... there went my heart... im sure of it....
or.... was that the veins in my hands from clapping so hard... or my voice box from the screams that came from my toes as i cheered on our three little represeentatives as they headed over to the presenter to accept the award!?
there were 10 groups, 6 of whom were all called out to the front of the stage, again... our kids stood back on the stage. They had not been called. A little sigh rumbled in my chest at the knowledge that if these were the winning kids, then we would have to again have that talk about "its not weather you win or losee"... you know the one, right?
EQUAL THIRD.... that is what i heard announced... what the!? 3rd? All of those 6 groups? That means...... yep.... our kids were still in with a chance... i think it was then that i realised what this meant... my heart swelled a little more... and i found myseelf crossing my fingers tightly. OMG.... 2nd or .... I could barely think it... 1st. Our children were the only division 1 group there, meaning it was their very first time ever performing at wakakirri... did our children really have what the judges were looking for? well... duh, we thought so, but these were professional performers that were in the judging panel..
All the remaining children were asked to move forward on the stage... our three representatives all reached out to hold each others hands... they were thrilled to think that their hard work had paid off and they were going to get 2nd or 1st...
POP.... that was definately my heart as their name was called out as Victorias 2009 Wakakirri 2nd place winners. Honestly, the squeels that came from our group of children and parents I dont think could have been any louder if we had actually taken out 1st place.
I am sitting here, writing this from work while I wait for my dental partner (Dr) to come back from some training... and between my oral hygiene lessons with preps-y2 kids at the school I am working at. My mind has been upon my little girl today and all her little friends as I am sure they got a hero reception this morning at the school assembly.
My heart still aches with pride... & my smile not so wide as it was, though definately still there for my gorgeous little girl.
I wonder what they will start to prepare for next year. I hope the teachers have thought that far ahead... for I am sure, there is no holding them back now! They will want to do this again... and again... and again!
(I will upload a pic of my gust of wind tonight, or over the weekend. She did so well to stay up as long as she did, and get her photo taken. (12 midnight)...
Lots of love and I hope you are all smiling and well.
xxxx
13 years ago
