{"id":11669,"date":"2012-03-13T14:26:07","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T21:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/momservations.wordpress.com\/?p=11669"},"modified":"2012-03-13T14:26:07","modified_gmt":"2012-03-13T21:26:07","slug":"uncommon-courage-and-charisma-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/momservations.com\/index.php\/2012\/03\/13\/uncommon-courage-and-charisma-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncommon Courage and Charisma"},"content":{"rendered":"

Momservation: <\/strong>Believing in yourself is the best talent of all.<\/p>\n

\u263a\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u263a\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u263a<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that time of year again. Time for our elementary school\u2019s talent show.<\/p>\n

Of course, talent has very little to do with it. But that\u2019s what I love about it.<\/p>\n

I love hearing each off-pitch song.<\/p>\n

I love watching each stiff, unrhythmic dance routine.<\/p>\n

I love seeing the kids who thought they were dazzling in front of the mirror at home become muted in their stage fright.<\/p>\n

I love the jokes and skits that fall flat even though they were sure it was going to be hilarious in rehearsal.<\/p>\n

I love dropped batons, squeaky violins, missed cues, and wrong piano notes.<\/p>\n

Why? Because I love that these kids believe in themselves that they have something valuable to offer the masses. I admire their courage to stand before their peers, exposed, and say \u201cLook at me! Look what I can do!\u201d I think it\u2019s absolutely fantastic to see these young children take a risk of flying, only to shake it off with an \u201coh well, I tried smile\u201d when they fall flat. It brings tears to my eyes to see them soak up the attention of an audience packed with kids, parents, grandparents, teachers and strangers giddy with confirmation that they deserve that spotlight.<\/p>\n

I applaud each and every one of them the second they step foot on that stage because their talent is already apparent: They have uncommon courage to be who they are.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Whitney, the Billy Crystal of the Mariemont Talent Show<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My daughter, Whitney has been in the school talent show every year since first grade when she announced at the dinner table, \u201cI\u2019m going to sing in the talent show.\u201d The fact that she was born of two tone deaf individuals deterred her none.<\/p>\n

Each year she sang and danced her way through songs that had the audience cheering her performance, leaving them admiring that she was something special. It wasn\u2019t necessarily her abilities, but that she absolutely owned the stage when she was on it.<\/p>\n

This year, as a 5th<\/sup> grader, my heart dropped when she told me she wasn\u2019t sure if she was going to do the talent show. \u201cI don\u2019t have a talent,\u201d she said in a tone of c\u2019mon Mom, you know that.<\/p>\n

My biggest fear was coming true. That the day would come when little girls stop believing they are as beautiful, smart, and talented as they believed themselves to be at five years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not true,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen what\u2019s my talent? I can\u2019t sing and I can\u2019t dance.\u201d My heart constricted at the thought that the person she saw in the mirror wasn\u2019t good enough anymore.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t want to prop her up with exaggerated encouragement, giving her a false sense of self. But I knew she was selling herself short. \u201cYou know what your talent is?\u201d I said with absolute conviction. \u201cCharisma.\u201d<\/p>\n

She looked at me perplexed. \u201cYou know why people love you on stage? Because they\u2019re buying what you\u2019re selling. You make whatever you do look fun and effortless with an extra shot of pizzaz. You may not be the best singer and dancer out there, but everyone wants to join you and sing along and dance with you. That<\/em>, is a special talent. That is a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

I could see she was thinking about it, giving measure to my words against what she saw in herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay,\u201d she finally said. I\u2019ll think about it.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t want to push her, make her do it for me. As I left her alone I hoped she would do it for her; for the beautiful, smart, talented person I hoped she always saw in the mirror.<\/p>\n

So tonight is the talent show and Whitney is in it. It\u2019s her last one before she goes off to the self-esteem gauntlet of middle school. What did she decide to do?<\/p>\n

She\u2019s co-Master of Ceremonies. She\u2019s using her uncommon courage and charisma to host the show, tell jokes, keep the audience interested, and go out on top of her game.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t wait to stand up and applaud each mess-up.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The reasons why I love dropped batons, off-key singers, and missed notes in a school talent show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[675,2,86,3,5,28,676,677,678],"class_list":["post-11669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenting-humor-2","tag-building-girls-self-esteem","tag-family","tag-kelli-wheeler","tag-kids","tag-momservations","tag-parenting-humor","tag-school-talent-show","tag-talent-shows","tag-uncommon-courage"],"yoast_head":"\nUncommon Courage and Charisma - Kelli M. Wheeler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/momservations.com\/index.php\/2012\/03\/13\/uncommon-courage-and-charisma-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Uncommon Courage and Charisma - Kelli M. Wheeler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The reasons why I love dropped batons, off-key singers, and missed notes in a school talent show.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/momservations.com\/index.php\/2012\/03\/13\/uncommon-courage-and-charisma-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kelli M. 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