So I was on vacation, and I realized I missed my guitar. Just being able to sit and play and enjoy, it’s become a part of my day. Upon my return I had to head straight to school. This has left little time for practice over the past few weeks, which made me nervous since my song was going to be featured (and played by me) at our “Welcome Back to School” assembly. While hesitant to play in front of anyone, or do anything in front of anyone for that matter, I was thankful my fellow teachers were up there with me singing along. Strength in numbers, right? Of course that didn’t keep me from getting that sickish feeling in my stomach, nor did it limit the fear that I’d totally mess up. Only one student knew I was going to be up there playing: a former student of mine, also a guitar player, who’d once been up on that same stage all by himself. I’d seen him earlier in the week and mentioned that I was a bit freaked out. He reassured me that I’d be fine, I’d practiced all summer. Even though he was right, I didn’t feel all that reassured, and not any less scared.
So as I prepared to close the program with my song, I looked out and saw him giving me the encouraging thumbs-up/good-luck/you-can-do-it sign. I do think that helped. I got through it with minimal mistakes, the teachers sounded great, and the kids really seemed to enjoy it! There was much applause, at least.
My students knew I just started to play guitar, and they were surprised to see me up there and hear me play. One little boy said to me, “You said you were a beginner. You don’t sound like a beginner, you sound like an ender.” It doesn’t get much better than that. :)
