High School Musical

Last night, my family and I headed to the local high school for the annual Lip Sync contest.

Each grade picks a theme, chooses songs and props, then performs several numbers. Tickets are availiable to the community and it sells out every year.

Each grade entered the auditorium shouting rhyming cheers to wild, enthusiastic applause before taking their seats to wait their turn to perform.

Our son Josh is a freshman and the freshmen theme this year was “The Sky’s The Limit.”

The curtain parted and the energy exploding from that stage filled with ninth graders was massive.

Some observations from the evening:

*I am old.

Despite the promise I made to myself as a teenager that I would be the cool mom who kept up on all the current music my teens were listening to, I continually had to lean over and ask my daughter, “What song is this?”

You can imagine her delight at spending the entire evening addressing her mother’s woeful knowledge of popular culture.

I also could not understand the words to most of the music.

However…when songs from the 80s were used, I was all over that. I clapped and sang along with abandon, reliving my youth.

My daughter seemed to disappear into her seat. I have no idea why.

*My son played the part of Paul McCartney during the Beatles portion of the show because he plays the bass:

The spitting image of a young Paul, no? 🙂

*An incredibly touching moment occurred during the freshman’s performance. At one point, a young lady with Down’s Syndrome appeared alone on the stage, bathed in the spotlight as she danced. There was an absolute roar of applause and cheers from the audience. The huge smile that broke across her face was beautiful to see.

*I was so impressed with the goodwill and team spirit among the students. They genuinely cheered each other on. It was a wonderful way to build  school spirit.

*The winners of the contest will be announced today during school. As much as I was pulling for the freshman, I think the juniors have it in the bag. 🙂

*With all the heartache and uncertainty going on in the world right now, it was a delight to spend a couple of hours in a high school auditorium surrounded by upbeat music, laughter, and the energy and optimism of  youth.

Now if I could only get Don’t Stop Believin’ to quit playing on a continual loop in my head!  🙂