This week's thank you: The Creative Outlet

I have a reminder that goes off each Monday at 8:30am. The reminder says "Write a Thank You Note".

My son was in a play this weekend. This was his third play, and largest role, with a local children's theater group.

When he first asked to audition with this group, I figured it was worth a shot. We had transitioned through sports, he was lukewarm about scouts and band. Why not?

It didn't take long for him to decide, and me to see in his excitement for play practice, that this might be his "thing". After the second play, driving away from the cast ice cream gathering, Gabe turned to me and said, "Mom, these are my people."

The first show of the first play, I was fully expecting these kids to be adorable, and maybe miss a few lines and possibly be off-key here and there. Because this was children's theater. I didn't expect to be utterly floored with the amazing talent of high school students pulling off every song in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. Or to get a little choked up every time the cast of The Snow Queen closed the show with Let It Go (and all the little girls in the audience gasp in excitement at the opening notes). And I definitely didn't expect to see the camaraderie among the entire cast, from the high school students in their tenth play to the 3rd grader figuring out costume changes for the first time.

This week's thank you was to the Artistic Director and the Co-director of the production Gabe just finished, and who have been with him through every show he's performed with this group. These two women set insanely high expectations for these kids, and push, pull, cajole and applaud them until they meet them. It's as if they see the potential there, hiding, and they know what it takes to bring it into the spotlight. These two women and the talented staff who assist them have brought something out in Gabe that I wish school could bring out in him. He's excited to learn. Excited to practice. Excited to get better. These two directors are amazing, and I'm not sure Gabe would have found "his people" without them.

And that's why I wanted to thank them.

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