A Couple of Firsts

As I’ve mentioned in the past, this is Matthew’s first year of marching band. He has been in rehearsals regularly since July. It is hard work, but he’s been loving it. Last night was Matthew’s first ever marching band competition and he was equal parts excited and nervous. That’s pretty normal state to be in for a performer of any kind, so I wasn’t surprised. 

This particular competition was held close to home, so the rest of us drove over to watch his performance. I’m going to be completely honest and admit that I don’t get the whole competitive marching band conceptual show thing. For me, fun music and marching into recognizable formations or making letters or something is all I know about what good marching band performances should be. So I struggle to say what they do well other than the music, which I can at least say was played well even if I don’t actually understand what the music has to do with the theme of the show, and the crispness/unity of their overall movements. But with my limited marching band expertise, I felt like they did a good job.

Apparently, I was not the only one who felt like they did well, because they took first place in their division. They also took captions (secondary awards for each of the areas that are part of the show-music, props, color guard, etc.) for both music and color guard. Matthew, and I assume all the kids, were totally hyped that they did so well. They have spent countless hours rehearsing and all that time and effort has led the band to start the season strong!

A Good Day

It was a good day for Nathan. He got a job, a temp job that will end just in time for spring semester to begin if he decides to go back to school in January. This morning he was interviewed and set apart as an ordinance worker at the temple. He is currently on his way to an institute class about John the Beloved that is taught in ASL. He is in a super good mood. 

Now if only he didn’t have a blazing headache…but at least it’s not coloring his mood today. 

Life in Color

Instead of selling something as a fundraiser, our elementary school simply asks for donations. They have small rewards for those kids whose families donate and there are class and grade rewards based on how much money each raises. At the end of the donation period, they hold a color run at the school. They make it into kind of a mini carnival with food trucks, refreshments, and bounce houses. The color run itself is free and all the students are invited to participate whether their family donates or not, so it is really just a fun event for the entire school.

Although Malia was anxious to meet up with her friends and hang out at the school, she wasn’t very excited about the actual color run this year. She didn’t think she was going to do it and told us that she was just planning to spend time with her groupies. I was hoping that she would change her mind though. She is a sixth grader this year and this will be the last chance she has to participate in this specific event. I know that in a lot of ways she feels like she has outgrown the elementary school, but I’m don’t want her to have any regrets about things later on. I want her to feel like she has taken advantage of every opportunity that interests her and that she had a great year. So I encouraged her to wear her school provided white t-shirt just in case. I was pleased when she did, giving her reason as, “Why not?”

An hour later, Kev sent me a picture of Malia multicolored and pleased as punch. She decided to participate in the color run, just as I had hoped. And she had a great time. In fact, she said that doing the color run totally made up for the lack of mud at the mud run. That’s one thing that I love about Malia. She has faced a variety of disappointments in her life, as we all do, but as she moves forward and has other experiences, she allows the joy of the opportunities she does have to shake off the disappointment. In essence, she lets go of the sorrow and allows joy to grow in its place. 

I’m so proud of this tendency she has to “accentuate the positive.” As a family we have talked a lot over the past few years about looking for and focusing on the good and I feel like Malia is taking that to heart. It has served her well up to this point and having an optimistic outlook will be enormously beneficial throughout her life.