Our city runs a community youth choir that has a national reputation, or rather the middle school and high school sections do, both of which recruit strictly by audition only. DD9 is in the free for all pre-choir for 6 to 10 yo, and doesn’t like to sing at home, so since she hasn’t had to audition for anything yet, I had no idea whether she was any good or not, but she likes going, and her best friend goes, so.

The other day I came in a bit early to pick her up. The director is fine with the parents sitting in on any part of the rehearsal in the back of the auditorium as long as they move quietly, so I simply walked in, with my eyes on my phone. I look up, and there is my shy little DD9, who has a hard time speaking up for something like ordering ice cream, up on the stage by herself, singing 6 or 7 verses of her absolutely favourite song ever, “Far over the Misty Mountains cold” from the hobbit movie, for something like 30 kids and as many parents, clear as a bell and pitch perfect. You could have heard a pin drop. (Did you even know there are something like 10 verses? They are not in the movie, but apparently they’re on YouTube).

I was melting into a puddle. I wish I could have taken a video for DH, but I couldn’t get it together in time.