For Good

Last night I was privileged (obligated) to chaperone (babysit) a group of energetic (obnoxious) Jr. High Kids during their cast party after a final production of a school musical. 

Oh my, what a group of kids!  Did I ever really have that much energy when I was young?  My daughter was among them and I can't believe I'm really at this stage in my life, when I spend my Saturday nights ensuring that my daughter enjoys her Saturday nights.   I admit, in a very selfish way, it was hard to be there- not only because it was work (the group made 'The Lord of the Flies' look like a children's book) but it took me back to a time when I was even more insecure, uncertain and terrified- who knew these types of anxieties would never go away.......

....but seriously, it was the worst in Jr. High, and I got a taste of that last night at this party.  And I had my own level of anxiety when I was nominated as the person who would be in charge of the music and karaoke.  I like that people trusted me with the music but as much as I love music, I hate electronics (the fact that I can even put together a blog post each week is a miracle) and being the one in charge of making sure the sound system worked while kids sang karaoke was very stressful for me.  Good thing I take medication for my anxiety.  

Anyway, have you ever just used YouTube as your source for karaoke music?  It totally works!  We even got some pretty obscure requests for songs and I was able to find them on YouTube as karaoke.  (Have you noticed I'm using a lot of paragraphs in this blog post?  Well I am, and I'm going to continue doing it.)  So..... I know how my musical brain works in the mornings after blogging like this for over 2 years, and last night I was certain that one of the songs sung during the party would be stuck in my head today and I was right.

Today's song is from the musical "Wicked."  I've never seen it, but I kind of know that it's about the Wicked Witch of the West (from 'The Wizard of Oz') before she became a wicked witch.  This song is performed between the wicked witch herself and Glinda the good witch (are you still with me?) who have become friends and ultimately changed each other's destiny for having become acquainted.  

It's a clever little song and makes you aware of how strange the term "for good" is in the English language.  In the song each character says "I have been changed for good."  In my interpretation, one character (Glinda) takes the literal sense of the term and has changed to be a better (good) person.  The Wicked Witch of the West's words indicate a more figurative (more common) use of the term, she has changed forever for having experienced what she has.  I've heard this song for years but I've never really paid attention to the lyrics.  It's a good song.  

So, as a group of girls was singing this song in karaoke (and falling behind with the music, forcing me to prompt them find the timing of the song) something strange happened:  This group of girls started crying almost hysterically- feeling emotional at the idea that Jr. High was ending soon and they had deeply impacted each other as friends.  The cynical side of me had to scoff at their moment a bit, knowing that life had so much more in store for them than the friendships (enemies?) they make in middle school.  But we all let them have their emotional moment and what seemed like an eternity passed and we moved on to "The Eye of the Tiger" from ROCKY and the group was back to its rowdy, obnoxious self.  

I thought I would be a cool parent, but I guess I'm not since I constantly told this group to shut up, stop throwing things, and pick up their trash.  Yes, I'm THAT parent, and I suppose it's karma since I know that I was (most definitely) THAT kid who drove parents to drink with hyperactive, disrespectful behavior- but I digress.  

Who's still with me?  This is getting long.

So, the party ended and I survived a vicarious reminiscence of life in Jr. High.  I suppose this is my life now, and I'm very sorry (grateful) for it.  

And dear readers (I know there aren't many of you) but I was put to shame last week when I asked for performance requests for this week's post (seriously, people who read my blog ask me all the time when I'm gonna perform with the kids on this blog again (it's been a long time) and so I offered to do it here this week based on requests (comments) made on last week's post ) and didn't get any comments (requests) so I guess you won't be getting a performance of this song, which is too bad because I know that my wife and my teenaged daughter would have rocked it.

(This is a long and obnoxious post.  I'll stop now)