The O'Connor band yesterday afternoon was spectacular, the choreography flawless. The band instruments tugged at a place I rarely go--back to high school--where Betty was the solo twirler, captivating the audience as she threw lit batons into the night of the darkened football field.
Nathan's band was far better than that band of the 1960s, but Betty's twirling was what I went to football games to see. My best friend--not only twirling fire batons but tossing them in the air and catching them! (I had tried out for majorette, but never quite got the hang of twirling and dancing at the same time, never mind twirling fire!)
Bands competed all day yesterday and the parking lots were packed. The O'Connor band got second place with a special first place award to the percussion section--Nathan's section! I kept my eyes on the percussion section of the front row, our guy in his sunglasses and his friend Ava, both so into it that it brought tears to my eyes.
He almost quit band this summer when summer camp took up every single day. He told his parents he didn't like it, but when the two of us were alone, he proudly took out his sheets of music and told me (enthusiasm coming through in spite of himself) about his band director, his new friends, and another drummer named Ava. Somehow he never got around to quitting!
Now Ava and Nathan look like a duet of rock stars and Nathan clearly loves it! He walks like a kid who has found his people and who knows? maybe his passion.
Not only that--he's raising a pig named Gus for his agriculture class. To practice band and care for his pig, he has to get to school by 6:30--and then do both again after classes, making it home after 8:00. That kind of dedication in a 14-year-old boy is amazing to me.
Last Sunday after church, we went to the high school and I got to meet Gus.
The agriculture department at O'Connor is like something I'd have expected to see on a college campus, big barns, kids walking their steers outside, and other kids--like Nathan and Elena (as often as she can join him)--feeding, brushing and cleaning their pigs.
Nathan, like so many kids, spent most of the last year and a half doing zoom school at home. It's especially moving that these kids are now back in school again, able to find and follow what they love
While my grandson, Nathan, was my main focus, I had a lump in my throat watching all these kids, knowing how diligently they'd practiced, and knowing that it indeed takes a village for each one of them. Parents and families have to forego vacations and devote an enormous amount of time taking their sons and daughters to practice and driving to competitions and games and barns!
As a member of Nathan's large fan club, and his grandmother, I am so proud of him!
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