Am I competitive in nature? I often ask myself that question, & always turn up some confusion. In the moment I can be competitive, but I can also be completely anti- competition and run in the opposite direction when I so much as smell it.
I never really thought I would be that parent – the one who would aggressively get their child to compete in everything and house a room full of trophies, namely because I wasn’t that kid – I didn’t really start developing specific skills until my 20’s and really early thirties, by then the emerging artist awards are all gone. Anyway, I’ve always known I was a bit of a late bloomer in the arts and music world: my abilities come directly from maturity & soul growth, which in my case comes with age.
As if it weren’t foreign enough to have a child in public school, since I didn’t attend public school, but rather was home schooled, these public school contests are completely foreign as well – Governors honors what? PTA what? There was a paper that came home mid September about contests for reflections about DIVERSITY. The categories were art, music and photography.
I briefly talked to my 6 yr old about it thinking he would draw a picture of the children of the world around the globe holding hands… you know, the cheesy Whitney Houston tune comes to mind. We had a five minute conversation about it and he went to play, about an hour later he came back to me saying “You want to hear my song about being friends?” I listened, and it was short but good. His dad overheard him and happened to be sitting at our home studio when he motioned for Kenimer to come over, turned the mic on, and tracked it. It was simple and raw, he even changed keys once-nonetheless the passion and feeling are there. It is precious. We turned it in and forgot about it.
Several months later we find out he won for his school, county and at the state level! In two weeks we will go to Atlanta for a ceremony at the High Museum of Art and will find out if he won 1st, 2nd or 3rd. I know your thinking there probably wasn’t much competition for his age – there was none at the school or county level but there were many applicants from Atlanta in the state level. His song was grouped with the others written and played in rotation at the Ritz last Friday as all the the art and photography was on display. I was a proud mom since most of the songs were written by highschoolers and the occasional middle schooler – and then my boy.
When I told him he had won, he said “Well that’s because I’m a songwriter!“, matter-of-factly. Hopefully he wont take as long to discover his skills. He seems quite confident in his songwriting abilities. His dad and I? We are proud.
We just might be THOSE parents. But I think in this case we’re OK with it.
