Winners no matter what

Brenna tried out with her dance group for the school's talent show. There are about 20 of them who take the class and when Brenna and her friend decided to dance for the show, we moms encouraged them to ask everyone in the class rather than just a handful (which would admittedly be the ones who actually knew what they were doing.) They agreed and thus 14 of them danced today.

They did okay.

Actually they did great for a bunch of kids who learned the routine yesterday but the judges didn't know that! If they make it I'll say it's a mercy vote because the group includes so many kids representing 4 different grades. Had we let our girls just choose a select few, I have no doubt they would have made it. But that wouldn't have been fair to the ones not invited to the group and I will never have it said that my kid deliberately excluded others.

I was curious how Brenna felt about the tryout so I was asking her over dinner. It doesn't matter whether they make it or not because this was her reply . . .

"Well, we did okay I think. Even if we don't get in I suppose it's okay because everyone had fun. We had a fun practice, no one fought over partners and everyone got along. And we didn't leave anyone out so no one has hurt feelings. So it was good no matter what."

Talk about being winners!

I spend a lot of time with her at this age talking about fairness, talents and skills, individuality, friendships, etc. All subjective things that frankly don't mean much to second graders so I often wonder how much is really penetrating her little noggin. Evidently I'm doing okay because times like this prove that she really is a sweet kid.

Amen.