There’s always going to be stages

Last week the Princess auditioned for the school musical. They will be performing Aladdin this Spring. The part that she wants to play is the Genie. However, how the school sets up for the audition, is that each child sings a song from the musical, reads a few lines and learns a short dance to perform in front of the judges. No child can audition for a certain part.  Which, I guess is politically correct.

She got home from her audition and felt pretty good about it. In a couple of days, she will learn what part she will be given.

A couple of days later….

The princess gets in the car from the bus with tears on the verge of dropping down onto her face.

Mommy: “What’s wrong? What happened?”

Princess: “I didn’t get the part of the Genie.”

Mommy: “I am so sorry honey. What part did you get?”

Princess: “A skeleton. A skeleton that opens the door to a dungeon. That is all I am doing!!”

Mommy’s head: Are you kidding me? She is a very talented girl. She sings beautifully, she is a great dancer, a smart, talented girl! And she got the part of a skeleton!? She gets solos at all the church musicals, why hasn’t she gotten a solo at the school musicals!?

The princess goes on to tell me who got what parts, and it was very clear that she was upset, especially since her good friend got the Genie part. Yes. The part that she wanted. That was very hard for her to understand.

It was then that the princess was telling me how she didn’t want to be in the musical. And though my mama bear was raging on the inside, because after all, I didn’t quite understand it either, I thought this is a great opportunity for her to learn that staying in the musical is still good practice for her. Especially since she loves being on stage and being involved with musical productions.

As I gave her the choice of opting out of it, I tried my best to explain to her, that as she gets older  there will be many other plays and musicals throughout her school age years that she can audition for. And with each audition she will learn that she will not fit every part that she is hopeful on getting. You do the best you can, and learn from it.

Thankfully, she understood and has decided to stay in the musical and play the role of the skeleton.