My daughter Grace decided to pull one over on the crowd during her final talent show in elementary school. Grace was set to play second to last in a very long but fun evening. With several piano solos, dance numbers, singing and magicians before her the talent was tremendous.
The plan was to start out playing this Rock number very slowly and messing up a bit getting the crowd to feel sorry for her mistakes. Grace stopped the number out of her "fake frustration", tossed down her music and removed her glasses. Many of her friends thought she was giving up and getting ready to walk of stage. Instead, to the crowds disbelief, Grace ran her fingers down the ivory's and rocked the house! Everyone quickly caught on and cheers rang out as she played her piece like a pro! Way to go Gracie you were certainly very entertaining this evening!
What an amazing piece to play at just 10 years old. I couldn't be more proud of you.
Love Mom (Lisa Hudson)
A big thanks to Graces dad Jason for recording this awesome memory. With the help of headphones on her electric piano, Grace managed to keep this little plan a secret from her dad and had him feeling just awful for her--- in the beginning anyway!
UPDATE: I'm adding this to my original blog post about Graces performance because its a powerful message from a 5th grade girl! Grace came to me last night and told me something that made me realize just how even more amazing my daughter really is. After I shared my daughter Grace's 5th grade talent show video she came to me and told me that in her heart her performance was about her being bullied. Earlier this year Grace was the victim of a bully in her school as negative words were written on walls and carved into the wood in two of the schools bathrooms. Grace was in tears and afraid to return to school. It broke my heart when she took me into the school back in December and showed me what was carved into the bathroom wall. Of course my instinct was to photograph her as she sat looking at what had been written about her. There were things written about hating her in two different restrooms. Grace kept it a secret for 2 days before she actually told anyone. This scared me because keeping it in and not getting help is the wrong thing for a child to do. At christmas break she packed up her entire desk because her plan was not to go back after break. She asked us to switch her schools because of someones hateful actions. The school tried very hard but the mystery was never really solved as to who had written the hurtful comments about my daughter. We took Grace to Ebenezer counseling to talk about this issue and to try and help her deal with returning to school. Grace said that she has been looking for a positive way to show kids that you can rise above being bullied and his is part of how she came up with her act. She played her song, messing up and acting like she was going to quit then she played her song and she didn't quit. Grace still attends school alongside her anonymous bully and wants to show them that you have to pick yourself up and go on. She hopes to be a positive roll model for others as well. Isn't this amazing for a 5th grader.
