We've become our parents

Last Tuesday, Dawn and I went to our daughter's choral concert at her school. We were both excited to watch her sing, but not all that excited about sitting through the entire program. This was our 4th time going to the "Spring Sing", and although it has always been fun, it's also always been muggy and hard to find a seat. Another issue is dinner. We get home from work fairly late and unless we grab something fast, there just isn't time. This year was no exception. We walked into the tiny, packed, not quite sweltering auditorium right at the time the program was to start. Anyone who knows us well will realize that being right on time for something means we were early. Punctuality has never been our strongest asset to put it mildly, although we are getting better.

Anyway, we said hello to a couple of people and found a nice place to lean since there were no seats available. My feet were already killing me from standing all day at work; my body tired since the day after a holiday is always very busy and because we have an air conditioner that is going on the fritz, and to be truthful, I was not all that interested in being there. But I had to be there. The Christmas concert was canceled this school year due to snow, and this was the only chance we would have to see Rachel sing. She is one of 12 kids in the entire school to make it to Choralaires, which is the top singing group in the school. Truly, even though I was not excited to be there at that moment, I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

The kids were wonderful. Of the 4 times we have seen them perform, this was easily the best. It obviously helped that Rachel was in the top group for the first time, but they did an amazing job. The Choralaires did an acapella version of Bohemian Rhapsody that was so good it actually choked us up. It also cracked us up on a couple of occasions when the kids were doing guitar solos with their voices; you had to hear it to believe it. There were a few other songs that were excellent as well, but this was easily the highlight of the evening as far as Dawn and I were concerned. Another good thing, although not quite as good, was that after the middle school kids performed their 3 songs, several chairs opened up and we got to sit in the 2nd row. My feet found this to be THE highlight.

But that's not what I wanted to tell you about. What kept popping into my head while I was sitting there was the multiple times my parents came to things like this for me, how nervous and uncomfortable I was singing in front of everyone, and how much nicer it was from my standpoint to just observe and be proud of our child. When my father was the age I am now, I was around 8 years old and he was an old man in my eyes. I expect that he just felt like a young guy in a middle-aged body like I do now. I still don't feel like it's possible that I am a grandfather and that my kids are all nearly full grown. I wonder where the time has gone. But at the concert, I put on his shoes for a couple of hours and I kind of liked it. My dad recently turned 80 years old. Now, when I think of him as an old man, I'm actually right. But if I think back to all the wonderful and awful and mundane things that I've been through since I was that 8 year old boy... and if I think of what can happen in my life between now and my 80th birthday if I'm lucky enough to stick around that long, then I'm not an old man at all. I'm a young man who is very excited about what the next 36 years of his life could bring.