Friday, March 14, 2008

A Day Away

Today was a day away from the ordinary. I got to spend the entire day with my friend Jaime and her two children, Cosette and Elias. It was so much fun to play with the kids, see how fast they are growing and learning and to catch up with my good friend. As you can imagine, a day with a 3 year old, and almost 2 year old, is never uneventful. I am happy to say though that nothing that happened today or that I got to help with today was a burden. It was all a joy! I say this partially so Jaime can stop feeling bad for the thing I got to help out with in the bathroom :) :) That was no problem at all. If only you knew the things I clogged up or burned up or tore apart when I was little!!!

It is so enlightening to spend a day with a child. You think about what you say more, how you act and react to situations, what is literal and what is sarcastic, and what is considered telling a "joke" as opposed to telling a "story". But I think one of the best things to learn from a child is their sense of wonder and eagerness to learn. As I was driving home this evening I was thinking back to my recent audition experiences. It occurred to me that if professors/teachers/people in positions of authority and/or power would approach every student in the same way as a child (in one respect), there would be a lot more eager adult learners and less timid students.

What I mean by all this is that I believe adults lose a very important characteristic as they approach adolescence and adulthood. We forget that it's ok to make a mistake, it's ok to be misunderstood, and it's ok to laugh at ourselves and try again! The number one thing that I learned from auditioning over the last several months is that there are a lot of very "successful" people in the world who are missing out on a lot of joy because they are too busy trying to be perfect and have forgotten how much fun it can be to mess up and learn from our mistakes, and get a second chance! I am constantly reading books and articles by musicians about how making a mistake is like a child learning to walk. It isn't something to feel ashamed of, it's just something that gives us information. "Oh, that didn't work that way. I need to try this differently next time." The only problem is I see more wisdom and grace in their articles than I do in real-life.

Maybe that was a little too much to read into just one day playing with a couple of cute kids, but it's also something to think about.

I guess that's it. Not too much else to say. My brain and body are tired and for once I'm hitting the sack (excuse me Cosette...I'm not actually going to HIT anything, I'm going to "go to bed") before midnight. Good night!

1 comment:

Cosette said...

Wow, you found a lesson out of our crazy day together? I'm impressed! ;)