About a month ago, Jackson came home very excited because Holly Tree Elementary was having their first ever Talent Show. Now as exciting as this sounded, I wasn't entirely sure why Jackson was so excited. As much as I adore him and think he is so special, I wasn't sure exactly what his talent would be. I was also surprised that my normally shy and quiet child was thinking he was going to get on a stage and perform. He went on to tell me that he was going to do magic for his talent. Hmmm.. Interesting, I thought to myself. I went on to explain to him exactly how these talent shows worked and that there would be an actual audience there and that he was going to be on a stage with LOTS of people watching him. He nodded and wasn't dissuaded at all.
We spent much of the following month practicing and rehearsing. His friend, John Tripp (who also loves magic) agreed to be his assistant. Finally, we narrowed the performance down to two tricks (each child was limited to 2 minutes on stage since there were over 90 children who wanted to perform) and he memorized a script. After doing very well at rehearsal, we could not wait for the actual performance night. Jackson was scheduled to go on stage halfway through the second act so there was plenty of time for me to get nervous for him. But when his time came, he marched himself right up onstage and did his act perfectly. My hands were shaking so bad I could hardly hold the camcorder to record him but he was not nervous at all. In fact, none of the children who performed seemed nervous to perform in front of what must have been over 300 people. Lots of people have come up to me since the show and told me how cute they thought the performance was. Mostly, though, I am just so proud that he had the courage to get up and do something that he has never done before!
Jackson introducing John as his assistant
