A song to be sung

Recently, I was going over a bunch of papers Jennifer brought home from school. I noticed an advertisement for a talent show and asked her if she was going to participate. She shrugged and said she didn’t have any talent to share.

“You do SO have a talent!” I said. “You’re an artist!”
 
She said that showing off one’s art was not considered “talent” for a talent show.

Remembering how she sang at past talent shows, I asked her, “Well, why don’t you sing?”

She said she didn’t have a song to sing. (She wrote the last two songs that she sang.) Then her eyes widened, she got excited and said, “I know what I can sing!”

“What?” I asked, thinking she was going to remember a song she wrote recently.

But instead, she said a song that I wrote: “Little Hands Left Behind!”

It was my turn to slouch and even cringe a little bit. My smile faded as I recalled this particular song, which is about abandonment, addiction and prostitution. Er, um ... not exactly family-friendly material.

I wasn’t so sure about this one.

“I don’t know, Jen,” I said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate.”

But she was all of a sudden so excited about singing this song. “But I love that song!” she said.

I know she likes this song, but it’s not exactly PG-rated because of the issues it addresses. I shook my head. “I don’t think they’ll allow it.”

She grew disheartened. Then I said, “How about this. I’ll print out the song lyrics and take it to the school. Then if they approve it, you can sing it.” I sat there thinking Fat chance but I didn’t want her to feel so discouraged.

She thought that was a good idea so that’s what I did the next day. Later, I got a message from the school saying they didn’t think the song was appropriate. So I talked to Jen and told her, “You know, I have a lot of other songs and maybe you can look for another one that you might like that the school will be okay with.”

She nodded and decided to do just that.

I have actually written and co-written over 100 song lyrics. Unfortunately, most of them were lost in a move! I have tried to rewrite some of them that I know by memory, but that’s taking a while.

Anyway, I opened up my file containing a bunch of songs and Jennifer sat down to read them. She decided on the song “Let’s Be Friends Forever.” This is one of my favorites. I wrote it in high school for my best friend. And I rewrote it from memory. I’m so glad she picked that song, but at the same time, worried the school might make a fuss over it.

But the school DID NOT make a fuss over it. Today, Jennifer auditioned for the talent show, singing that song. When I picked her up after the audition, I asked her how it went. “Great!” she said.

“And what did they think of the song?” I asked.

She smiled then said/signed, “They thought it was amazing.”

“Awesome!” I cheered. We both cheered as I drove the car out of the parking lot and I had a huge smile on my face. This is SO COOL. A song that I wrote will be sung, put to actual music, by my daughter. HOORAY!! I am so excited and very thrilled. I have had demo tapes of my songs made in the past, but nothing happened with them and only my family heard those songs. Now a song that I wrote will be put to music and heard by a whole audience! I have always dreamed this would happen with one of my songs and now it WILL happen! I am so excited. Hooray!!