My daughter, Kristie, is thirteen and has participated in drama
the last two years in middle school. She recently tried out for “Honors Drama” for the upcoming school year but didn’t get selected.
Kristie was disappointed, especially when one of her friends
did get chosen for Honors Drama. The glum expression on my daughter’s face
told me how she felt when she checked the message board on the computer and her
name wasn’t on it.
Kristie tends to be quiet in school. She gets good grades
because she studies hard, but comments from teachers are usually along the
lines of, “Joy to have in class. Excellent effort, quiet, and dependable.”
I don’t have a problem with Kristie being quiet. I’m an
introvert myself, so I understand my daughter’s personality. I don’t need her
to be an outspoken candidate for student body president or a rah-rah
cheerleader for the football team. I’m fine with Kristie just being herself but
I’ve come to realize this can hamper her ambitions to become the next Jennifer
Lawrence.
My wife, Quyen, and I have been to a number of Kristie’s
drama performances, and I’m slightly biased, but I think our daughter is pretty
good. She remembers her lines, and she nails the dance steps in her routines. The
thing is, she has a quiet voice and she isn’t animated to the extreme. This
works against her in a field where flair and exuberance are the calling cards
for success.
It’s funny because Kristie can be expressive. I’ve seen it
firsthand, and it usually involves her interactions with me. At home, I often chide
her for spending so much time on video games. When I suggest she spend some
“quality time” with me instead, she immediately goes into Mixed Martial Arts
mode and goes ballistic on her poor dad.
She unleashes a series of play-jabs, snap-kicks, and
rapid-fire punches until I scamper away to keep from getting pummeled. Kristie
gives chase and when she catches me, she goes into her best World Wrestling
Federation maneuvers: elbow to the head, knee to the spine, and uppercut to the
chin. She will declare, “Take that, Daddy, and how about this!” as she lands
yet another roundhouse kick.
So I know my daughter can be dramatic. She just needs to
take her father to her auditions and start pounding away.
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