Proud dad of the day

I went, last night, to a junior high choir concert. It was the All-Regional junior high choir for whatever region the Katy high schools are in.

And why did I go?

Why, because the All-Regional choir's first-chair alto is a young lady named Merry Pierce, that's why.

[pause for beaming]

Let me tell you guys something, in all seriousness. Merry has spent the last four or five years dedicating herself to singing as well as she can possibly sing. You want to know why she's first chair alto (other than overwhelming inherited talent, that is)? Here's a bit of a conversation from when I picked her up after their Friday night practice:

MERRY: ...and our section leader kept us practicing thirty minutes late because we sounded bad.

DAD: What was the problem?

MERRY [with evident displeasure]: Well, I think most of the other altos hadn't even practiced. But we knew what the songs would be, and they sent us the music a long time ago. Those songs were hard, and most of the altos were trying to learn them for the first time...

And I'm walking along beside her thinking, "Spoken like a girl who simply can't imagine walking into a choral practice without being 100% prepared...and that's how you wind up first chair."

So, um...just a little bit proud this morning.

I can't resist linking back to an old blogpost from back when eleven-year-old Merry went to see her very first opera, and at the end of the Act II of Aïda we had the following exchange:

"Is it still okay?" I asked her.

"Oh, yes, I love it." Her beaming face turned rather serious and awed, then, and she added with charming seriousness, "They sing a lot better than I do."

Well, maybe so...but she's gainin' on 'em.