Under the Sea

Kyra had her school musical this past weekend. She has been practicing for months and frankly I am surprised the girl hasn't developed an ulcer from all the worrying she does. I suppose its easy for me to say as it literally had nothing to do with me but I am trying to be better at active listening. I can only handle so much of her complaining, trying to give her viable solutions to fix the problem and then realizing that all she wants to do is talk about it. Vocalizing her problems must be the way she digests and deals with issues; I on the other hand prefer to take action and not necessarily talk things to death. Mmmm? To each their own I guess. For example: Kyra has decided that she doesn't wasn't to participate in show choir this year. Which is fine. I get it. She doesn't like that all the popular girls get the solos and she has to be in the back. Well instead of taking an initiative and talking to her director about her concerns she just sits on it and stews never getting answers. Number one (I love her) but she is not a strong singer. She just isn't. SO thats why she does not have a solo assigned to her. I am sure had she mentioned an interest, the director would try to accommodate that. But she won't. So there she sits. Number two, she is the tallest girl in the group- so of course she will be in the back. Its not a personal thing, just logistics. But she doesn't acknowledged or understand that concept either. So she is going to quit. I informed her that there was a good chance she wouldn't make any performance group in high school if she dropped out of her middle school ensemble, but she just shook her head and walked away. I guess this is one of those times that kids need to learn from experience and not just take a parent's word for it. I just want whats best for her and I feel like sometimes it would just be so darn easy to help her fix things. But she wont let me. Ahhhhhh the teenage suffering continues for a few more years I suppose.

Anyhoo- As this was her last musical in middle school Kyra was stoked to try out. They planned to put on a production of The Little Mermaid and Kyra had her heart set on trying out for Ariel (the main character). Even at my gentlest prodding she refused to try out for a less prominent roll (like Sebastian who still had a solo) and in the end she was cast as a chorus fish- a jelly fish actually. I know it was disappointing for her but thats how things sometimes work in life. They just do. But in the end she was a super cute jellyfish (even though it took me half the show to even identify where she was). I was surprised though that she never even told us what her character was. Or when the show was... even how to get tickets. It seems more and more that Timmy and I are left in the dark on things with her. Unless she needs something... then we are best friends (for two seconds). We need to work on this because I don't want to continue to resent her and always question her intentions. Because in the end all it will do is alienate her and make us all miserable.