Last night was a horrible night for my daughter.

For the past few years she has been involved in the yearly talent show at school.  Each year she has been able to wow the audience with her skills in various area.  Last night, she was doing a gymnastics routine and she forgot her next step during the routine.  Instead of improvising, she shut down and quit right there and then.

Up to that point, the routine was excellent and she was far enough into the choreography that I thought that perhaps she just went too fast with it finished before the song was over.  The only think that made me kind of suspicious was the fact that she exited the stage a bit too quickly.

Once she got back to her seat, she started crying.  The funny thing was that this year the talent show was a bit lame, and even with my daughter’s unknown mistakes, her performance was one of the best if not the best in the show.  Directly after she left the stage, I hear people behind talk to each other about how incredible it was.

In contrast, there were a few jump rope routines where the jump roping girls got tangled up more than they were successful at actually jump roping, and even a boy who did a lame attempt at lip syncing a song…  lip syncing?  What kind of talent is that?  Of course none of these kids were affected at all, and they were giggling and running around without a care in the world.  My daughter, whose performance was top  notch even with the small error, was crying like her dog died.

The climate of the entire evening happened when the principal of her school came over and told her how amazing the routine was.  After that point, she really started crying, this obviously mad me made because of her reaction.

This is a skill, or behavior that I’m going to have to work on with her.  Being the best in the show and then afterward crying because you didn’t do an absolutely perfect presentation, even though it was the best, is wrong and needs addressed.  We should all learn to realize that even the best of us make mistakes.  It those that learn how to handle, improvise, and make little of their mistakes that excel in life.  Realize what you did do right during such a routine and make the best of it.

Life is too short to cry over little mistakes, especially when you are the best in show.  If the performance was beautiful, then realize that even with little mistakes, it can still be beautiful!

Sad evening all around,

MR