Alarming Female

Current Mood: Happy

On the same day my oldest turned 20, my youngest graduated from high school. The school he attended, and where I teach, is not your typical high school. Like our “Open Mic” event, anyone who wants to speak at graduation, may. My son didn’t want to speak, per se; he wanted to sing and play the guitar. The song he chose was In My Life by the Beatles. His was to be the only musical selection.

He practiced for quite awhile out of my earshot, but was balking at my insistence that he perform it for me. Finally, a couple of days before the event, I played the “Mom’s birthday” card and he couldn’t refuse.

His singing sounded strained, so I encouraged him to drop it an octave. Then we sang it together, time after time, until he felt comfortable. If you recall the song, there is a harpsichord bridge two-thirds of the way through; he arranged the guitar chords to mimic the harpsichord in a way that I thought was inspired and beautiful.

Okay, friends—can you imagine a more AWESOME birthday for this 48 year old mom than to sing In My Life with my 18 year old son as he accompanied us on the acoustic/electric guitar I bought him for his 18th birthday? Neither can I.

On graduation day, when the time came, he pulled a chair and his guitar from offstage and performed the song. Beautifully. Later, my boss (the principal), told me that when he heard those distinctive first notes, he turned to the board member next to him and they both said, to each other, “Rubber Soul.”

Heh.

Many people came up to me after graduation to congratulate me on his performance and mention that they never knew he could sing and play the guitar. I just beamed. Graduation was touch-and-go for awhile, but I always knew he could play the guitar.

He’s done some serious growing up in the past few days, and I’m really proud of him.