For the teachers at Prince’s preschool, the entire school year culminates with the Summer Show. They are pressured to make it as big and extravagant a performance as possible. I am not sure if the parents also expect this, but for us, it was just a fun time to see Prince singing and dancing with his class, albeit after weeks of unnecessarily grueling practices. The performance took place in the conference hall at our school, so Lord Herndon and I got to sneak down there every morning and spy on him as he practiced. Unfortunately, he was there all morning, every morning, for almost two weeks.
The theme was “The Toys Come Alive,” and the classes dressed up as all sorts of toys like Barbies, cowboys and Indians, robots, trains, teddy bears, and toy soldiers. Prince and his classmates, the youngest, were cars. One song was in English and Prince did really well. The other two were in Turkish (one was a last-minute addition), and instead of trying to keep up with the lyrics, Prince decided to “park” his car right there on the stage. Unfortunately, Ekim (the little girl in the white car) was in front of him for a dance move, and when she moved back to her place in line, she “crashed” into his car and fell over! The audience just clapped and cheered encouragingly and she didn’t seem fazed by the accident.
During the last song, Prince stood up again and got into the spirit of being on stage. He waved, saluted, and gave the thumbs up to everyone in the audience, and they loved it. Everyone around us was asking if he was our son and we were laughing so hard as we said yes. He was the last one to leave the stage and got a standing ovation as Mrs. B led him away. Natural or accidental stardom?
//www.youtube.com/get_player
Thankfully, the pressure is now off. The last five weeks of school can be spent on playing and making crafts and enjoying the sunshine. And the best part is, I will be the one to take him every morning and pick him up after lunch. I only have to endure a few more mornings of having to close the door on him sobbing and reaching for me. He figured out weeks ago that something was changing, and it has been harder and harder for him to let me leave. Friday is my last day of teaching this year and I am so thankful.
