Last weekend Joe and I went to see his nephew Henry perform in his talent show.  He and a group of his buddies performed a Jabbawockeez routine.  Henry did a great job.  But I expected no less of him.  He's an incredible kid.  He'll do great things.

The performance took place in a gymatorium.  While sitting through all of the children's performances, I had time to look around and let my mind wander.  I realized how much the talent show I was witnessing was much like my talent show when I was in elementary school.

It's amazing how vivid some of the details of my big night still are.  The show was in our cafetorium.  The stools on the lunchroom tables were orange.  The floor was beige-y-brown.  The curtains were dark blue and dust.  In the back right corner of the stage was that giant machine that made lots of purple copies, gave my teachers purple fingers, and had the pieces of onion paper laying all around on the floor.  I called it onion paper because it looked like the skin of onions.  It sounded cool when you crumpled it, and I liked to sneak back there and take some to play with at home.  And the die cut machine! It made shapes and letters for bulletin boards. I wanted to use it soooooo badly, and I must confess I might have cut out an apple or two throughout my elementary school career. 

I remember Brian did his karate routine to "Eye of the Tiger."  I remember Lee sang a song about the Ten Commandments.  I remember Amanda and Michelle did a dance routine.  And I remember I convinced my cousins to perform a skit with me about toilet paper.  I remember Teddy and I debated about who would blow the big white horn I bought at the dollar store.  I won.  I remember wishing that I could do a karate or dance routine as my talent.

At Henry's talent show a group danced to "Eye of the Tiger" and a boy did a karate routine to the Karate Kid theme song.  There were no songs about the Ten Commandments, but there were a lot of songs about being sexy or badass.  This time around, I did not find my self wishing for karate talent and frankly, felt I could perform a better dance routine than most.  But I realize that it's not about the talent the kids are exhibiting, but the fact that they had guts to get up there in the first place.  And I have to admit a chubby, short girl performing a skit about toilet paper while blowing a big white horn does not take a lot of talent, but it sure takes a lot of guts.